Philosophy and scriptures.

The worship of the goddess in a young girl represents the worship of divine consciousness spread all over the creation. As the supreme goddess is thought to have manifested this entire cosmos out of her womb, she exists equally in animate as well as inanimate objects. While worship of an idol represents the worship and recognition of supreme through inanimate materials, worship of a human represents veneration and recognition of the same supreme in conscious beings.  In the Shakta text "Devi Mahatmyam", or "Chandi", the goddess is said to have declared that she resides in all female living beings in this universe. The entire ritual of Kumari is based on this verse. But while worshipping a goddess, only a young girl is chosen over a mature woman because of their inherent purity and chastity.  Hindu scriptures, such as the "Jñanarnava Rudrayamala" tantra, assign names to a Kumari depending on her age:  In Nepal, Kumaris are worshiped only for a day; these names are assigned only while the ritual lasts, often a few hours. Usually one cannot be a Kumari beyond 16 years of age because of menarche.  The main target of a Kumari puja is to realize the potential divinity in every human being, mostly female. A Hindu spiritual aspirant sees the universal consciousness of humanity.

History in Nepal.

Whilst the veneration of a living Kumari in Nepal is relatively recent, dating only from the 17th century, the tradition of Kumari-Puja, or virgin worship, has been around for much longer. There is evidence of virgin worship taking place in Nepal for more than 2,300 years. It appears to have taken hold in Nepal in the 6th century. There is written evidence describing the selection, ornamentation, and worship of the Kumari dating from the 13th century CE.  There are several legends telling how the current tradition of the Kumari began. Most of the legends, however, involve the tale of King Jayaprakash Malla, the last Nepalese king of the Malla Dynasty (12th–17th century CE). According to the most popular legend, a king and his friend, the goddess Taleju, approached his chambers late one night as he played tripasa, a dice game. The goddess came along every night to play the game with the condition that the king refrains from telling anyone about their meetings.  One night, the king's wife followed him to his chamber in order to find out who the king was meeting so often. The king's wife saw Taleju, and the goddess was angered. She told the king that if he wanted to see her again or have her protect his country, he would have to search for her among the Newari (Shakya) community of Ratnawali, as she would be incarnated as a little girl among them. Hoping to make amends with his patroness, King Jayaprakash Malla left the palace in search of the young girl who was possessed by Taleju's spirit.  Similarly, there is another story about the disappearance of Taleju. Some believe that the goddess visited King Trailokya Malla every night in the human form. Like other legendary stories, the king and the goddess played tripasa (dice) while discussing the welfare of the country. However, one night, King Trailokya Malla made sexual advances towards the goddess Taleju. As a result, the goddess in rage stopped visiting the palace. The king in regret worshiped and pleaded for her return. Finally, the goddess agreed to appear in the body of the virgin girl from the Shakya family.  Even today, a mother's dream of a red serpent is believed to be a portent of the elevation of her daughter to the position of Royal Kumari. And each year, the Nepalese King seeks the blessing of the Royal Kumari at the festival of Indra Jatra. This tradition has changed from 2008 A.D. with the country becoming the youngest republic of the world.  A variation of this and other legends names King Gunkam Dev, a 12th-century ancestor of King Jayaprakash Malla, as the main character rather than Jayaprakash Malla.  A third variation of the legend says that during the reign of King Jayaprakash Malla, a young girl was banished from the city because it was feared that she was possessed by the goddess Durga. When the queen learned of the young girl's fate, she became enraged and insisted that the king fetch the girl and install her as the living incarnation of Durga.

Selection process.

Once Taleju has left the sitting Kumari, there is a frenzy of activity to find her successor. Some have compared the selection process to the process used in nearby Tibet to find the reincarnations of Tulkus, such as the Dalai Lama or the Panchen Lama. The selection process is conducted by five senior Buddhist Bhajracharya priests, the Panch Buddha, the Bada Guruju or Chief Royal Priest, Achajau, the priest of Taleju and the royal astrologer. The king and other religious leaders that might know of eligible candidates are also informed that a search is underway.  Eligible girls are from the Newar Shakya caste of silver and goldsmiths. She must be in excellent health, never have shed blood or been afflicted by any diseases, be without blemish and must not have yet lost any teeth. Girls who pass these basic eligibility requirements are examined for the "battis lakshanas", or "thirty-two perfections" of a goddess. Some of these are poetically listed as such:  In addition to this, her hair and eyes should be very "black", and she should have dainty hands and feet, small and well-recessed sexual organs and a set of twenty teeth.  The girl is also observed for signs of serenity and fearlessness, and her horoscope is examined to ensure that it is complementary to the king's. It is important that there not be any conflicts, as she must confirm the king's legitimacy each year of her divinity. Her family is also scrutinized to ensure its piety and devotion to the king.  Once the priests have chosen a candidate, she must undergo yet more rigorous tests to ensure that she indeed possesses the qualities necessary to be the living vessel of Durga. Her greatest test comes during the Hindu festival of Dashain. On the Kalratri, or "black night", 108 buffaloes and goats are sacrificed to the goddess Kali. The young candidate is taken into the Taleju temple and released into the courtyard, where the severed heads of the animals are illuminated by candlelight and masked men are dancing about. If the candidate truly possesses the qualities of Taleju, she shows no fear during this experience. If she does, another candidate is brought in to attempt the same thing.  As a final test, the living goddess must spend a night alone in a room among the heads of ritually slaughtered goats and buffaloes without showing fear. The fearless candidate has proven that she has the serenity and the fearlessness that typifies the goddess who is to inhabit her. After passing all other tests, the final test is that she must be able to pick out the personal belongings of the previous Kumari from an assortment of things laid out before her. If she is able to do so, there is no remaining doubt that she is the chosen one.  There are claims contrary to the commonly believed ritual and screening process, however. The ex-Royal Kumari Rashmila Shakya states in her autobiography, "From Goddess to Mortal", that this has nothing to do with the selection process, but rather is a ritual the Royal Kumari goes through each year, that there are no men dancing around in masks trying to scare her, and that at most, there are only a dozen or so decapitated animal heads in the scary room test. She also describes the requisite physical examination of each Kumari as neither intimate nor rigorous.  Once the Kumari is chosen, she must be purified so that she can be an unblemished vessel for Taleju. She is taken by the priests to undergo a number of secret Tantric rituals to cleanse her body and spirit of her past experiences. Once these rituals are completed, Taleju enters her, and she is presented as the new Kumari. She is dressed and made up as a Kumari and then leaves the Taleju temple and walks across the square on a white cloth to the Kumari Ghar, which will be her home for the duration of her divinity.

Life of the Royal Kumari.

Once the chosen girl completes the Tantric purification rites and crosses from the temple on a white cloth to the Kumari Ghar to assume her throne, her life takes on an entirely new character. She will leave her palace only on ceremonial occasions. Her family will visit her rarely, and then only in a formal capacity. Her playmates will be drawn from a narrow pool of Newari children from her caste, usually the children of her caretakers. She will always be dressed in red and gold, wear her hair in a topknot and have the "agni chakshu", or "fire eye", painted on her forehead as a symbol of her special powers of perception.  The Royal Kumari's new life is vastly different from the one to which she has been accustomed in her short life. Whilst her life is now free of material troubles, she has ceremonial duties to carry out. Although she is not ordered about, she is expected to behave as befits a goddess. She has shown the correct qualities during the selection process, and her continued serenity is of paramount importance; an ill-tempered goddess is believed to portend bad tidings for those petitioning her.  The Kumari's walk across the Durbar Square is the last time her feet will touch the ground until such time as the goddess departs from her body. From now on, when she ventures outside of her palace, she will be carried or transported in her golden palanquin. Her feet, like all of her, are now sacred. Petitioners will touch them, hoping to receive respite from troubles and illnesses. The king himself will kiss them each year when he comes to seek her blessing. She will never wear shoes; if her feet are covered at all, they will be covered with red stockings.  The power of the Kumari is perceived to be so strong that even a glimpse of her is believed to bring good fortune. Crowds of people wait below the Kumari's window in the Kumari Chowk, or courtyard, of her palace, hoping that she will pass by the latticed windows on the third floor and glance down at them. Even though her irregular appearances last only a few seconds, the atmosphere in the courtyard is charged with devotion and awe when they do occur.  The more fortunate, or better connected, petitioners visit the Kumari in her chambers, where she sits upon a gilded lion throne. Many of those visiting her are people suffering from blood or menstrual disorders since the Kumari is believed to have special power over such illnesses. She is also visited by bureaucrats and other government officials. Petitioners customarily bring gifts and food offerings to the Kumari, who receives them in silence. Upon arrival, she offers them her feet to touch or kiss as an act of devotion. During these audiences, the Kumari is closely watched, and her actions interpreted as a prediction of the petitioners' lives, as follows:  If the Kumari remains silent and impassive throughout the audience, her devotees leave elated. This is the sign that their wishes have been granted.  Many people attend to the Kumari's needs. These people are known as the Kumarimi and are headed by the patron. Their job is very difficult. They must attend to the Kumari's every need and desire while giving her instruction in her ceremonial duties. While they cannot directly order her to do anything, they must guide her through her life. They are responsible for bathing her, dressing her and attending to her makeup as well as preparing her for her visitors and for ceremonial occasions.  Traditionally, the Kumari received no education, as she was widely considered to be omniscient. However, modernization has made it necessary for her to have an education once she re-enters mortal life. Kumaris are now allowed to attend public schools and have a life inside the classroom that is no different from that of other students. While many kumaris, such as the Kumari of Bhaktapur, attend school, others, such as the main kumari in Kathmandu, receive their education through private tutors.  Similarly, her limited playmates must learn to respect her. Since her every wish must be granted, they must learn to surrender to her whatever they have that she may want and to defer to her wishes in what games to play or activities to play.

Controversy.

On 3 July 2007, Sajani Shakya was removed from her position as Kumari of Bhaktapur after visiting the United States to attend the release of the movie "Living Goddess" at Silverdocs, the American Film Institute/Discovery Channel documentary festival in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland. The visit, according to the elders, had tainted her purity. A couple of weeks later, temple authorities at Sajani Shakya's hometown recanted their previous statement and said that she would not be stripped of her title because she was willing to undergo a "cleansing" ceremony to remove any sins she might have committed while traveling.

