Medical uses.

Seizures.

Pregabalin is useful when added to other treatments, when those other treatments are not controlling partial epilepsy. Its use alone is less effective than some other seizure medications. It is unclear how it compares to gabapentin for this use.

Neuropathic pain.

The European Federation of Neurological Societies recommends pregabalin as a first line agent for the treatment of pain associated with diabetic neuropathy, post-herpetic neuralgia, and central neuropathic pain. A minority obtain substantial benefit, and a larger number obtain moderate benefit. It is given equal weight as gabapentin and tricyclic antidepressants as a first line agent, however the latter are less expensive as of 2010. Evidence does not support it being useful in sciatica or low back pain.  Pregabalin's use in cancer-associated neuropathic pain is controversial; though such use is common. There is no evidence for its use in the prevention of migraines and gabapentin has also been found not to be useful. It has been examined for the prevention of post-surgical chronic pain, but its utility for this purpose is controversial.  Pregabalin is generally not regarded as efficacious in the treatment of acute pain. In trials examining the utility of pregabalin for the treatment of acute post-surgical pain, no effect on overall pain levels was observed, but people did require less morphine and had fewer opioid-related side effects. Several possible mechanisms for pain improvement have been discussed.

Anxiety disorders.

Pregabalin is moderately effective and is safe for treatment of generalized anxiety disorder. The World Federation of Biological Psychiatry recommends pregabalin as one of several first line agents for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder, but recommends other agents such as SSRIs as first line treatment for obsessive–compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. It appears to have anxiolytic effects similar to benzodiazepines with less risk of dependence.  The effects of pregabalin appear after 1 week of use and is similar in effectiveness to lorazepam, alprazolam, and venlafaxine, but pregabalin has demonstrated superiority by producing more consistent therapeutic effects for psychosomatic anxiety symptoms. Long-term trials have shown continued effectiveness without the development of tolerance, and, in addition, unlike benzodiazepines, it has a beneficial effect on sleep and sleep architecture, characterized by the enhancement of slow-wave sleep. It produces less severe cognitive and psychomotor impairment compared to those drugs; it also has a low potential for abuse and dependence and may be preferred over the benzodiazepines for these reasons.  A 2019 review found that pregabalin reduces symptoms, and was generally well tolerated.

Other uses.

Evidence finds little benefit and significant risk in those with chronic low back pain. Evidence of benefit in alcohol withdrawal is poor as of 2016.

Adverse effects.

Exposure to pregabalin is associated with weight gain, sleepiness and fatigue, dizziness, vertigo, leg swelling, disturbed vision, loss of coordination, and euphoria. It has an adverse effect profile similar to other central nervous system depressants. Adverse drug reactions associated with the use of pregabalin include:  Case of recreational use, with associated adverse effects has been reported.

Withdrawal symptoms.

Following abrupt or rapid discontinuation of pregabalin, some people reported symptoms suggestive of physical dependence. The FDA determined that the substance dependence profile of pregabalin, as measured by a personal physical withdrawal checklist, was quantitatively less than benzodiazepines. Even people who have discontinued short term use of pregabalin have experienced withdrawal symptoms, including insomnia, headache, nausea, anxiety, diarrhea, flu like symptoms, nervousness, major depression, pain, convulsions, hyperhidrosis and dizziness.

Pregnancy.

It is unclear if it is safe for use in pregnancy with some studies showing potential harm.

Breathing.

In December 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned about serious breathing issues for those taking gabapentin or pregabalin when used with CNS depressants or for those with lung problems.  The FDA required new warnings about the risk of respiratory depression to be added to the prescribing information of the gabapentinoids. The FDA also required the drug manufacturers to conduct clinical trials to further evaluate their abuse potential, particularly in combination with opioids, because misuse and abuse of these products together is increasing, and co-use may increase the risk of respiratory depression.  Among 49 case reports submitted to the FDA over the five-year period from 2012 to 2017, twelve people died from respiratory depression with gabapentinoids, all of whom had at least one risk factor.  The FDA reviewed the results of two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials in healthy people, three observational studies, and several studies in animals. One trial showed that using pregabalin alone and using it with an opioid pain reliever can depress breathing function. The other trial showed gabapentin alone increased pauses in breathing during sleep. The three observational studies at one academic medical center showed a relationship between gabapentinoids given before surgery and respiratory depression occurring after different kinds of surgeries. The FDA also reviewed several animal studies that showed pregabalin alone and pregabalin plus opioids can depress respiratory function.

Overdose.

Several people with kidney failure developed myoclonus while receiving pregabalin, apparently as a result of gradual accumulation of the drug. Acute overdosage may be manifested by somnolence, tachycardia and hypertonia. Plasma, serum or blood concentrations of pregabalin may be measured to monitor therapy or to confirm a diagnosis of poisoning in hospitalized people.

Interactions.

No interactions have been demonstrated "in vivo". The manufacturer notes some potential pharmacological interactions with opioids, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, ethanol (alcohol), and other drugs that depress the central nervous system. ACE inhibitors may enhance the adverse/toxic effect of pregabalin. Pregabalin may enhance the fluid-retaining effect of anti-diabetic agents (thiazolidinedione).

Pharmacology.

Pharmacodynamics.

Pregabalin is a gabapentinoid and acts by inhibiting certain calcium channels. Specifically it is a ligand of the auxiliary αδ subunit site of certain voltage-dependent calcium channels (VDCCs), and thereby acts as an inhibitor of αδ subunit-containing VDCCs. There are two drug-binding αδ subunits, αδ-1 and αδ-2, and pregabalin shows similar affinity for (and hence lack of selectivity between) these two sites. Pregabalin is selective in its binding to the αδ VDCC subunit. Despite the fact that pregabalin is a GABA analogue, it does not bind to the GABA receptors, does not convert into or another GABA receptor agonist "in vivo", and does not directly modulate GABA transport or metabolism. However, pregabalin has been found to produce a dose-dependent increase in the brain expression of L-glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD), the enzyme responsible for synthesizing GABA, and hence may have some indirect GABAergic effects by increasing GABA levels in the brain. There is currently no evidence that the effects of pregabalin are mediated by any mechanism other than inhibition of αδ-containing VDCCs. In accordance, inhibition of αδ-1-containing VDCCs by pregabalin appears to be responsible for its anticonvulsant, analgesic, and anxiolytic effects.  The endogenous α-amino acids -leucine and -isoleucine, which closely resemble pregabalin and the other gabapentinoids in chemical structure, are apparent ligands of the αδ VDCC subunit with similar affinity as the gabapentinoids (e.g., IC = 71 nM for -isoleucine), and are present in human cerebrospinal fluid at micromolar concentrations (e.g., 12.9 μM for -leucine, 4.8 μM for -isoleucine). It has been theorized that they may be the endogenous ligands of the subunit and that they may competitively antagonize the effects of gabapentinoids. In accordance, while gabapentinoids like pregabalin and gabapentin have nanomolar affinities for the αδ subunit, their potencies "in vivo" are in the low micromolar range, and competition for binding by endogenous -amino acids has been said to likely be responsible for this discrepancy.  Pregabalin was found to possess 6-fold higher affinity than gabapentin for αδ subunit-containing VDCCs in one study. However, another study found that pregabalin and gabapentin had similar affinities for the human recombinant αδ-1 subunit (K = 32 nM and 40 nM, respectively). In any case, pregabalin is 2 to 4 times more potent than gabapentin as an analgesic and, in animals, appears to be 3 to 10 times more potent than gabapentin as an anticonvulsant.

Pharmacokinetics.

Absorption.

Pregabalin is absorbed from the intestines by an active transport process mediated via the large neutral amino acid transporter 1 (LAT1, SLC7A5), a transporter for amino acids such as -leucine and -phenylalanine. Very few (less than 10 drugs) are known to be transported by this transporter. Unlike gabapentin, which is transported solely by the LAT1, pregabalin seems to be transported not only by the LAT1 but also by other carriers. The LAT1 is easily saturable, so the pharmacokinetics of gabapentin are dose-dependent, with diminished bioavailability and delayed peak levels at higher doses. In contrast, this is not the case for pregabalin, which shows linear pharmacokinetics and no saturation of absorption.  The oral bioavailability of pregabalin is greater than or equal to 90% across and beyond its entire clinical dose range (75 to 900 mg/day). Food does not significantly influence the oral bioavailability of pregabalin. Pregabalin is rapidly absorbed when administered on an empty stomach, with a T (time to peak levels) of generally less than or equal to 1 hour at doses of 300 mg or less. However, food has been found to substantially delay the absorption of pregabalin and to significantly reduce peak levels without affecting the bioavailability of the drug; T values for pregabalin of 0.6 hours in a fasted state and 3.2 hours in a fed state (5-fold difference), and the C is reduced by 25–31% in a fed versus fasted state.

Distribution.

Pregabalin crosses the blood–brain barrier and enters the central nervous system. However, due to its low lipophilicity, pregabalin requires active transport across the blood–brain barrier. The LAT1 is highly expressed at the blood–brain barrier and transports pregabalin across into the brain. Pregabalin has been shown to cross the placenta in rats and is present in the milk of lactating rats. In humans, the volume of distribution of an orally administered dose of pregabalin is approximately 0.56 L/kg. Pregabalin is not significantly bound to plasma proteins (<1%).

Metabolism.

Pregabalin undergoes little or no metabolism. In experiments using nuclear medicine techniques, it was revealed that approximately 98% of the radioactivity recovered in the urine was unchanged pregabalin. The main metabolite is "N"-methylpregabalin.

Elimination.

Pregabalin is eliminated by the kidneys in the urine, mainly in its unchanged form. It has a relatively short elimination half-life, with a reported value of 6.3 hours. Because of its short elimination half-life, pregabalin is administered 2 to 3 times per day to maintain therapeutic levels. The kidney clearance of pregabalin is 73 mL/minute.

Chemistry.

Pregabalin is a GABA analogue that is a 3-substituted derivative as well as a γ-amino acid. Specifically, pregabalin is ("S")-(+)-3-isobutyl-GABA. Pregabalin also closely resembles the α-amino acids -leucine and -isoleucine, and this may be of greater relevance in relation to its pharmacodynamics than its structural similarity to GABA.

Synthesis.

Chemical syntheses of pregabalin have been described.

