Name.

The index is known by several other names, especially "Sørensen–Dice index", "Sørensen index" and "Dice's coefficient". Other variations include the "similarity coefficient" or "index", such as "Dice similarity coefficient (DSC)". Common alternate spellings for Sørensen are Sorenson, Soerenson and Sörenson, and all three can also be seen with the –sen ending.  Other names include:

Formula.

Sørensen's original formula was intended to be applied to discrete data. Given two sets, X and Y, it is defined as  where |"X"| and |"Y"| are the cardinalities of the two sets (i.e. the number of elements in each set). The Sørensen index equals twice the number of elements common to both sets divided by the sum of the number of elements in each set.  When applied to Boolean data, using the definition of true positive (TP), false positive (FP), and false negative (FN), it can be written as  It is different from the Jaccard index which only counts true positives once in both the numerator and denominator. DSC is the quotient of similarity and ranges between 0 and 1. It can be viewed as a similarity measure over sets.  Similarly to the Jaccard index, the set operations can be expressed in terms of vector operations over binary vectors a and b:  is not a proper distance metric as it does not possess the property of triangle inequality. The simplest counterexample of this is given by the three sets {a}, {b}, and {a,b}, the distance between the first two being 1, and the difference between the third and each of the others being one-third. To satisfy the triangle inequality, the sum of "any" two of these three sides must be greater than or equal to the remaining side. However, the distance between {a} and {a,b} plus the distance between {b} and {a,b} equals 2/3 and is therefore less than the distance between {a} and {b} which is 1.

Applications.

The Sørensen–Dice coefficient is useful for ecological community data (e.g. Looman & Campbell, 1960). Justification for its use is primarily empirical rather than theoretical (although it can be justified theoretically as the intersection of two fuzzy sets). As compared to Euclidean distance, the Sørensen distance retains sensitivity in more heterogeneous data sets and gives less weight to outliers. Recently the Dice score (and its variations, e.g. logDice taking a logarithm of it) has become popular in computer lexicography for measuring the lexical association score of two given words. It is also commonly used in image segmentation, in particular for comparing algorithm output against reference masks in medical applications.

Abundance version.

The expression is easily extended to abundance instead of presence/absence of species. This quantitative version is known by several names:

The Sørensen–Dice coefficient (see below for other names) is a statistic used to gauge the similarity of two samples. It was independently developed by the botanists Thorvald Sørensen and Lee Raymond Dice, who published in 1948 and 1945 respectively.

Lindice de Sørensen-Dice, connu aussi sous les noms dindice de Sørensen, coefficient de Dice et d'autres noms encore (donnés plus bas dans la section Noms) est un indicateur statistique qui mesure la similarité de deux échantillons. Il a été développé indépendamment par les botanistes et dans des articles publiés en 1948 et 1945 respectivement.


Career.

McCartan began his career with a minor part in the stage version of "Disney's High School Musical" in 2007. In 2011 he starred in the titular role in Minnesota's first regional production of The Phantom of The Opera that same year, he won Best Performance by an Actor at the Jimmy Awards, given out by The Broadway League to the top performers in high school musical productions.  Starting in 2013 McCartan began playing the recurring role of Diggie on the Disney Channel comedy "Liv and Maddie". In 2015 he starred in the direct-to-video film "". In 2016 McCartan was cast in the lead role of Brad Majors in the 2016 Fox musical television film "".  In May 2015 Dove Cameron announced that she and McCartan were officially forming a pop duo and would be releasing their first original song. In September 2015, they announced their group's name would be The Girl and the Dreamcatcher, and their first video was released in October 2015. Beginning September 11, 2018, McCartan made his Broadway debut as Fiyero in the musical "Wicked". He remained with the show through May 12, 2019.  He also originated the role of Jason Dean in the original off-broadway cast of the musical "". which ran till 2014 and the Los Angeles version in 2013. In mid-2018 he originated the lead role of Eddie Corbin in the new musical Mutt House at the Kirk Douglas Theatre and in August 2019 he played Lt. Cable in "South Pacific" at the Aspen Music Festival.  He also starred in the role of Mac in the Roundabout Theatre Company's new musical "Scotland PA". In November 2019 he made his solo show debut at Feinstein's 54 Below. He joined the cast of "Frozen" as Hans in February 2020. However, due to the 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic, all Broadway theatres were closed. Disney later announced "Frozen" would not reopen after the lockdown is lifted.  McCartan is part of the Rodgers and Hammerstein goes Pop! project producing a single version of This Nearly Was Mine.  In April 2020, he hosted the Broadway_Cares/Equity_Fights_AIDS viewing of 25 Years of Disney Broadway.

Personal life.

McCartan was born in Excelsior, Minnesota. His father, Conn McCartan, was the principal at Eden Prairie High School in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, until he retired in 2018. Now, Conn teaches at Perpich Center for Arts Education in Golden Valley, MN. Ryan McCartan attended Minnetonka High School in Minnetonka, Minnesota, where he was active in theater and choir.  McCartan began dating actress and singer Dove Cameron in August 2013. He officially announced that Cameron was his fiancée on April 14, 2016, but their relationship ended in October 2016. As of 2017, he is dating youtuber Samantha Fekete. On October 31, 2016, McCartan revealed he suffered from diabetes since age six.  In 2019, McCartan stated in an interview that he had been sexually abused by a theatre mentor when he was 12.

Ryan Jerome McCartan (born June 14, 1993) is an American actor and singer. As an actor, he is known for his recurring role as Diggie Smalls on the Disney Channel sitcom "Liv and Maddie", and for his role as Brad Majors in the 2016 Fox musical television film "". McCartan is also known as one half of the pop duo The Girl and the Dreamcatcher. McCartan also played Jason "J.D." Dean in the Los Angeles (2013) and the original off-Broadway (2014) versions of "". He also played Fiyero, the main love interest, in the Broadway production of "Wicked". He was also the final Hans in the Broadway production of "Frozen".

