Biography.

Nirenberg was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and attended Baron Byng High School. He studied as an undergraduate at McGill University, completing there his B.S. in both mathematics and physics in 1945. He obtained his doctorate from New York University in 1949 under the direction of James Stoker. He subsequently became a professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. He was also conferred the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, at the University of British Columbia in 2010.  He received many honours and awards, including the Bôcher Memorial Prize (1959), the Jeffery–Williams Prize (1987), the Steele Prize (1994 and 2014), the National Medal of Science (1995), and was the inaugural recipient of both the Crafoord Prize (1982, shared with Vladimir Arnold) and the Chern Medal (2010). In 2015 he was awarded the Abel Prize along with John Nash. He was a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.  On 26 January 2020, it was announced that Nirenberg had died age 94.

Mathematical achievements.

1950s.

Nirenberg's thesis provided a solution of the Weyl problem and Minkowski problem of differential geometry. The former asks for the existence of isometric embeddings of positively curved Riemannian metrics on "S" into R, while the latter asks for closed surfaces in R of prescribed Gaussian curvature. Nirenberg's work on these problems was later extended by Aleksei Pogorelov, Shiu-Yuen Cheng, and Shing-Tung Yau, among other authors. In a separate contribution to differential geometry, Nirenberg and Philip Hartman characterized the cylinders in Euclidean space as the only complete hypersurfaces which are intrinsically flat.  With Avron Douglis, Nirenberg extended the Schauder estimates, as discovered in the 1930s in the context of second-order elliptic equations, to general elliptic systems of arbitrary order. In collaboration with Douglis and Shmuel Agmon, Nirenberg extended these estimates up to the boundary. The Douglis-Nirenberg and Agmon-Douglis-Nirenberg estimates are among the most widely-used tools in elliptic partial differential equations.  In 1957, answering a question posed to Nirenberg by André Weil, Nirenberg and August Newlander proved what is now known as the Newlander-Nirenberg theorem, which provides a precise condition under which an almost complex structure arises from a holomorphic coordinate atlas. The Newlander-Nirenberg theorem is now considered as a foundational result in complex geometry, although the result is far better known than the proof, which is not usually covered in introductory texts, as it relies on advanced methods in partial differential equations.  In his 1959 survey on elliptic differential equations, Nirenberg proved (independently of Emilio Gagliardo) what is now known as the Gagliardo-Nirenberg interpolation inequalities for the Sobolev spaces. A later work by Nirenberg, in 1966, clarified the possible exponents which can appear in these inequalities. More recent work by other authors has extended the Gagliardo-Nirenberg inequalities to the fractional Sobolev spaces.

1960s.

Immediately following Fritz John's introduction of the BMO function space in the theory of elasticity, John and Nirenberg gave a further study of the space, with a particular functional inequality, now known as the John-Nirenberg inequality, which has become basic in the field of harmonic analysis. It characterizes how quickly a BMO function deviates from its average; the proof is a classic application of the Calderon-Zygmund decomposition.  Nirenberg and J.J. Kohn, following earlier work by Kohn, studied the formula_1-Neumann problem on pseudoconvex domains, and demonstrated the relation of the regularity theory to the existence of subelliptic estimates for the formula_1 operator.  Agmon and Nirenberg made an extensive study of ordinary differential equations in Banach spaces, relating asymptotic representations and the behavior at infinity of solutions to to the spectral properties of the operator "A". Applications include the study of rather general parabolic and elliptic-parabolic problems.

1970s.

In the 1960s, A.D. Aleksandrov introduced an elegant "sliding plane" reflection method, which he used to apply the maximum principle in proving that the only closed hypersurface of Euclidean space which has constant mean curvature is the round sphere. In collaboration with Basilis Gidas and Wei-Ming Ni, Nirenberg gave an extensive study of how this method applies to prove symmetry of solutions of certain symmetric second-order elliptic partial differential equations. A sample result is that if "u" is a positive function on a ball with zero boundary data and with Δ"u"+"f"("u")=0 on the interior of the ball, then "u" is rotationally symmetric.  Nirenberg and Charles Loewner studied the means of naturally assigning a complete Riemannian metric to bounded open subsets of Euclidean space, modeled on the classical assignment of hyperbolic space to the unit ball, via the unit ball model. They showed that if Ω is a bounded open subset of R with smooth and strictly convex boundary, then the Monge-Ampère equation has a unique smooth negative solution which extends continuously to zero boundary data; then formula_5 defines a complete Riemannian metic on Ω. This was later extended to higher dimensions in a well-known work of Cheng and Yau. Loewner and Nirenberg also studied the method of conformal deformation, via the Yamabe equation for a constant "c". They showed that for certain Ω, this Yamabe equation has a unique solution which diverges to infinity at the boundary. The Riemannian metric formula_7 is then a complete Riemannian metric on Ω⊂R.  In other work, Haïm Brezis, Guido Stampacchia, and Nirenberg gave an extension of Ky Fan's topological minimax principle to noncompact settings.  Brezis and Nirenberg gave a study of the perturbation theory of nonlinear perturbations of noninvertible transformations between Hilbert spaces. Applications include existence results for periodic solutions of some semilinear wave equations.

1980s.

Luis Caffarelli, Robert Kohn, and Nirenberg studied the three-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, showing that weak solutions are smooth away from a set whose one-dimensional parabolic Hausdorff measure is zero. This is known as a "partial regularity" result. In his description of the regularity of the Navier-Stokes equations as a Millennium prize problem, Charles Fefferman refers to Caffarelli-Kohn-Nirenberg's result as the most significant known result on the problem. Additionally, as a by-product of their work on the Navier-Stokes equations, Caffarelli, Kohn, and Nirenberg (in a separate paper) extended Nirenberg's earlier work on the Gagliardo-Nirenberg interpolation inequality to weighted norms.  In collaboration with Caffarelli, J.J. Kohn, and Joel Spruck, Nirenberg advanced the understanding of the Dirichlet problem for general nonlinear elliptic equations of second order. The basic problem is to establish "C" control up to the boundary, which ensures uniform ellipticity. In a series of three papers, this was accomplished for the real and complex Monge-Ampère equations, and for somewhat general equations which are built out of the eigenvalues of the Hessian.  In one of Nirenberg's most widely cited papers, he and Brézis studied the Dirichlet problem for Yamabe-type equations on Euclidean spaces.

1990s.

The moving plane method of Aleksandrov, as extended in 1979 by Gidas, Ni, and Nirenberg, is studied further in joint works by Berestycki, Caffarelli, and Nirenberg. The primary theme is to understand when a solution of Δ"u"+"f"("u")=0, with Dirichlet data on a cylinder, necessarily inherits a cylindrical symmetry.  In 1991, Brezis and Nirenberg applied the Ekeland variational principle to extend the mountain pass lemma. In 1993, they made a fundamental contributions to critical point theory in showing (with some contextual assumptions) that a local minimizer of in the "C" topology is also a local minimizer in the "W" topology. In 1995, they used density theorems to extend the notion of topological degree from continuous mappings to the class of VMO mappings.  With Berestycki and Italo Capuzzo-Dolcetta, Nirenberg studied superlinear equations of Yamabe type, giving various existence and non-existence results. These can be viewed as developments of Brezis and Nirenberg's fundamental paper from 1983.  In an important result with Berestycki and Srinivasa Varadhan, Nirenberg extended the classically-known results on the first eigenvalue of second-order elliptic operators to settings where the boundary of the domain is not differentiable.  In 1992, Berestycki and Nirenberg gave a complete study of the existence of traveling-wave solutions of reaction-diffusion equations in which the spatial domain is cylindrical, i.e. of the form R×Ω'.

2000s.

With Yanyan Li, and motivated by composite materials in elasticity theory, Nirenberg studied elliptic systems in which the coefficients are Hölder continuous in the interior but possibly discontinuous on the boundary. Their result is that the gradient of the solution is Hölder continuous, with a "L" estimate for the gradient which is independent of the distance from the boundary.

Louis Nirenberg (28 February 1925 – 26 January 2020) was a Canadian-American mathematician, considered one of the most outstanding mathematicians of the 20th century.

Louis Nirenberg (28. února 1925 Hamilton – 26. ledna 2020) byl kanadsko-americký matematik. Proslavil se zejména svými pracemi o parciálních diferenciálních rovnicích. Doktorát na New York University získal pod vedením Jamese Stokera a na stejné univerzitě pak působil jako profesor. Za svou práci obdržel mnoho ocenění, zejména Abelovu cenu, již spolu s ním roku 2015 získal i John Nash.


Features.

The Magic Keyboard is similar to its predecessor but it has a lower profile. Apple re-engineered the scissor mechanism to increase key stability by 33 percent and reduce key travel.  It has a sealed non-replaceable rechargeable Lithium-ion battery which is charged via a Lightning port on the rear of the keyboard. The rechargeable battery lasts one month between charges. It uses an ST Microelectronics STM32F103VB 72 MHz 32-bit RISC ARM Cortex-M3 processor and includes the Broadcom BCM20733 Enhanced Data Rate Bluetooth 3.0 Single-Chip Solution.  It is compatible with Macs running OS X El Capitan and later, iPhones and iPads running iOS 9 or later, and TVs running Apple TV Software 7.0 or tvOS 10 or later.

2017 updates.

On June 5, 2017 the Magic Keyboard received a minor visual update with new Control and Option key symbols. Apple also released an additional version called the Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad to replace the wired Apple Keyboard which was discontinued that day. It is longer, and has an extended key layout with a numeric keypad and a different arrow key arrangement. A space gray Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad with black keys was bundled with the iMac Pro and later made available for standalone purchase. A version in a silver finish with black keys was bundled with the 2019 Mac Pro.  Apple also refers to the internal keyboards in MacBooks released after November 2019 as the Magic Keyboard, which uses an identical scissor-mechanism with slightly shallower keys.

iPad version.

In March 2020 Apple announced a Magic Keyboard with integrated trackpad for 2018 and newer iPad Pros with trackpad support which connects through Smart Connector.