History.

Pregabalin was synthesized in 1990 as an anticonvulsant. It was invented by medicinal chemist Richard Bruce Silverman at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Silverman is best known for identifying the drug pregabalin as a possible treatment for epileptic seizures. During 1988 to 1990, Ryszard Andruszkiewicz, a visiting research fellow, synthesized a series of molecules for Silverman. One looked particularly promising. The molecule was effectively shaped for transportation into the brain, where it activated L-glutamic acid decarboxylase, an enzyme. Silverman hoped that the enzyme would increase production of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA and block convulsions. Eventually, the set of molecules were sent to Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals for testing. The drug was approved in the European Union in 2004. The US received FDA approval for use in treating epilepsy, diabetic neuropathic pain, and postherpetic neuralgia in December 2004. Pregabalin then appeared on the US market under the brand name" Lyrica" in fall of 2005. In 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pregabalin extended-release "Lyrica CR", but unlike the immediate release formulation, it was not approved for the management of fibromyalgia or as add on therapy for adult with partial onset seizures.

Society and culture.

Cost.

Pregabalin is available as a generic medication in a number of countries, including the United States as of July 2019. In the United States as of July 2019 the cost for generic pregabalin is US$0.17-0.22 per 150 mg capsule.

Approval.

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved pregabalin for adjunctive therapy for adults with partial onset seizures, management of postherpetic neuralgia and neuropathic pain associated with spinal cord injury and diabetic peripheral neuropathy, and the treatment of fibromyalgia. Pregabalin has also been approved in the European Union, the United States and Russia for treatment of generalized anxiety disorder.

Marketing.

Since 2008, Pfizer has engaged in extensive direct-to-consumer advertising campaigns to promote its branded product Lyrica for fibromyalgia and diabetic nerve pain indications. In January 2016, the company spent a record amount, $24.6 million for a single drug on TV ads, reaching global revenues of $14 billion, more than half in the United States.  Up until 2009, Pfizer promoted Lyrica for other uses which had not been approved by medical regulators. For Lyrica and three other drugs, Pfizer was fined a record amount of US$2.3 billion by the Department of Justice, after pleading guilty to advertising and branding "with the intent to defraud or mislead." Pfizer illegally promoted the drugs, with doctors "invited to consultant meetings, many in resort locations; attendees expenses were paid; they received a fee just for being there", according to prosecutor Michael Loucks.

Intellectual property.

Professor Richard "Rick" Silverman of Northwestern University developed pregabalin there. The university holds a patent on it, exclusively licensed to Pfizer. That patent, along with others, was challenged by generic manufacturers and was upheld in 2014, giving Pfizer exclusivity for Lyrica in the US until 2018.  As of October 2017, pregabalin was marketed under many brand names in other countries: Algerika, Alivax, Alyse, Alzain, Andogablin, Aprion, Averopreg, Axual, Balifibro, Brieka, Clasica, Convugabalin, Dapapalin, Dismedox, Dolgenal, Dolica, Dragonor, Ecubalin, Epica, Epiron, Gaba-P, Gabanext, Gabarol, Gabica, Gablin, Gablovac, Gabrika, Gavin, Gialtyn, Glonervya, Helimon, Hexgabalin, Irenypathic, Kabian, Kemirica, Kineptia, Lecaent, Lingabat, Linprel, Lyric, Lyrica, Lyrineur, Lyrolin, Martesia, Maxgalin, Mystika, Neuragabalin, Neugaba, Neurega, Neurica, Neuristan, Neurolin, Neurovan, Neurum, Newrica, Nuramed, Paden, Pagadin, Pagamax, Painica, Pevesca, PG, Plenica, Pragiola, Prebalin, Prebanal, Prebel, Prebictal, Prebien, Prefaxil, Pregaba, Pregabalin, Pregabalina, Pregabaline, Prégabaline, Pregabalinum, Pregabateg, Pregaben, Pregabid, Pregabin, Pregacent, Pregadel, Pregagamma, Pregalex, Pregalin, Pregamid, Pregan, Preganerve, Pregastar, Pregatrend, Pregavalex, Pregdin Apex, Pregeb, Pregobin, Prejunate, Prelin, Preludyo, Prelyx, Premilin, Preneurolin, Prestat, Pretor, Priga, Provelyn, Regapen, Resenz, Rewisca, Serigabtin, Symra, Vronogabic, Xablin, and Xil.  It was also marketed in several countries as a combination drug with mecobalamin under the brand names Agemax-P, Alphamix-PG, Freenerve-P, Gaben, Macraberin-P, Mecoblend-P, Mecozen-PG, Meex-PG, Methylnuron-P, Nervolin, Nervopreg, Neurica-M, Neuroprime-PG, Neutron-OD, Nuroday-P, Nurodon-PG, Nuwin-P, Pecomin-PG, Prebel-M, Predic-GM, Pregacent-M, Pregamet, Preganerv-M, Pregeb-M OD, Pregmic, Prejunate Plus, Preneurolin Plus, Pretek-GM, Rejusite, Renerve-P, Safyvit-PR, and Vitcobin-P, Voltanerv with Methylcobalamin and ALA by Cogentrix Pharma.  Pfizer's main patent for Lyrica, for seizure disorders, in the UK expired in 2013. In November 2018 the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom ruled that Pfizer's second patent on the drug, for treatment of pain, was invalid because there was a lack of evidence for the conditions it covered – central and peripheral neuropathic pain. From October 2015 GPs were forced to change people from generic pregabalin to branded until the second patent ran out in July 2017. This cost the NHS £502 million.

Pregabalin, marketed under the brand name Lyrica among others, is a medication used to treat epilepsy, neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia, restless leg syndrome, and generalized anxiety disorder. Its use in epilepsy is as an add-on therapy for partial seizures. When used before surgery, it reduces pain but results in greater sedation and visual disturbances. It is taken by mouth. Common side effects include headache, dizziness, sleepiness, confusion, trouble with memory, poor coordination, dry mouth, problem with vision, and weight gain. Serious side effects may include angioedema, drug misuse, and an increased suicide risk. When pregabalin is taken at high doses over a long period of time, addiction may occur, but if taken at usual doses the risk is low. Use during pregnancy or breastfeeding is of unclear safety. Pregabalin is a gabapentinoid and acts by inhibiting certain calcium channels. Pregabalin was approved for medical use in the United States in 2004. It was developed as a successor to gabapentin. It is available as a generic medication in a number of countries, including the United States as of 2019. In the US the wholesale cost is about US$11 per month as of October 2019. While in the United Kingdom a similar dose costs the NHS about £6 as of 2018. In 2017, it was the 72nd most prescribed medication in the United States with more than 11 million prescriptions. In the US, Pregabalin is a Schedule V controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. It is a Class C controlled substance in the UK.

Pregabalin, dostupný pod obchodními názvy Lyrica, Pragiola, Kartesada a jinými, je lék požívaný k léčbě epilepsie, neuropatické bolesti, fibromyalgie, syndromu neklidných nohou a generalizované úzkostné poruchy (GAD).


Early life.

Abdul Ali Mazari was born in the village of Charkent, south of the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. Hence, the surname, "Mazari". He began his primary schooling in theology at the local school in his village, then went to Mazar-i-Sharif, and later to Qom in Iran, and to Najaf in Iraq.

Political life.

Simultaneously with the occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet Red Army, Abdul Ali Mazari returned to his birthplace and gained a prominent place in the anti-Soviet resistance movement. During the first years of the resistance, he lost his young brother, Mohammed Sultan, during a battle against the Soviet-backed forces. He soon lost his sister and other members of his family in the resistance. His uncle, Mohammad Ja'afar, and his son, Mohammad Afzal, were imprisoned and killed by the Soviet-backed Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. His father, Haji Khudadad, and his brother, Haji Mohammad Nabi, were also killed in the war.

Hezbe Wahdat.

Abdul Ali Mazari was one of the founding members and the first leader of the "Hezbe Wahdat" ("Unity Party"). In the first party congress in Bamiyan, he was elected leader of the Central Committee and in the second congress, he was elected Secretary General. Mazari's initiative led to the creation of the "Jonbesh-e Shamal" or (Northern Movement), in which the country's most significant military forces joined ranks with the rebels, leading to a coup d'état and the eventual downfall of the Communist regime in Kabul.

Civil war.

After the fall of Kabul, the Afghan political parties agreed on a peace and power-sharing agreement, the Peshawar Accords. The Peshawar Accords created the Islamic State of Afghanistan and appointed an interim government for a transitional period to be followed by general elections. According to Human Rights Watch:  The Hezbe Wahdat initially took part in the Islamic State and held some posts in the government. Soon, however, conflict broke out between the Hazara Hezbe Wahdat of Mazari and the Pashtun Ittihad-i Islami of warlord Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, supported by Saudi Arabia. The Islamic State's defense minister Ahmad Shah Massoud tried to mediate between the factions with some success, but the cease fire remained only temporary. In June 1992, the Hezbe Wahdat and the Ittihad-i Islami engaged in violent street battles against each other. With the support of Saudi Arabia, Sayyaf's forces repeatedly attacked western suburbs of Kabul resulting in heavy civilian casualties. Likewise, Mazari's forces were also accused of attacking civilian targets in the west. Mazari acknowledged taking Pashtun civilians as prisoners, but defended the action by saying that Sayyaf's forces took Hazaras first. Mazari's group started cooperating with Hekmatyar's group from January 1993.

Death.

On March 12, 1995, the Taliban leader Mullah Burjan requested a personal meeting with Mazari and a delegation from the Islamic Wahdat Central Party (Abuzar, Ekhlaasi, Eid Mohammad Ibrahimi Behsudi, Ghassemi, Jan Mohammad, Sayed Ali Alavi, Bahodari, and Jan Ali) in Chahar Asiab, near Kabul. On their arrival, the group were abducted and tortured. The following day Mazari was executed and his body was found in a district of Ghazni. The Taliban issued a statement that Mazari had attacked the Taliban guards while being flown to Kandahar. Later his body and those of his companions were handed over to Hezb-e Wahdat, mutilated and showed signs of torture. Mazari's body was carried on foot from Ghazni to Mazar-i-Sharif in the north (at the time under the control of his ally Abdul Rashid Dostum) all across the Hazara lands in heavy snow by his followers over a period of forty days. Hundreds of thousands attended his funeral in Mazar-i Sharif. Mazari was officially named a Martyr for National Unity of Afghanistan by President Ashraf Ghani in 2016.