Ryan McCartan, né le dans le Minnesota, aux États-Unis, est un acteur et chanteur américain. Connu à la télévision dans la série Liv et Maddie (2013-2017) et (2016) en hommage de The Rocky Horror Picture Show, il est également actif aux théâtres avec (2013-2014). Egalement chanteur, il a formé avec son ex-fiancée, l'actrice et chanteuse Dove Cameron, le duo The Girl and the Dreamcatcher (2015-2016)


Belgique aux Jeux olympiques d'été de 1928

Athletics.

32 athletes, 24 men and 8 women, represented Belgium in 1928. It was the nation's 5th appearance in the sport. It was the first time women's events were held in the sport.

Boxing.

Two men represented Belgium in boxing in 1928. It was the nation's third appearance in the sport. Both men reached the round of 16 (Sartos by winning his first bout, Anneet with a bye), but were defeated there.

Cycling.

Eight cyclists, all men, represented Belgium in 1928. It was the nation's 6th appearance in the sport, in which Belgium had competed every time that Belgium had sent an Olympic team. For the first time since 1912, Belgium won no cycling medals.

Equestrian.

Nine riders, all men, represented Belgium in the equestrian events in 1928. It was Belgium's 5th appearance in the sport; Belgium was one of 3 nations (along with France and the United States) to compete in every Olympic equestrian competition to date. For the second time in a row, Belgium won no medals.

Fencing.

21 fencers, 18 men and 3 women, represented Belgium in 1928. It was the nation's 6th appearance in the sport. Women fencers represented Belgium for the first time; Belgium had not had any entrants in the inaugural women's fencing competition in 1924. Belgium had three 4th-place finishes and four other final pool competitors, but won no medals. It was the first time since 1900 (Belgium's first appearance) that the nation failed to medal in the sport.

Football.

Belgium competed in men's football for the fourth time in 1928. The team beat Luxembourg in the round of 16 but was defeated by eventual silver medalists Argentina in the quarterfinals.

Hockey.

Belgium competed in men's field hockey for the second time. The team, which had won bronze in the previous tournament in 1920, reached the bronze medal match in 1928. There, they lost to Germany and finished in 4th place.  ----

Modern pentathlon.

Belgium had the maximum number of pentathletes, three men, in 1928. It was the nation's 2nd appearance in the sport.

Rowing.

21 men represented Belgium in rowing in 1928. It was the nation's 6th appearance in the sport, matching Canada and Great Britain for the most. Belgium entered boats in 6 of the 7 events. None of the boats reached the final in its event, but the coxed pair boat won a bronze medal by being one of the three boats to reach the semifinals. It was Belgium's first medal in the sport since 1912.

Sailing.

6 men represented Belgium in sailing in 1928. It was the nation's 4th appearance in the sport. Belgium had boats in 2 of the 3 events.

Swimming.

Five men represented Belgium in swimming in 1928. It was the nation's 6th appearance in the sport, in which Belgium competed each time Belgium had appeared at the Summer Olympics. None of the Belgian swimmers reached the finals of their events.

Water polo.

Belgium competed in men's water polo for the 6th time. For the first time, Belgium failed to win a medal; the team fell to eventual gold medalist Germany in the quarterfinals.

Weightlifting.

Eight men represented Belgium in weightlifting in 1928. It was the nation's 3rd appearance in the sport.

Wrestling.

13 men represented Belgium in wrestling in 1928. Belgium was one of 3 nations (along with Finland and France) to have a wrestler in each event. It was the nation's 5th appearance in the sport. Spapen won Belgium's only wrestling medal in 1928, a silver.

Belgium competed at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, Netherlands. 187 competitors, 176 men and 11 women, took part in 90 events in 15 sports.

La Belgique participe aux Jeux olympiques d'été de 1928 à Amsterdam aux Pays-Bas. 187 athlètes belges, 176 hommes et 11 femmes, ont participé à 90 compétitions dans 15 sports. Ils y ont obtenu trois médailles : une d'argent et deux de bronze.


Nuclear research.

John Gofman graduated from Oberlin College with a bachelor's in chemistry in 1939, and received a doctorate in nuclear and physical chemistry from Berkeley in 1943, where he worked as a graduate student under Glenn T. Seaborg, the discoverer of plutonium and later a chairman of the US Atomic Energy Commission. In his PhD dissertation, Gofman described the discovery of radioisotopes protactinium-232, uranium-232, protactinium-233, as well as uranium-233 and the characterization of its fissionability. Seaborg had a very high opinion of Gofman : he called Gofman one of his "most brilliant students" when, in 1963, he appointed him to head the Biomedical Research Division at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory; he wrote that his PhD dissertation was "very brilliant".  Gofman shared three patents with collaborators on their discoveries :  Gofman later became the group co-leader of the Plutonium Project, an offshoot of the Manhattan Project.

Medical research.

Dr. Gofman earned his medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco, in 1946. After that, he and his collaborators investigated the body's lipoproteins, which contain both proteins and fats, and their circulation within the bloodstream. The researchers described low-density and high-density lipoproteins and their roles in metabolic disorders and coronary disease. This work continued throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s.

At Livermore : taking on the US Atomic Energy Commission.

Establishment of LLNL's Medical Department.

At the request of Ernest Lawrence, Gofman established the Medical Department at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in early 1954 and acted as the Medical Director until 1957 roughly two days a week while teaching at Berkeley the rest of the time.

Establishment of LLNL's Biomedical Research Division.

AEC's response to public outcry.

In 1962, the US had resumed atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons at the Nevada test site in 1962. The State of Utah had set up its own network of monitoring facilities to test milk for radioiodine, since "data pertaining to the safety of the citizens of Utah was not forthcoming from the AEC", and the levels of radioactivity were found to be close to the limits prescribed by the Federal Radiation Council. The Commissioners of the AEC were "on the hot seat" and announced "a comprehensive, long-range program" to explore the effects of man-made radioactivity "upon plants, animals and human beings". At the request of the US Atomic Energy Commission and of LLNL's director John Foster, Gofman reluctantly accepted to establish the Biomedical Research Division for the LLNL in 1963. He served as the first director of the LLNL biomedical research division from 1963 to 1965 and as one of the nine associate directors of the entire lab until 1969.

Immediate moves to hinder the Biomedical Research program.