Kumari, or Kumari Devi, or Living Goddess – Nepal, is the tradition of worshiping young prepubescent girls as manifestations of the divine female energy or devi in Hindu and Buddhist religious traditions. The word "Kumari" is derived from the Sanskrit "Kaumarya", meaning "Young".

Kumárí (doslova „dívka“, implicitně „panna“) je dětské jméno hinduistické bohyně Durgy (nepálsky Taleju). Nepálští hinduisté věří, že se bohyně může vtělit do malých děvčátek. Proto jsou v Káthmándú i dalších městech vybírány dívky, které jsou pak uctívány jako zosobnění Déví až do své první menstruace. Její volba se odehrává při ceremoniálu, během nějž se obětovávají desítky býků a který vede velekněz (v případě Káthmándú jím byl nepálský král). Po zrušení království chtěla maoistická vláda zrušit na podzim 2008 i další volby kumárí, což se týkalo chrámového města Bhaktapur. Lidové demonstrace si však konání rituálu vynutily a vláda jeho organizací pověřila "Svěřenecký fond". Novou kumárí v Bhaktapuru se 29. září 2008 stala šestiletá Šríja Badžračarja.


History.

The term "adjuvant therapy," derived from the Latin term "adjuvāre", meaning "to help," was first coined by Paul Carbone and his team at the National Cancer Institute in 1963. In 1968, the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) published its B-01 trial results for the first randomized trial that evaluated the effect of an adjuvant alkylating agent in breast cancer. The results indicated that the adjuvant therapy given after the initial radical mastectomy "significantly decreased recurrence rate in pre-menopausal women with four or more positive axillary lymph nodes."  The budding theory of using additional therapies to supplement primary surgery was put into practice by Gianni Bonadonna and his colleagues from the Instituto Tumori in Italy in 1973, where they conducted a randomized trial that demonstrated more favorable survival outcomes that accompanied use of Cyclophosphamide Methotrexate Fluorouracil (CMF) after the initial mastectomy.  In 1976, shortly after Bonadonna's landmark trial, Bernard Fisher at the University of Pittsburgh initiated a similar randomized trial that compared the survival of breast cancer patients treated with radiation after the initial mastectomy to those who only received the surgery. His results, published in 1985, indicated increased disease-free survival for the former group.  Despite the initial pushback from the breast cancer surgeons who believed that their radical mastectomies were sufficient in removing all traces of cancer, the success of Bonadonna's and Fisher's trials brought adjuvant therapy to the mainstream in oncology. Since then, the field of adjuvant therapy has greatly expanded to include a wide range of adjuvant therapies to include chemotherapy, immunotherapy, hormone therapy, and radiation.

Neoadjuvant therapy.

Neoadjuvant therapy, in contrast to adjuvant therapy, is given before the main treatment. For example, systemic therapy for breast cancer that is given before removal of a breast is considered neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The most common reason for neoadjuvant therapy for cancer is to reduce the size of the tumor so as to facilitate more effective surgery.  In the context of breast cancer, neoadjuvant chemotherapy administered before surgery can improve survival in patients. If no active cancer cells are present in a tissue extracted from the tumor site after neoadjuvant therapy, physicians classify a case as “pathologic complete response” or "pCR." While response to therapy has been demonstrated to be a strong predictor of outcome, the medical community has still not reached a consensus in regard to the definition of pCR across various breast cancer subtypes. It remains unclear whether pCR can be used as a surrogate end point in breast cancer cases.

Adjuvant cancer therapy.

For example, radiotherapy or systemic therapy is commonly given as adjuvant treatment after surgery for breast cancer. Systemic therapy consists of chemotherapy, immunotherapy or biological response modifiers or hormone therapy. Oncologists use statistical evidence to assess the risk of disease relapse before deciding on the specific adjuvant therapy. The aim of adjuvant treatment is to improve disease-specific symptoms and overall survival. Because the treatment is essentially for a risk, rather than for provable disease, it is accepted that a proportion of patients who receive adjuvant therapy will already have been cured by their primary surgery.  Adjuvant systemic therapy and radiotherapy are often given following surgery for many types of cancer, including colon cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and some gynaecological cancers. Some forms of cancer fail to benefit from adjuvant therapy, however. Such cancers include renal cell carcinoma, and certain forms of brain cancer.  Hyperthermia therapy or heat therapy is also a kind of adjuvant therapy that is given along with radiation or chemotherapy to boost the effects of these conventional treatments. Heating the tumor by Radio Frequency (RF) or Microwave energy increases oxygen content in the tumor site, which results in increased response during radiation or chemotherapy. For example, Hyperthermia is added twice a week to radiation therapy for the full course of the treatment in many cancer centers, and the challenge is to increase its use around the world.

Controversy.

A motif found throughout the history of cancer therapy is the tendency for overtreatment. From the time of its inception, the use of adjuvant therapy has received scrutiny for its adverse effects on the quality of life of cancer patients. For example, because side effects of adjuvant chemotherapy can range from nausea to loss of fertility, physicians regularly practice caution when prescribing chemotherapy.  In the context of melanoma, certain treatments, such as Ipilimumab, result in high grade adverse events, or immune-related adverse events, in 10-15% of patients that parallel the effects of metastatic melanoma itself. Similarly, several common adjuvant therapies are noted for having the potential of causing cardiovascular disease. In such cases, physicians must weigh the cost of future recurrence against more immediate consequences and consider factors, like age and relative cardiovascular health of a patient, before prescribing certain types of adjuvant therapy.  One of the most notable side effects of adjuvant therapy is the loss of fertility. For pre-pubescent males, testicular tissue cryopreservation is an option for preserving future fertility. For post-pubescent males, this side effect can be assuaged through semen cryopreservation. For pre-menopausal females, options to preserve fertility are oftentimes much more complex. For example, breast cancer patients of fertile age oftentimes have to weigh the risks and benefits associated with starting an adjuvant therapy regimen after primary treatment. In the some low-risk, low-benefit situations, forgoing adjuvant treatment altogether can be a reasonable decision, but in cases where the risk of metastasis is high, patients may be forced to make a difficult decision. Though options for fertility preservation exist (e.g., embryo preservation, oocyte cryopreservation, ovarian suppression, etc.), they are more often than not time-consuming and costly.  As a result of complications that can stem from liberal use of adjuvant therapy, the philosophy surrounding the use of adjuvant therapy in the clinical setting has shifted towards the goal of doing as little harm as possible to patients. The standards for dose intensity of adjuvant treatments and treatment duration are regularly updated to optimize regimen efficiency while minimizing toxic side effects that patients must shoulder.

Concomitant or concurrent systemic cancer therapy.

Concomitant or concurrent systemic cancer therapy refers to administering medical treatments at the same time as other therapies, such as radiation. Adjuvant hormonal therapy is given after prostate removal in prostate cancer, but there are concerns that the side effects, in particular the cardiovascular ones, may outweigh the risk of recurrence.  In breast cancer, adjuvant therapy may consist of chemotherapy (doxorubicin, trastuzumab, paclitaxel, docetaxel, cyclophosphamide, fluorouracil, and methotrexate) and radiotherapy, especially after lumpectomy, and hormonal therapy (tamoxifen, letrozole). Adjuvant therapy in breast cancer is used in stage one and two breast cancer following lumpectomy, and in stage three breast cancer due to lymph node involvement.  In glioblastoma multiforme, adjuvant chemoradiotherapy is critical in the case of a completely removed tumor, as with no other therapy, recurrence occurs in 1–3 months.  In early stage one small cell lung carcinoma, adjuvant chemotherapy with gemzar, cisplatin, paclitaxel, docetaxel, and other chemotherapeutic agents, and adjuvant radiotherapy is administered to either the lung, to prevent a local recurrence, or the brain to prevent metastases.  In testicular cancer, adjuvant either radiotherapy or chemotherapy may be used following orchidectomy. Previously, mainly radiotherapy was used, as a full course of cytotoxic chemotherapy produced far more side effects then a course of external beam radiotherapy (EBRT). However, it has been found a single dose of carboplatin is as effective as EBRT in stage II testicular cancer, with only mild side effects (transient myelosuppressive action vs severe and prolonged myelosuppressive neutropenic illness in normal chemotherapy, and much less vomiting, diarrhea, mucositis, and no alopecia in 90% of cases.  Adjuvant therapy is particularly effective in certain types of cancer, including colorectal carcinoma, lung cancer, and medulloblastoma. In completely resected medulloblastoma, 5-year survival rate is 85% if adjuvant chemotherapy and/or craniospinal irradiation is performed, and just 10% if no adjuvant chemotherapy or craniospinal irradiation is used. Prophylactic cranial irradiation for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is technically adjuvant, and most experts agree that cranial irradiation decreases risk of central nervous system (CNS) relapse in ALL and possibly acute myeloid leukemia (AML), but it can cause severe side effects, and adjuvant intrathecal methotrexate and hydrocortisone may be just as effective as cranial irradiation, without severe late effects, such as developmental disability, dementia, and increased risk for second malignancy.

Dose-Dense Chemotherapy.

Dose-dense chemotherapy (DDC) has recently emerged as an effective method of adjuvant chemotherapy administration. DDC uses the Gompertz curve to explain tumor cell growth after initial surgery removes most of the tumor mass. Cancer cells that are left over after a surgery are typically rapidly dividing cells, leaving them the most vulnerable to chemotherapy. Standard chemotherapy regimens are usually administered every 3 weeks to allow normal cells time to recover. This practice has led scientists to the hypothesis that the recurrence of cancer after surgery and chemo may be due to the rapidly diving cells outpacing the rate of chemotherapy administration. DDC tries to circumvent this issue by giving chemotherapy every 2 weeks. To lessen the side effects of chemotherapy that can be exacerbated with more closely administered chemotherapy treatments, growth factors are typically given in conjunction with DDC to restore white blood cell counts. A recent 2018 meta-analysis of DDC clinical trials in early stage breast cancer patients indicated promising results in premenopausal women, but DDC has yet to become the standard of treatment in clinics.