The Magic Keyboard is the current computer keyboard produced by Apple Inc. It was released alongside the Magic Mouse 2 and the Magic Trackpad 2 in October 2015. An extended layout version called the Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad was released in June 2017. It is the successor to the Apple Wireless Keyboard.

Magic Keyboard je aktuálně vyráběná klávesnice společnosti Apple a je nástupcem Apple Wireless Keyboard. Je velmi podobná své předchozí verzi z hlediska použitelnosti, ale její design se zcela odlišuje. Má zvýšenou stabilitu a nižší profil, který přinese větší komfort a přesnost psaní na klávesnici. Obsahuje také vyměnitelnou dobíjecí lithium-iontovou baterii, která se dobíjí přes Lightning konektor ve středu zadní části klávesnice. Klávesnice využívá 32bitový procesor STM32F103VB (RISC ARM Cortex-M3) taktovaný na 72 MHz a obsahuje Broadcom BCM20733 Enhanced Data Rate Bluetooth 3.0 Single-Chip Solution.


Description.

South American fur seals have a dark grey or brown coat of fur. Adult males are larger than females, with thicker necks and larger shoulders. Males also develop manes of longer guard hairs on their neck and shoulders. Size of the seals varies based on region, but on average, adult males measure up to 2 m long and weigh 150–200 kg and females measure up to 1.5 m long and weigh 30–60 kg. Newborns are 60 to 65 cm and 3.5 to 5.5 kg.

Distribution and habitat.

The South American fur seal is found on neotropical ocean coasts from the Paracas Peninsula of southern Peru south to Cape Horn on the Pacific coast, and northward to southern Brazil on the Atlantic coast. They are also found on the Falkland Islands, Staten Island, and Escondida Island. "A. australis" seals prefer rocky shores and islands, particularly those with steep slopes. They have been found in sea caves in Peru, where some climb up to 15 m to find a spot to rest. There have been isolated records from continental Ecuador, the Galápagos Islands, and the Gorgona Island (Colombia). Anatomical information for the southern fur seals, "Arctocephalus" spp., is scant. In addition, little is known about the foraging ecology of South American fur seals. Recent tracking studies reveal that South American fur seals breeding at the Falkland Islands use a vast area of the Patagonian Shelf.

Subspecies.

Two subspecies are currently recognised:  The New Zealand fur seal is sometimes considered a subspecies of "A. australis".

The South American fur seal ("Arctocephalus australis") breeds on the coasts of Peru, Chile, the Falkland Islands, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. The total population is around 250,000. However, population counts are sparse and outdated. Although Uruguay has long been considered to be the largest population of South American fur seals, recent census data indicates that the largest breeding population of A. a. australis (that breeds in Chile, Falklands, Argentina, Uruguay) are at the Falkland Islands (estimated pup abundance ~36,000) followed by Uruguay (pup abundance ~31,000). The population of South American fur seals in 1999 was estimated at 390,000, a drop from a 1987 estimate of 500,000 - however a paucity of population data, combined with inconsistent census methods, makes it difficult to interpret global population trends.

Lachtan jihoamerický, známý též jako lachtan jihoamerický falklandský ("Arctocephalus australis") je ploutvonožec z čeledi lachtanovití (Otariidae) a rodu "Arctocephalus". Popsal jej Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann v roce 1783. Vyskytuje se při obou pobřežích Jižní Ameriky. Dle Mezinárodního svazu ochrany přírody je hodnocen jako málo dotčený druh se zvyšující se populací. Ohrožení pro něj představuje především lov.


Definition.

Restoration ecology is the academic study of the process, whereas ecological restoration is the actual project or process by restoration practitioners. The Society for Ecological Restoration defines "ecological restoration" as an "intentional activity that initiates or accelerates the recovery of an ecosystem with respect to its health, integrity and sustainability". Ecological restoration includes a wide scope of projects including erosion control, reforestation, removal of non-native species and weeds, revegetation of disturbed areas, daylighting streams, the reintroduction of native species (preferably native species that have local adaptation), and habitat and range improvement for targeted species. For lots of researchers, the ecological restoration must include the local communities: they call this process the "social-ecological restoration".  E. O. Wilson, a biologist, states, "Here is the means to end the great extinction spasm. The next century will, I believe, be the era of restoration in ecology."

History.

Restoration ecology emerged as a separate field in ecology in the late twentieth century. The term was coined by John Aber and William Jordan III when they were at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. However, indigenous peoples, land managers, stewards, and laypeople have been practicing ecological restoration or ecological management for thousands of years.  Considered the birthplace of modern ecological restoration, the first tallgrass prairie restoration was the 1936 Curtis Prairie at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum. Civilian Conservation Corps workers replanted nearby prairie species onto a former horse pasture, overseen by university faculty including renowned ecologist Aldo Leopold, botanist Theodore Sperry, mycologist Henry C. Greene, and plant ecologist John T. Curtis. Curtis and his graduate students surveyed the whole of Wisconsin, documenting native species communities and creating the first species lists for tallgrass restorations. Existing prairie remnants, such as locations within pioneer cemeteries and railroad rights-of-way, were located and inventoried by Curtis and his team. The UW Arboretum was the center of tallgrass prairie research through the first half of the 20th century, with the development of the nearby Greene Prairie, Aldo Leopold Shack and Farm, and pioneering techniques like prescribed burning.  The latter half of the 20th century saw the growth of ecological restoration beyond Wisconsin borders. The 285-hectare Green Oaks Biological Field Station at Knox College began in 1955 under the guidance of zoologist Paul Shepard. It was followed by the 40-hectare Schulenberg Prairie at the Morton Arboretum, which started in 1962 by Ray Schulenberg and Bob Betz. Betz then worked with The Nature Conservancy to establish the 260-hectare Fermi National Laboratory tallgrass prairie in 1974. These major tallgrass restoration projects marked the growth of ecological restoration from isolated studies to widespread practice.  Australia has also been the site of historically significant ecological restoration projects. In 1935 Ambrose Crawford commenced restoring a degraded four acres (1.7 hectares) patch of the Big Scrub (Lowland Tropical Rainforest) at Lumley Park reserve, Alstonville, in northern New South Wales. Clearing of weeds and planting of suitable indigenous flora species were his main restoration techniques. The restored rainforest reserve still exists today and is home to threatened plant and animal species. In 1936 Albert Morris and his restoration colleagues initiated the Broken Hill regeneration area project, which involved the natural regeneration of indigenous flora on a severely degraded site of hundreds of hectares in arid western New South Wales. Completed in 1958, the successful project still maintains ecological function today as the Broken Hill Regeneration Area.

Theoretical foundations.

Restoration ecology draws on a wide range of ecological concepts.

Disturbance.

Disturbance is a change in environmental conditions that disrupt the functioning of an ecosystem. Disturbance can occur at a variety of spatial and temporal scales, and is a natural component of many communities. For example, many forest and grassland restorations implement fire as a natural disturbance regime. However the severity and scope of anthropogenic impact has grown in the last few centuries. Differentiating between human-caused and naturally occurring disturbances is important if we are to understand how to restore natural processes and minimize anthropogenic impacts on the ecosystems.

Succession.

Ecological succession is the process by which a community changes over time, especially following a disturbance. In many instances, an ecosystem will change from a simple level of organization with a few dominant pioneer species to an increasingly complex community with many interdependent species. Restoration often consists of initiating, assisting, or accelerating ecological successional processes, depending on the severity of the disturbance. Following mild to moderate natural and anthropogenic disturbances, restoration in these systems involves hastening natural successional trajectories through careful management. However, in a system that has experienced a more severe disturbance (such as in urban ecosystems), restoration may require intensive efforts to recreate environmental conditions that favor natural successional processes.

Fragmentation.

Habitat fragmentation describes spatial discontinuities in a biological system, where ecosystems are broken up into smaller parts through land-use changes (e.g. agriculture) and natural disturbance. This both reduces the size of the population and increases the degree of isolation. These smaller and isolated populations are more vulnerable to extinction. Fragmenting ecosystems decreases the quality of the habitat. The edge of a fragment has a different range of environmental conditions and therefore supports different species than the interior. Restorative projects can increase the effective size of a population by adding suitable habitat and decrease isolation by creating habitat corridors that link isolated fragments. Reversing the effects of fragmentation is an important component of restoration ecology.

Ecosystem function.

Ecosystem function describes the most basic and essential foundational processes of any natural systems, including nutrient cycles and energy fluxes. An understanding of the complexity of these ecosystem functions is necessary to address any ecological processes that may be degraded. Ecosystem functions are emergent properties of the system as a whole, thus monitoring and management are crucial for the long-term stability of ecosystems. A completely self-perpetuating and fully functional ecosystem is the ultimate goal of restorative efforts. We must understand what ecosystem properties influence others to restore desired functions and reach this goal.

Community assembly.

Community assembly "is a framework that can unify virtually all of (community) ecology under a single conceptual umbrella". Community assembly theory attempts to explain the existence of environmentally similar sites with differing assemblages of species. It assumes that species have similar niche requirements, so that community formation is a product of random fluctuations from a common species pool. Essentially, if all species are fairly ecologically equivalent, then random variation in colonization, and migration and extinction rates between species, drive differences in species composition between sites with comparable environmental conditions.

Population genetics.

Genetic diversity has shown to be as important as species diversity for restoring ecosystem processes. Hence ecological restorations are increasingly factoring genetic processes into management practices. Population genetic processes that are important to consider in restored populations include founder effects, inbreeding depression, outbreeding depression, genetic drift, and gene flow. Such processes can predict whether or not a species successfully establishes at a restoration site.

Applications.

Leaf litter accumulation.

Leaf litter accumulation plays an important role in the restoration process. Higher quantities of leaf litter hold higher humidity levels, a key factor for the establishment of plants. The process of accumulation depends on factors like wind and species composition of the forest. The leaf litter found in primary forests is more abundant, deeper, and holds more humidity than in secondary forests. These technical considerations are important to take into account when planning a restoration project.

Soil heterogeneity effects on community heterogeneity.