The AEC had acted too fast in response to public outcry : one of the five Commissioners, James T. Ramey, had not been consulted before announcing the establishment of the Biomedical Research Division. Gofman reported that "Apparently it would have been too embarrassing, with the extensive AEC publicity about the program, to cancel it outright. Instead, the budget was cut even from the low starting value and we were given to understand, in no uncertain terms, that the program was not going to be supported at the level required to do the tasks outlined originally." However, Gofman and colleagues "accepted the reduced program, knowing that [they] could certainly still do much of the important work on radiation hazards."  After the atmospheric test ban treaty was signed in June 1963 and the public pressure on AEC was released, "[t]he Joint Committee on Atomic Energy struck from the AEC budget the funds that were to be used to construct a Bio-Medical complex at Livermore. This was tantamount to the JCAE stating that the Livermore Bio-Medical Program was unnecessary, for without facilities to work in it was hard to envision much of a program being possible." LLNL's director John Foster and Gofman had to struggle to obtain the initially promised funds.

The Knapp report on radioiodine from fallout in milk.

In 1959, the geneticist Edward B. Lewis computed that children exposed to fallout from nuclear tests may have received very high doses of radioactivity from iodine-131 in cow milk. His estimates prompted the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy to request that the AEC produce a report on the risks of short-lived isotopes. In 1960, Harold A. Knapp, a mathematician working within the AEC Division of Biology and Medicine's Fallout Studies Branch, authored this report, but since it was finished during an international moratorium on atmospheric nuclear tests, it had no notable impact. Then, in 1962, while the USSR and the USA had resumed nuclear tests and the Limited Test Ban Treaty was being prepared in response to huge international pressure, Knapp took on the task of estimating the radioiodine exposure of Americans before 1958, at a time when milk was not monitored. Knapp conclusions were alarming, and blatantly departed from preceding AEC's reassurances that the public had never been exposed to harmful levels of radioactivity. He "showed that, from just one 1953 test, infants who had been living in a radiation hotspot around St. George, Utah, might well have received I-131 doses anywhere from 150 to 750 times existing annual permissible doses."  Beginning in fall 1962, the AEC resorted to diverse pretexts to block the publication of Knapp's findings. In spring 1963, Gofman, was solicited to participate in a so-called "Ad Hoc Working Group on Radioiodine and the Environment" assembled by AEC's Division of Operational Safety's director, Gordon Dunning. Gofman reported that "In essence, the message to [this] Committee [...] was « How can we stop this report - a report which will, in effect, make the AEC reports over the past 10 years look untrue? »". In spite of AEC's Headquarters' objections, the committee recommended publication of Knapp's report, which was finally published by the AEC in June 1963, followed by a summary in "Nature".

Gofman and Tamplin.

In 1964, Gofman raised questions about a lack of data on low-level radiation and also proposed a wide-ranging study of exposure in medicine and the workplace at a symposium for nuclear scientists and engineers. This helped start a national inquiry into the safety of atomic power. With his colleague Dr. Arthur R. Tamplin, Dr. Gofman then looked at health studies of the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as other epidemiological studies, and conducted research on radiation's influences on human chromosomes. The two scientists suggested that federal safety guidelines for low-level exposures be reduced by 90 percent in 1969. The Atomic Energy Commission contested the findings, and "the furor made Dr. Gofman a reluctant figurehead of the anti-nuclear movement" according to "The New York Times". In 1970, he testified in favor of a bill to ban commercial nuclear reactors in New York City and told the City Council that a reactor in an urban environment would be "equal in the opposite direction to all the medical advances put together in the last 25 years."

Gofman's major contribution to radiation-safety science.

Gofman and Tamplin were instrumental in inducing the health physics scientific community both to acknowledge the somatic (i.e. leukemia and cancer) risks of ionizing radiation, at a time when only the genetic risks were considered of significant concern, and to adopt the so-called Linear No-Threshold (LNT) model "as a means of numerically estimating actual cancer risks from low-level radiation", which "was a watershed event in radiation-safety science and politics". The LNT model has since become the foundation of the international guidelines for radiation protection.  Indeed, it was Gofman and Tamplin's argumented opposition to the Federal Radiation Council (FRC) radiation-safety guidelines who prompted the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), on the recommendation made in December 1969 by Victor Bond, "a prominent health physicist and chairman of the NAS-NRC Subcommittee on Radiobiology of the Committee on Nuclear Science", to gather its first BEIR (Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation) committee. According to an internal memo cited by Semendeferi, the BEIR I committee was to "thoroughly digest and carefully analyze various pertinent controversial models (Gofman and Tamplin)".  After two years of study, the BEIR I committee published its famous BEIR I report in November 1972. Although departing from Gofman and Tamplin's work on significant aspects, it nevertheless vindicated their arguments to a large extent. Semendeferi notes that "[t]he report's long bibliography cited almost all of Gofman and Tamplin's work. Echoing Gofman and Tamplin, the BEIR I Committee emphasized that the cancer effects of low-level radiation were of much greater concern than leukemia or genetic effects. The current radiation limit was "based on genetic considerations," and the committee concluded that the FRC limit was therefore "unnecessarily high" and could safely be much lower."  Semendeferi reports that, according to the radiobiologist and environmental health specialist Edward Radford, who was a member of the BEIR I committee and the chairman of the BEIR III committee, "Gofman deserved credit for raising the issue of the somatic ris's of low-level radiation as early as he did", but "never received the recognition he deserved for his contributions to radiation-safety science" because he was "stigmatized as an extreme antinuclear scientist".

Opposition to nuclear power.