Specific cancers.

Malignant melanoma.

The role of adjuvant therapy in malignant melanoma is and has been hotly debated by oncologists. In 1995 a multicenter study reported improved long-term and disease-free survival in melanoma patients using interferon alpha 2b as an adjuvant therapy. Thus, later that year the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved interferon alpha 2b for melanoma patients who are currently free of disease, to reduce the risk of recurrence. Since then, however, some doctors have argued that interferon treatment does not prolong survival or decrease the rate of relapse, but only causes harmful side effects. Those claims have not been validated by scientific research.  Adjuvant chemotherapy has been used in malignant melanoma, but there is little hard evidence to use chemotherapy in the adjuvant setting. However, melanoma is not a chemotherapy-resistant malignancy. Dacarbazine, temozolomide, and cisplatin all have a reproducible 10–20% response rate in metastatic melanoma.; however, these responses are often short-lived and almost never complete. Multiple studies have shown that adjuvant radiotherapy improves local recurrence rates in high-risk melanoma patients. The studies include at least two M.D. Anderson cancer center studies. However, none of the studies showed that adjuvant radiotherapy had a statistically significant survival benefit.  A number of studies are currently underway to determine whether immunomodulatory agents which have proven effective in the metastatic setting are of benefit as adjuvant therapy for patients with resected stage 3 or 4 disease.

Colorectal cancer.

Adjuvant chemotherapy is effective in preventing the outgrowth of micrometastatic disease from colorectal cancer that has been removed surgically. Studies have shown that fluorouracil is an effective adjuvant chemotherapy among patients with microsatellite stability or low-frequency microsatellite instability, but not in patients with high-frequency microsatellite instability.

Pancreatic cancer.

Exocrine.

Exocrine pancreatic cancer has one of the lowest 5-year survival rates out of all cancers. Because of the poor outcomes associated with surgery alone, the role of adjuvant therapy has been extensively evaluated. A series of studies has established that 6 months of chemotherapy with either gemcitabine or fluorouracil, as compared with observation, improves overall survival. Newer trials incorporating immune checkpoint inhibitors such as the inhibitors to programmed death 1 (PD-1) and the PD-1 ligand PD-L1 are under way.

Lung Cancer.

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

In 2015, a comprehensive meta-analysis of 47 trials and 11,107 patients revealed that NSCLC patients benefit from adjuvant therapy in the form of chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. The results found that patients given chemotherapy after the initial surgery lived 4% longer than those who did not receive chemotherapy. The toxicity resulting from adjuvant chemotherapy was believed to be manageable.

Bladder cancer.

Neoadjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy has been demonstrated to improve overall survival in advanced bladder cancer, but there exists some controversy in the administration. Unpredictable patient response remains the drawback of neoadjuvant therapy. While it may shrink tumors in some patients, others may not respond to the treatment at all. It has been demonstrated that a delay in surgery of greater than 12 weeks from the time of diagnosis can decrease overall survival. Thus, the timing for neoadjuvants becomes critical, as a course of neoadjuvant therapy could delay a cystectomy and allow the tumor to grow and further metastasize.

Breast cancer.

It has been known for at least 30 years that adjuvant chemotherapy increases the relapse-free survival rate for patients with breast cancer In 2001 after a national consensus conference, a US National Institute of Health panel concluded: “Because adjuvant polychemotherapy improves survival, it should be recommended to the majority of women with localized breast cancer regardless of lymph node, menopausal, or hormone receptor status.”  Agents used include: However, ethical concerns have been raised about the magnitude of benefit of this therapy since it involves further treatment of patients without knowing the possibility of relapse. Dr. Bernard Fisher, among the first to conduct a clinical trial evaluating the efficacy of adjuvant therapy on patients with breast cancer, described it as an "value judgement" in which the potential benefits must be evaluated against the toxicity and cost of treatment and other potential side effects.

Combination adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer.

Giving two or more chemotheraputic agents at once may decrease the chances of recurrence of the cancer, and increase overall survival in patients with breast cancer. Commonly used combination chemotherapy regimines used include:

Ovarian Cancer.

Roughly 15% of ovarian cancers are detected at the early stage, at which the 5-year survival rate is 92%. A Norwegian meta-analysis of 22 randomized studies involving early-stage ovarian cancer revealed the likelihood that 8 out of 10 women treated with cisplatin after the initial surgery were overtreated. Patients diagnosed at an early stage who were treated with cisplatin immediately after surgery fared worse than patients who were left untreated. An additional surgical focus for young women with early-stage cancers is on the conservation of the contralateral ovary for the preservation of fertility.  Most cases of ovarian cancers are detected at the advanced stages, when the survival is greatly reduced.

Cervical cancer.

In early stage cervical cancers, research suggests that adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy after chemo-radiation may improve survival. For advanced cervical cancers, further research is needed to determine the efficacy, toxicity and effect on the quality of life of adjuvant chemotherapy.

Endometrial cancer.

Since most early-stage endometrial cancer cases are diagnosed early and are typically very curable with surgery, adjuvant therapy is only given after surveillance and histological factors determine that a patient is at high risk for recurrence. Adjuvant pelvic radiation therapy has received scrutiny for its use in women under 60, as studies have indicated decreased survival and increased risk of second malignancies following treatment.  In advanced-stage endometrial cancer, adjuvant therapy is typically radiation, chemotherapy, or a combination of the two. While advanced-stage cancer makes up only about 15% of diagnoses, it accounts for 50% of deaths from endometrial cancer. Patients who undergo radiation and/or chemotherapy treatment will sometimes experience modest benefits before relapse.

Testicular cancer.

Stage I.

For seminoma, the three standard options are: active surveillance, adjuvant radiotherapy, or adjuvant chemotherapy. For non-seminoma, the options include: active surveillance, adjuvant chemotherapy and retroperitoneal lymph node dissection.  As is the case for all reproductive cancers, a degree of caution is taken when deciding to use adjuvant therapy to treat early stage testicular cancer. Though the 5-year survival rates for stage I testicular cancers is approximately 99%, there still exists controversy over whether to overtreat stage I patients to prevent relapse or to wait until patients experience relapse. Patients treated with standard chemotherapy regimens can experience "second malignant neoplasms, cardiovascular disease, neurotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, pulmonary toxicity, hypogonadism, decreased fertility, and psychosocial problems." As such to minimize overtreatment and avoid potential long-term toxicity caused by adjuvant therapy, most patients today are treated with active surveillance.

Side effects of adjuvant cancer therapy.

Depending on what form of treatment is used, adjuvant therapy can have side effects, like all therapy for neoplasms. Chemotherapy frequently causes vomiting, nausea, alopecia, mucositis, myelosuppression particularly neutropenia, sometimes resulting in septicaemia. Some chemotheraputic agents can cause acute myeloid leukaemia, in particular the alkylating agents. Rarely, this risk may outweigh the risk of recurrence of the primary tumor. Depending on the agents used, side effects such as chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, leukoencephalopathy, bladder damage, constipation or diarrhea, hemorrhage, or post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment. Radiotherapy causes radiation dermatitis and fatigue, and, depending on the area being irradiated, may have other side effects. For instance, radiotherapy to the brain can cause memory loss, headache, alopecia, and radiation necrosis of the brain. If the abdomen or spine is irradiated, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and dysphagia can occur. If the pelvis is irradiated, prostatitis, proctitis, dysuria, metritis, diarrhea, and abdominal pain can occur. Adjuvant hormonal therapy for prostate cancer may cause cardiovascular disease, and other, possibly severe, side effects.

Adjuvant therapy, also known as adjunct therapy, add-on therapy, and adjuvant care, is therapy that is given in addition to the primary or initial therapy to maximize its effectiveness. The surgeries and complex treatment regimens used in cancer therapy have led the term to be used mainly to describe adjuvant cancer treatments. An example of such adjuvant therapy is the additional treatment usually given after surgery where all detectable disease has been removed, but where there remains a statistical risk of relapse due to the presence of undetected disease. If known disease is left behind following surgery, then further treatment is not technically adjuvant. An adjuvant agent modifies the effect of another agent, so adjuvant therapy modifies other therapy.

Adjuvantní terapie (také "pomocná terapie") je termín používaný k popisu role jedné konkrétní terapeutické modality ve srovnání s jinými terapeutickými modalitami využitými současně k terapii téhož onemocnění u téhož pacienta. Adjuvantní terapie odkazuje na další léčbu, obvykle po operaci, kdy už byla všechna zjistitelná ložiska nádorového onemocnění odstraněna, avšak v terapii se stále pokračuje, protože existuje statisticky prokázané riziko nepozorovaného průběhu onemocnění. V případě, že operace neprobehla tak, že byla odstraněna všechna ložiska onemocnění, technicky již není následná terapie terapií adjuvantní.


Background.

Richard Heene () and met at an acting school in Hollywood, California, and married in 1997. Heene had tried acting and stand-up comedy without success and, for a time, he and his wife ran a home business producing demo reels for actors. Heene is also a handyman. Associates described him as a shameless self-promoter who would do almost anything to advance his latest endeavor. Heene became a storm chaser in the 1970s after a storm took the roof off a building he was working on. Heene's storm chasing has included riding a motorcycle into a tornado and reportedly flying a plane around the perimeter of Hurricane Wilma in 2005. He regularly involved his children in his endeavors, taking them along on UFO-hunting expeditions and storm-chasing missions. The Heenes have three sons named Falcon, Bradford and Ryo.  A domestic violence investigation was launched at the Heenes' home in February 2009, after Mayumi was seen with a mark on her cheek and broken blood vessels in her left eye. No charges were filed due to lack of evidence.  The family had been featured on the reality television show "Wife Swap" on two occasions, the second time as a fan-favorite choice for the show's 100th episode. During his time on the show, Heene expressed his belief that humanity descended from aliens and spoke of launching home-made flying saucers into storms. Heene had unsuccessfully sought the media's interest in a proposed reality show called "The Science Detectives", which he envisioned as a documentary series "to investigate the mysteries of science". Months before the balloon incident Heene had pitched a reality show idea to the television channel TLC, but the network passed on the offer. After the balloon incident, the producer of "Wife Swap" said that a show involving the Heenes had been in development, but that the deal was now off. The producer declined to provide specifics. The Lifetime channel had been set to air one of the "Wife Swap" episodes involving the Heenes on October 29, 2009, but the station pulled the episode because of the balloon incident.