Abdul Ali Mazari () (1946 – 13 March 1995) was the political leader of the Hezb-e Wahdat party during and following the Soviet–Afghan War. Mazari was an ethnic Hazara, and believed the solution to the internal divisions in Afghanistan was in a federal system of governance, with each ethnic group having specific constitutional rights and able to govern their own land and people. He was murdered by the Taliban in 1995, and posthumously given the title ‘Martyr Of National Unity’ in 2016. He supported equal representation of all ethnic groups of Afghanistan, especially Hazaras. Who are still being persecuted by Afghan State.

Abdul Ali Mazari (1947 - březen 1995) byl politický vůdce hnutí "Hezbe Wahdat" v průběhu sovětské války v Afghánistánu. Mazari byl etnický Hazara. Snažil se přinést řešení vnitřních rozporů v Afghánistánu, zejména ve federálním systému veřejné správy. Významnou snahou bylo také přiřknout každé etnické skupině ústavní práva. Poté, co byl zavražděn Tálibánem, mu byl posmrtně udělen titul "mučedník národní jednoty" (roku 2016).


Reactions.

Sodium bifluoride dissociates to hydrofluoric acid and sodium fluoride: The reverse of this reaction is employed to remove HF from elemental fluorine (F) produced by electrolysis. This equilibrium is manifested when the salt is dissolved and when the solid is heated. Characteristic of other bifluorides, it reacts with acids to give HF. Illustrative is its reaction with bisulfate to form sodium sulfate and hydrogen fluoride.  Strong bases deprotonate bifluoride. For example, calcium hydroxide gives calcium fluoride.

Production.

Sodium bifluoride is produced by neutralizing waste hydrogen fluoride, which results from the production of superphosphate fertilizers. Typical bases are sodium carbonate and sodium hydroxide. The process occurs in two steps, illustrated with the hydroxide:  Sodium bifluoride reacts with water or moist skin to produce hydrofluoric acid. It also gives off hydrofluoric acid and hydrogen gas when it is heated to a gaseous state. The chemical can decompose upon contact with strong acids, strong bases, metal, water, or glass. Sodium bifluoride also engages in violent reactions with chromyl chloride, nitric acid, red phosphorus, sodium peroxide, diethyl sulfoxide, and diethylzinc.

Applications.

The main role of sodium bifluoride is as a precursor to sodium fluoride, millions of tons of which are produced annually.

Cleaning agents and laundry sours.

The compound also has applications in cleaning, capitalizing on the affinity of fluoride for iron and silicon oxides. For example, formulations of sodium bifluoride are used for cleaning brick, stone, ceramics, and masonry. It is also used to etch glass. Another application of sodium bifluoride is in the chemical industry. Other applications of the compound involve the galvanization of baths and pest control. Sodium bifluoride's biological applications include the preservation of zoological and anatomical samples.  Other applications of sodium bifluoride include neutralizers of laundry-rinse.

Other uses.

Sodium bifluoride has a role in the process that is used to plate metal cans.  Sodium bifluoride also aids in the precipitation of calcium ions during the process of nickel electroplating. The compound also aids in increasing the corrosion of resistance of some magnesium alloys.

Precautions.

Sodium bifluoride is corrosive and an irritant upon contact with skin and can cause blistering and inflammation. It is extremely dangerous to ingest. If the compound is exposed to the eyes, blindness and corneal damage can result. Ingestion of sodium bifluoride dust can cause burning, coughing, and sneezing, as a result of irritating the gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts. Exposure of the compound to the eyes can cause redness, itching, and watering. In severe cases, exposure to sodium bifluoride can result in death. It can take between 0 and 24 hours for the effects of sodium bifluoride poisoning to be noticeable. Exposure to sodium bifluoride repeatedly or over a long time can result in fluorosis. Sodium bifluoride is not known to be carcinogenic.

Biological and environmental role.

Sodium bifluoride does not bioaccumulate. It typically only remains in the environment for several days.

Sodium bifluoride is the inorganic compound with the formula NaHF. It is a salt of sodium cation (Na) and bifluoride anion (HF). It is a white, water-soluble solid that decomposes upon heating. Sodium bifluoride is non-flammable, hygroscopic, and has a pungent smell. Sodium bifluoride has a number of applications in industry.

Hydrogendifluorid sodný je anorganická sloučenina se vzorcem NaHF. Skládá se ze sodného kationtu (Na) a hydrogendifluoridového aniontu (HF). Je to bílá pevná látka, nehořlavá, hygroskopická a s výrazným zápachem. Zahříváním dochází k jeho rozkladu. Nachází využití v průmyslu.


Life.

Mathilde was the only child of Archambault of Bourbon and his wife Alix (or Adelaide) of Burgundy. She was born in the second half of the 1160s.  Her father, the heir apparent of Bourbon, died in 1169, without ever inheriting the lordship. Her grandfather, Archambault VII, died in 1171. Mathilde, as his only surviving grandchild, succeeded him.  Before 1183, she married Gaucher IV of Vienne, Lord of Salins. After he returned from the Third Crusade, they frequently quarreled. In the end, he became violent and had her locked up. She fled to her grandmother's estate in Champagne During her escape, she allegedly also used violence, and for this she was excommunicated by Archbishop Henri de Sully of Bourges. After she arrived in Champagne, she asked Pope Celestine III for a divorce from her husband, arguing that Gaucher IV and she were close relatives and that the marriage therefore had been inadmissible. The Pope tasked the bishops of Autun and Troyes and the abbot of Monthiers-en-Argonne with investigating her claim. These men found that Mathilde and her husband were third cousins, as they were both great-great-grandchildren of William II, Count of Burgundy, and that, therefore, her claim that they were too closely related was justified. The pope granted the divorce, and also lifted the excommunication.  In September 1196, only a few months after her divorce, she married Lord Guy II of Dampierre. Thus, the Bourbonnais fell to the House of Dampierre. This marriage lasted 20 years: he died in 1216.  Mathilde died twelve years after her husband. After her death, Margaret, her daughter from her first marriage claimed the Lordship of Bourbon. Guy II had initially recognized Margaret as heir of Bourbon, however, he later claimed the Lordship for his oldest son, Archambault VIII. In the end, Archambault prevailed.

Marriages and issue.

Her first husband was Gaucher IV of Vienne, Lord of Salins. Together, they had one daughter:  Her second husband was Guy II of Dampierre. With him, she had seven children:

Mathilde of Bourbon (; – 18 June 1228) was a French noblewoman who was the ruling Lady of Bourbon from 1171 until her death.

Matylda Bourbonská ("Mahaut de Bourbon;" 1165 – 18. června 1228) byla francouzská šlechtična vládnoucí od roku 1171 jako paní z Bourbonu.


Family.

Princess Sophie was born in Potsdam, Brandenburg, Prusia, as daughter of Hereditary Prince (1856-1888) and Princess Lucie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (1859-1903). Her paternal grandparents were Prince Otto Friedrich von Schönburg-Waldenburg (1819-1893) and Polish noblewoman Pamela (1837-1901), while her maternal grandparents were (1824-1878) and Princess Pulcheria Cantacuzene (1840-1865). Prince Emil was the son of (1788–1874) and Franziska (1802–1878).

Early life.

Both of Princess Sophie's parents died when she was young so she spent much of her youth at the Castle Hemius in Fântânele estate in Moldavia, which was owned by her maternal relatives.

Marriage and issue.

On 30 November 1906 at Waldenburg, Saxony Princess Sophie married Prince Wilhelm of Wied, son of Prince Wilhelm von Wied (1845-1907) and Princess Marie of the Netherlands (1841-1910). Sophie's husband, Prince Wilhelm was closely related to Wilhelm II, German Emperor, being his second cousin. They had two children:

Albanian ancestry.

She had some remote Albanian ancestry, being a descendant of Princess Elena Callimachi, daughter of Prince Scarlat Ghica (1715-1766), who was Prince of Moldavia and Prince of Wallachia and Princess Ruxandra Muruzi. She also descends from Princess Ruxandra Ghica, daughter of Grigore I Ghica (1628-1675), Prince of Wallachia and Princess Maria Strurdza. Although officially Romanian, Princely Ghica family has Albanian roots.

Princess of Albania.

Princess Sophie was close to her husband's aunt Queen Elisabeth of Romania, whom she had known since moving to Romania after the death of her parents. Princess Sophie and Queen Elisabeth sang, painted, composed and played musical instruments together. Queen Elisabeth played an important role in getting Princess Sophie's husband William the Albanian throne by asking Take Ionescu to persuade the great powers to select William. Princess Sophie and Queen Elisabeth both worked to overcome William's reluctance to accept the throne.  Eventually William agreed, and on 21 February 1914, Prince William and Princess Sophie hosted a delegation of Albanian notables at their castle in Neuwied, where William was formally offered the throne. The Albanian delegation then visited Waldenburg, Saxony, where they paid their respects to Princess Sophie's family.  Sophie and her husband arrived in Albania on 7 March 1914, in Durrës, the provisional capital. However, her Albanian adventure proved short-lived. On 3 September 1914, with the country in turmoil, Princess Sophie and Prince William left Albania, never to return. However, she officially remained the Princess of Albania until 31 January 1925, when the country was declared a republic.  Princess Sophie died at Fântânele, Romania.

Princess Sophie of Schönburg-Waldenburg ("Sophie Helene Cecilie Prinzessin von Schönburg-Waldenburg"; 21 May 1885 – 3 February 1936) was the consort of Prince William of Wied. With her husband's accession to the Albanian throne she became the Princess of Albania (). Outside the country and in diplomatic correspondence, she was styled "Princess consort", but in Albania she was referred to as "Mbretëreshë", or Queen.

Sofie Schönburg-Waldenburg ("Sophie Helene Cecilie Prinzessin von Schönburg-Waldenburg;" 21. května 1885 – 3. února 1936) byla manželkou Wilhelma zu Wied. Manželovým nástupem na trůn se stala albánskou kněžnou. Mimo zemi a v diplomatické korespondenci byla oslovována jako "kněžna-choť", ale v Albánii byla titulována jako Mbretëreshë, nebo královna.