Gofman retired as a teaching professor in 1973 and became a professor emeritus of molecular and cell biology.  Gofman testified on the behalf of Samuel Lovejoy at Lovejoy's 1974 trial. Lovejoy was charged with malicious destruction of property for toppling a weather tower in Montague, Massachusetts, owned by Northeast Utilities. Lovejoy's actions were an act of protest against a proposed nuclear power plant, Montague Nuclear Power Plant, to be built on Montague Plains. Lovejoy was inspired by Gofman's book, "Poisoned Power".  Gofman used his low-level radiation health model to predict 333 excess cancer or leukemia deaths from the 1979 Three Mile Island accident. Studies of the health effects of the Three Mile Island accident have so far (by 2013) not observed any excess mortality. A retrospective study of Pennsylvania Cancer Registry found an increased incidence of thyroid cancer in counties south of TMI and in high-risk age groups. The Talbott lab at the University of Pittsburgh reported finding only a few, small, mostly statistically non-significant, increased cancer risks within the TMI population. However, excess leukemia among males was observed. The ongoing TMI epidemiological research has been accompanied by a discussion of epidemiological methodology, such as problems in dose and illness classifications.  Three months after the Chernobyl disaster, Gofman predicted that Chernobyl would cause "475,000 fatal cancers plus about an equal number of additional non-fatal cases, occurring over time both inside and outside the ex-Soviet Union". In contrast, even some 19 years later in September 2005, an official UN IAEA report claimed 4,000 deaths as the final estimated toll from Chernobyl. In their 2006 book Alexey V. Yablokov and other Russian and East European researchers estimated that Chernobyl caused a million deaths through 2004, nearly 170,000 of them in North America. The book's English translation was published by the New York Academy of Sciences in 2009. The book cites "5,000 mainly Slavic-language scientific papers the IAEA overlooked", notwithstanding the fact that 13 of the authors of the Chernobyl Forum were from Ukraine, Russia or Belarus. M. I. Balonov criticized the methodology of the book. M. I. Balonov criticized the methodology of the book's estimation of Chernobyl's excess deaths and radiation-induced health effects and claimed the numbers were exaggerations which "could lead quite unnecessarily to a panic reaction". Rosalie Bertell has asserted the above estimates of Gofman (1986) and Yablokov (2006) are too conservative.  After a speech Gofman gave on nuclear waste at a national conference of activists in the summer of 1990, Charles Butler approached him for help. Butler was a retired physicist living in the Mojave Desert town of Needles, California, and was looking for help to stop the proposed low-level nuclear waste facility at Ward Valley. Gofman referred him to the Abalone Alliance Clearinghouse in San Francisco. With less than two weeks before the closure of the Environmental Impact Statement, the Alliance was able to mount a letter writing campaign that helped delay the EIS for an additional 90 days. This initial delay gave activists the time to form Don't Waste California and build a grassroots campaign that eventually stopped Ward Valley from opening.  Gofman also did work on the Diablo Canyon Power Plant.

Support to nuclear deterrence.

Gofman considered that "nuclear deterrence is important", for he did not believe that comprehensive test bans were enforceable ; thus he favored underground atomic bomb tests while acknowledging that "They are harmful, a little will leak out. A small number of people will get hurt." He claimed "I don't understand the disarmament movement". More precisely, he was of the opinion that if the US were to disarm unilaterally, "the Soviet leaders may well try to make [the US] a slave state. [...] There will surely never be a solution to human problems by any coercion or force. But there will also never be a solution through unarmed freedom as long as powerful bullies exist who will "use" force."

Birth and death.

Gofman was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Jewish parents, David and Sarah Gofman, who immigrated to the USA from czarist Russia in about 1905. His father had been "involved in some of the early revolutionary activities against the Czar." Gofman died of heart failure at age 88 on August 15, 2007 in his home in San Francisco.

John William Gofman (September 21, 1918 – August 15, 2007) was an American scientist and advocate. He was Professor Emeritus of Molecular and Cell Biology at University of California at Berkeley.

John William Gofman ( – ) est un scientifique américain. Il fut professeur émérite de biologie cellulaire et moléculaire à l'université de Californie à Berkeley.


Career.

Arbana Xharra has been working as a journalist since 2001. She worked for "Koha Ditore", the first independent newspaper established in Kosovo, in 2006 and 2007. She has been a contributor to "Balkan Insight" and is currently editor-in-chief of "Zëri".

Investigative reporter.

Arbana Xharra believes that for democracy to flourish, the press must have the right to investigate public concerns. She has written about a wide range of issues including a 2006 investigation on government expense reports and financial mismanagement; a 2007 examination of inflation and food shortages; a report in 2010 questioning how the assets of the state-run Telecom of Kosovo were being used; and relationships between businesses and politics. Xharra faced legal action in 2012 when a report she prepared on government corruption linked a local business with politicians. She was exonerated by the court, whose ruling stated that she had complied with the Code of Ethics for print media of Kosovo.  Over an 18-month period beginning in 2012, Xharra investigated the rise in religious activity since the collapse of socialism in the former Yugoslavia. She reported on religious extremism and its impact on society. By evaluating Islamic extremists operating in Kosovo, she discovered links with terrorist organizations. Uncovering operational and financial links, Xharra was able to assist the government in efforts to address the problem, but the reports caused her to receive death threats and public attacks on her reputation. She reported them to the police, but with no consequences.

Political Affiliation.

On 9 May 2017, she resigned in Zëri and became the member of the PDK - the biggest political party in Kosovo. A few days later on 13 May 2017, she was brutally beaten on a parking place in Pristina. Kosovo leaders, journalists and civil society representatives condemned the attack. Arbana Xharra resigned from PDK in May 2018. She is currently writing and researching with NYU professor Alon Ben-Meir on Turkey and radicalization in Balkan.

Awards and recognition.

Xharra was three-time winner of the UNDP Prize for her articles on corruption in Kosovo in 2006, 2007, and 2008. In 2012 she was awarded a Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence and studied the changing attitudes towards Islam in Kosovo. In 2013 she was awarded the "Rexhai Surroi Award" by the KOHA Group for an article on extremism and the "Stirring Up Debate Award" from INPO Ferizaj (Progress Initiative) for creating public discourse on religious extremism. In 2015 she won the US Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award for the European division.

Arbana Xharra is an Albanian investigative journalist from Kosovo. She has won numerous awards for her reporting and was a 2015 recipient of the International Women of Courage Award from the US State Department.

Arbana Xharra est une journaliste d'investigation kosovare qui a remporté de nombreux prix pour ses reportages ainsi que le prix international Femme de courage 2015 du département d'État américain.


Taxonomy.