Helium balloon.

Richard Heene said the saucer-shaped balloon was an early prototype of a vehicle which "people can pull out of their garage and hover above traffic". He also stated that, once "the high voltage timer" was switched on, the balloon "would emit one million volts every five minutes for one minute" in order to "move left and right—horizontal".  The balloon, in diameter and high, was constructed from plastic tarps taped together, covered with an aluminum foil and held together with string and duct tape. Its base, in which Falcon allegedly rode, was a box made from a very thin piece of plywood and cardboard on the side, also held together by string and duct tape.  Fully inflated, a balloon of this size would contain just over of helium. Helium's lift capacity at sea level and 0 °C is 1.113 kg/m (0.07 lbs/ft) and decreases at higher altitudes and at higher temperatures. The volume of helium in the balloon has been estimated as being able to lift a total load, including the balloon material and the structure beneath it, of at sea level and at.  Fort Collins is at an elevation of about and the balloon was estimated to have reached.

Incident.

The family said they first suspected Falcon Heene was missing when, immediately after the balloon had taken off, Falcon's brother told them that he had seen the six-year-old climb into the balloon's basket beforehand. A home video released the following day shows the launch of the balloon. Richard inspects the basket, then his family count down in unison "three, two, one" before releasing the cord. Apparently believing the balloon to be tethered a few feet from the ground, the family starts screaming in distress when it floats off into the sky. Richard Heene, who can be seen kicking the wood frame that supported the balloon, yelled amidst a myriad of obscene words, "You didn't put the fucking tether down!" Falcon is nowhere to be seen and nobody mentions the possibility of Falcon being in the balloon.  According to initial reports from the sheriff, the family first called the Federal Aviation Administration, although later the sheriff's office stated that "they had no confirmation that Richard Heene actually made the call to the FAA." They then called Denver NBC affiliate KUSA-TV; they reportedly requested that the station send a news helicopter to track the balloon's progress, and then called emergency services. During the call to 911 at 11:29 AM local time (MDT) Richard Heene said, "I don't know whether it's possible you guys could detect the electricity that it emits... it emits a million volts on the outer skin."  The balloon, tracked by helicopters, drifted for, passing through Adams County and Weld County. Planes were rerouted around the balloon's flight path. Reports that Denver International Airport was briefly shut down were later determined to be incorrect. The balloon finally landed two hours later at around 1:35 PM local time near Keenesburg, northeast of Denver International Airport.  When the boy was not found inside the balloon, officials expressed concern that he might have fallen out during the flight. Although it was reported that it did not appear breached, Margie Martinez of the Weld County Sheriff's Office said that the door was unlocked in the balloon. A sheriff deputy reported seeing something fall from the balloon near Platteville, Colorado and a photograph of the balloon in flight with a small black dot below was said to suggest the boy may have fallen out or that something had detached from the balloon. Search and rescue crews in Colorado searched for the boy.  At approximately 4:14 PM, CNN and other news reported that the boy was found hiding in a cardboard box in rafters above the garage, but county sheriff Jim Alderden later said, "For all we know he may have been two blocks down the road playing on the swing in the city park."  The "New York Post" estimated that the total cost of the rescue operation would be about $2 million, although this has yet to be verified. The helicopter flights alone during the rescue operation cost about $14,500. The Colorado National Guard assisted the effort with UH-60 Black Hawk and OH-58 Kiowa helicopters.

Hoax allegations and criminal investigation.

Investigation.

After the incident, several news agencies began questioning whether it was a hoax. "Editor & Publisher" pointed out that "few had raised the issue of whether such a balloon could even lift off with a kid inside and then float the way it did" during the flight. The police initially said it did not appear to be a hoax, but when Falcon and his family were being interviewed later in the day by Wolf Blitzer on CNN's "Larry King Live" he asked Falcon, "Why did you not come out of the garage?" After his parents repeated the question, he responded, "You guys said that, um, we did this for the show." Blitzer did not hear the answer, and when he was told by people in the control room what was said, he did not question the boy further after the statement was made. The next day, during interviews on ABC's "Good Morning America" and NBC's "Today", the boy vomited when he was asked about his comment and again when his father was asked about it, fueling more suspicion.  Falcon's answers prompted the sheriff's office to pursue further investigations as to whether the incident was part of a publicity stunt. On October 16, Alderden said that "the suggestion that the boy... was coached to hide seems inconceivable."  Researcher Robert Thomas sold a story to Gawker alleging that he had helped plan a publicity stunt involving a weather balloon and investigators expressed a desire to interview him. Larimer County Sheriff's officials had consulted a Colorado State University physics professor, Brian Jones, who initially determined, based on the dimensions provided by Richard Heene, that the balloon could plausibly lift off with a boy of Falcon's reported size (). However, when authorities later measured the balloon, they concluded it was not large enough to lift the child. Upon inspecting the balloon, authorities learned it weighed more than Heene had said. Alderden said the base of the balloon could have handled without breaking, but to get airborne with those inside it would have to have been attached to a more powerful balloon.  After viewing the home video of the balloon launch, Alderden said the balloon appeared to have been rising very quickly.  During a press conference on October 18, Alderden called the incident a hoax, stating "we believe we have evidence at this point to indicate that this was a publicity stunt in hopes to better market themselves for a reality show." He also said that charges in the case have not yet been filed but that the parents could face both misdemeanor and felony charges, including conspiracy to commit a crime, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, filing a false report with authorities and attempting to influence a public servant. Alderden stated that his comments on October 16 were part of a "game plan" to keep the Heenes' trust.  Richard Heene's lawyer, David Lane, announced on October 19 that Richard and Mayumi Heene would surrender to police as soon as charges were filed, and plead not guilty.  According to the supporting affidavit that law enforcement submitted with their application for a search warrant, Mayumi later admitted that she "knew all along that Falcon was hiding in the residence." The affidavit alleges that the couple planned the hoax about two weeks before releasing the balloon on October 15 and "instructed their three children to lie to authorities as well as the media regarding this hoax", for the purpose of making the family "more marketable for future media interests."

Guilty plea.

Richard Heene's attorney announced on November 12, 2009, that both parents intended to plead guilty to the charges filed against them, for which the prosecutor would recommend probation. The attorney's statement said that the threat of deportation of his wife, Mayumi Heene, who is a Japanese citizen, was a major factor in the plea negotiations. On November 13, Richard Heene pleaded guilty to a felony charge of attempting to influence a public servant. Mayumi Heene did not appear with him, but still faced a misdemeanor charge of false reporting to authorities. However, on January 7, 2010, Richard Heene told authorities that he only pleaded guilty to prevent his wife's potential deportation.  On December 23, 2009, a judge sentenced Richard Heene to 90 days in jail and 100 hours of community service. He was also ordered to write a formal apology to the agencies that searched for Falcon. Mayumi Heene was sentenced to 20 days in jail, to be served through jail-supervised community service for two days a week. Mayumi was also allowed to begin her sentence after her husband's ended in order to ensure her children would be cared for, and the Heenes were also banned from receiving any profits from the hoax for several years. Richard Heene was also ordered to pay $36,000 in restitution. In a 2015 interview with "Today", Heene claimed that the incident was not a hoax. In a 2019 interview with ABC News, the Heene family continued to maintain that the incident was not a hoax, with Mayumi Heene claiming to have confessed out of fear of deportation.

Media attention.

For hours, the incident received extensive media coverage in many parts of the world, with local TV helicopters broadcasting live video of the balloon and rescue operation. The incident also sparked a "balloon boy" Internet meme, as the events were closely followed in blogs and social networking sites in real time, generating speculation, image editing jokes and parodies of the story, which started even when the boy's safety was uncertain. "Balloon boy" became the No. 1 search on Google within hours of the event and 34 of the top 40 searches on Google were related to Falcon Heene and the incident.  In July 2011, Richard Heene auctioned the balloon, selling it to Mike Fruitman—an Aurora, Colorado, businessman—for $2,502. Heene said that proceeds would go to victims of the March 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

Criticism.

"Editor & Publisher" noted that "only after the crash did TV hosts stress that reports of [a] boy in it were 'unverified' and raise the possibility of a hoax."  Experts and commentators also criticized the media's vetting process, questioned the separation between journalism and reality television and raised concerns about the exploitation of children for news stories. Robert Thompson, of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, said that the incident "was a wake-up call to the media but it's a wake-up call that every single one of us is going to sleep through." Thompson blamed technology rather than the media for the problem: "There are two technological phenomena driving this—one is television satellite trucks and the ability to broadcast from anywhere and two is an unlimited number of platforms to place this stuff."

The "Balloon Boy" hoax occurred on October 15, 2009, when a homemade helium-filled gas balloon shaped to resemble a silver flying saucer was released into the atmosphere above Fort Collins, Colorado, by Richard and Mayumi Heene. They then claimed that their six-year-old son Falcon was trapped inside it. Authorities confirmed the balloon reached during its 90-minute flight. The event attracted worldwide attention, and Falcon was nicknamed "Balloon Boy" in the media.

Ke coloradskému incidentu s balónem, který přilákal celosvětovou pozornost médií, došlo 15. října 2009. Řada televizních stanic přerušila standardní vysílání přímým přenosem letu stříbrného podomácku vyrobeného balónu naplněného heliem a tvarem připomínajícího UFO, který se vznášel nad Coloradem ve výšce až 4500 metrů.


Early life.