History.

In 1948 the three leagues running Division 3 (Serie C) had to be reorganized due to an ever-growing number of regional teams. FIGC decided not to relegate the excess teams to regional championships. It chose the winners and a few runners-up from the 36 Serie C championships to be added to the new third division set up into 4 groups. The rest of the teams joined the new Promozione, which changed its name in 1952 into IV Serie (Fourth Division) and then in 1959 into Serie D.  From 1959 each player in the Serie D championships had to opt for semi-professional status, by signing a specially issued status attribution form. The championship was thus included in the "Lega Nazionale Semiprofessionisti", today known as Lega Pro. Serie D was re-organized in 1981 when championships were reduced. The league name changed into the Interregional. Players lost semi-pro status and converted to amateurs. The championship subsequently passed into the Lega Nazionale Dilettanti. From 1992 to 1999 the name changed into Campionato Nazionale Dilettanti before eventually returning to the current Serie D name. With the merger of the Lega Pro's two divisions at the end of the 2013–14 season (as decided by the FIGC and Lega Pro in November 2012) to reestablish Serie C, Serie D and the leagues below it moved up by one level in the pyramid system, reducing the number of leagues in Italian football to nine.

Structure.

Since the early 1990s, Serie D has consisted of 162 teams split into 9 regional divisions (Gironi), usually formed of 18 teams each, divided geographically.  For the 2012–13 season, there were 166 teams. Two groups (B and C) were formed of 20 teams. In the 2013–14 season the number was 161 and one group (H) comprised 17 teams. For 2014–15 the distribution by region was as follows:

Promotions.

The first-placed team from each division is promoted to Serie C each year, replacing 9 teams from Lega Pro relegated to Serie D.  If a newly promoted Serie D team fails to meet the requirements, Lega Pro asks the second-placed team in that Serie D team's division to fill the vacancy. Failing that, the third-placed team may fill the vacancy, and so on.  In recent years, one or more teams from the professional leagues have normally failed to meet the regulatory or financial requirements in order to participate. This usually creates vacancies that get announced in the summer rest period as the new season is being organized. As teams move up to fill the void created by these failed teams or teams in the lowest professional division fail, spaces are created in Serie C (or Lega Pro Seconda Divisione prior to the 2014-15 season) that need to be filled.  For example, in the 2007-08 season there were nine such failures, and thus, nine Lega Pro Seconda Divisione spaces were created. Four of those spaces were filled by "calling back" teams that had played in Seconda Divisione but were relegated to Serie D for the next season. The other five vacancies were filled by Serie D teams that had participated in the Serie D playoffs.

Playoffs.

Playoffs are held at the conclusion of the regular season and involve teams placed second through fifth in each division. The first two rounds are single game elimination matches played at the home of the higher-classified team. Games ending in ties are extended to extra time. Since the 2007-08 season, if games are still tied after extra time, the higher classified team is declared the winner. No penalty shootout takes place.  In round one, for each division, the 5th-placed team is matched against the 2nd-placed team, and the 4th-placed team is matched against the 3rd-placed team. Round two matches together the two winners. At the end of round two, one team from each division survives and the nine winners are grouped into 3 groups of three and play each team in their own group once (one at home and one away). The three group winners qualify for the play-off semi-finals. Since 2007-08, the Coppa Italia Serie D winner qualifies for the 4th semi-final spot. The semi-finals are a two-legged tie, with the winners qualifying for a one-game final match played at a neutral site.  The playoff results provide the league with a list from which it may choose teams to fill vacancies in Serie C. The number of teams promoted through this method can vary each year; for example in 2007-08, the top 5 placed play-off teams were selected to fill vacancies, however, in 2006-07, no teams were needed to fill vacancies.

Relegations Playout.

After the regular season is complete, bottom teams in each division play a double-leg series (6th-last vs 3rd-last, 5th-last vs 4th-last). The winners remain in Serie D for the following season. The two losers are relegated to Eccellenza, a regional amateur league below this, for a total of 4 relegations in each division, 36 in total for the league.  There are no play-out if the difference between 6th-last vs 3rd-last and that between 5th-last vs 4th-last is bigger than eight points.

Tie-Breakers.

Serie D does not use head-to-head results to order teams that are tied in points in certain situations, single-game tie-breakers are held at neutral sites instead. Those situations are the following:  Head-to-head results are used in all other situations, such as when all the teams involved are qualified in the promotional playoffs, or all teams are participating in the relegation playoffs.

"Scudetto Serie D".

Each year, at the end of the regular season, the winners of the nine Serie D divisions qualify for a championship tournament in order to assign the so-called "Scudetto Dilettanti" (amateur champions' title).  Round one divides the nine teams into three groups of three teams each where each team plays a single game against each of its other two opponents. The three group winners and best second-placed team advance to the semifinals.  The first "scudetto dilettanti" was assigned in 1952–1953, when the Serie D was still called "IV Serie" (fourth division). Its assignment was suspended from 1958–1959 to 1991–1992.

Serie D () is the top level of the Italian non-professional football association called "Lega Nazionale Dilettanti". The association represents over 12,000 football players and 400 football teams across Italy. Serie D ranks just below Serie C (the third and last professional league since 2014–15), and is thus considered the fourth-ranked league in the country. It is organized by the Roman "Comitato Interregionale" (Interregional Committee), a "league in the league" inside the LND.

Serie D je čtvrtá nejvyšší italská fotbalová soutěž po Serii A, Serii B a Serii C. Je nejvyšší amatérskou fotbalovou soutěží v Itálii. Od sezony 1999/2000 se soutěž nazývá Serie D. Dříve se nazývalo "Campionato Nazionale Dilettanti".


History.

Early days (1969–1974).

The band was started in 1969 with jam sessions by Krzysztof Cugowski (vocals), Krzysztof Brozi (lead guitar), Janusz Pędzisz (bass guitar) and Jacek Grün (drums). They performed cover versions of John Mayall, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin in local venues and disbanded after making a few radio recordings and several concerts.  In 1970 Cugowski joined a band Stowarzyszenie Cnót Wszelakich, led by his school mate Romuald Lipko. Soon the band was renamed to Budka Suflera. After few member changes the band finally made in March 1974 to be their first major recording, "Sen o dolinie" as the Polish cover of Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine". The song received much airplay, which resulted in an offer from Polskie Nagrania record label, as well as numerous concert proposals.

Breakthrough (1975–1976).

In autumn 1974 the next song is recorded, "Cień wielkiej góry", inspired by death of two Polish mountaineers (Zbigniew Stepek and Andrzej Grzązek) in the Himalayas in 1973. It instantly became a hit and appeared on many compilations and live albums since then. The band also recorded "Lubię ten stary obraz" in November 1974 and "Memu miastu na do widzenia" in the beginning of 1975. The drummer Zbigniew Zieliński was replaced by Tomasz Zeliszewski soon after this.  The first album, entitled "Cień wielkiej góry" after its first track, was released in 1975. This record saw some contributions from Czesław Niemen, who played his Moog synthesizer psychedelic parts in a majestic rock suite called "Szalony koń". Clocking over 19 minutes, this track took a whole B-side of the long play.  The radio hit "Sen o dolinie" as well as "Memu miastu na do widzenia" were not placed on the album. The first one was rejected by the record label, because it was a cover of a foreign artist and the latter was written by Lipko solely (there was a sort of deal among the band members, they wanted only songs written by Cugowski and Lipko together on the first album).  The release became a success and the band went on a tour to East Germany. There, few German versions of band's greatest hits were recorded. There were plans to release an album in Germany, but they failed as Cugowski missed a recording session. A second attempt failed, too, because of the exhausting tour that ended just before.  In 1976 another band's record, named "Przechodniem byłem między wami" was released. It did not repeat the success of its predecessor. After the release, Cugowski decided to leave the band and start a solo career. He was replaced by Stanisław Wenglorz, an ex-singer of Skaldowie. He has only appeared on few records ("Rozmowa", "Kula nocnego światła", "Ślady na piasku", "Życiowy numer"), then unreleased and quit soon after. The next vocalist became Romuald Czystaw.

Members.

The band's line-up has changed many times over the years. Since 2005 the band members are:

Budka Suflera (, "prompter's box") was a Polish rock band which was started in 1969 in Lublin by Krzysztof Cugowski, and, after disbanding soon thereafter, resurrected by Cugowski and Romuald Lipko in 1974 and active until 2014. In addition to their 1997 hit song "Takie tango", they are perhaps best known for their rock ballads, such as "Jolka, Jolka pamiętasz" and "Za ostatni grosz" that are often quoted as some of the best songs of Polish rock.

Budka Suflera je polská hudební skupina. Byla založena v roce 1969 v Lublinu, původně se jmenovala "Stowarzyszenie Cnót Wszelakich", od roku 1974 nese současný název, který znamená suflérovu budku. V počátečním období hrála převážně převzaté skladby (John Mayall, Bill Withers, Led Zeppelin), později se od blues rocku přeorientovala na hard rock a symfonický rock a začala vytvářet vlastní repertoár v polštině – prvním hitem byl „Cień wielkiej góry“, inspirovaný tragickou smrtí horolezce Zbigniewa Stepka. Od osmdesátých let se Budka Suflera zaměřila na melodický pop rock a vynikla v rockových baladách, z nichž nejúspěšnější „Jolka, Jolka pamiętasz“ byla v čele hitparády Lista przebojów Programu Trzeciego.


As a fallacy.

In addition to being a cognitive bias and a poor way of making decisions, wishful thinking is commonly held to be a specific informal fallacy in an argument when it is assumed that because we wish something to be true or false, it "is" actually true or false. This fallacy has the form "I wish that P were true/false; therefore, P is true/false." Wishful thinking, if this were true, would rely upon appeals to emotion, and would also be a red herring.  Wishful thinking may cause blindness to unintended consequences.

Wishful seeing.