Spatial heterogeneity of resources can influence plant community composition, diversity, and assembly trajectory. Baer et al. (2005) manipulated soil resource heterogeneity in a tallgrass prairie restoration project. They found increasing resource heterogeneity, which on its own was insufficient to ensure species diversity in situations where one species may dominate across the range of resource levels. Their findings were consistent with the theory regarding the role of ecological filters on community assembly. The establishment of a single species, best adapted to the physical and biological conditions can play an inordinately important role in determining the community structure.

Invasion and restoration.

Restoration is used as a tool for reducing the spread of invasive plant species many ways. The first method views restoration primarily as a means to reduce the presence of invasive species and limit their spread. As this approach emphasizes the control of invaders, the restoration techniques can differ from typical restoration projects. The goal of such projects is not necessarily to restore an entire ecosystem or habitat. These projects frequently use lower diversity mixes of aggressive native species seeded at high density. They are not always actively managed following seeding. The target areas for this type of restoration are those which are heavily dominated by invasive species. The goals are to first remove the species and then in so doing, reduce the number of invasive seeds being spread to surrounding areas. An example of this is through the use of biological control agents (such as herbivorous insects) which suppress invasive weed species while restoration practitioners concurrently seed in native plant species that take advantage of the freed resources. These approaches have been shown to be effective in reducing weeds, although it is not always a sustainable solution long term without additional weed control, such as mowing, or re-seeding.  Restoration projects are also used as a way to better understand what makes an ecological community resistant to invasion. As restoration projects have a broad range of implementation strategies and methods used to control invasive species, they can be used by ecologists to test theories about invasion. Restoration projects have been used to understand how the diversity of the species introduced in the restoration affects invasion. We know that generally higher diversity prairies have lower levels of invasion. The incorporation of functional ecology has shown that more functionally diverse restorations have lower levels of invasion. Furthermore, studies have shown that using native species functionally similar to invasive species are better able to compete with invasive species. Restoration ecologists have also used a variety of strategies employed at different restoration sites to better understand the most successful management techniques to control invasion.

Successional trajectories.

Progress along a desired successional pathway may be difficult if multiple stable states exist. Looking over 40 years of wetland restoration data, Klötzli and Gootjans (2001) argue that unexpected and undesired vegetation assemblies "may indicate that environmental conditions are not suitable for target communities". Succession may move in unpredicted directions, but constricting environmental conditions within a narrow range may rein in the possible successional trajectories and increase the likelihood of the desired outcome.

Sourcing material for restoration.

For most restoration projects it is generally recommended to source material from local populations, to increase the chance of restoration success and minimize the effects of maladaptation. However the definition of local can vary based on species. habitat and region. US Forest Service recently developed provisional seed zones based on a combination of minimum winter temperature zones, aridity, and the Level III ecoregions. Rather than putting strict distance recommendations, other guidelines recommend sourcing seeds to match similar environmental conditions that the species is exposed to, either now, or under projected climate change. For example, sourcing for "Castilleja levisecta" found that farther source populations that matched similar environmental variables were better suited for the restoration project than closer source populations. Similarly, a suite of new methods are surveying gene-environment interactions in order to identify the optimum source populations based on genetic adaptation to environmental conditions.

Principles.

Rationale.

There are many reasons to restore ecosystems. Some include:  There exist considerable differences of opinion on how to set restoration goals and how to define their success among conservation groups. Ultimately specifying the restoration target or desired state of an ecosystem is a societal choice, informed by scientists and technocrats, but ultimately it is a policy choice. Selecting the desired goal can be politically contentious. Some urge active restoration (e.g. eradicating invasive animals to allow the native ones to survive) and others who believe that protected areas should have the bare minimum of human interference, such as rewilding. Ecosystem restoration has generated controversy. Skeptics doubt that the benefits justify the economic investment or who point to failed restoration projects and question the feasibility of restoration altogether. It can be difficult to set restoration goals, in part because, as Anthony Bradshaw claims, "ecosystems are not static, but in a state of dynamic equilibrium.... [with restoration] we aim [for a] moving target."  Some conservationists argue that, though an ecosystem may not be returned to its original state, the functions of the ecosystem (especially ones that provide services to us) may be more valuable in its current configuration (Bradshaw 1987). This is especially true in cases where the ecosystem services are central to the physical and cultural survival of human populations, as is the case with many Native groups in the United States and other communities around the world who subsist using ecological services and environmental resources. One reason to consider ecosystem restoration is to mitigate climate change through activities such as afforestation. Afforestation involves replanting forests, which remove carbon dioxide from the air. Carbon dioxide is a leading cause of global warming (Speth, 2005) and capturing it would help alleviate climate change. Another example of a common driver of restoration projects in the United States is the legal framework of the Clean Water Act, which often requires mitigation for damage inflicted on aquatic systems by development or other activities.

Challenges.

Some view ecosystem restoration as impractical, partially because restorations often fall short of their goals. Hilderbrand et al. point out that many times uncertainty (about ecosystem functions, species relationships, and such) is not addressed, and that the time-scales set out for 'complete' restoration are unreasonably short, while other critical markers for full-scale restoration are either ignored or abridged due to feasibility concerns. In other instances an ecosystem may be so degraded that abandonment (allowing a severely degraded ecosystem to recover on its own) may be the wisest option. Local communities sometimes object to restorations that include the introduction of large predators or plants that require disturbance regimes such as regular fires, citing threat to human habitation in the area. High economic costs can also be perceived as a negative impact of the restoration process.  Public opinion is very important in the feasibility of a restoration; if the public believes that the costs of restoration outweigh the benefits they will not support it.  Many failures have occurred in past restoration projects, many times because clear goals were not set out as the aim of the restoration, or an incomplete understanding of the underlying ecological framework lead to insufficient measures. This may be because, as Peter Alpert says, "people may not [always] know how to manage natural systems effectively". Furthermore, many assumptions are made about myths of restoration such as carbon copy, where a restoration plan, which worked in one area, is applied to another with the same results expected, but not realized.

Science-practice gap.

One of the struggles for both fields is a divide between restoration ecology and ecological restoration in practice. Many restoration practitioners as well as scientists feel that science is not being adequately incorporated into ecological restoration projects. In a 2009 survey of practitioners and scientists, the "science-practice gap" was listed as the second most commonly cited reason limiting the growth of both science and practice of restoration.  There are a variety of theories about the cause of this gap. However, it has been well established that one of the main issues is that the questions studied by restoration ecologists are frequently not found useful or easily applicable by land managers. For instance, many publications in restoration ecology characterize the scope of a problem in-depth, without providing concrete solutions. Additionally many restoration ecology studies are carried out under controlled conditions and frequently at scales much smaller than actual restorations. Whether or not these patterns hold true in an applied context is often unknown. There is evidence that these small-scale experiments inflate type II error rates and differ from ecological patterns in actual restorations.  There is further complication in that restoration ecologists who want to collect large-scale data on restoration projects can face enormous hurdles in obtaining the data. Managers vary in how much data they collect, and how many records they keep. Some agencies keep only a handful of physical copies of data that make it difficult for the researcher to access. Many restoration projects are limited by time and money, so data collection and record-keeping are not always feasible. However, this limits the ability of scientists to analyze restoration projects and give recommendations based on empirical data.

Contrasting restoration ecology and conservation biology.

Restoration ecology may be viewed as a sub-discipline of conservation biology, the scientific study of how to protect and restore biodiversity. Ecological restoration is then a part of the resulting conservation movement.  Both restoration ecologists and conservation biologists agree that protecting and restoring habitat is important for protecting biodiversity. However, conservation biology is primarily rooted in population biology. Because of that, it is generally organized at the population genetic level and assesses specific species populations (i.e. endangered species). Restoration ecology is organized at the community level, which focuses on broader groups within ecosystems.  In addition, conservation biology often concentrates on vertebrate animals because of their salience and popularity, whereas restoration ecology concentrates on plants. Restoration ecology focuses on plants because restoration projects typically begin by establishing plant communities. Ecological restoration, despite being focused on plants, may also have "poster species" for individual ecosystems and restoration projects. For example, the Monarch butterfly is a poster species for conserving and restoring milkweed plant habitat, because Monarch butterflies require milkweed plants to reproduce. Finally, restoration ecology has a stronger focus on soils, soil structure, fungi, and microorganisms because soils provide the foundation of functional terrestrial ecosystems.

Natural Capital Committee's recommendation for a 25-year plan.

The UK Natural Capital Committee (NCC) made a recommendation in its second State of Natural Capital report published in March 2014 that in order to meet the Government's goal of being the first generation to leave the environment in a better state than it was inherited, a long-term 25-year plan was needed to maintain and improve England's natural capital. The UK Government has not yet responded to this recommendation.  The Secretary of State for the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Owen Paterson, described his ambition for the natural environment and how the work of the Committee fits into this at an NCC event in November 2012: "I do not, however, just want to maintain our natural assets; I want to improve them. I want us to derive the greatest possible benefit from them, while ensuring that they are available for generations to come. This is what the NCC's innovative work is geared towards".

International Principles & Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration.

The Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) released the second edition of the International Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration on September 27, 2019, in Cape Town, South Africa at SER's 8th World Conference on Ecological Restoration. This groundbreaking publication provides updated and expanded guidance on the practice of ecological restoration, clarifies the breadth of ecological restoration and allied environmental repair activities, and includes ideas and input from a diverse international group of restoration scientists and practitioners.  The second edition builds on the first edition of the Standards, which was released December 12, 2016 at the Convention on Biological Diversity's 13th Conference of the Parties in Cancun, Mexico. The development of these Standards has been broadly consultative. The first edition was circulated to dozens of practitioners and experts for feedback and review. After release of the first edition, SER held workshops and listening sessions, sought feedback from key international partners and stakeholders, opened a survey to members, affiliates and supporters, and considered and responded to published critiques.  The International Principles and Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration:  The Standards are available for free at www.ser.org/standards.