Laurent was born in Paris, France the daughter of Annick, a ballerina, and Pierre Laurent, a voiceover actor (who dubs the character Ned Flanders in the French version of "The Simpsons"). She is Jewish, of both Ashkenazi Jewish (Polish-Jewish) and Sephardic Jewish (Tunisian-Jewish) descent. Her grandfather was deported from Poland during the Nazi occupation. Her maternal grandparents were film poster editors. She grew up in the 9th arrondissement of Paris.  Laurent visited the set of "Asterix and Obelix" with her friend and the latter's father. Her acting career began when actor Gérard Depardieu, seeing Laurent there, asked her if she wanted to be in films. Laurent replied, "Why not?". He strongly advised her not to take acting classes because he believed she already had the necessary skills. When Laurent was 16, Depardieu gave her a part in "The Bridge", a drama he starred in and co-directed with Fréderic Auburtin. Laurent played the role of Lisbeth Daboval, the daughter of one of the protagonists of the film, Claire Daboval. Laurent also worked as a voiceover actor, dubbing the character Satsuki in the French version of My Neighbour Totoro, and the younger version of Madame de Fleurville in an animated adaptation of Sophie's Misfortunes.

Career.

Debut and early success (2006–08).

Laurent played minor roles in a number of films early in her career. She appeared in Michel Blanc's drama "Summer Things", Jackie Chan's comedy-drama "Rice Rhapsody", Jacques Audiard's drama "The Beat That My Heart Skipped" and the war film "Days of Glory" about the Free French Forces.  Laurent's breakthrough role came in 2006, when she played a sullen 19-year-old who longed for her lost twin brother, in Philippe Lioret's "Don't Worry, I'm Fine". She won a César Award for Most Promising Actress for her performance. In a review for "Variety", Ronnie Scheib praised Laurent and wrote that she, "makes her vibrant character’s downward spiral totally believable without indulging in moody sullenness". That same year, she and Belgian actor Jérémie Renier were awarded France's Romy Schneider and Jean Gabin Prizes for most promising actor and actress. Laurent then starred in the Franco-Belgian "Dikkenek", a comedy directed by Olivier Van Hoofstadt that has attained a cult film over the years owing to its Belgian-style humour, in which she co-starred alongside Marion Cotillard, Jérémie Renier, Jean-Luc Couchard and Dominique Pinon. For her performance in the film, Laurent won the Étoiles d'Or for Best Female Newcomer.  In 2007, Laurent appeared in films including "Le tueur" and "Hidden Love". She was nominated for the Lumières Award for Best Actress for her performance in "La Chambre des morts". Laurent next appeared in Cédric Klapisch's 2008 comedy drama "Paris", a French film concerning a diverse group of people. The film has an ensemble cast including Laurent, Juliette Binoche, Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini, and François Cluzet. The film was well received and praised for the cast's performances.

Hollywood debut and breakthrough (2009–10).

Laurent was scheduled to direct her first play, "Mi-cuit cœur pistache" (the name of a dessert she particularly likes) in January 2009 at the Théâtre Marigny in Paris. She had to abandon the project when she was cast as Shosanna Dreyfus, a Parisian who seeks revenge on Nazis in the Quentin Tarantino film "Inglourious Basterds," alongside Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger and Christoph Waltz. It was a French-language role for which she learned to speak English for a few scenes. The film was a huge commercial and critical success, grossing over $321 million in theaters worldwide. Laurent's performance was praised by several critics. Kyle Buchanan of "Movieline" wrote: "Mélanie Laurent provides "Inglourious Basterds" its heart and soul. It falls to the 26-year-old French actress to anchor some of the World War II film's most challenging scenes as Shosanna."  Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" wrote that Laurent should have received the nomination at the 16th Screen Actors Guild Awards saying, "In drawing attention to one performer, in particular, whom they left out of the Best Supporting Actress category, [...] I flat-out adore this performance and I suspect that many others do too," and further lauding Laurent's performance added, "[Laurent] is radiant and, in a unique Tarantino way, heartbreaking. Sexy and luminous in the heat of her valor. Putting out fire – and setting it. It becomes an anthem of noirish dread and excitement, a sign that Laurent, as Shosanna, has found her destiny."  In an interview, Laurent said that she went into "Inglourious Basterds" with an adoration for Quentin Tarantino. "[The French] don't see him like an independent director; we just see him as the best director, ever, [from the United States]." About the process of auditioning, Laurent said that she knew right from the start that this was a film she had to be in as she felt a connection to her role in the film, because the history of her Jewish family.  In addition, Laurent won a number of accolades for her portrayal of Shosanna including Austin Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress and Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress, and nominations at the Detroit Film Critics Society Awards, Empire Award for Best Actress, and Saturn Award for Best Actress among others. The highly anticipated film, which had been in development since 1998, marked Laurent's first major role in an American film and Laurent found herself pushed into mainstream success in North America.  Laurent's partner Julien Boisselier, as well as Marie Denarnaud, Mélanie Doutey, and Louise Monot were to act in the production while short film clips were to be projected on stage, some of them shot at the nightclub Le Baron, which Laurent used to frequent during the writing period.  In 2010, Laurent starred in "The Round Up", a French film directed by Roselyne Bosch, and produced by Alain Goldman, alongside Jean Reno, Sylvie Testud, and Gad Elmaleh. Based on the true story of a young Jewish boy, the film depicts the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, the mass arrest of Jews by French police who were Nazi accomplices in Paris in July 1942. The film and the Laurent's performance was well received by the critics, with Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" deeming it "well acted". John Anderson of "Newsday" lauded Laurent saying that she gave an "inspiring performance as a gentile nurse".

Continued success (2011–present).

Laurent had also planned another feature film, "Putain de pluie!", produced by Alain Attal's Productions du Trésor, whose script she co-wrote with Morgan Perez and which she intended to direct. Originally set for filming in the spring of 2009, it was postponed because of her work on "Inglourious Basterds". Knowing that she could speak French, and had already acted in French in one of the short films in "Paris, je t'aime", she offered the first role to Natalie Portman, who declined because of the script's language.  Laurent played the part of the violinist in Radu Mihăileanu's "Le Concert"—she called it "a smart movie and a popular movie", and added that she was, "glad because French people wanted to watch a movie with classical music." Mick LaSalle of "San Francisco Chronicle" called it a "role with great technical demands" and praising Laurent wrote, "she's extremely subtle and reserved... "The Concert" constitutes a breakthrough for her, in that it unlocks her emotional floodgates".  Laurent hosted both the opening and closing ceremonies of the 64th Cannes Film Festival. In 2011, she teamed with Mike Mills, appearing opposite Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer in "Beginners", a comedy drama that marked Laurent's second English-speaking role in Hollywood. Laurent plays Anna, an irreverent French actress. Loosely based on Mills' own life, the film depicts the story of a father coming out of the closet at the age of 75 after the death of his wife of 45 years. The film opened to critical acclaim and Laurent's performance was well received, with Calvin Wilson of "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" remarking that Laurent imbued a "soulful charisma" into the role.  Laurent then starred opposite Jeremy Irons in "Night Train to Lisbon", a 2013 drama film based on the novel of the same name directed by Bille August. Jessica Kiang of "Indie Wire" noted that Laurent was "given less to do" but lauded her performance writing that she, "makes the most of her truncated screen time".  Laurent appeared in the Louis Leterrier's 2013 caper film "Now You See Me" as a French Interpol agent who investigates the bank theft alongside Mark Ruffalo and an ensemble cast. The film was a major commercial success grossing over 351.7 million dollars, receiving mixed reviews but praise for the performances of the entire cast. Todd McCarthy of "The Hollywood Reporter" gave Laurent the highest praise and wrote, "[Laurent] is responsible for the only measurable amount of warmth the film exudes."  Laurent's next release, the Canadian-Spanish psychological thriller film "Enemy", directed by Denis Villeneuve, was screened at the Special Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. Loosely adapted by Javier Gullón from José Saramago's 2002 novel "The Double", the film opened to critical acclaim. The film starred Jake Gyllenhaal as two men who are physically identical, but different in terms of personality. Laurent and Sarah Gadon co-star as the romantic partners of the men.  In 2014, Laurent appeared in "Aloft", a 2014 drama film written and directed by Claudia Llosa, alongside Jennifer Connelly and Cillian Murphy. The film premiered in competition at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. Laurent voiced Mary Katherine in Blue Sky Studios' "Epic", and Disgust in Pixar's "Inside Out" in the French dubs of the animated films.  In 2015, Laurent starred alongside Laurent Lafitte, in François Favrat's French drama film "Boomerang" adapted from the bestseller entitled "A Secret Kept" by Tatiana De Rosnay. The film released on 23 September 2013 to positive critical reviews. "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote, "Boomerang is a solid if somewhat conventionally made whodunit that benefits from a strong cast and a plot that hooks you for most of the running time." Laurent then starred as Léa in Angelina Jolie's "By the Sea", an American drama film, written and directed by Jolie. The film also stars Jolie and Brad Pitt, and was released on 13 November 2015, by Universal Pictures. Laurent later appeared in the 2018 drama Operation Finale directed by Chris Weitz, which revolved around the Mossad operation to capture Adolf Eichmann.

Filmmaker career (2008–present).

Laurent made her debut as a director with the 2008 short film "De moins en moins", which she also wrote, a 7-minute film about a patient who "remembers less and less" in front of her psychiatrist. The film was nominated for Best Short Film at the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival. She also directed "À ses pieds", an erotic short film aired on the French television channel Canal+ on 25–26 October 2008, as part of a series of short films, called "X Femmes".  In 2011, she directed her first feature film, "The Adopted". Her second film, "Respire", was screened at the International Critics' Week section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and was highly acclaimed. She then co-directed the 2015 documentary "Tomorrow", which earned her a César Award for Best Documentary Film.  In an interview with "Indiewire" in 2014, Laurent admitted that she loves writing: "[Writing is] especially super exciting because you have everything to do and most of your ideas come from that first part... you just imagine things, and you imagine actors." She described the shooting process as "the fun part" because of: "working with people I love—it’s always a great human moment because we’re sharing things and it’s good to see people who are here for you and your story, to tell your story. It’s really beautiful, it’s why I love making movies."  Laurent made her English-language directorial debut in 2018 with "Galveston", the film adaptation of Nic Pizzolatto's novel of the same name. It starred Ben Foster and Elle Fanning.

Personal life and off-screen work.