Wishful seeing is the phenomenon in which a person's internal state influences their visual perception. People have the tendency to believe that they perceive the world for what it is, but research suggests otherwise. Currently, there are two main types of wishful seeing based on where wishful seeing occurs—in categorization of objects or in representations of an environment.  The concept of wishful seeing was first introduced by the New Look approach to psychology. The New Look approach was popularized in the 1950s through the work of Jerome Bruner and Cecile Goodman. In their classic 1947 study, they asked children to demonstrate their perception of the size of coins by manipulating the diameter of a circular aperture on a wooden box. Each child held the coin in their left hand at the same height and distance from the aperture and operated the knob to change the size of the aperture with their right hand. The children were divided into three groups, two experimental and one control, with ten children in each group. The control group was asked to estimate the size of coin-sized cardboard discs instead of actual coins. On average, the children of the experimental groups overestimated the size of the coins by thirty percent. In a second iteration of the experiment, Bruner and Goodman divided the children into groups based on economic status. Again, both the "poor" and "rich" groups were asked to estimate the size of real coins by manipulating the diameter of the aperture. As was expected, both groups overestimated the size of the coins, but the "poor" group overestimated the size by as much as fifty percent, which was up to thirty percent more than the "rich" group. From these results Bruner and Goodman concluded that poorer children felt a greater desire for money and thus perceived the coins as larger. This hypothesis formed the basis of the New Look psychological approach which suggests that the subjective experience of an object influences the visual perception of that object. Some psychodynamic psychologists adopted the views of the New Look approach in order to explain how individuals might protect themselves from disturbing visual stimuli. The psychodynamic perspective lost support because it lacked a sufficient model to account for how the unconscious could influence perception.  Although some further research was able to replicate the results found by Bruner and Goodman, the New Look approach was mostly abandoned by the 1970s because the experiments were riddled with methodological errors that did not account for confounding factors such as reporter bias and context. Recent research has brought about a revival of New Look perspectives, but with methodological improvements to resolve the outstanding issues that plagued the original studies.

Reverse wishful thinking and seeing.

This process occurs when threat increases. The Ebbinghaus illusion has been used to measure reverse wishful seeing, with participants observing negative flanker targets underestimated less than positive or neutral targets. Feelings of fear also lead to perception of the feared object as closer just as prior research suggests that desired objects are perceived as closer. Furthermore, some people are less inclined to wishful thinking/seeing based on their emotional states or personality.

Underlying mechanisms.

Cognition.

Concrete cognitive mechanisms underlying wishful thinking and wishful seeing are unknown. Since these concepts are still developing, research on the mechanisms contributing to this phenomenon is still in progress. However, some mechanisms have been proposed. Wishful thinking could be attributed to three mechanisms: attentional bias, interpretation bias or response bias. Therefore, there are three different stages in cognitive processing in which wishful thinking could arise. First, at the lowest stage of cognitive processing, individuals selectively attend to cues. Individuals can attend to evidence that supports their desires and neglect contradictory evidence. Second, wishful thinking could be generated by selective interpretation of cues. In this case, an individual is not changing their attention to the cue but the attribution of importance to the cue. Finally, wishful thinking can arise at a higher stage of cognitive processing, such as when forming a response to the cue and inserting bias.  Wishful seeing can be attributed to the same mechanisms as wishful thinking because it involves the processing of situational cues, including visual cues. However, with preconscious processing of visual cues and their associations with desirable outcomes, interpretation bias and response bias are not plausible since they occur in conscious cognitive processing stages. Therefore, a fourth mechanism called perceptual set can also explain this phenomenon. This mechanism proposes that mental states or associations activated before an object comes into view subtly guide the visual system during processing. Therefore, cues are readily recognized when they are related to such a mental state or association.  Some speculate that wishful seeing results from cognitive penetrability in that higher cognitive functions are able to directly influence perceptual experience instead of only influencing perception at higher levels of processing. Those that argue against cognitive penetrability feel that sensory systems operate in a modular fashion with cognitive states exerting their influence only after the stimuli has been perceived. The phenomenon of wishful seeing implicates cognitive penetrability in the perceptual experience. Wishful seeing has been observed to occur in early stages of categorization. Research using ambiguous figures and binocular rivalry exhibit this tendency. Perception is influenced by both top-down and bottom-up processing. In visual processing, bottom-up processing is a rigid route compared to flexible top-down processing. Within bottom-up processing, the stimuli are recognized by fixation points, proximity and focal areas to build objects, while top-down processing is more context sensitive. This effect can be observed via priming as well as with emotional states. The traditional hierarchical models of information processing describe early visual processing as a one-way street: early visual processing goes into conceptual systems, but conceptual systems do not affect visual processes. Currently, research rejects this model and suggests conceptual information can penetrate early visual processing rather than just biasing the perceptual systems. This occurrence is called conceptual or cognitive penetrability. Research on conceptual penetrability utilize stimuli of conceptual-category pairs and measure the reaction time to determine if the category effect influenced visual processing, The category effect is the difference in reaction times within the pairs such as "Bb" to "Bp". To test conceptual penetrability, there were simultaneous and sequential judgments of pairs. The reaction times decreased as the stimulus onset asynchrony increased, supporting categories affect visual representations and conceptual penetrability. Research with richer stimuli such as figures of cats and dogs allow for greater perceptual variability and analysis of stimulus typicality (cats and dogs were arranged in various positions, some more or less typical for recognition). Differentiating the pictures took longer when they were within the same category (dog-dog) compared between categories (dog-cat) supporting category knowledge influences categorization. Therefore, visual processing measured by physical differential judgments is affected by non-visual processing supporting conceptual penetrability.

Neural circuitry.

The areas of the brain that motivate wishful seeing and thinking are associated with the same regions that underlie social identification and reward. A study looked at these structures using MRI while participants estimated the winning probabilities for a series of football teams. Prior to this estimation, the individuals specified their favorite, neutral and least favorite NFL teams. Wishful thinking has been associated with social identity theory where individual seem to prefer in-group members over out-group members. In this case, these individuals preferred the football team they most identified.  During wishful thinking tasks, differential activity was found in three areas of the brain: dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, the parietal lobe, and the fusiform gyrus in the occipital lobe. Differential activity in the occipital and parietal areas suggests a mode of selective attention to the cues presented; therefore, supporting a lower-level cognitive processing or attention bias. However, differential activity in the prefrontal cortex also suggests higher-cognitive processing. The prefrontal cortex activity is related to preferences involved in social identification. As a result, when cues are relevant to an individual, such as a favorite football team, the prefrontal cortex is activated. This identification of self carries hedonic value which in turn stimulates the reward system. Differential activation of the reward system areas was only seen in conjunction with the activation of occipital lobe. Thus, the activation of the reward system with an identification of self could lead to guidance of visual attention.  Magnocellular (M) and parvocellular (P) pathways, which feed into the orbitofrontal cortex, play important roles in top-down processes that are susceptible to cognitive penetrability. Magnocellular processing biased stimuli deferentially activates the orbitofrontal cortex; fast magnocellular projections link early visual and inferotemporal object recognition and work with the orbitofrontal cortex by helping generate early object predictions based on perceptual sets. Stimuli were M-biased with low-luminance, achromatic line drawings or P-biased with isoluminate, chromatic line drawings and participants were asked if the drawing was larger or smaller than a shoebox. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to monitor brain activity in the orbitofrontal cortex and ventrotemporal regions to determine which pathway aided faster object recognition. The results supported that magnocellular neurons play a vital role in low-resolution object recognition as the neurons aid in quickly triggering top-down processes that provide initial guesses that lead to faster object recognition.

Attention.

Humans have a physiologically limited visual field that must be selectively directed to certain stimuli. Attention is the cognitive process that allows this task to be accomplished and it might be responsible for the phenomenon of wishful seeing. Expectations, desires and fears are among the various factors that help direct attention. Consequently, these cognitive experiences have the opportunity to influence the perceptual experience. In turn, attention can organize planned movement, providing a mechanism through which visual stimuli can influence behavior.  Attentional deficits can also lead to altered perceptual experiences. Inattentional blindness, where unexpected events go by undetected, is one such deficit. Using an inattentional blindness paradigm, researchers, White and Davies, had participants fixate on a cross in the center of the screen. First, a number cue denoting the number of letters that would appear on the arms of the cross appeared in the center of the cross. Following the cue, the actual letters would appear on the arms of the cross. Over four trials, the number of letters matched the number that was cued. On the fifth trial, half of the participants were cued to expect a smaller number of letters and half were cued to expect the correct number of letters. The letters then appeared on the screen accompanied by an unexpected stimulus. Participants were asked which letters appeared and whether they had seen any additional object. Participants cued to expect fewer letters were more susceptible to inattentional blindness as they failed to detect the unexpected stimulus more often than participants who had been cued to expect the correct number of stimuli. These results indicate that attentional capacity is affected by expectations. This provides further evidence that cognitive processes converge in order to help construct the perceptual experience.  Although attention can lead to enhanced perceptual processing, the lack of attention to stimuli can also lead to a perceived enhanced perception of the stimuli. Participants were pre-cued that indicated the diagonal to which they should be attending. They were then presented with stimuli (gratings with different textures) and then a response cue that indicated the diagonal for which the participants had to judge their perception. 70% of the time the response cue matched the pre-cue and 30% of the time did not match the pre-cue. The participants were asked to report texture of the gratings that appeared in the response-cue and discriminate its visibility. This set-up allowed them to compare the perception of attended (cued) and non-attended stimuli (uncued). Higher visibility was reported for stimuli that was unattended. Therefore, inattention lead to an overestimation of perception sensitivity. This study suggests attention bias, a mechanism of wishful thinking, does not only rely on what individuals fixate upon, but the unattended stimuli as well.

Interpretation of emotion.

Emotion is often interpreted through visual cues on the face, body language and context. However, context and cultural backgrounds have been shown to influence the visual perception and interpretation of emotion. Cross-cultural differences in change blindness have been associated with perceptual set, or a tendency to attend to visual scenes in a particular way. For example, eastern cultures tend to emphasize background of an object, while western cultures focus on central objects in a scene. Perceptual sets are also the result of cultural aesthetic preferences. Therefore, cultural context can influence how people sample information from a face, just like they would do in a situational context. For example, Caucasians generally fixate around eyes, nose and mouth, while Asians fixate on eyes. Individuals from different cultural backgrounds who were shown a series of faces and asked to sort them into piles in which every face showed the same emotion. Fixation on different features of the face leads to disparate reading of emotions. Asians' focus on the eyes lead to the perception of startled faces as surprise rather than fear. As a result, previous associations or customs of an individual can lead to different categorization or recognition of emotion. This particular difference in visual perception of emotion seems to suggest an attention bias mechanism for wishful seeing, since certain visual cues were attended to (e.g. nose, eyes) and the others were ignored (e.g. mouth).