"Trichia" Hartmann, 1840 is a junior synonym of "Trochulus" Chemnitz, 1786.  Nearly every malacological work prior to 2006 used the name "Trichia" instead of the (now considered valid) name "Trochulus".  The genus "Plicuteria" Schileyko, 1978 has been once recognized as a subgenus within "Trochulus" by Schileyko (1978). Based on molecular analyses, "Trochulus lubomirski" does not belong to the genus "Trochulus". "Trochulus lubomirski" (Ślósarski, 1881) is now recognized as "Plicuteria lubomirski" (Ślósarski, 1881).

Species.

The speciation centre for the genus "Trochulus" is in the Alps.  The type species of this genus is "Trochulus hispidus".  Species within the genus "Trochulus" include:

Hair on shells.

The periostracum of the shells of most "Trochulus" species has hair-like features. Some of the hair-less species do possess hairs as juveniles. Hairy shells appeared to be the ancestral character state in the genus "Trochulus", a feature which has most probably been lost three times independently.  These losses were correlated with a shift from humid to dry habitats, indicating an adaptive function of hairs in moist environments. It had been previously hypothesised that these costly protein structures of the outer shell layer facilitate locomotion in moist habitats. Experiments by Pfenninger et al. (2005) showed an increased adherence of haired shells to wet surfaces. The possession of hairs facilitates the adherence of the snails to their herbaceous food plants during foraging, when humidity levels are high. The absence of hairs in some "Trochulus" species could thus be explained as a loss of the potential adaptive function linked to habitat shifts.

Feeding habits.

"Trochulus" species in moist habitats prefer to forage on large-leaved herbaceous plants like "Adenostyles", "Urtica" (nettles), "Homogyne" or "Tussilago" (coltsfoot etc).

References.

This article incorporates CC-BY-2.0 text from reference.

Trochulus is a genus of small air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Hygromiidae, the hairy snails and their allies.

Trochulus (autrefois dénommé "Trichia ") est le nom de genre de petit escargot terrestre (gastéropode) appartenant au groupe des pulmonés et à l'ordre des Stylommatophora.


Background.

ISIL capture of Ramadi.

On May 17, 2015, ISIL captured the city of Ramadi, after launching multiple waves of suicide attacks during a sandstorm, which caused Iraqi forces to retreat from the city.

Anbar offensive.

On the dawn of July 13, the Iraqi Army, backed by the Shiite and Sunni pro-government militias, launched an offensive to recapture Anbar province. The Iraqi forces also reportedly pushed towards Ramadi from the west and the south. By afternoon, the Iraqi Army retook the Ramadi Olympic stadium in western Ramadi and reached the eastern part of the city. According to Iraqi officials, pro-government fighters also pushed the extremists from the areas east of Ramadi. On August 11, a senior official with the US-led coalition said that Iraqi forces had surrounded the city and were preparing for a final assault to retake it. On August 26, ISIL suicide bombers killed two Iraqi army generals and three soldiers north of Fallujah. Maj. Gen. Abdul-Rahman Abu-Regheef, deputy chief of operations in Anbar, and Brig. Gen. Safeen Abdul-Majid, commander of the 10th Army Division were both killed.  By late September, the operation to retake Ramadi was considered to have stalled, with Iraqi Security Forces positioned on the outskirts of Ramadi, but unable to mount an incursion into the city proper. Political squabbles between Iranian backed militias and the Abadi administration were also hampering potential offensives. On September 25, the United States urged the Iraqi Army to hasten the operation, acknowledging that "...the Iraqis have not made any significant forward movement recently."  In early October, Iraqi forces renewed their operations in Ramadi, capturing several areas to the north and west, including the main road west of Ramadi. By October 13, Iraqi troops had advanced 15 kilometers and encircled the city, according to US officials.  In mid-November, Iraqi forces recaptured the emergency directorate headquarters in Ramadi.

The battle.

Completing the siege.

On November 25, 2015, the Iraqi Army launched the offensive to retake Ramadi, cutting ISIL's last supply line into the city of Ramadi, via the Euphrates River, by seizing the strategic Palestine Bridge. The operation at Palestine Bridge and other areas in northwestern Ramadi were supported by 7 Coalition airstrikes.  On November 29, the Iraqi Army began dropping leaflets into Ramadi, warning of an imminent offensive and warning civilians to flee. However, only a few families managed to flee, since ISIL had closed off the corridor in southeastern Ramadi designated by the Iraqi Government, and ISIL also locked down the city, threatening to kill anyone who tried to escape.

Battle for the city center.