Laurent was in a long-term relationship with fellow French actor Julien Boisselier which ended in 2009. In March 2013, she revealed that she had married but refused to name her spouse. She told "The Independent", "he was a crew member and I was an actress." Her first child with her husband, a son named Léo, was born in September 2013.  Laurent has established herself as a successful actress in French cinema. In a 2009 interview, she explained that she does not have ambitions to be a crossover actress. That said, most of her films since 2009 have been in English. She stated that she loved France, her street, her café, and not having to use a car. Rather than go on to work on a big budget American film after "Inglourious Basterds", her next role was in a small theater piece in France. Laurent described recording artist Damien Rice and filmmaker Quentin Tarantino as two "masters" in terms of their art.  Laurent visited a Climate Defenders Camp in the peatlands of the Indonesian Rainforest with Greenpeace activists. She is one of the Climate Ambassadors for Kofi Annan's Global Humanitarian Forum "Tck Tck Tck" Campaign. She joined the campaign against overfishing at the invitation of the Blue Marine Foundation, and was cast for the voice-over of the French documentary "Surpêche" (based on the book "") about the hazards of overfishing. She was also one of the leading celebrities in the successful campaign Fish Fight France, which asked for a new European law lowering the level of fish discards in European seas.  Laurent made her singing debut in May 2011 with a studio album "En t'attendant", under the label of Atmosphériques. Produced by Joel Shearer, the album contains twelve songs, five of which are co-written and co-produced by Irish folk musician Damien Rice. The album peaked at number 22 and number 35 on the "Belgian Albums Charts" and "French Albums Charts" respectively. She recorded the album with Rice, living between Woodstock, New York and his home in Ireland. In an interview, Laurent revealed that spending time at Rice's home in Ireland inspired her to maintain a compost heap and eat organic food.

Filmography and awards.

Accolades.

For her role in "Don't Worry, I'm Fine" Laurent won the César Award and Lumières Award in the Most Promising Actress category. She received numerous accolades for her role in "Inglourious Basterds" including Best Actress Award at the Austin Film Critics Association Awards and Online Film Critics Society Awards among others. Laurent's film "Demain" won the César Award for Best Documentary Film.

Mélanie Laurent (; born 21 February 1983) is a French actress, filmmaker, singer, and pianist. The recipient of two César Awards, an "Étoiles d'or du cinéma français" and a Lumières Award, she has established herself as an accomplished actress in the French film industry. Born in Paris to a Jewish family, Laurent was introduced to acting at the age of sixteen by Gérard Depardieu, who cast her in a minor role in the romantic drama "The Bridge" (1999). She gained wider recognition for her supporting work in several French films, most notably the 2006 comedy "Dikkenek", for which she won Étoiles d'Or for Best Female Newcomer. Her breakthrough role came in the 2006 drama film "Don't Worry, I'm Fine", for which she later won the César Award for Most Promising Actress and the Prix Romy Schneider. Laurent made her Hollywood debut in 2009 with the starring role as Shosanna Dreyfus in Quentin Tarantino's blockbuster war film "Inglourious Basterds". Her performance won the Online Film Critics Society and the Austin Film Critics Association Best Actress Awards.

Mélanie Laurentová, nepřechýleně Mélanie Laurent (* 21. února 1983 Paříž, Francie), je francouzská herečka, režisérka a spisovatelka. Mezi její významné filmové role patří postava Šošany Dreyfusové ve filmu "Hanebný pancharti" ("Inglourious Basterds") Quentina Tarantina z roku 2009.


History as a hypothesized language family.

The concept of a Ural-Altaic ethnic and language family goes back to the linguistic theories of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz; in his opinion there was no better method for specifying the relationship and origin of the various peoples of the Earth, than the comparison of their languages. In his 'Brevis designatio meditationum de originibus gentium ductis potissimum ex indicio linguarum', written in 1710, he originates every human language from one common ancestor language. Over time, this ancestor language split into two families; the Japhetic and the Aramaic. The Japhetic family split even further, into Scythian and Celtic branches. The members of the Scythian family were: the Greek language, the family of Sarmato-Slavic languages (Russian, Polish, Czech, Dalmatian, Bulgar, Slovene, Avar and Khazar), the family of Turkic languages (Turkish, Cuman, Kalmyk and Mongolian), the family of Finnic languages (Finnish, Saami, Hungarian, Estonian, Liv and Samoyed). Although his theory and grouping were far from perfect, they had a considerable effect on the development of linguistic research, especially in German-speaking countries.  In his book 'An historico-geographical description of the north and east parts of Europe and Asia', published in 1730, Philip Johan von Strahlenberg, Swedish prisoner-of-war and explorer of Siberia, who accompanied Daniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt on his expeditions, described Finno-Ugric, Turkic, Samoyedic, Mongolic, Tungusic and Caucasian peoples as sharing linguistic and cultural commonalities. 20th century scholarship has on several occasions incorrectly credited him with proposing a Ural-Altaic language family, though he does not claim linguistic affinity "between" any of the six groups.  Danish philologist Rasmus Christian Rask described what he called "Scythian" languages in 1834, which included Finno-Ugric, Turkic, Samoyedic, Eskimo, Caucasian, Basque and others.  The Ural-Altaic hypothesis was elaborated at least as early as 1836 by W. Schott and in 1838 by F. J. Wiedemann.  The "Altaic" hypothesis, as mentioned by Finnish linguist and explorer Matthias Castrén by 1844, included the Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic, grouped as "Chudic", and Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic, grouped as "Tataric". Subsequently, in the latter half of the 19th century, Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic came to be referred to as Altaic languages, whereas Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic were called Uralic. The similarities between these two families led to their retention in a common grouping, named Ural–Altaic.  Friedrich Max Müller, the German Orientalist and philologist, published and proposed a new grouping of the non-Aryan and non-Semitic Asian languages in 1855. In his work "The Languages of the Seat of War in the East", he called these languages "Turanian". Müller divided this group into two subgroups, the Southern Division, and the Northern Division. In the long run, his evolutionist theory about languages' structural development, tying growing grammatical refinement to socio-economic development, and grouping languages into 'antediluvian', 'familial', 'nomadic', and 'political' developmental stages, proved unsound, but his Northern Division was renamed and re-classed as the "Ural-Altaic languages".  Between the 1850s and 1870s, there were efforts by Frederick Roehrig to including some Native American languages in a "Turanian" or "Ural-Altaic" family, and between the 1870s and 1890s, there was speculation about links with Basque.  In Hungary the idea of the Ural–Altaic relationship remained widely implicitly accepted in the late 19th and the mid-20th century, though more out of pan-nationalist than linguistic reasons, and without much detailed research carried out. Elsewhere the notion had sooner fallen into discredit, with Ural–Altaic supporters elsewhere such as the Finnish Altaicist Martti Räsänen being in the minority. The contradiction between Hungarian linguists' convictions and the lack of clear evidence eventually provided motivation for scholars such as Aurélien Sauvageot and Denis Sinor to carry out more detailed investigation of the hypothesis, which so far has failed to yield generally accepted results. Nicholas Poppe in his article "The Uralo-Altaic Theory in the Light of the Soviet Linguistics" (1940) also attempted to refute Castrén's views by showing that the common agglutinating features may have arisen independently.  Beginning in the 1960s, the hypothesis came to be seen even more controversial, due to the Altaic family itself also falling out universal acceptance. Today, the hypothesis that Uralic and Altaic are related more closely to one another than to any other family has almost no adherents. There are, however, a number of hypotheses that propose a macrofamily including Uralic, Altaic and other families. None of these hypotheses has widespread support.  In his "Altaic Etymological Dictionary", co-authored with Anna V. Dybo and Oleg A. Mudrak, Sergei Starostin characterized the Ural–Altaic hypothesis as "an idea now completely discarded". In Starostin's sketch of a "Borean" super-phylum, he puts Uralic and Altaic as daughters of an ancestral language of c. 9,000 years ago from which the Dravidian languages and the Paleo-Siberian languages, including Eskimo-Aleut, are also descended. He posits that this ancestral language, together with Indo-European and Kartvelian, descends from a "Eurasiatic" protolanguage some 12,000 years ago, which in turn would be descended from a "Borean" protolanguage via Nostratic.  Angela Marcantonio (2002) argues that there is no sufficient evidence for a Finno-Ugric or Uralic group connecting the Finno-Permic and Ugric languages, and suggests that they are no more closely related to each other than either is to Turkic, thereby positing a grouping very similar to Ural–Altaic or indeed to Castrén's original Altaic proposal. This thesis has been criticized by mainstream Uralic scholars.

Typology.

There is general agreement on several typological similarities being widely found among the languages considered under Ural–Altaic:  Such similarities do not constitute sufficient evidence of genetic relationship all on their own, as other explanations are possible. Juha Janhunen has argued that although Ural–Altaic is to be rejected as a genealogical relationship, it remains a viable concept as a well-defined language area, which in his view has formed through the historical interaction and convergence of four core language families (Uralic, Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic), and their influence on the more marginal Korean and Japonic.  Contrasting views on the typological situation have been presented by other researchers. Michael Fortescue has connected Uralic instead as a part of an Uralo-Siberian typological area (comprising Uralic, Yukaghir, Chukotko-Kamchatkan and Eskimo-Aleut), contrasting with a more narrowly defined Altaic typological area; while Anderson has outlined a specifically Siberian language area, including within Uralic only the Ob-Ugric and Samoyedic groups; within Altaic most of the Tungusic family as well as Siberian Turkic and Buryat (Mongolic); as well as Yukaghir, Chukotko-Kamchatkan, Eskimo-Aleut, Nivkh, and Yeniseian.

Relationship between Uralic and Altaic.

The Altaic language family was generally accepted by linguists from the late 19th century up to the 1960s, but since then has been in dispute. For simplicity's sake, the following discussion assumes the validity of the Altaic language family.  Two senses should be distinguished in which Uralic and Altaic might be related.  In other words, showing a genetic relationship does not suffice to establish a language family, such as the proposed Ural–Altaic family; it is also necessary to consider whether other languages from outside the proposed family might not be at least as closely related to the languages in that family as the latter are to each other. This distinction is often overlooked but is fundamental to the genetic classification of languages. Some linguists indeed maintain that Uralic and Altaic are related through a larger family, such as Eurasiatic or Nostratic, within which Uralic and Altaic are no more closely related to each other than either is to any other member of the proposed family, for instance than Uralic or Altaic is to Indo-European (for example Greenberg).