Optimism.

Wishful seeing is also linked to optimism bias through which individuals tend to expect positive outcomes from events despite such expectations having little basis in reality. In order to determine the neural correlates underlying optimism bias, one functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study imaged the brains of individuals as they recalled autobiographical moments related to life events and then rated their memories on several scales. These ratings revealed that participants viewed future positive events as more positive than past positive events and negative events as more temporally distant. The active brain regions, compared to a fixation point, were the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) and the right amygdala. Both of these areas became less active when imagining negative future events. The rACC is implicated in assessing emotional content and has strong connections to the amygdala. It is suggested that the rACC regulates activation in brain regions associated with emotion and autobiographical memory, thus allowing for the projection of positivity onto images of future events.  It is important to consider physical aspects such as eye movement and brain activity and their relationship to wishful thinking, wishful seeing, and optimism. Isaacowitz (2006) investigated the motivational role of gaze, which he claims is highly correlated to an individual's interests and personality. In his study, participants who embodied varying levels of self-reported optimism were directed to look at images of skin cancer, line drawings that were similar to the cancer pictures, and neutral faces. Using a remote eye tracking system that measured the movement of the participants gaze, Isaacowitz found that more optimistically minded young adults gazed less on the skin cancer images when compared to the less optimistically minded participants. This data was replicated in a follow up study in which participants were screened for their genetically based risk for contracting skin cancer (even though some participants were more at risk than others, higher levels of optimism were correlated with a less fixated gaze on the skin cancer images despite the fact that the images were relevant to some participants).

Methodology.

Wishful thinking is often studied in the context of psychology through the application of ambiguous figure studies, the hypothesis being that when presented with an ambiguous stimuli, the participant will interpret the stimuli in a certain way depending on the conditions or priming the participant experiences.  Balcetis and Dunning (2013) investigated wishful seeing by conducting two experiments, one involving two ambiguous stimuli that could be perceived as "B" or "13", and the other either a horse or a seal. The second experiment was a binocular rivalry test in which the participants were presented simultaneously with the letter "H" or number "4" (one stimuli in each eye). In each experiment, the experimenters associated one of the stimuli with desirable outcomes, and the other with a negative outcome (i.e. the "B" was associated with freshly squeezed orange juice while the "13" was associated with an undesirable health food smoothie, and in the binocular rivalry experiment, letters were associated with economic gain while numbers were associated with economic loss). The results of the experiment demonstrated that participants were more likely to perceive the stimulus that was associated with a positive situation or outcome than the stimulus associated with negative situations. This strong correlation between perception and positive versus negative stimuli demonstrates that we tend to see the world based on our own desires. The concept of wishful seeing hints towards a motivation-based perception process.  Balcetis and Dale (2007) further considered that we view the world in biased ways in their four-prong study, one part of which addressed motivated object interpretation using a situation involving the interpretation of an ambiguous object (i.e. a Necker cube) that lacks the language based labels that the priming information may suggest to the participants. Many studies claim that what humans perceive or see is based on our internal motivation and goals, but it is important to consider that some priming situations in certain studies, or even the internal views of the participant, can affect the interpretation of a stimulus. With these considerations in mind, Balcetis and Dale (2007), divided 124 Cornell University undergraduates into three groups which were each asked to imagine one of three detailed conditions: an upward-looking condition (participants were asked to imagine looking up at a large building), a downward-looking position (looking into a deep canyon), and a neutral/flat condition (standing in a flat field). The participants were then shown an ambiguous Necker cube on a computer screen and were told to click one of the two blue lines that seemed the closest to them. The line the participants chose depended on whether they determined the cube to be facing upwards or downwards. The results of the study demonstrated that the majority of participants in the upward-looking condition saw the cube as facing upwards, the majority of downwards-looking conditioned patients saw the cube as facing downwards, and the participants in the neutral condition were evenly divided. These results show that the priming stimulus language influenced object identification. Motivation-affected object identification was observed in each condition.  Similar results were seen in a study conducted by Changizi and Hall (2001), which addressed wishful thinking and goal-oriented object identification by investigating levels of thirst among participants in relation to their tendency to identify an ambiguously transparent stimulus as transparent (the study states that transparency is a natural yet unobvious quality directly related to water, a typically clear substance). The results of the study showed a clear tendency for the thirsty participants (who were directed to eat a bag of potato chips immediately preceding the study) to interpret the ambiguous stimuli as transparent. Furthermore, the participants who were not thirsty (they were directed to drink water before the study until they reported themselves as not thirsty) were less likely to interpret the ambiguous stimuli as transparent. The study concludes that an alteration of a biological state, in this case the participants' level of thirstiness, that inspires wishful thinking, can directly affect the perception of visual stimuli.  Bastardi, Uhlmann, and Ross (2011), showed the effects of wishful thinking when they presented parents with two fictional studies involving day care versus home care for their children. The parents who were conflicted (planned to use day care despite believing home care to be superior) more positively rated the "study" that claimed day care as superior and more negatively rated the study that claimed home care was better. The unconflicted parents (those that thought home care was superior to day care and planned to use only home care) rated the study that claimed home care was better more positively. The parents rated the studies that claimed what they actually planned for their children was the superior action, even though (in the case of the conflicted parents) the study may have been in opposition to their original beliefs. In a post-experiment evaluation, the conflicted parents changed their initial beliefs and claimed to believe that home care was no better than day care, and the unconflicted parents continued to claim home care to be superior, though to a lesser degree.  Balcetis and Dunning (2012) used the natural ambiguity found in judging distances to measure the effects of wishful seeing. During the study participants judged the distance to various stimuli while the experimenters manipulated the desirability of the stimuli. In one study, participants had their thirst intensified by consuming a large portion of their daily sodium intake or quenched by drinking to satiety. They were then asked to estimate the distance to a bottle of water. Those participants who were thirstier ranked the bottle of water as more desirable and viewed it as closer than less thirsty participants. Another study performed by Balcetis and Dunning had participants estimate the distance to test results that contained either positive or negative feedback and to $100 gift cards that they had the possibility of either winning or not. Participants viewed the forms as closer when they contained positive feedback and the $100 gift cards as closer when there was a possibility that they might win them. Balcetis and Dunning took into account the possible influence of positive mood by measuring creativity through a word creation task, and arousal by physiological markers. The experimenters also eliminated reporter bias in one of their studies by having participants throw a beanbag toward a gift card adhered to the floor. Underthrowing the beanbag indicated that the participant perceived the gift card as closer, while overthrowing the beanbag indicated that the participant perceived the gift card as further away. Their results suggest that there is a positivity bias in the perception of distance.  The relationship between distance perception and positivity may be more complicated than originally thought because context can also influence the distortion of perception. In fact, in threatening situations, positivity bias may be put aside to enable an appropriate response. In turn, the perceptual exaggerations brought on by threatening stimuli can be negated by psychosocial resources. Psychosocial resources are defined by the Resources and Perception Model (RPM) as social support, self-worth, self- esteem, self-efficacy, hope, optimism, perceived control and self-disclosure. The participants reported distance measures while the experimenters manipulated the self-worth of the participants through mental imagery exercises, as well as their exposure to threatening (a tarantula) or non-threatening (a cat toy) stimuli. An effect of self-worth was only observed upon exposure to the threatening stimuli, when increased self-worth was correlated with a more realistic estimate of the distance to the threatening stimuli.

Representations of environment.

Another common area in which wishful seeing can be observed is through environmental representations. Many studies have supported that desire or motivations effect estimates of size, distance, speed, length and slope of environment or target. For example, people will perceive desired objects as closer. Wishful seeing also effects athlete's perception of balls and other equipment. For example, softball players who see the ball as bigger hit better and tennis players who return better see the net as lower and the ball as moving slower. Distance and slope perception is effected by energy levels; subjects with a heavier load see hills as steeper and distances as farther, targets that are placed uphill compared to flat ground seem farther away, people who are in shape perceive hills as shallower and fatigued runners see hills as steeper. This perception is modulated by what has been coined as "efficient energy expenditure." In other words, perceived increase in effort (a steeper slope) when physically exhausted, might prompt individuals to rest rather than expend more energy.  Distance perception is also effected by cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance was manipulated by high choice groups which were led to believe they selected wearing a Carmen Miranda outfit to walk across campus versus a low choice group which was told they had to wear the outfit. To reduce cognitive dissonance in high choice groups the subjects changed their attitude to match the situation. Thus, they perceived their environment in a less extreme way (shorter distance) than low choice groups. Similar results followed with a perception of slope test, in which participants were in high and low choice groups to push themselves up a slope on skateboard with only their arms. Again, the high choice group perceived the slope as shallower than the low choice in order to reduce cognitive dissonance. Both of these studies suggest that intraphysic motives play a role in perception of environments in order to encourage the perceiver to engage in behaviors that lead them either to acquire a desired object or be able to complete a desired task.

Procrastination and motivation.

Sigall, Kruglanski, and Fyock (2000) found that people who were assessed to be high wishful thinkers were more likely to procrastinate when motivated to do so (by being told that the task they were about to do was unpleasant). When told the task was going to be pleasant, there was little difference in the amount of procrastination, showing that when motivated, wishful thinkers may consider themselves more capable of doing the task in a lesser amount of time, therefore exhibiting wishful thinking and considering themselves more capable than they are, and as a result, put off working on the unpleasant task.

Wishful thinking describes decision-making and the formation of beliefs based on what might be pleasing to imagine, rather than on evidence, rationality, or reality. It is a product of resolving conflicts between belief, and desire.

Toužebné myšlení (anglicky wishful thinking) nebo iluzorní myšlení je uvažování a rozhodování založené na tom, co by bylo příjemné si představit, spíše než na důkazech, skutečnosti a racionalitě. Je to produkt řešení konfliktu mezi vírou a touhou.


Overview.