Restoration ecology is the scientific study supporting the practice of ecological restoration, which is the practice of renewing and restoring degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems and habitats in the environment by active human intervention and action. Effective restoration requires an explicit goal or policy, preferably an unambiguous one that is articulated, accepted, and codified. Restoration goals reflect societal choices from among competing policy priorities, but extracting such goals is typically contentious and politically challenging.

Ekologie obnovy se vyčlenila jako samostatný obor ekologie v 80. letech 20. století. Je to je vědecký výzkum podporující praktickou ekologickou obnovu, což je praxe, kterou se obnovují a znovuvytváří degradované, poškozené nebo zničené ekosystémy a stanoviště v životním prostředí, prostřednictvím aktivních lidských zásahů a opatření. Pojem „ekologie obnovy“ se proto běžně používá pro akademické studium procesu, zatímco pojem „ekologická obnova“ se běžně používá pro vlastní projekt nebo praktický proces obnovy.


Plot.

In the North.

Jon, Sansa, and Davos secure the allegiance of the Wildlings after Tormund reminds them of their debt to Jon for saving them at Hardhome and points out that the Boltons will wipe them out if they do nothing. They also secure the allegiance of House Mormont when Davos warns the young Lady Lyanna Mormont of the dangers the White Walkers pose. However, they are unable to secure the allegiance of House Glover, with Lord Robett Glover pointing out how Robb Stark failed to protect his home from the Ironborn.  Jon and Sansa are only able to add a few hundred extra soldiers to their army, but Jon insists that they attack Winterfell as soon as possible before the Boltons rally more forces and the weather turns on them. Sansa, unable to change Jon's mind, begins writing a letter to an unknown party.

In King's Landing.

The High Sparrow chides Margaery that she should try to convert Olenna to the Faith, implying that Olenna's safety cannot be guaranteed otherwise. Margaery meets with Olenna, who attempts to convince her to leave King's Landing and return to Highgarden. Margaery insists that her place is supposed to be at Tommen's side, and discreetly slips Olenna a piece of paper with the sigil of House Tyrell drawn on it, indicating that she is still loyal to her family. After this, Olenna agrees to leave.  Cersei confronts Olenna and tries to convince her to stay and fight the Sparrows. Olenna points out that they have already lost and blames the Sparrows' rise to power on Cersei's lack of foresight. Despite having no allies in King's Landing, Cersei decides to stay and fight.

In Volantis.

Theon and Yara take the Iron Fleet to Volantis to take on supplies. Yara encourages Theon to regain his confidence to help her retake the Iron Islands, and reveals that she plans to take the Iron Fleet to Meereen and forge an alliance with Daenerys before Euron reaches her.

In Braavos.

Arya secures passage back to Westeros, but is subsequently attacked by the Waif, in the guise of an elderly woman. Arya escapes by jumping into a canal, but is left critically wounded.

In the Riverlands.

Jaime and Bronn lead the Lannister army to Riverrun, and witness the Blackfish calling Lothar Frey and Walder Rivers' bluff when they threaten to execute Edmure before the Freys take Edmure down from the gallows. Disgusted with the Freys' incompetence, Jaime takes charge of the siege and parleys with the Blackfish. The Blackfish is unintimidated by Jaime's threats and declares that they have enough supplies to outlast a siege, daring Jaime to take the castle.  Sandor Clegane is revealed to have survived his fight with Brienne of Tarth, and is now living with his rescuer, a warrior turned septon named Ray, and a band of villagers constructing a sept. A trio of men from the Brotherhood without Banners arrives and attempt to extort the villagers, but leave upon finding out that they have no worthwhile possessions. Sandor warns Ray that the Brotherhood will return, but Ray refuses to prepare for a confrontation. Sandor leaves to gather wood, and returns to find Ray and the villagers slaughtered and the septon hanged. Enraged, Sandor picks up an axe and marches off.

Production.

Writing.

"The Broken Man" was written by Bryan Cogman. his second of two episodes for the season, the first being the previous episode, "Blood of My Blood". It also adapts the chapter "Jaime VI" from "A Feast for Crows". The title of the episode is in reference to a speech given by Septon Meribald, a character in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, who was also used to create the character of Ray. In an interview with "Entertainment Weekly", Cogman stated, "The speech itself didn't make it into the episode, but it inspired the character and some of his dialogue. So the title of the episode is a nod to that speech." He compared it to the second season episode "The Ghost of Harrenhal", whose title was also a reference to the books, but was not specifically stated in the episode. Ian McShane, who portrayed Ray, spoke about the writing in the episode in regards to his participation in the series, noting, "they wrote a two-page speech – so that's why they invited me. It’s a big soliloquy, like in "Deadwood", and they needed to get somebody who could do that. It was really well written."  In the "Inside the Episode" featurette published by HBO shortly after the airing of "The Broken Man", series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss spoke about some of the thought process behind the motivations of the characters that were featured prominently in the episode. David Benioff began by speaking about Sandor "the Hound" Clegane, saying "I think suffering a near death experience probably changes anyone, and that certainly has changed Sandor Clegane. He's a more thoughtful person than he was when we last saw him, he's probably more aware of his vulnerabilities, he knows how close he came to dying, and he's really thinking about his past in a way that he never had before." Weiss continued, "The unfortunate, ugly reality of the kind of pacifism that Ray is preaching is often suicidal when you're in the middle of the kind of world that they're all in. Something sad about the fact that this person who tried desperately to walk away from what he was is being given no real choice but to go full throttle back in the direction of what he really is, which is a killer."  Weiss additionally spoke about the introduction of Lyanna Mormont in the series, with Weiss saying, "We were excited about the prospect of the character because she's mentioned in passing in the previous season," referring to her letter to Stannis denying him men, and swearing fealty to House Stark. Weiss added, "The more we thought about it, Jon is going to come up against so many old guys with beards in the North that like 'What if she was a tougher audience?' It seemed like an inherently fun scene to watch, it also is terrifying because it's putting a lot of dramatic weight on the shoulders of somebody who needs to be very young." David Benioff concluded the featurette speaking about the Ironborn story, noting "Yara's not a therapist, in our kind of sense of the word, she's not there to tell him to 'buck up' and 'everything's going to be okay,' it's a pretty brutal kind of therapy, but that's who they are, I mean they're essentially a Viking people. There's not a lot of room for sort of soft, and gentle psychology. I think it's the kind of tough love Theon needed at this point, and when he finally raises his eyes, and looks into her eyes, we see a glimpse of the old Theon that had been lost for so long."  In regards to the various stories throughout the episode, and the amount of time passing in each one of them, Cogman stated, "The timelines between the various storylines don’t necessarily line up within a given episode. For instance, the “Northern Tour” Jon and Sansa embark on would probably take a couple weeks, but Arya's storyline over the past few episodes only spans a few days. We realized a while ago that if we tied ourselves in knots trying to make all the “story days” line up between all the characters the momentum would suffer."  The episode is only the fourth in the series with a cold open. The first three being the series premiere, "Winter Is Coming", the third season premiere "Valar Dohaeris", and the fourth season premiere, "Two Swords". Bryan Cogman stated that they felt it was necessary to utilize a pre-credits sequence due to the reintroduction of Rory McCann, saying "We figured it would make his reveal more impactful if the audience hadn't seen [McCann's] name in the opening credits first."

Casting.

The episode featured the return of several characters from previous seasons, as well as the introduction of new characters, who were either mentioned previously within the show, or had some connection to an established character. Rory McCann, who portrayed Sandor "the Hound" Clegane from the beginning of the series through the fourth-season finale episode "The Children", returned as a series regular. McCann had previously speculated about the return of the Hound, saying in an interview with "Access Hollywood" in 2014, "There's always hope." Bryan Cogman revealed in an interview with "Entertainment Weekly" that there was always a plan to bring back the Hound, but the manner in which he was reintroduced was not always entirely known.  Another re-introduction involved the storyline surrounding the Siege of Riverrun, with actor Clive Russell returning to the show as Brynden "the Blackfish" Tully, who last appeared in the third-season episode "The Rains of Castamere", in which the Red Wedding took place, and the Blackfish successfully evaded. In an interview with IGN, Clive Russell stated he was hopeful to return to the role saying "I'd hoped that he'd come back because he comes back in the books again. But they're not doing the books -- there is no book to do it from. I'd hoped that would happen. I don't think I was surprised it would happen because they bring back all kinds of people at all kinds of times. But it was good to go back there, I must say."  Ian McShane, who previously starred in the HBO television series "Deadwood", guest starred in the episode as Ray. His casting for the series was announced in August 2015. At the time, McShane described his role in the show as the leader of a peace cult, who was also a former warrior that has since renounced violence, also noting that it was a "complete one-off." McShane also revealed that his character would "bring back a much-loved character everybody thinks is dead," leading many to speculate prior to the season that he would either play a role in bringing back Jon Snow, or the Hound, whose fate had also been called into question since his disappearance. McShane was asked about whether there was pressure involved with joining a show that has become an "international hit," with McShane responding "No pressure! It's the most popular TV show in the world, isn't it? I enjoyed meeting showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss – nobody ever expects the kind of reaction this has gotten. It's kind of like "Deadwood" when we started off, but they've managed to go another three seasons. It's interesting because you're a part of the show, but you're not part of the show. I only needed Rory for my scenes, so I didn't meet anybody else in it." Bryan Cogman stated that the character of Ray was a combination of several different characters from the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, most evidently the Elder Brother, and Septon Meribald.  With Jon Snow, Sansa Stark, and Davos Seaworth's attempt to unite the North against the Boltons, two different House leaders were cast to portray Lyanna Mormont and Robett Glover, with Bella Ramsey and Tim McInnerny portraying each character, respectively. Cogman noted about Bella Ramsey, "Bella is a terrific young actress – the whole cast and crew were very impressed. I think, much like the character does with Jon, Sansa, and Davos, Bella kept Kit, Sophie, and Liam on their toes!"  Jerome Flynn, who portrays Bronn in the series, made his first appearance in the season, last appearing in the season five finale episode "Mother's Mercy".

Filming.