On December 4, Iraqi forces began advancing towards Ramadi's southwestern Tamim District, from the Anbar University and Tash District areas. On December 8, Iraqi forces pushed into Ramadi city for the first time since the beginning of the offensive, capturing Tamim, a key district in the southwestern area of Ramadi, separated from the rest of Ramadi city by the al-Waar River, a tributary of the Euphrates. The Iraqi Army also recaptured the Anbar Operation Control Center, near the Palestine Bridge. The battle was claimed to be a resounding success, with Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service spokesman Sabah al-Numani telling the AFP news agency that after troops launched their assault on Tamim, ISIL militants "had no choice except to surrender or fight" and that they were "completely destroyed". After the advances, the Iraqi Government claimed that it had recaptured 60% of the Ramadi area from ISIL, although most of the city proper still remained under ISIL control. During the operation to capture the Tamim District, 350 ISIL militants were killed by US-led Coalition airstrikes. On December 10, ISIL forces blew up the Warrar Dam, which linked the Anbar Operations Control Center to northwestern Ramadi city, leaving the Qassim Bridge as the last working bridge in Ramadi, which runs from al-Tamim into the southern al-Humaira District.  On December 15, two RAF Typhoon FGR4s supported the Iraqi army in its operations around Ramadi, and struck an ISIL encampment with two Paveway IVs. The next day, RAF Tornados assisted the Iraqi troops battling ISIL on the outskirts of Ramadi, and used Paveway IVs to destroy heavy machine-gun positions, a sniper team and a group of fighters.  On 18 December 2015, the 55th Brigade of the Iraqi Armed Forces called in a U.S airstrike to cover their advance because their army helicopters would not fly due to bad weather. The airstrike misfired by a few kilometers and hit the Iraqi army, killing 9 soldiers including one officer and army commander.  Later on December 20, a second pair of GR4s flew a reconnaissance mission over Ramadi, where they provided surveillance assistance to an attack by other Coalition aircraft. On December 20, Iraqi planes also dropped leafets into Ramadi again, warning civilians to leave the city within 72 hours.  On December 22, Iraqi forces advanced into the center of the city of Ramadi, and headed towards the main government complex. The 3-pronged attack was launched from al-Tamim and al-Humaira Districts in the southwest and south, northwards into the central al-Hoz District, and the Andalus and al-Malab Districts further east. Iraqi forces had constructed a temporary bridge over the al-Warrar River, allowing them to cross over into the southern Hoz District, where they reportedly surprised the ISIL forces there. Two pairs of RAF Tornados and an RAF Reaper, provided the Iraqis with continuous close air support alongside other coalition aircraft. When ISIL fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades and small arms at Iraqi soldiers tending to wounded personnel, the Tornados intervened with a very accurate Paveway strike. The Reaper, meanwhile, assisted other Coalition aircraft in an attack that destroyed an anti-aircraft gun. Fighting continued the next day, while Iraqi reinforcements, including US-trained Sunni tribal fighters were sent to secure the recaptured parts of Ramadi, in order to allow the first wave of troops to continue pushing toward the government complex in the city centre. On December 23, 2 flights of RAF Tornado GR4s were contributing to the coalition air effort which supported the Iraqi army's offensive into the centre of Ramadi, the Tornados targets included three terrorist teams armed with rocket propelled grenades, a sniper position, an ISIS group in close combat with Iraqi troops, and a large group of at least 17 terrorists, who suffered a direct hit in 6 attacks, again with Paveway IVs. By December 25, Iraqi and allied tribal forces had managed to enter the al-Haouz District, and also were about 500 meters away from the main government complex. RAF Tornados maintained close air support over Ramadi, once again working closely with other coalition aircraft, they used Paveway IVs against 2 terrorist teams, an anti-aircraft gun, and a massed ISIS group who were assembling for an attempted counterattack on the successful Iraqi advance. On December 26, Iraqi forces captured the Ramadi Barrage, in northwestern Ramadi city, and evacuated 120 civilian families from the city.  On December 27, the Iraqi Army captured the government complex, after which they declared victory in Ramadi, and claimed to be in full control of the city center. ISIL militants were reported to have fled northeast. However, fighting was still reported southwest of the government complex, as pockets of ISIL resistance remained. On December 28, Iraqi forces completely recaptured the city center of Ramadi, after the remaining ISIL forces withdrew from the government complex and the surrounding areas in the Hoz District. However, on the same day, it was confirmed that ISIL was still in control of 30 percent of the city. On December 29, RAF Typhoons and Tornado GR4s operated over Ramadi, as the Iraqi forces closed in on remaining pockets of ISIL militants. The Typhoons bombed two machine gun positions, while the Tornadoes conducted three attacks on a further two machine gun nests and a strongpoint. Despite bad weather meaning that these attacks had to be carried out through thick cloud and with Iraqi soldiers in close proximity to the targets, careful planning by the aircrew and the precision guidance systems of the Paveway IV bombs allowed all the attacks to be successful without risk to friendly forces. During the week of the final offensive on central Ramadi, an estimated 400 ISIL fighters were killed.

Clearing the city.

On December 30, 2015, the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited Ramadi and raised the Iraqi flag at the government complex. During his visit, ISIL forces in a part of the city still under their control fired three mortar rounds at his position; they landed 500 meters away, but the incident forced al-Abadi to leave the area. ISIL casualties during the battle were reportedly high, while Iraqi Army casualties were relatively moderate. Two RAF Tornado GR4s provided close air support over Ramadi, where they bombed machine gun positions engaged in close combat with Iraqi troops, and assisted another coalition aircraft in a strike on an ISIL team armed with rocket propelled grenades. On December 31, ISIL executed 40 civilians who tried to flee the city to areas controlled by the Iraqi Army.  On January 3, 2016, ISIL attacked and briefly seized an Iraqi Army base of the 10th Division in Al Tarah, using suicide car bombers and fighters wearing explosive belts. However, the base was retaken by the Iraqi army with the help of coalition airstrikes on the same day. Three Iraqi soldiers were killed and 17 wounded in the attack. Around the same time, the US estimated that there were still 700 ISIL militants holed up in pockets of central and eastern Ramadi, indicating that there were at least 700 more ISIL militants in the city than had been initially estimated; the figure was confirmed by Iraqi officials. RAF Typhoons delivered four successful attacks in Ramadi against terrorist positions, including a mortar team. A second Typhoon mission over Ramadi conducted no less than six attacks, accounting for five machine-guns and a sniper position.  On January 3, 2016, the Iraqi Government declared that it had recaptured 80% of Ramadi city, and that the only pockets of ISIL resistance in the city proper remaining were located in the al-Malab and 20th Street areas. On January 4, 2016, a British official stated that the number of ISIL militants remaining in Ramadi had been reduced to around 400 fighters. RAF Tornado GR4s provided close air support to the Iraqi army as they continued their operations to eliminate the remaining terrorist fighters in and around Ramadi. When an Iraqi unit came under rocket-propelled grenade and mortar fire from several ISIL-held buildings, the GR4s conducted accurate strikes on all four buildings using Paveway IVs. The Tornadoes were tasked to deal with a group of terrorists who were preparing for a counter-attack. Despite this being a difficult target for most weapons, the GR4s were able to score a direct hit with a Brimstone missile. An RAF Reaper was also patrolling over Ramadi; it provided surveillance support for three air strikes by coalition fast jets, and also conducted two attacks using its own weapons, employing a GBU-12 laser guided bomb against an ISIL machine-gun team, and destroyed two terrorist trucks with a single Hellfire missile.  On January 5, 2016, the Iraqi Army captured the Bruwana District, in the western part of Ramadi. On the same day, the Iraqi Government reported that aerial bombardments in the western part of Ramadi had killed 250 ISIL militants, and destroyed 100 vehicles that were used by ISIL. Later on, it was revealed that ISIL War Minister Dohan al-Rawi had been killed in the bombing, which had followed a five-hour siege on his position. On January 6, ISIL was reported to have detonated large parts of the Ramadi General Hospital, and moved the civilians present to other parts of the city that they controlled, before the arrival of the Iraqi Army. Later on the same day, US Colonel Steve Warren stated that another 60 ISIL militants had been killed in Ramadi in the past day, and that only a handful of "squad-size ISIS units" remained in Ramadi, numbering no more than 12 militants per group. It was estimated that only 300 ISIL militants remained in Ramadi at that point. On January 7, the Iraqi Army announced that it had recaptured the Ramadi General Hospital and reached the Ramadi Great Mosque. It was also reported that ISIL had detonated the hospital's ground floor.  Around that time, the Iraqi military slowed down its operations, to try to minimize civilian casualties, as they reported that ISIL was using civilians as human shields. ISIL continued to have a strong presence in the eastern part of the city.  On January 8, the Iraqi Army recaptured the al-Malab District in southeastern Ramadi. On the same day, the OHCHR reported that the Iraqi Army had saved 1,000 civilians trapped in Ramadi, who were transferred to refugee camps in Habbaniyah. On the next day, the Iraqi Army recaptured the Andalus District, Ramadi Great Mosque, and Maaref University, in eastern Ramadi. On the same day, a Coalition airstrike reportedly killed 25 ISIL commanders in eastern Ramadi. On January 10, the Iraqi Army rescued another 635 civilians from eastern Ramadi, who were then sent to Habbaniyah. It was also reported that ISIL's control of Ramadi had been reduced to seven districts on the eastern outskirts of Ramadi. However, the bombs left behind by ISIL across Ramadi were slowing down the progress of Iraqi forces in clearing the city, and consequently, most of the city still remained off-limits to civilians. On January 11, the Iraqi Government announced that the Anbar Security Department had been recaptured. On January 12, Iraqi forces evacuated another 250 civilians from the Sajjariyah and al-Sofiyah Districts, on the eastern outskirts of Ramadi. On January 12, it was also reported that ISIL executed several fighters who fled Ramadi, by burning them alive in the town square of Mosul. Later, it was reported that since the offensive for central Ramadi began in late December 2015, 600+ ISIL militants had been killed in the city proper.