NGC 7027 is one of the visually brightest planetary nebulae. It is about 600 years old.  It is unusually small, measuring only 0.2 by 0.1 light-years, whereas the typical size for a planetary nebula is 1 light-year. It has a very complex shape, consisting of an elliptical region of ionized gas within a massive neutral cloud. The inner structure is surrounded by a translucent shroud of gas and dust. The nebula is shaped like a prolate ellipsoidal shell and contains a photodissociation region shaped like a "clover leaf". NGC 7027 is expanding at. The central regions of NGC 7027 have been found to emit X-rays, indicating very high temperatures. Surrounding the ellipsoidal nebula are a series of faint, blue concentric shells.  It is possible that the central white dwarf of NGC 7027 has an accretion disk that acts as a source of high temperatures. The white dwarf is believed to have a mass approximately 0.7 times the mass of the Sun and is radiating at 7,700 times the Sun's luminosity. NGC 7027 is currently in a short phase of planetary nebula evolution in which molecules in its envelope are being dissociated into their component atoms, and the atoms are being ionized.  The expanding halo of NGC 7027 has a mass of about three times the mass of the Sun, and is about 100 times more massive than the ionized central region. This mass loss in NGC 7027 provided important evidence that stars a few times more massive than the Sun can avoid being destroyed in supernova explosions.  NGC 7027 has a rich and highly ionized spectrum caused by its hot central star. The nebula is rich in carbon, and is a very interesting object for the study of carbon chemistry in dense molecular material exposed to strong ultraviolet radiation. The spectrum of NGC 7027 contains fewer spectral lines from neutral molecules than is usual for planetary nebulae. This is due to the destruction of neutral molecules by intense UV radiation. The nebula contains ions of extremely high ionization potential. The helium hydride ion, thought to be the earliest molecule to have been formed in the Universe (about 100,000 years after the Big Bang), was detected in 2019 for the first time in space in NGC 7027. There is also evidence for the presence of nanodiamond in NGC 7027.  It has been photographed multiple times by the Hubble Space Telescope since its launch in 1990. Prior to these observations, NGC 7027 was thought to be a proto-planetary nebula with the central star too cool to ionize any of the gas, but it is now known to be a planetary nebula in the earliest stage of its development. The progenitor star is believed to have been about 3 to 4 times the mass of the Sun before the nebula was formed.  In 1977 at Yerkes Observatory, a small Schmidt telescope was used to derive an accurate optical position for the planetary nebula NGC 7027 to allow comparison between photographs and radio maps of the object.  In a 6" telescope at around 50× it appears as a relatively bright bluish star. It is best viewed with the highest magnification possible.

NGC 7027 is a very young and dense planetary nebula located around from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. Discovered in 1878 by Édouard Stephan using the reflector at Marseille Observatory, it is one of the smallest planetary nebulae and by far the most extensively studied.

NGC 7027 je velmi mladá a hustá planetární mlhovina v souhvězdí Labutě s magnitudou 8,5. Od Země je vzdálená přibližně 3 000 světelných let. Objevil ji Édouard Stephan v roce 1878. Jde o jednu z nejmenších planetárních mlhovin a přitom je zdaleka nejpodrobněji zkoumaná. V roce 2019 byla v této mlhovině zjištěna přítomnost hydridu helia.


Etymology.

The term's origin is uncertain, but seems to enter Middle High German from Middle Low German. The word "vëme" first appears in the Middle High German literature of the 13th century as a noun with the meaning of "punishment". A document dated to 1251 has the reference "illud occultum judicium, quod vulgariter vehma seu vridinch appellari consuevit." ("It is hidden justice, that by common fashion is habitually referred to as "vehma" or "vridinch".")  The general meaning of "punishment" is unrelated to the special courts of Westphalia which were thus originally just named "courts of punishment". But as the word entered the Southern German dialects via Saxony and Westphalia, the word's meaning in Early Modern German became attached to the activities of these courts specifically.  Jacob Grimm thought that the word is identical in origin to a homophonous word for the raising of pigs on forest pastures (), just as the more familiar German "Zucht" can mean both breeding and discipline. Grimm considers the spelling with "h" unetymological in spite of its early occurrence in some 13th century documents, and hypothesizes a "lost root" ""fëmen"", connecting with Old Norse "fimr" and conjecturing a Gothic ""fiman, fam, fêmun?"".  During 18th to 19th century Romanticism, there were various misguided attempts to explain the obscure term, or to elevate it to the status of a remnant of pagan antiquity, scoffed at by Grimm's entry in his "Deutsches Wörterbuch". An etymology suggested by James Skene in 1824 derives the word from "Baumgericht" (Lit. "Tree law"), supposedly the remnant of a pagan "forest law" of the Wild hunt and pagan secret societies.

Origin.

The Westphalian Vehmic courts developed from the High Medieval “free courts” ("Freigerichte"), which had jurisdiction within a “free county” (). As a result of the 14th century imperial reform of the Holy Roman Empire (Golden Bull of 1356), the Landgraviates lost much of their power, and the "Freigerichte" disappeared, with the exception of Westphalia, where they retained their authority and transformed into the Vehmic court.  The seat of the Vehmic court () was at first Dortmund, in a square between two linden trees, one of which was known as the "Femelinde". With the growing influence of Cologne during the 15th century, the seat was moved to Arnsberg in 1437.

Membership and procedure.

The sessions were often held in secret, whence the names of “secret court” (), “silent court” (), etc. Attendance of secret sessions was forbidden to the uninitiated, on pain of death, which led to the designation “forbidden courts” (). A chairman () presided over the court, and lay judges () passed judgment. The court also constituted a Holy Order.  Any free man "of pure bred German stock" and of good character could become a judge. The new candidate was given secret information and identification symbols. The “knowing one” () had to keep his knowledge secret, even from his closest family (“vor Weib und Kind, vor Sand und Wind”). Lay judges had to give formal warnings to known troublemakers, issue warrants, and take part in executions.  The organization of the "Fehme" was elaborate. The centre of each jurisdiction was referred to as a “free seat” (), and its head or chairman () was often a secular or spiritual prince, sometimes a civic community, the archbishop of Cologne being supreme over all (). The actual president of the court was the “free count” (, chosen for life by the "Stuhlherr" from among the "Freischöffen", who formed the great body of the initiated. Of these the lowest rank were the "Fronboten" or "Freifronen", charged with the maintenance of order in the courts and the duty of carrying out the commands of the "Freigraf". The immense development of the "Fehme" is explained by the privileges of the "Freischöffen"; for they were subject to no jurisdiction but those of the Westphalian courts: whether as accused or accuser they had access to the secret sessions, and they shared in the discussions of the general chapter as to the policy of the society. At their initiation these swore to support the "Fehme" with all their powers, to guard its secrets, and to bring before its tribunal anything within its competence that they might discover. They were then initiated into the secret signs by which members recognized each other, and were presented with a rope and with a knife on which were engraved the mystic letters S.S.G.G., supposed to mean "Stein, Strick, Gras, grün" (stone, rope, grass, green).  The "Freistuhl" was the place of session, and was usually a hillock, or some other well-known and accessible spot. The "Freigraf" and the "Schöffen" (judges) occupied the bench, before which a table, with a sword and rope upon it, was placed. The court was held by day and, unless the session was declared secret, all freemen, whether initiated or not, were admitted. The accusation was in the old German form; but only a "Freischöffe" could act as accuser. If the offence came under the competence of the court, meaning it was punishable by death, a summons to the accused was issued under the seal of the "Freigraf". This was not usually served on him personally, but was nailed to his door, or to some convenient place where he was certain to pass. Six weeks and three days' grace were allowed, according to the old Saxon law, and the summons was thrice repeated. If the accused appeared, the accuser stated the case, and the investigation proceeded by the examination of witnesses as in an ordinary court of law. The judgment was put into execution on the spot if that was possible.  The secret court, from whose procedure the whole institution has acquired its evil reputation, was closed to all but the initiated, although these were so numerous as to secure quasi-publicity; any one not a member on being discovered was instantly put to death, and the members present were bound under the same penalty not to disclose what took place. Crimes of a serious nature, and especially those that were deemed unfit for ordinary judicial investigation, such as heresy and witchcraft, fell within its jurisdiction, as also did appeals by persons condemned in the open courts, and likewise the cases before those tribunals in which the accused had not appeared. The accused, if a member, could clear himself by his own oath, unless he had revealed the secrets of the "Fehme". If he were one of the uninitiated it was necessary for him to bring forward witnesses to his innocence from among the initiated, whose number varied according to the number on the side of the accuser, but twenty-one in favour of innocence necessarily secured an acquittal. The only punishment which the secret court could inflict was death. If the accused appeared, the sentence was carried into execution at once; if he did not appear, it was quickly made known to the whole body, and the "Freischöffe" who was the first to meet the condemned was bound to put him to death. This was usually done by hanging, the nearest tree serving for gallows. A knife with the mystic letters was left beside the corpse to show that the deed was not a murder.  It has been claimed that, in some cases, the condemned would be set free, given several hours' head start and then hunted down and put to death. So fearsome was the reputation of the "Fehme" and its reach that many thus released committed suicide rather than prolonging the inevitable. This practice could have been a holdover from the ancient Germanic legal concept of outlawry ("Acht").  Legend and romance have combined to exaggerate the sinister reputation of the Fehmic courts; but modern historical research has largely discounted this, proving that they never employed torture, that their sittings were only sometimes secret, and that their meeting-places were always well known.

The spread of the Vehmic courts.

The system, though ancient, came into wider use only after the division of the duchy of Saxony after the fall of Henry the Lion, when the archbishop of Cologne Engelbert II of Berg, (also duke of Westphalia from 1180) placed himself at the head of the Fehme as representative of the emperor. The organization then spread rapidly. Every free man born in lawful wedlock and not excommunicated nor an outlaw was eligible for membership.  Princes and nobles were initiated; and in 1429 even the Emperor Sigismund himself became “a true and proper Freischöffe of the Holy Roman Empire.” There is a manuscript in the Town Hall of the Westphalian town of Soest, which consists of an original Vehmic Court Regulation document, along with illustrations.  By the middle of the 14th century these Freischöffen (Latin scabini), sworn associates of the Fehme, were scattered in thousands throughout the length and breadth of Germany, known to each other by secret signs and pass-words, and all of them pledged to serve the summons of the secret courts and to execute their judgment.

Decline and dissolution of the Courts.