"The Broken Man" was directed by Mark Mylod. Mylod previously directed the fifth season episodes "High Sparrow" and "Sons of the Harpy". Mylod also directed the subsequent episode, "No One", for the sixth season.  Filming of the Riverrun sequence began in October 2015, and led to some complaints by locals living in the area following the construction of a portion of the Tully castle. The shooting of the scenes took place in Corbet, County Down, Northern Ireland. Due to some concerns over the size of the structure, filming was unable to take place until local inspectors were able to determine if the production unit followed what had been agreed upon in the "planning application." Construction of a portion of the castle began in September, with tents and wooden additions being added shortly after.  In an interview with "Entertainment Weekly", Ian McShane was asked about the process of shooting his final scene where he is shown hanging after being killed by the Brotherhood, with McShane saying that the filming of the scene was "very easy. You just have to hold your breath for 10 seconds and look sufficiently dead for them to get it." He also noted in the interview, "Rory was a delight to work with, and so was the director. The whole experience was five days in Belfast, and I enjoyed it a lot." Prior to the season, in August 2015, reports emerged about the spotting of Rory McCann at a hotel frequented by actors during filming of the series, in Belfast. McCann, whose character is frequently shown chopping wood in the episode, previously spoke in interviews about his prior career with chopping down trees, revealing "I was a lumberjack for years, and I even trained myself to be a tree surgeon."  Maisie Williams also spoke with "Entertainment Weekly" and described the process behind Arya's scenes, saying "We wanted people to think this could be the end, or the start of the end. Like maybe her wound is going to fester – like The Hound. We did so many different takes of emerging out of the water the first time she's stabbed and sliced. I had been to a music festival so I hadn't slept the whole weekend. Then I was jumping in the Irish sea. It was a totally manic day. We did a million different takes. We wanted it to be real frantic and panicked. Arya hasn't been emotional in a long time and we wanted to bring that emotion."

Reception.

Ratings.

"The Broken Man" was viewed by 7.80 million American households on its initial viewing on HBO, which was a significant increase from the previous week's rating of 6.71 million viewers for the episode "Blood of My Blood", a low that was attributed to the Memorial Day weekend in the United States. The episode also acquired a 3.95 rating in the 18–49 demographic, making it the highest rated show on cable television of the night. In the United Kingdom, the episode was viewed by 2.720 million viewers on Sky Atlantic, making it the highest-rated broadcast that week on its channel. It also received 0.133 million timeshift viewers.

Critical reception.

"The Broken Man" was positively received by critics, who listed the return of Sandor Clegane, the introduction of Lyanna Mormont, and the siege of Riverrun as high points for the episode. It has received a 98% rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes from 46 reviews with an average score of 7.8/10. The site's consensus reads "The return of long-lost characters and the introduction of some sharply-drawn newcomers keep "The Broken Man" from feeling like mere setup for the season finale."  Matt Fowler of IGN wrote in his review for the episode, ""The Broken Man" gave us back The Hound, but his return felt a little diminished, given the parade of returns we've already seen this year, and there weren't as many notable moments in this chapter as other Game of Thrones episodes. There were some fine scenes, but nothing on par with the show's usual goods, though Lady Mormont was a highlight and Jaime and the Blackfish's standoff is an interesting scenario, not to mention the questions raised by Sansa's letter. Arya getting her guts punctured was a shocker, but it didn't feel right that she couldn't see her attacker coming." He gave the episode an 8 out of 10.  Alan Sepinwall of HitFix praised the episode structure, writing "The quick transitions and constant back-and-forth movement among subplots generated more energy that, when combined with several characters we either didn't know before or hadn't seen in a long time, made "The Broken Man" feel livelier." Similarly, Ed Power of "The Daily Telegraph" also praised the episode, noting, "Once again there was a sense "Game of Thrones" was steeling itself for battles - and expensive set-pieces - chugging down the track. A storm is brewing - for now, we were invited to enjoy what remains of the calm." Jen Chaney of Vulture also felt the episode was more of a set up episode for storylines to be resolved in the close of the season, writing "Although two bombs get dropped in this week's episode of "Game of Thrones", it's an hour focused on putting the narrative chess pieces into place. "The Broken Man" doesn't finish off any of its major moves. Those bold turns are yet to come."

"The Broken Man" is the seventh episode of the sixth season of HBO's fantasy television series "Game of Thrones", and the 57th overall. The episode was written by Bryan Cogman, and directed by Mark Mylod.

Zlomený muž (v anglickém originále The Broken Man) je sedmý díl šesté řady seriálu Hra o trůny. Epizodu režíroval Mark Mylod. V této epizodě vystupují postavy Sansa, Arya, Bran a Jon. Dále také v Králově přístavišti král s královnou, jejich matka i babička. Theon a Yara přistáli v zemi, které vládne Daenerys. V USA měl díl měl premiéru 5. června 2016, v České republice o den později.


Biography.

Yuri Norstein was born to a Jewish family in the village of Andreyevka, Penza Oblast, during his parents' World War II evacuation. He grew up in the Maryina Roshcha suburb of Moscow. After studying at an art school, Norstein initially found work at a furniture factory. Then he finished a two-year animation course and found employment at studio Soyuzmultfilm in 1961. The first film that he participated in as an animator was "Who Said "Meow"?" (1962).  After working as an animation artist in some fifty films, Norstein got the chance to direct his own. In 1968 he debuted with "25th October, the First Day", sharing directorial credit with Arkadiy Tyurin. The film used the artwork of 1920s-era Soviet artists Nathan Altman and Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin.  The next film in which he had a major role was "The Battle of Kerzhenets" (1971), a co-production with Russian animation director Ivan Ivanov-Vano under whose direction Norstein had earlier worked on 1969's "Times of the Year".  Throughout the 1970s Norstein continued to work as an animator in many films (a more complete list can be found at IMDb, and also directed several. As the decade progressed his animation style became ever more sophisticated, looking less like flat cut-outs and more like smoothly-moving paintings or sophisticated pencil sketches. His most famous film is "Tale of Tales", a non-linear, autobiographical film about growing up in the postwar Soviet world.  Norstein uses a special technique in his animation, involving multiple glass planes to give his animation a three-dimensional look. The camera is placed at the top looking down on a series of glass planes about a meter deep (one every 25–30 cm). The individual glass planes can move horizontally as well as toward and away from the camera (to give the effect of a character moving closer or further away).  For many years he has collaborated with his wife, the artist Francheska Yarbusova, and the cinematographer Aleksandr Zhukovskiy.  Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, Norstein's animations were showered with both state and international awards. Then, in a bitter twist of irony, he was fired from Soyuzmultfilm in 1985 for working too slowly on his latest film, a (presumably) feature-length adaptation of Gogol's "Overcoat". By that time he had been working on it with his usual small team of three people for two years and had finished ten minutes.  In April 1993, Norstein and three other leading animators (Fyodor Khitruk, Andrey Khrzhanovsky, and Edward Nazarov) founded the Animation School and Studio (SHAR Studio) in Russia. The Russian Cinema Committee is among the share-holders of the studio.  To this day, Norstein is still working on "The Overcoat" – his ardent perfectionism has earned him the nickname "The Golden Snail". The project has met numerous financial troubles and false starts, but Norstein has said that it currently has reliable funding from several sources, both from within and outside of Russia. At least 25 minutes have been completed to date. A couple of short, low-resolution clips have been made available to the public. The first 20 minutes of the film have also toured among various exhibits of Norstein's work in Russian museums. The full film is expected to be 65 minutes long.  Norstein wrote an essay for a book by Giannalberto Bendazzi about the pinscreen animator Alexander Alexeïeff titled "Alexeïeff: Itinerary of a Master".  In 2005, he released a Russian-language book titled "Snow on the Grass. Fragments of a Book. Lectures about the Art of Animation", featuring a number of lectures that he gave about the art of animation. That same year, he was invited as "guest animator" to work on Kihachirō Kawamoto's puppet-animated feature film, "The Book of the Dead".  On 10 August 2008, the full version of the book "Snow on the Grass" was released (the "incomplete" 2005 book was 248 pages). The book, which was printed in the Czech Republic and funded by Sberbank, consists of two volumes, 620 pages, and 1700 color illustrations. The studio stopped working on "The Overcoat" for nearly a year while Norstein worked to release the book.

Releases.

2K resolution transfers of the six theatrical shorts directed by Norstein by were made by the Japanese film laboratory Imagica. A touring programme of them was played in cinemas in Japan beginning in December 2016 and they were released on Blu-ray Disc there on May 26, 2017.

Awards and praise.

Hayao Miyazaki considers Norstein "a great artist" and cited "Hedgehog in the Fog" as one of his favourite animated films.

PAR Yuri Norstein (, "Yuriy Borisovich Norshteyn"; born 15 September 1941), is a Soviet and Russian animator best known for his animated shorts, "Hedgehog in the Fog" and "Tale of Tales". Since 1981 he has been working on a feature film called "The Overcoat", based on the short story by Nikolai Gogol of the same name. According to the "Washington Post", "He is considered by many to be not just the best animator of his era, but the best of all time".

Jurij Borisovič Norštejn (rusky "Юрий Борисович Норштейн", 15. září 1941 Andrejevka) je ruský animátor a režisér, od roku 1996 držitel titulu národní umělec Ruské federace.


Design.

The Riverside Museum building was designed by Zaha Hadid Architects and engineers Buro Happold. The internal exhibitions and displays were designed by Event Communications, a specialist London-based museum design firm.  The purpose-built Museum replaced the previous home for the city's transport collection, at the city's Kelvin Hall.  The location of the museum is on the site of the former A. & J. Inglis Shipyard within Glasgow Harbour, on the north bank of the River Clyde and adjacent to its confluence point with the River Kelvin. This site enabled the Clyde Maritime Trust's SV "Glenlee" and other visiting craft to berth alongside the museum.

Funding.

Of the £74million needed for the development of the Riverside Museum, Glasgow City Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund have committed £69million. The Riverside Museum Appeal is a charitable trust established to raise the final £5million in sponsorship and donations from companies, trusts and individuals for the development of the museum. The Riverside Museum Appeal Trust is recognised as a Scottish Charity SC 033286. Major patrons of the project include: BAE Systems Surface Ships, Weir Group, Rolls-Royce plc, FirstGroup, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, Caledonian MacBrayne, Arnold Clark, Scottish and Southern Energy, Diageo, Bank of Scotland and Optical Express.