Shared vocabulary.

To demonstrate the existence of a language family, it is necessary to find cognate words that trace back to a common proto-language. Shared vocabulary alone does not show a relationship, as it may be loaned from one language to another or through the language of a third party.  There are shared words between, for example, Turkic and Ugric languages, or Tungusic and Samoyedic languages, which are explainable by borrowing. However, it has been difficult to find Ural–Altaic words shared across all involved language families. Such words should be found in all branches of the Uralic and Altaic trees and should follow regular sound changes from the proto-language to known modern languages, and regular sound changes from Proto-Ural–Altaic to give Proto-Uralic and Proto-Altaic words should be found to demonstrate the existence of a Ural–Altaic vocabulary. Instead, candidates for Ural–Altaic cognate sets can typically be supported by only one of the Altaic subfamilies. In contrast, about 200 Proto-Uralic word roots are known and universally accepted, and for the proto-languages of the Altaic subfamilies and the larger main groups of Uralic, on the order of 1000–2000 words can be recovered.  Some linguists point out strong similarities in the personal pronouns of Uralic and Altaic languages.  The basic numerals, unlike those among the Indo-European languages (compare Proto-Indo-European numerals), are particularly divergent between all three core Altaic families and Uralic, and to a lesser extent even within Uralic.  One alleged Ural-Altaic similarity among this data are the Hungarian ("három") and Mongolian ("ɣurban") numerals for '3'. According to Róna-Tas (1983), elevating this similarity to a hypothesis of common origin would still require several ancillary hypotheses:

Sound correspondences.

The following consonant correspondences between Uralic and Altaic are asserted by Poppe (1983):

Ural–Altaic, Uralo-Altaic or Uraltaic is a linguistic convergence zone and former language-family proposal uniting the Uralic and the Altaic (in the narrow sense) languages. It is generally now agreed that even the Altaic languages most likely do not share a common descent: the similarities among Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic are better explained by diffusion and borrowing. The term continues to be used for the central Eurasian typological, grammatical and lexical convergence zone. Indeed, "Ural-Altaic" may be preferable to "Altaic" in this sense. For example, J. Janhunen states that "speaking of 'Altaic' instead of 'Ural-Altaic' is a misconception, for there are no areal or typological features that are specific to 'Altaic' without Uralic."

Uralsko-altajské jazyky jsou jazyková rodina zahrnující uralské a altajské jazyky. Uralsko-altajskými jazyky hovoří celkem 420 milionů lidí, což je 6% celkové populace.


World War I and interwar period.

The 101st Division headquarters was organized 2 November 1918 at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, having been constituted on 23 July in the National Army. World War I ended 9 days later, and the division was demobilized on 11 December

World War II to Present Day.

On 30 July 1942, the Army Ground Forces ordered the activation of two airborne divisions not later than 15 August 1942. The 82nd Division, an Organized Reserve division that had been ordered into active military service in March 1942, was ordered to provide cadre to the 101st Division, the other division selected for the project, for all elements except parachute infantry. As part of the reorganization of the 101st Division as an airborne division, the unit was disbanded on 15 August 1942 and reconstituted and reactivated in the Army of the United States. On 19 August 1942, its first commander, Major General William C. Lee, read out General Order Number 5:  The 101st Airborne Division, which was activated on 16 August 1942, at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, has no history, but it has a rendezvous with destiny.  Due to the nature of our armament, and the tactics in which we shall perfect ourselves, we shall be called upon to carry out operations of far-reaching military importance and we shall habitually go into action when the need is immediate and extreme. Let me call your attention to the fact that our badge is the great American eagle. This is a fitting emblem for a division that will crush its enemies by falling upon them like a thunderbolt from the skies.  The history we shall make, the record of high achievement we hope to write in the annals of the American Army and the American people, depends wholly and completely on the men of this division. Each individual, each officer and each enlisted man, must therefore regard himself as a necessary part of a complex and powerful instrument for the overcoming of the enemies of the nation. Each, in his own job, must realize that he is not only a means, but an indispensable means for obtaining the goal of victory. It is, therefore, not too much to say that the future itself, in whose molding we expect to have our share, is in the hands of the soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division.

D-Day.

The pathfinders of the 101st Airborne Division led the way on D-Day in the night drop before the invasion. They left from RAF North Witham, having trained there with the 82nd Airborne Division. These night drops caused a lot of trouble for the gliders. Many crashed and equipment and personnel were lost.  The 101st Airborne Division's objectives were to secure the four causeway exits behind Utah Beach between St Martin-de-Varreville and Pouppeville to ensure the exit route for the 4th Infantry Division from the beach later that morning. The other objectives included destroying a German coastal artillery battery at

Drop Zone Able.

The paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division jumped between 0048 and 0140 British Double Summer Time of 6 June. The first wave, inbound to Drop Zone A (the northernmost), was not surprised by the cloud bank and maintained formation, but navigating errors and a lack of Eureka signal caused the first error. Although the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment was dropped as a compact unit, it jumped on the wrong drop zone, while its commander, Lt Col. Steve A. Chappuis, came down virtually alone on the correct drop zone. Chappuis and his stick captured the coastal battery soon after assembling, and found that it had already been dismantled after an air raid.  Most of the remainder of the 502nd (70 of 80 sticks) dropped in a

Drop Zone Charlie.

The second wave, assigned to drop the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) on Drop Zone C west of Sainte Marie-du-Mont, was badly dispersed by the clouds, then subjected to intense antiaircraft fire for. Three of the 81 C-47s were lost before or during the jump. One, piloted by 1st Lt. Marvin F. Muir of the 439th Troop Carrier Group, caught fire. Lt. Muir held the aircraft steady while the stick jumped, then died when the plane crashed immediately afterward, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Despite the opposition, the 506th's 1st Battalion (the original division reserve) was dropped accurately on DZ C,

Drop Zone Dog.

The third wave also encountered severe flak, losing six aircraft. The troop carriers still made an accurate drop, placing 94 of 132 sticks on or close to the drop zone, but part of the DZ was covered by pre-registered German machinegun and mortar fire that inflicted heavy casualties before many troops could get out of their chutes. Among the killed were two of the three battalion commanders and the executive officer of the 3/506th.  The surviving battalion commander, Lt Col. Robert A. Ballard, gathered 250 troopers and advanced toward Saint Côme-du-Mont to complete his mission of destroying the highway bridges over the Douve. Less than half a mile from his objective at les Droueries he was

Other actions.

Two other noteworthy actions took place near Sainte Marie-du-Mont by units of the 506th PIR, both of which involved the seizure and destruction of batteries of 105mm guns of the German III Battalion-191st Artillery Regiment. During the morning, a small patrol of troopers from Company E 506th PIR under (then) 1st Lt. Richard D. Winters overwhelmed a force 3–4 times its size and destroyed four guns at a farm called Brécourt Manor, for which Winters was later awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the assault troops given Silver and Bronze Stars. This was later documented in the book "Band of Brothers" and the acclaimed miniseries of the same name. Around noon, while reconnoitering the area by jeep, Col. Sink received word that a second battery of four guns had been discovered at Holdy, a manor between his CP and Sainte Marie-du-Mont, and the defenders had a force of some 70 paratroopers pinned down. Capt. Lloyd E. Patch (Headquarters Company 1st/506th) and Capt. Knut H. Raudstein (Company C 506th PIR) led an additional 70 troops to Holdy and enveloped the position. The combined force then continued on to seize

Operation Market Garden.

On 17 September 1944, the 101st Airborne Division became part of XVIII Airborne Corps, under Major General Matthew Ridgway, part of the First Allied Airborne Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Lewis H. Brereton. The division took part in Operation Market Garden (17–25 September 1944), an unsuccessful Allied military operation under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, commander of the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group, to capture Dutch bridges over the Rhine fought in the Netherlands and the largest airborne operation of all time.  The plan, as outlined by Field Marshal Montgomery, required the seizure by airborne forces of several bridges on the Highway 69 across the Maas (Meuse River) and two arms of the Rhine (the Waal and the Lower Rhine), as well as several smaller canals and tributaries. Crossing these bridges would allow British armoured units to outflank the Siegfried Line, advance into northern Germany, and encircle the Ruhr, Germany's industrial heartland, thus ending the war. This meant the large-scale use of Allied airborne forces, including both the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, along with

Battle of the Bulge.

The Ardennes Offensive (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was a major German offensive launched towards the end of World War II through the forested Ardennes Mountains region of Belgium. Germany's planned goal for these operations was to split the British and American Allied line in half, capturing Antwerp, Belgium in the process, and then proceeding to encircle and destroy the entire British 21st Army Group and all 12th U.S. Army Group units north of the German advance, forcing the Western Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in the Axis Powers' favor as a result. In order to reach Antwerp before the Allies could regroup and bring their superior air power to bear, German mechanized forces had to seize all the major highways through eastern Belgium. Because all seven of the main roads in the Ardennes converged on the small town of Bastogne, control of its crossroads was vital to the success or failure of the German attack.  Despite several notable signs in the weeks preceding the attack,

Liberation of Kaufering.

In April 1945, the 101st moved into the Rhineland and eventually reached the Bavarian Alps. As the 101st drove into Southern Germany they liberated Kaufering IV, one of the camps in the Kaufering complex. Kaufering IV had been designated as the sick camp where prisoners

Composition.

The division was composed of

Awards.

During World War II the division

Post-War.

On 1 August 1945, the 501st PIR was moved to France while the rest of the division was based around Zell am See and Kaprun in the Austrian alps. Some units within

Helmet insignia.

The 101st was distinguished partly by its tactical helmet insignia. Card suits (diamonds, spades, hearts, and clubs) on each side of the helmet denoted the regiment to which a soldier belonged. The only exception was the 187th, who were added to the division later. Divisional headquarters and support units were denoted by use of a square and divisional artillery by a circle. Tick marks at 3, 6, and 9 o'clock indicated to which battalion the individual belonged, while the tick mark at 12 o'clock indicated a headquarters or headquarters company assignment.