That an organization of this character should have outlived its usefulness and ushered in intolerable abuses, such as corruption was inevitable; from the mid-fifteenth century protests were raised against the enormities of the court.  With the growing power of the territorial sovereigns and the gradual improvement of the ordinary process of justice, the functions of the Fehmic courts were superseded. By the action of the Emperor Maximilian and of other German princes they were, in the 16th century, once more restricted to Westphalia, and here, too, they were brought under the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts, and finally confined to mere police duties. With these functions, however, but with the old forms long since robbed of their impressiveness, they survived into the 19th century. They were finally abolished by order of Jérôme Bonaparte, king of Westphalia, in 1811. The last Freigraf died in 1835.

Modern use of the term.

Following the abandonment of the Vehmic courts, the term acquired a connotation of mob rule and lynching. In Modern German, the spelling of "Feme" is most common. Other variant forms are: Fehme, Feime, Veme. The verb "verfemen" is in current use and means "to ostracise", i.e. by public opinion rather than formal legal proceeding. A noun derived from this is "Verfemter" "outlaw, ostracised person".  In an 1856 lecture, philosopher Karl Marx used the Vehmic courts as a metaphor to describe his predictions of the working-class revolution that would sweep Europe.  Within the politically heated turmoil of the early German Weimar Republic after World War I, the media frequently used the term "Fememord" to refer to right-wing political homicides, e.g. the murder of Jewish politicians such as Kurt Eisner (1919) or Walther Rathenau (1922) and other politicians including Matthias Erzberger (1921) by right-wing groups such as Organisation Consul. In 1926, the 27th "Reichstag" commission officially differentiated the contemporarily common "Fememorde" from political assassination in that assassination was by definition exerted upon open political opponents, whereas a "Fememord" was a form of lethal vengeance committed upon former or current members of an organization that they had become a traitor to. This definition is also found in the common pseudo-archaic, alliterating right-wing phrase, ""Verräter verfallen der Feme!"" ("Traitors shall be ostracized!", i. e. killed), as it was often quoted throughout the 1920s in mass media reports regarding violent acts of vengeance among the German Right.

The Vehmic courts in fiction.

Vehmic courts play a key role in the novel "Anne of Geierstein or, The Maiden of the Mist" by Sir Walter Scott in which Archibald von Hagenbach, the Duke of Burgundy's governor at Brisach (Switzerland), is condemned and executed by the Vehmgericht. Scott drew his inspiration from Goethe's play "Goetz von Berlichingen" which he had translated, incorrectly. Hector Berlioz's first opera, "Les francs-juges", was inspired by Scott's presentation of the Vehmic Courts. Though the work was never staged the overture survives as a concert piece. In the very first concert of Berlioz's work, on 26 May 1828, the overture was performed along with the Opus 1 "Waverley" overture, a further indication of Berlioz's debt to Scott's fiction. The "Les francs-juges" overture later became the signature tune for "Face to Face", the early series of British television interviews presented by John Freeman.  In William Makepeace Thackeray's novel "Vanity Fair" "Was Rebecca guilty or not?" the Vehmgericht of the servants' hall had pronounced against her.  A character in the Dorothy L. Sayers novel "Murder Must Advertise" appears at a fancy-dress party as a member of the Vehmgericht, which allows him to wear a hooded costume to disguise his identity.  In "Fritz Lang"'s "M", the local criminals of an unnamed city (probably Berlin) capture a child murderer and hold a vigilante court.  In "The Illuminatus! Trilogy", the Vehmic courts are mentioned as being connected to Nazi Werwolf commandos as well as the Illuminati.  In "A Study in Scarlet", a Sherlock Holmes novel by Arthur Conan Doyle, a newspaper article mentions the Vehmgericht, stating that the features of a recent death are similar to the organization's killings.  The Vehmgericht also appear as antagonists in "The Strong Arm", an 1899 novel set in the Holy Roman Empire by British-Canadian author Robert Barr.  Geoff Taylor's 1966 novel, "Court Of Honor", features the Fehme being revived by a German officer and Martin Bormann in the dying days of the Third Reich.  Season 3, episode 12 of "The Blacklist", titled "The Vehm" is based on a group of vigilantes using medieval torture methods to kill paedophiles and money launderers.  Jack Mayer's 2015 historical fiction, "Before the Court of Heaven", depicts the Fehme, and 'Fehme justice' as part of the extreme right-wing conspiracy to bring down Germany's Weimar democracy.

The Vehmic courts, Vehmgericht, holy vehme, or simply Vehm, also spelt Feme, Vehmegericht, Fehmgericht, are names given to a "proto-vigilante" tribunal system of Westphalia in Germany active during the later Middle Ages, based on a fraternal organisation of lay judges called “free judges” ( or ). The original seat of the courts was in Dortmund. Proceedings were sometimes secret, leading to the alternative titles of “secret courts” (), “silent courts” (), or “forbidden courts” (). After the execution of a death sentence, the corpse could be hung on a tree to advertise the fact and deter others. The peak of activity of these courts was during the 14th to 15th centuries, with lesser activity attested for the 13th and 16th centuries, and scattered evidence establishing their continued existence during the 17th and 18th centuries. They were finally abolished by order of Jérôme Bonaparte, king of Westphalia, in 1811.

Fémový soud či féma je druh tajného soudu, jeho kořeny sahají až do středověku, do Vestfálska v 13. století. Výraz "féma" označující tajný soud pochází ze staré dolnoněmčiny. Z Vestfálska se tyto soudy rozšířily i do jiných německy mluvících zemí.


Personal life.

Fiona Ferro was born in Libramont, Belgium to a Belgian mother Catherine and a French-Italian father Fabrizio. Fiona's parents owned a restaurant in Belgium when Fiona was born. The Ferro family moved to southern France when Fiona was one year old. As of 2018, Fiona's parents were the owners of two hotels in Valbonne, France. Fiona has two older brothers (Gianni and Paolo) and one younger brother (Flavio). Fiona started playing tennis when she was seven in her hometown of Valbonne.

Career.

Junior.

Ferro was the national girls' champion of France in the 12-13 year-olds, 15-16 year-olds and 17-18 year-olds categories. She had a career-high ITF junior combined ranking of world No. 27, attained on 3 June 2013.

2012-2016.

Ferro made her ITF Women's Circuit debut at the $25K indoor hardcourt tournament held in late January 2012 in Grenoble, France; she only entered that tournament's singles event, losing in the first qualifying round. She played (only in the singles events of) eight tournaments on the 2012 ITF Women's Circuit.  She played (only in the singles events of) eleven tournaments on the 2013 ITF Women's Circuit. Her 2013 year-end WTA singles ranking was world No. 557, compared to world No. 1062 on 11 February 2013.  Ferro made her WTA Tour singles debut at the 2014 Internationaux de Strasbourg; as a wild card, she lost in the first qualifying round to Yuliya Beygelzimer.  She made her Grand Slam singles debut at the 2014 French Open after receiving a wild card for the singles main draw, where she lost in the first round to the No. 16 seed Sabine Lisicki.  In June 2016, Ferro ended her player-coach collaboration with Pierre Bouteyre. Bouteyre had been her coach since 2010.  Ferro then made her WTA 125K series singles debut at the Open de Limoges after receiving a wild card for the main draw, where she lost in the first round to the unseeded Ivana Jorović.

2017.

At the end of February, Ferro played her year-first and just her third career WTA Tour singles main-draw match at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel after defeating two higher-ranked players (Samantha Crawford and Tatjana Maria) in qualifying matches, losing in the first round to the No. 5 seed Christina McHale. In April, Ferro played her second and third WTA Tour singles main-draw matches of 2017 in Bogotá and Istanbul respectively after winning two qualifying matches in each tournament; she lost in the first round to seeded players (to Johanna Larsson in Bogotá and Sorana Cîrstea in Istanbul) in both tournaments.  At the end of 2017, Ferro packed up and moved to Paris to train at the Centre National d'Entraînement (CNE) to take advantage of the very good facilities there. Her tennis coach was Stéphane Huet and she also had a fitness coach and a mental coach that she shared with other players training at the CNE.

2018.

On 11 February 2018, Ferro won her first ITF singles title in Grenoble. Ferro had to win three qualifying matches to reach the singles main-draw of a WTA Tour event for the first time in 2018, at the International tournament in Rabat, losing in the first round to another qualifier, Paula Badosa Gibert. Ferro also played in Strasbourg, where she had entered the singles main draw as a wild card, losing in the first round to the No. 6 seed Tímea Babos.  Ferro received a singles main-draw wild card for the French Open, just like she did in 2014, 2015 and 2017. She won the first Grand Slam singles main-draw match of her career and also picked up her first career win over a player ranked in the top 100 at the French Open when she defeated world No. 61 Carina Witthöft in the first round. She lost to the No. 3 seed Garbiñe Muguruza in the second round.  On 22 October 2018, Ferro attained a career-high of world no. 100 in the WTA singles rankings and became the 43rd Frenchwoman to break inside the top 100 of those rankings.

2019.

In early February, Ferro was selected for the first time in her career in the France Fed Cup team, for the Fed Cup World Group quarterfinal against Belgium. She played only the doubles match (partnering Pauline Parmentier), which was a dead rubber, of that tie which France won 3-1. She and Parmentier lost their match against Ysaline Bonaventure and Kirsten Flipkens in three sets.  In July, Ferro won her first career WTA Tour singles title in Lausanne, beating defending champion Alizé Cornet in the final.  On 18 December 2019, Ferro announced on her Instagram account that Emmanuel Planque would henceforth be her new coach. Her two-year player-coach collaboration with Stéphane Huet had ended at the end of October 2019.

Performance timelines.

"Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Fed Cup and Olympic Games are included in these records."

Singles.

"Current through the suspension of the 2020 WTA Tour."

Fiona Ferro (born 12 March 1997) is a French professional tennis player born in Belgium. Ferro has won one singles title on the WTA Tour and four singles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. She has career-high WTA rankings of No. 61 in singles (attained on 9 September 2019) and No. 280 in doubles (attained on 25 November 2019).

Fiona Ferrová, nepřechýleně "Ferro", (* 12. března 1997 Libramont) je francouzská profesionální tenistka narozená v Belgii. Ve své dosavadní kariéře na okruhu WTA Tour vyhrála jeden singlový turnaj. V rámci okruhu ITF získala do září 2019 čtyři tituly ve dvouhře.