Operations slow, clearing the outskirts.

On January 13, the Iraqi Army recaptured the al-Sofiyah and Albu Aitha Districts on the eastern outskirts of Ramadi, after giving civilians 2 days to leave the area. At least 30 ISIL militants were killed and 12 others were captured; 10 Iraqi soldiers were killed in the clashes. This left ISIL in control of only the Albu Sawdah, Albu Mahl, Albu Khalifa, Albu Ghanem, and Sajjariyah Districts on the eastern outskirts of Ramadi, where no more than 200 ISIL militants were estimated to be holding out, and where up to 700 families were still being held hostage by ISIL. Later on the same day, Iraqi forces evacuated another 60 families from the recently recaptured al-Sofiyah District. On January 14, the Iraqi Army recaptured the Sura area and Albu Sawdah District on Ramadi's eastern outskirts, killing at least 10 ISIL militants. On the same day, the Iraqi Army evacuated another 800 civilians from the outskirts of eastern Ramadi. On January 15, an Iraqi General stated that his men had moved over 3,000 civilians out of Ramadi during the battle. On January 16, the Iraqi Army recaptured the Albu Khalifa and Albu Mahl Districts, near al-Sofiyah, killing 15 ISIL militants. On January 17, Iraqi forces fully secured the Greater al-Sofiya District, including the Albu Ghanem neighborhood, which was located in the eastern part of the Greater al-Sofiyah District, leaving the nearby Sajjariyah District as the only district that ISIL controlled in Ramadi. 90 ISIL militants were killed in the clashes that took place throughout the al-Sofiyah District within the previous several days. On the same day, another 117+ ISIL militants were killed in the clashes in eastern Ramadi, as Iraqi forces advanced southeastward from al-Sofiyah and northward from Husaiybah, entering the Sajjariyah District from the north and the south. 12 Iraqi soldiers were killed, along with 13 civilians in the Albu Ghanem District, who were trying to flee ISIL forces.  By January 18, over 3,800 civilians had been evacuated from Ramadi by Iraqi forces. On January 20, Iraqi forces began moving eastward to Khalidiya Island, after clearing ISIL-held neighborhoods near the area. On January 21, US Vice President Joe Biden congratulated the Iraqi Security Forces for liberating the city of Ramadi from ISIL control, during a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister al-Abadi. On January 22, Iraqi forces destroyed an ISIL tunnel that linked al-Madiq to Husaiybah, east of Ramadi. On the same day, Iraqi forces entered the Sajjariyah District, as well as ISIL-held areas in the Joabah and Husaiybah Districts, to the east of Ramadi. It was also reported that ISIL resistance in those areas had become weak, and that the civilian families trapped there were located far from the site of the clashes. On 20 January, it was reported that US-led airstrikes in Ramadi, during the battle for the city center in the last week of December 2015, killed 1,036 ISIL militants.  On January 23, ISIL launched suicide attacks in the Kilo 70 area west of Ramadi, and in the Tal Msheheidah east of Ramadi, as well as areas to the north of Ramadi; the ensuing clashes and airstrikes led to the deaths of 62 ISIL militants and 48 Iraqi fighters. On January 24, Iraqi Defense Minister said that the Iraqi Army was preparing for an offensive on Mosul, stating that the Iraqi Army and Coalition forces had defeated ISIL in Ramadi. Later on the same day, 190 people suspected of having links ISIL were arrested in Ramadi, and Anbar police Chief Maj. General Hadi Rezeig announced that the Iraqi Security Forces had managed to fully recapture the city of Ramadi. Around the same time, fighting shifted to the Husaiybah District, to the east of Ramadi. Later on January 24, the Anbar Tribal Force reported that during the past two weeks, 700 ISIL militants had been killed in the clashes in Ramadi. The Anbar Tribal Force also said that it was concerned about the fate of a few hundred civilians in Ramadi, who had gone missing during the battle. On January 26, the Iraqi Army found and destroyed the ISIL headquarters in eastern Ramadi, in the al-Sofiyah District, killing at least six ISIL militants. On the same day, the Iraqi Government uncovered a mass grave in central Ramadi, containing the bodies of 40 civilians.  On January 27, the Iraqi Army repelled an ISIL suicide attack in the al-Sofiyah District, killing the driver of the car bomb. On the same day, more than a dozen suicide bombers launched two attacks north and west of Ramadi, killing 55 Iraqi soldiers and other pro-government fighters, when ISIL attacked the headquarters of the Iraqi Army's 10th Division and an Army barracks. At this point, it was reported that pockets of ISIL resistance remained in Ramadi's eastern Sajjariyah neighborhood. On January 28, ISIL suicide bombers targeted an Iraqi army division headquarters in the al-Thirthar area of Ramadi. Four were killed in Coalition airstrikes, but two attacked the main gate of the headquarters, killing 17 Iraqi soldiers, including seven officers, and wounding 46 soldiers. Separately, 15 Iraqi soldiers were killed, and 20 were wounded elsewhere in the city, in a combination of suicide attacks, sniper fire, and roadside bombs. On the same day, the Iraqi Government announced that 95% of Ramadi city had been liberated, with the Sajjariyah District being the only part of the city that remained under ISIL control. The last ISIL militants near Ramadi were also said to be holed up in an area between Sajjariyah and Husaiybah.  On February 1, the Iraqi Army launched an offensive on the Khalidiya Island area, which is the region located between the villages Albu Nasir and Albu Shajal, situated between Ramadi and Fallujah. On February 2, around 300 ISIL fighters were estimated to be remaining in Ramadi's eastern Sajjariyah District, and in the nearby areas. On February 10, 9 Iraqi soldiers from the army's 8th Division were killed by ISIL shelling, in the Sajjariyah District.  Early on February 4, the Iraqi Army entered the central part of the Sajjariyah District, killing more than 17 ISIL militants. Later on the same day, the Iraqi Army recaptured the Sajjariyah District. The 2015–2016 Battle of Ramadi was the first time since the Fall of Mosul in which the Iraqi Army played the primary role in combating ISIL.