Construction.

On 13 November 2007 the Lord Provost of Glasgow, Bob Winter cut the first turf. The main contractors for the project were BAM Construct UK Ltd with a range of trade subcontractors including the services installations being delivered by BBESL's team of Jordan Kerr, Gordon Ferguson & Jamie Will and FES, project management being the responsibility of Capita Symonds and Buro Happold providing Resident Engineering Services. The building was completed on 20 June 2011 and the next day it opened to the public.

Collection.

As well as housing many of the existing collections of the Glasgow Museum of Transport, the city has acquired SAR Class 15F 4-8-2 steam locomotive, No.3007. Built by the Glasgow-based North British Locomotive Company at its Polmadie Works in 1945, the locomotive was bought in late 2006 from Transnet. It was on display in George Square for a short time in 2007, as part of the effort to raise the £5 million public contribution funding.

The Riverside Museum is the location of the Glasgow Museum of Transport, at Pointhouse Quay in the Glasgow Harbour regeneration district of Glasgow, Scotland. The building opened in June 2011. The museum won the 2013 European Museum of the Year Award.

Riverside Museum je od 21. června roku 2011 budova Glawsgowského muzea dopravy ve skotském městě Glasgow u řeky Clyde. Výstavní plocha je přibližně 7 000 metrů čtverečních a je zde vystaveno 3000 exponátů včetně tramvají a lokomotiv, je koncipováno pro přibližně 800 návštěvníků. Budova byla navržena architektonickou kanceláří Zahy Hadid.


Description.

Rock balancing can be a performance art, a spectacle, or a devotion, depending upon the interpretation by its audience. Essentially, it involves placing some combination of rock or stone in arrangements which require patience and sensitivity to generate, and which appear to be physically impossible while actually being only highly improbable. The rock balancer may work for free or for pay, as an individual or in a group, and their intents and the audiences' interpretations may vary given the situation or the venue.  Rock balancing has also been described as a type of problem solving, and some artists consider it as a skill in awareness. Some work has been described as a magic trick for the mind. As with other forms of independent public art, some installations may be created in remote areas where there may be little or no audience. A cairn, used to mark trails, is also a collection of stacked rocks, but these are typically more durable.

Events.

The annual Llano Earth Art Festival in Texas includes a rock stacking competition called the "Rock Stacking World Championship," held on the banks of the Llano River. Competitions during the 2020 edition include "tallest rock stack", "best rock balancer", "best rock arch builder", "most rocks in a single tower", and "most artistic rock stack design".

In context of math and physics.

The stability of a rock structure depends on the location of each rock's center of mass in relation to its support points. If other rocks are also on top or contacting it at any point, then the forces (due to weight) of other rocks also play a role. For an individual rock to be stable, it usually requires at least three contact points to rest on, forming a "tripod." Generally, the closer together the points in the tripod, the less stable the rock will be (thus making it more precarious, and becoming a rock balance sculpture - and many would argue more beautiful). Based on position and shape, a rock may also be stable even when resting on only a single point. A rock at the top of a sculpture, for example, can have a rounded shape, but be approximately flat and oriented horizontally, and be in a state of equilibrium.  The stability of a structure is also affected by the friction between rocks, especially when rocks are set upon one another at an angle. A structure may topple over (collapse) based on the magnitude of other phenomena, such as wind, rain, snow, and localized ground vibration, or general seismic activity.

Opposition.

Some visitors to natural areas who wish to experience nature in its undisturbed state object to this practice, especially when it intrudes on public spaces such as national parks, national forests and state parks. The practice of rock balancing is claimed to be able to be made without changes to nature; environmental artist Lila Higgings has defended it as compatible with leave-no-trace ideals if rocks are used without impacting wildlife and are later returned to their original places, and some styles of rock balancing are short-lived. However, "disturbing or collecting natural features (plants, rocks, etc.) is prohibited" in U.S. national parks because these acts may harm the flora and fauna dependent on them.  Some outdoor enthusiasts are also in opposition as rock stacks or "cairns" are traditionally used for the purpose of navigation in some back woods trails. Having ornamental rock stacks may confuse those who rely on them as trail markers.

Rock balancing or stone balancing (stone or rock stacking) is an art, discipline, or hobby in which rocks are naturally balanced on top of one another in various positions without the use of adhesives, wires, supports, rings or any other contraptions which would help maintain the construction's balance. The number of rock piles created in this manner in natural areas has recently begun to worry conservationists because they can misdirect hikers, expose the soil to erosion, aesthetically intrude upon the natural landscape, and serve no purpose.

Stone balancing či rock balancing ("volně přeloženo jako balancování či vyvažování kamenů") je umění či hobby spočívající ve vršení kamenů v neuvěřitelných, ale ne nemožných polohách bez použití lepidla, drátu či jakékoliv podpěry. Umělcům, kteří tuto činnost provozují, se říká balanceři. Svá díla stavějí většinou v přírodě, mnohdy v řece.


Description.

Dahlias are perennial plants with tuberous roots, though they are grown as annuals in some regions with cold winters. While some have herbaceous stems, others have stems which lignify in the absence of secondary tissue and resprout following winter dormancy, allowing further seasons of growth. As a member of the Asteraceae, the dahlia has a flower head that is actually a composite (hence the older name Compositae) with both central disc florets and surrounding ray florets. Each floret is a flower in its own right, but is often incorrectly described as a petal, particularly by horticulturists. The modern name Asteraceae refers to the appearance of a star with surrounding rays.

Taxonomy.

History.

Early history.

Spaniards reported finding the plants growing in Mexico in 1525, but the earliest known description is by Francisco Hernández, physician to Philip II, who was ordered to visit Mexico in 1570 to study the "natural products of that country". They were used as a source of food by the indigenous peoples, and were both gathered in the wild and cultivated. The Aztecs used them to treat epilepsy, and employed the long hollow stem of the ("Dahlia imperalis") for water pipes. The indigenous peoples variously identified the plants as "Chichipatl" (Toltecs) and "Acocotle" or "Cocoxochitl" (Aztecs). From Hernandez's perception of Aztec, to Spanish, through various other translations, the word is "water cane", "water pipe", "water pipe flower", "hollow stem flower" and "cane flower". All these refer to the hollowness of the plants' stem.  Hernandez described two varieties of dahlias (the pinwheel-like "Dahlia pinnata" and the huge "Dahlia imperialis") as well as other medicinal plants of New Spain. Francisco Dominguez, a Hidalgo gentleman who accompanied Hernandez on part of his seven-year study, made a series of drawings to supplement the four volume report. Three of his drawings showed plants with flowers: two resembled the modern bedding dahlia, and one resembled the species "Dahlia merki"; all displayed a high degree of doubleness. In 1578 the manuscript, entitled "Nova Plantarum, Animalium et Mineralium Mexicanorum Historia", was sent back to the Escorial in Madrid; they were not translated into Latin by Francisco Ximenes until 1615. In 1640, Francisco Cesi, President of the "Academia Linei" of Rome, bought the Ximenes translation, and after annotating it, published it in 1649-1651 in two volumes as "Rerum Medicarum Novae Hispaniae Thesaurus Seu Nova Plantarium, Animalium et Mineraliuím Mexicanorum Historia". The original manuscripts were destroyed in a fire in the mid-1600s.

European introduction.

In 1787, the French botanist Nicolas-Joseph Thiéry de Menonville, sent to Mexico to steal the cochineal insect valued for its scarlet dye, reported the strangely beautiful flowers he had seen growing in a garden in Oaxaca. In 1789, Vicente Cervantes, Director of the Botanical Garden at Mexico City, sent "plant parts" to Abbe Antonio José Cavanilles, Director of the Royal Gardens of Madrid. Cavanilles flowered one plant that same year, then the second one a year later. In 1791 he called the new growths "Dahlia" for Anders (Andreas) Dahl. The first plant was called "Dahlia pinnata" after its pinnate foliage; the second, "Dahlia rosea" for its rose-purple color. In 1796 Cavanilles flowered a third plant from the parts sent by Cervantes, which he named "Dahlia coccinea" for its scarlet color.  In 1798, Cavanilles sent D. Pinnata seeds to Parma, Italy. That year, the Marchioness of Bute, wife of The Earl of Bute, the English Ambassador to Spain, obtained a few seeds from Cavanilles and sent them to Kew Gardens, where they flowered but were lost after two to three years. In the following years Madrid sent seeds to Berlin and Dresden in Germany, and to Turin and Thiene in Italy. In 1802, Cavanilles sent tubers of "these three" ("D. pinnata, D. rosea, D. coccinea") to Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle at University of Montpelier in France, Andre Thouin at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris and Scottish botanist William Aiton at Kew Gardens. That same year, John Fraser, English nurseryman and later botanical collector to the Czar of Russia, brought "D. coccinea" seeds from Paris to the Apothecaries Gardens in England, where they flowered in his greenhouse a year later, providing "Botanical Magazine" with an illustration. In 1804, a new species, "Dahlia sambucifolia", was successfully grown at Holland House, Kensington. Whilst in Madrid in 1804, Lady Holland was given either dahlia seeds or tubers by Cavanilles. She sent them back to England, to Lord Holland's librarian Mr Buonaiuti at Holland House, who successfully raised the plants. A year later, Buonaiuti produced two double flowers. The plants raised in 1804 did not survive; new stock was brought from France in 1815. In 1824, Lord Holland sent his wife a note containing the following verse:"The dahlia you brought to our isle Your praises for ever shall speak; Mid gardens as sweet as your smile, And in colour as bright as your cheek."  In 1805, German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt sent more seeds from Mexico to Aiton in England, Thouin in Paris, and Christoph Friedrich Otto, director of the Berlin Botanical Garden. More significantly, he sent seeds to botanist Carl Ludwig Willdenow in Germany. Willdenow now reclassified the rapidly growing number of species, changing the genus from "Dahlia" to "Georgina"; after naturalist Johann Gottlieb Georgi. He combined the Cavanilles species "D. pinnata" and "D. rosea" under the name of "Georgina variabilis"; "D. coccinea" was still held to be a separate species, which he renamed "Georgina coccinea".