Postwar training and Pentomic reactivation.

The 101st Airborne was allotted to the Regular Army in June 1948 and reactivated as a training unit at Camp Breckenridge, Kentucky the following July, only to be deactivated the next year. It was reactivated in 1950 following the outbreak of the Korean War, again to serve as a Training Center at Camp Breckenridge until inactivated in December 1953. During this time it included the 53rd Airborne Infantry Regiment.

Civil rights.

The "Little Rock Nine" were a group of African-American students who were enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in September 1957, as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the historic "Brown v. Board of Education" case. Elements of the division's 1st Airborne Battle Group, 327th

STRAC.

In 1958 the US Army formed the Strategic Army Corps consisting of the 101st

Vietnam War.

On 29 July 1965, the 1st Brigade deployed to II Corps, South Vietnam with the following units:  From 1965 to 1967, the 1st Brigade operated independently as sort of a fire brigade and earned the reputation as being called the "Nomads of Vietnam." They fought in every area of South Vietnam from the Demilitarized Zone up north all the way down the Central Highlands. In May 1967 the 1st Brigade operated as part of Task Force Oregon.  Within the United States, the 101st,

Tiger Force.

Tiger Force was the nickname of a long-range reconnaissance patrol unit of the 1st Battalion (Airborne), 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade (Separate), 101st Airborne Division, which fought in the Vietnam War. The platoon-sized unit, approximately 45 paratroopers, was founded by Colonel David Hackworth in November 1965 to "outguerrilla the guerrillas". Tiger Force (Recon) 1/327th was a highly decorated

Lam Son 719.

In 1971, elements of the division supported Operation Lam Son 719, the South Vietnamese invasion of southern Laos, but only aviation units actually entered Laos.  The Division began withdrawing from South Vietnam on 15 May 1971 with the departure of the 3rd Battalion, 506th Infantry. Most major units of the Division had redeployed by January 1972.  In the seven years that all or part of the division served in Vietnam it suffered 4,011 killed and 18,259 wounded in action. The division, during this time, participated in 12 separate campaigns and 17 of the division's Medal of Honor recipients are from this period of time – all this giving the 101st Airborne Division a combat record unmatched by any other division.

Post-Vietnam.

In 1968, the 101st took on the structure and equipment of an airmobile division. Following its return from Vietnam, the division was rebuilt with one brigade (3d) and supporting elements on jump status, using the assets of what had been the 173rd Airborne Brigade. The remaining two brigades and supporting units were organized as airmobile. With the exception of certain specialized units, such as the pathfinders and parachute riggers, in early 1974 the Army terminated jump status for the division. Concurrently the 101st introduced the Airmobile Badge (renamed later that year as the Air Assault

Air Assault Operations.

In 1974, the 101st Airborne was reorganized as an air assault division. The foundation of modern-day air assault operations was laid by the World War Two era German Fallschirmjäger, Brandenburgers, and the 22nd Air Landing Division glider borne paras. In 1941 the U.S. Army quickly adopted this concept of offensive operations initially utilizing wooden gliders before the development of helicopters. Air Assault operations consist of highly mobile teams covering extensive distances and engaging enemy forces behind enemy lines and often by surprise,

Persian Gulf War.

On 17 January 1991, the 101st Aviation Regiment, fired the first shots of the war when eight AH-64 helicopters successfully destroyed two Iraqi early warning radar sites. In February 1991, the 101st once again had its "Rendezvous with Destiny" in Iraq during the combat air assault into enemy territory. The 101st Airborne Division had struck 155 miles behind

Humanitarian aid.

The division has supported humanitarian relief efforts in

Kosovo.

In February 2000, through August 2000 3rd Brigade 1/187 deployed to Kosovo for peacekeeping operations as a part of Task Force Falcon in support of Operation Joint

Montana forest fires.

In September and October 2000, the 3rd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, helped fight fires on the Bitterroot National Forest in

Operation Enduring Freedom.

The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) was the first unit to deploy in support of the American War on Terrorism. The 101st Airborne (Air Assault) Division brigade performed counterinsurgency operations within Afghanistan, consisting mostly of raids, ambushes and patrolling. The 101st also performed combat air assaults throughout the operation.  The 2nd Brigade, "Strike", built around the 502d Infantry, was largely deployed to Kosovo on peacekeeping operations, with some elements of 3rd Battalion, 502nd, deploying after 9/11 as a security element in the U.S. CENTCOM AOR with the Fort Campbell-based 5th Special Forces Group.  The division quickly deployed its 3rd Brigade, the 187th Infantry's "Rakkasans", as the first conventional unit to fight as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In 2003, Major General David H. Petraeus ("Eagle 6") led the Screaming Eagles to war during the 2003 invasion of Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom). General Petraeus led the division into Iraq saying, "Guidons, Guidons. This is Eagle 6. The 101st Airborne Division's next Rendezvous with Destiny is North to Baghdad. Op-Ord Desert Eagle 2 is now in effect. Godspeed. Air Assault. Out."  The division was in V Corps, providing support to the 3rd Infantry Division by clearing Iraqi strongpoints which that division

Second deployment to Iraq.

The division's second deployment to Iraq began in the late summer of 2005. The division headquarters replaced the 42d Infantry Division, which had been directing security operations as the headquarters for Task Force Liberty. Renamed Task Force Band of Brothers, the 101st assumed responsibility on 1 November 2005 for four provinces in north central Iraq: Salah ad Din, As Sulymaniyah. On 30 December 2005, Task Force Band of Brothers also assumed responsibility for training Iraqi security forces and conducting security operations in Ninevah and Dahuk provinces as the headquarters for Task Force Freedom was disestablished.  During the second deployment, 2d and 4th Brigades of the 101st Airborne Division were assigned to conduct security operations under the command of Task Force Baghdad, led initially by 3d Infantry Division, which was replaced by 4th Infantry Division. The 1st Battalion of the 506th Infantry (4th Brigade) was separated from the division and served with the Marines in Ramadi, in the

Return to Afghanistan.

While the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Brigade Combat Teams were deployed to Iraq 2007–2008, the division headquarters, 4th Brigade Combat

2010 Afghanistan.

The Division Headquarters, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 2d Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, and 4th Brigade Combat Team, and the 101st Sustainment Brigade deployed to Afghanistan in 2010. This is the first time since returning from Iraq in 2006 where all four infantry brigades (plus one CAB, SUSBDE) have served in the same combat theater.  On 15 September 2010, the 101st Airborne began a major operation known

2011 Afghanistan.

The 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division conducted a major combat operation in Barawala Kalay Valley, Kunar Province, Afghanistan in late March–April 2011. It is known as the Battle of Barawala Kalay Valley. It was an operation to close down the Taliban supply route through the Barawala Kalay Valley and to remove the forces of Taliban warlord Qari

Operation United Assistance.

In 2014, the 101st Airborne Division Headquarters deployed to west

5th Special Forces Group.

In 2015, 5th Special Forces Group held five training sessions with the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division. The classes covered communications

2016 Iraq.

The U.S. Army sent 500 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) to Iraq and Kuwait in early 2016 to advise and assist Iraqi Security Forces.  In the recent conflicts the 101st Airborne has been increasingly involved conducting special operations especially the training and development of other states' military and security forces and counter-terrorism operations. This is known in the special operations community as foreign internal defense and counter-terrorism. It was announced 14 January 2016 that soldiers of the 101st Airborne would be assigned rotations in Iraq, to train members of the Iraqi ground forces in preparation for action against the Islamic State. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told the 101st Airborne that "The Iraqi and Peshmerga forces

Operation Freedom's Sentinel.

On 6 September 2016, the U.S. Army announced it will deploy about 1,400 soldiers from 3rd Brigade Combat Team to Afghanistan in fall 2016, in support of Operation Freedom's Sentinel – the U.S. counter-terrorism operation against the remnants of al-Qaeda,

Operation Inherent Resolve.

In May 2016, the brigade, deployed to advise and assist, train and equip Iraqi security forces to fight the Islamic State of Iraq. The 2nd Brigade also conducted precision surface-to-surface fires and supported a multitude of intelligence and logistical operations for

Somali Civil War (2009–present).

In mid-April 2017, it was reported that 40 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division were deployed to Somalia on 2 April 2017 to improve the capabilities of the

Current structure.

101st Airborne Division consists of a division headquarters and headquarters battalion, three infantry brigade combat teams, a division artillery, a combat aviation brigade, a sustainment brigade, as well as several attached units. The field artillery battalions are not included in the three infantry brigade combat teams and are assigned to 101st Airborne Division Artillery. 1st Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT) ("Bastogne")(♣) 2nd IBCT ("Strike")(♥) 3rd IBCT ("Rakkasan")() 101st Airborne Division Artillery (DIVARTY) ("Guns of Glory")(•) Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (CAB) ("Wings of Destiny")(♦) 101st Airborne Division Sustainment Brigade ("Life Liners")

The 101st Airborne Division ("Screaming Eagles") is a specialized modular light infantry division of the United States Army trained for air assault operations. The Screaming Eagles were previously referred to as "the tip of the spear" by former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and the most potent and tactically mobile of the U.S. Army's divisions by former Chief of Staff of the Army GEN Edward C. Meyer (ret). The 101st Airborne is able to plan, coordinate, and execute brigade-size air assault operations capable of seizing key terrain in support of operational objectives, and is capable of working in austere environments with limited or degraded infrastructure. These particular operations are conducted by highly mobile teams covering extensive distances and engaging enemy forces behind enemy lines. According to the author of "Screaming Eagles: 101st Airborne Division", its unique battlefield mobility and high level of training have kept it in the vanguard of US land combat forces in recent conflicts. More recently, the 101st Airborne has been performing foreign internal defense and counterterrorism operations within Iraq and Afghanistan.

101. výsadková divize – "Screaming Eagles" („"Křičící orlové"“), je americká vojenská modulární pěší divize Armády Spojených států cvičená pro letecké útočné mise (operace) skládající se z 501., 502. a 506. pěšího pluku. Je bojově nejvytíženější jednotkou americké armády.