Classification.

Since 1789 when Cavanilles first flowered the dahlia in Europe, there has been an ongoing effort by many growers, botanists and taxonomists, to determine the development of the dahlia to modern times. At least 85 species have been reported: approximately 25 of these were first reported from the wild, the remainder appeared in gardens in Europe. They were considered hybrids, the results of crossing between previously reported species, or developed from the seeds sent by Humboldt from Mexico in 1805, or perhaps from some other undocumented seeds that had found their way to Europe. Several of these were soon discovered to be identical with earlier reported species, but the greatest number are new varieties. Morphological variation is highly pronounced in the dahlia. William John Cooper Lawrence, who hybridized hundreds of families of dahlias in the 1920s, stated: "I have not yet seen any two plants in the families I have raised which were not to be distinguished one from the other. Constant reclassification of the 85 reported species has resulted in a considerably smaller number of distinct species, as there is a great deal of disagreement today between systematists over classification.  In 1829, all species growing in Europe were reclassified under an all-encompassing name of "D. variabilis, Desf.", though this is not an accepted name. Through the interspecies cross of the Humboldt seeds and the Cavanilles species, 22 new species were reported by that year, all of which had been classified in different ways by several different taxonomists, creating considerable confusion as to which species was which.  In 1830 William Smith suggested that all dahlia species could be divided into two groups for color, red-tinged and purple-tinged. In investigating this idea Lawrence determined that with the exception of "D. variabilis", all dahlia species may be assigned to one of two groups for flower-colour: Group I (ivory-magenta) or Group II (yellow-orange-scarlet).

Circumscription.

The genus "Dahlia" is situated in the Asteroideae subfamily of the Asteraceae, in the Coreopsideae tribe. Within that tribe it is the second largest genus, after "Coreopsis", and appears as a well defined clade within the Coreopsideae.

Subdivision.

Infrageneric subdivision.

Sherff (1955), in the first modern taxonomy described three sections for the 18 species he recognised, "Pseudodendron", "Epiphytum" and "Dahlia". By 1969 Sørensen recognised 29 species and four sections by splitting off "Entemophyllon" from section "Dahlia". By contrast Giannasi (1975) using a phytochemical analysis based on flavonoids, reduced the genus to just two sections, "Entemophyllon" and "Dahlia", the latter having three subsections, "Pseudodendron", "Dahlia", and "Merckii". Sørensen then issued a further revision in 1980, incorporating subsection "Merckii" in his original section "Dahlia". When he described two new species in the 1980s ("Dahlia tubulata" and "D. congestifolia"), he placed them within his existing sections. A further species, "Dahlia sorensenii" was added by Hansen and Hjerting in (1996). At the same time they demonstrated that "Dahlia pinnata" should more properly be designated "D. x pinnata". "D. x pinnata" was shown to actually be a variant of "D. sorensenii" that had acquired hybrid qualities before it was introduced to Europe in the sixteenth century and formally named by Cavanilles. The original wild "D. pinnata" is presumed extinct. Further species continue to be described, Saar (2003) describing 35 species. However separation of the sections on morphological, cytologal and biocemical criteria has not been entirely satisfactory.  To date these sectional divisions have not been fully supported phylogenetically, which demonstrate only section "Entemophyllon" as a distinct sectional clade. The other major grouping is the core "Dahlia" clade (CDC), which includes most of section "Dahlia". The remainder of the species occupy what has been described as the variable root clade (VRC) which includes the small section "Pseudodendron" but also the monotypic section "Epiphytum" and a number of species from within section "Dahlia". Outside of these three clades lie "D. tubulata" and "D. merckii" as a polytomy.  Horticulturally the sections retain some usage, section "Pseudodendron" being referred to as 'Tree Dahlias', "Epiphytum" as the 'Vine Dahlia'. The remaining two herbaceous sections being distinguished by their pinnules, opposing ("Dahlia") or alternating ("Entemophyllon").

Sections.

Sections (including chromosome numbers), with geographical distribution;  Only "Pseudodendron" ("D. imperialis") and "Dahlia" ("D. australis", "D. coccinea") occur outside Mexico.

Species.

There are currently 42 accepted species in the genus "Dahlia", but new species continue to be described.

Etymology.

The naming of the plant itself has long been a subject of some confusion. Many sources state that the name "Dahlia" was bestowed by the pioneering Swedish botanist and taxonomist Carl Linnaeus to honor his late student, Anders Dahl, author of "Observationes Botanicae". However, Linnaeus died in 1778, more than eleven years before the plant was introduced into Europe in 1789, so while it is generally agreed that the plant was named in 1791 in honor of Dahl, who had died two years before, Linnaeus could not have been the one who did so. It was probably Abbe Antonio Jose Cavanilles, Director of the Royal Gardens of Madrid, who should be credited with the attempt to scientifically define the genus, since he not only received the first specimens from Mexico in 1789, but named the first three species that flowered from the cuttings.  Regardless of who bestowed it, the name was not so easily established. In 1805, German botanist Carl Ludwig Willdenow, asserting that the genus "Dahlia" Thunb. (published a year after Cavanilles's genus and now considered a synonym of "Trichocladus") was more widely accepted, changed the plants' genus from "Dahlia" to "Georgina"; after the German-born naturalist Johann Gottlieb Georgi, a professor at the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, Russia. He also reclassified and renamed the first three species grown, and identified, by Cavanilles. It was not until 1810, in a published article, that he officially adopted the Cavanilles' original designation of "Dahlia". However, the name "Georgina" still persisted in Germany for the next few decades. In Russian, it is still Georgina георгинa.  "Dahl" is a homophone of the Swedish word "dal", or "valley"; although it is not a true translation, the plant is sometimes referred to as the "valley flower".

Distribution and habitat.

"Dahlia" is found predominantly in Mexico, but some species are found ranging as far south as northern South America. "D. australis" occurs at least as far south as southwestern Guatemala, while "D. coccinea" and "D. imperialis" also occur in parts of Central America and northern South America. "Dahlia" is a genus of the uplands and mountains, being found at elevations between 1,500 and 3,700 meters, in what has been described as a "pine-oak woodland" vegetative zone. Most species have limited ranges scattered throughout many mountain ranges in Mexico

Ecology.

The most common pollinators are bees and small beetles.

Pests and diseases.

Slugs and snails are serious pests in some parts of the world, particularly in spring when new growth is emerging through the soil. Earwigs can also disfigure the blooms. The other main pests likely to be encountered are aphids (usually on young stems and immature flower buds), red spider mite (causing foliage mottling and discolouration, worse in hot and dry conditions) and capsid bugs (resulting in contortion and holes at growing tips). Diseases affecting dahlias include powdery mildew, grey mould ("Botrytis cinerea"), verticillium wilt, dahlia smut ("Entyloma calendulae" f. "dahliae"), phytophthora and some plant viruses. Dahlias are a source of food for the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including angle shades, common swift, ghost moth and large yellow underwing.

Cultivation.

Dahlias grow naturally in climates which do not experience frost (the tubers are hardy to USDA Zone 8), consequently they are not adapted to withstand sub-zero temperatures. However, their tuberous nature enables them to survive periods of dormancy, and this characteristic means that gardeners in temperate climates with frosts can grow dahlias successfully, provided the tubers are lifted from the ground and stored in cool yet frost-free conditions during the winter. Planting the tubers quite deep (10 – 15 cm) also provides some protection. When in active growth, modern dahlia hybrids perform most successfully in well-watered yet free-draining soils, in situations receiving plenty of sunlight. Taller cultivars usually require some form of staking as they grow, and all garden dahlias need deadheading regularly, once flowering commences.

Horticultural classification.

History.

The inappropriate term "D. variabilis" is often used to describe the cultivars of "Dahlia" since the correct parentage remains obscure, but probably involves "Dahlia coccinea". In 1846 the Caledonia Horticultural Society of Edinburgh offered a prize of 2,000 pounds to the first person succeeding in producing a blue dahlia. This has to date not been accomplished. While dahlias produce anthocyanin, an element necessary for the production of the blue, to achieve a true blue color in a plant, the anthocyanin delphinidin needs six hydroxyl groups. To date dahlias have only developed five, so the closest that breeders have come to achieving a "blue" specimen are variations of mauve, purples and lilac hues.  By the beginning of the twentieth century a number of different types were recognised. These terms were based on shape or colour, and the National Dahlia Society included cactus, pompon, single, show and fancy in its 1904 guide. Many national societies developed their own classification systems until 1962 when the International Horticultural Congress agreed to develop an internationally recognised system at its Brussels meeting that year, and subsequently in Maryland in 1966. This culminated in the 1969 publication of "The International Register of Dahlia Names" by the Royal Horticultural Society which became the central registering authority.  This system depended primarily on the visibility of the central disc, whether it was open centred or whether only ray florets were apparent centrally (double bloom). The double bloom cultivars were then subdivided according to the way in which they were folded along their longitudinal axis, flat, involute (curled inwards) or revolute (curling backwards). If the end of the ray floret was split, they were considered fimbriated. Based on these characteristics, nine groups were defined plus a tenth miscellaneous group for any cultivars not fitting the above characteristics. Fimbriated dahlias were added in 2004, and two further groups (Single and Double orchid) in 2007. The last group to be added, Peony, first appeared in 2012.  In many cases the bloom diameter was then used to further label certain groups from miniature through to giant. This practice was abandoned in 2012.

Modern system (RHS).

There are now more than 57,000 registered cultivars, which are officially registered through the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). The official register is "The International Register of Dahlia Names 1969" (1995 reprint) which is updated by annual supplements. The original 1969 registry published about 14,000 cultivars adding a further 1700 by 1986 and in 2003 there were 18,000. Since then about a hundred new cultivars are added annually.  The official RHS classification lists fourteen groups, grouped by flower type, together with the abbreviations used by the RHS;  Earlier versions of the registry subdivided some groups by flower size. Groups 4, 5, 8 and 9 were divided into five subgroups (A to E) from Giant to Miniature, and Group 6 into two subgroups, Small and Miniature. Dahlias were then described by Group and Subgroup, "e.g." 5(d) ‘Ace Summer Sunset’. Some Dahlia Societies have continued this practice, but this is neither official nor standardised. As of 2013 The RHS uses two size descriptors  Sizes can range from tiny micro dahlias with flowers less than 50mm to giants that are over 250mm in diameter. The groupings listed here are from the New Zealand Society.  In addition to the official classification and the terminology used by various dahlia societies, individual horticulturalists use a wide range of other descriptions, such as 'Incurved' and abbreviations in their catalogues, such as CO for Collarette.

Branding.

Some plant growers include their brand name in the cultivar name. Thus Fides (part of the Dümmen Orange Group) in the Netherlands developed a series of cultivars which they named the Dahlinova Series, for example Dahlinova 'Carolina Burgundy'. These are Group 10 Miscellaneous in the RHS classification scheme.

Double Dahlias.

In 1805, several new species were reported with red, purple, lilac, and pale yellow coloring, and the first true double flower was produced in Belgium. One of the more popular concepts of dahlia history, and the basis for many different interpretations and confusion, is that all the original discoveries were single flowered types, which, through hybridization and selective breeding, produced double forms.  During the years 1805 to 1810 several people claimed to have produced a double dahlia. In 1805 Henry C. Andrews made a drawing of such a plant in the collection of Lady Holland, grown from seedlings sent that year from Madrid. Like other doubles of the time it did not resemble the doubles of today. The first modern double, or full double, appeared in Belgium; M. Donckelaar, Director of the Botanic Garden at Louvain, selected plants for that characteristic, and within a few years secured three fully double forms. By 1826 double varieties were being grown almost exclusively, and there was very little interest in the single forms. Up to this time all the so-called double dahlias had been purple, or tinged with purple, and it was doubted if a variety untinged with that color was obtainable.  In 1843, scented single forms of dahlias were first reported in Neu Verbass, Austria. "D. crocea", a fragrant variety grown from one of the Humboldt seeds, was probably interbred with the single "D. coccinea". A new scented species would not be introduced until the next century when the "D. coronata" was brought from Mexico to Germany in 1907.  The exact date the dahlia was introduced in the United States is uncertain. One of the first Dahlias in the USA may be the D. coccinea speciosissima grown by Mr William Leathe, of Cambridgeport, near Boston, around 1929. According to Edward Sayers "it attracted much admiration, and at that time was considered a very elegant flower, it was however soon eclipsed by that splendid scarlet, the Countess of Liverpool". However 9 cultivars were already listed in the catalog from Thornburn, 1825. And even earlier reference can be found in a catalogue from the Linnaean Botanical Garden, New York, 1820, that includes one scarlet, one purple, and two double orange Dahlias for sale.  Sayers stated that "No person has done more for the introduction and advancement of the culture of the Dahlia than George C. Thorburn, of New York, who yearly flowers many thousand plants at his place at Hallet's Cove, near Harlaem. The show there in the flowering season is a rich treat for the lovers of floriculture : for almost every variety can be seen growing in two large blocks or masses which lead from the road to the dwelling-house, and form a complete field of the Dahlia as a foreground to the house. Mr T. Hogg, Mr William Read, and many other well known florists, have also contributed much in the vicinity of New York, to the introduction of the Dahlia. Indeed so general has become the taste that almost every garden has its show of the Dahlia in the season." In Boston too there were many collections, a collection from the Messrs Hovey of Cambridgeport was also mentioned.  In 1835 Thomas Bridgeman, published a list of 160 double dahlias in his Florist's Guide. 60 of the choicest were supplied by Mr. G. C. Thornburn of Astoria, N.Y. who got most of them from contacts in the UK. Not a few of them had taken prices "at the English and American exhibitions".

"Stars of the Devil".

In 1872 J.T. van der Berg of Utrecht in the Netherlands, received a shipment of seeds and plants from a friend in Mexico. The entire shipment was badly rotted and appeared to be ruined, but van der Berg examined it carefully and found a small piece of root that seemed alive. He planted and carefully tended it; it grew into a plant that he identified as a dahlia. He made cuttings from the plant during the winter of 1872-1873. This was an entirely different type of flower, with a rich, red color and a high degree of doubling. In 1874 van der Berg catalogued it for sale, calling it "Dahlia juarezii" to honor Mexican President Benito Pablo Juarez, who had died the year before, and described it as "...equal to the beautiful color of the red poppy. Its form is very outstanding and different in every respect of all known dahlia flowers.".  This plant has perhaps had a greater influence on the popularity of the modern dahlia than any other. Called "Les Etoiles du Diable" (Stars of the Devil) in France and "Cactus dahlia" elsewhere, the edges of its petals rolled backwards, rather than forward, and this new form revolutionized the dahlia world. It was thought to be a distinct mutation since no other plant that resembled it could be found in the wild. Today it is assumed that "D. juarezii" had, at one time, existed in Mexico and subsequently disappeared. Nurserymen in Europe crossbred this plant with dahlias discovered earlier; the results became the progenitors of all modern dahlia hybrids today.

Award of Garden Merit (RHS).

As of 2015, 124 dahlia cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit, including:-

Uses.

Floriculture.

The asterid eudicots contain two economically important geophyte genera, "Dahlia" and "Liatris". Horticulturally the garden dahlia is usually treated as the cultigen "D. variabilis" Hort., which while being responsible for thousands of cultivars has an obscure taxonomic status (see also Cultivation).

Other.

Today the dahlia is still considered one of the native ingredients in Oaxacan cuisine; several cultivars are still grown especially for their large, sweet potato-like tubers. Dacopa, an intense mocha-tasting extract from the roasted tubers, is used to flavor beverages throughout Central America.  In Europe and America, prior to the discovery of insulin in 1923, diabetics—as well as consumptives—were often given a substance called "Atlantic starch" or "diabetic sugar", derived from inulin, a naturally occurring form of fruit sugar, extracted from dahlia tubers. Inulin is still used in clinical tests for kidney functionality.

Dahlia ( or ) is a genus of bushy, tuberous, herbaceous perennial plants native to Mexico and Central America. A member of the Asteraceae (formerly Compositae) family of dicotyledonous plants, its garden relatives thus include the sunflower, daisy, chrysanthemum, and zinnia. There are 42 species of dahlia, with hybrids commonly grown as garden plants. Flower forms are variable, with one head per stem; these can be as small as diameter or up to ("dinner plate"). This great variety results from dahlias being octoploids—that is, they have eight sets of homologous chromosomes, whereas most plants have only two. In addition, dahlias also contain many transposons—genetic pieces that move from place to place upon an allele—which contributes to their manifesting such great diversity.

Jiřina ("Dahlia"), česky též jiřinka, je rod rostlin z čeledi hvězdnicovité. Zahrnuje 38 botanických druhů a pochází z tropické Ameriky, kde je rozšířen v oblasti od Mexika po Kolumbii. Bylo vypěstováno množství rozmanitých zahradních kultivarů a hybridů různých tvarů a barev, které se oficiálně dělí do 14. skupin. Rostliny mají zásobní orgán ve formě hlízy, která jim umožňuje přečkat nepříznivé podmínky přečkat nepříznivé podmínky, jako je zima a sucho. Nejsou mrazuvzdorné.


Overview.

Players create characters as their avatars in a fantasy medieval-themed persistent virtual world. Individual appearance of characters is customisable. The player has to choose between three realms: Alsius, Ignis and Syrtis, with each having their own races. Players then level up by grinding on monsters or with quests.

Steam Launch.

Champions of Regnum was launched on steam in February 2013 to mixed reviews.

Gameplay.

The inspiration for Regnum Online is the online game Dark Age of Camelot (DAOC). As such, RO is heavily focussed on Realm vs Realm (also known as faction pvp or team pvp) combat. In general, at all times a player can find active wars occurring in the "Warzone" where players of the 3 realms fight for control of forts, gates and castles. Players can choose the realms of Alsius, Ignis and Syrtis. Each realm has four races, and some of the races are essentially the same across the three realms. For example, each realm has a race of humans, and each realm has "lamai."  The differences between the races of the three realms is cosmetic as all share the same character classes and powers. Alsius is a snowy realm, Ignis is a desert realm and Syrtis is a grassy realm.  Regnum offers the three standard character classes: archer, warrior and mage. Each class is further offered two specialisations. At present, the full range of classes are: Marksman, Hunter, Barbarian, Knight, Warlock and Conjurer.  Combat skills, stealth and spells are drawn primarily from the lore of DAOC and Dungeons and Dragons, with much shorter durations and magnified effects.  Player movement control takes place by the use of the W, A, S and D movement keys or mouse clicking nearby locations. Each class has a unique skill tree.  In order the promote intensity and smoothness of combat, the developers deliberately reduced the graphics detail.

Quests.

Along with many side quests, there are storyline quests that reveal things about each realms past and the war between them. Quests reward players with experience, gold, and some items that they could not obtain otherwise. There are also player versus player quests which require the player to accomplish a certain task such as killing a certain amount number of players from another realm or holding a specific location for a certain amount of time.

Champions of Regnum (previously known as Regnum Online) is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by NGD Studios, a game development studio located in Argentina. This game is also known as "Realms Online" in America. The game focuses on full Realm vs Realm team player vs player combat, with a three-way war constantly in progress over forts and castles. There are monsters and an element of grinding, but these are considered secondary to the war.

Champions of Regnum (dříve Regnum Online) je fantasy MMORPG vyvinutá společností NGD Studios, herním studiem z Argentiny. Hra se zaměřuje na koncept Realm vs Realm, konkrétně na boj třech frakcí ve válečné zóně o pevnosti a hrady. Ve hře jsou dostupná i monstra, primárně se však hra zaměřuje na boj frakcí.