Offensive continues into Husaiybah.

On February 7, during a security operation in the al-Sofiyah District in eastern Ramadi, a booby-trapped house exploded, killing 6 Iraqi soldiers and wounding 5 others. On the same day, ISIL executed more civilians in the Juwaybah District, to the east of Ramadi, by firing squad.  On February 8, the Iraqi Army recaptured the Juwaybah District, to the east of Ramadi, east of the Sajjariyah District. It was reported that the Iraqi forces killed dozens of ISIL militants and released the civilians that were being held by ISIL in the district. On 9 February, government forces seized the final pocket of ISIL resistance in the Husayba Al-Sharqiyah District, which was the last ISIL-held village to the east of Ramadi, thus fully expelling ISIL from the area of Ramadi. Dozens of ISIL militants were killed in the clashes in Husaiybah. The Iraqi Army also began evacuating 1,500 civilians from the Husaiybah Al-Sharqiyah District. Afterwards, the Iraqi Government reopened the Ramadi-Habbaniyah Highway.

Aftermath.

On February 2, the Iraqi Army severed the last supply lines between the Khalidiya Island region and the city of Fallujah, completely besieging the city. This led to concerns that an estimated 30,000 civilians trapped in Fallujah would starve, due to the lack of airdropped supplies into the city. On February 4, after Ramadi city was recaptured from ISIL, offensive operations shifted further eastward to the Khalidiya Island area.  On February 9, it was reported that ISIL militants were still holed up in some farmlands in Khalidiya Island, to the north of the town of Al Khalidiya. On February 10, it was reported that the Iraqi Army had fully recaptured the Khalidiya District, including the Khalidiya Island area. On February 13, it was reported that the Iraqi Security Forces had removed 300 IEDs from the area between eastern Ramadi and Khalidiya. On February 14, an Iraqi airstrike killed an ISIL commander in the Kartan area of the Khalidiya District, along with 14 other ISIL militants. Later on the same day, the Iraqi Government reported that the Sedikiyah area in the eastern Khalidiya District was ready for the return of displaced civilians, after IEDs left behind by ISIL in the area had been dismantled.  It was predicted that it would take several months to fully clear Ramadi of the bombs left behind by ISIL; at least 9 months would be needed to clear the Tamim District alone without additional funds. It was also reported that as of thus far, Ramadi had suffered more damage than any other town or city in Iraq.  On February 16, a mass grave containing the bodies of 50 civilians was uncovered in the al-Sofiya District of eastern Ramadi. On the same day, the Iraqi Army launched a clearing operation in the Hamidiyah District, to the northeast of Ramadi's Albu Ghanem District. On February 19, the Iraqi Army completely cleared the Hamidiyah District from ISIL forces, killing dozens of ISIL fighters.  On February 18, a large number of local Sunni tribesmen revolted against ISIL, after ISIL beat a woman, among other restrictive practices enforces by ISIL's Al-Hisbah secret police, amid an ongoing siege. ISIL was reported to have withdrawn into Fallujah city, after local Sunnis burned the Al-Hisbah headquarters and clashes spread. On February 20, it was estimated that only 1,000 civilians were living in and around the Ramadi area, after the fierce clashes that erupted during the battle for the city. On February 20, the clashes began to die down as ISIL began carrying out mass arrests, and it was reported that there were still some Sunni fighters who were pinned down in parts of Fallujah, who would likely be massacred if the Iraqi Government or the US-led Coalition does not intervene. On February 21, the US-led Coalition bombed an ISIL gathering in Khalidiya Island, killing 7 ISIL leaders. On the same day, the Iraqi Army began shelling ISIL positions on the outskirts of Fallujah, in support of the Sunni tribal fighters. Late on February 21, ISIL crushed the revolt, and detained 180 men. However, on the same day, the Iraqi Army deployed reinforcements to Fallujah, in preparation to storm the city. On February 23, the Iraqi Army fully recaptured the town of Al-Karmah, after they destroyed ISIL's last stronghold in the town.  On February 27, Anbar Provincial Council announced that 15 members of the Iraqi army and police were killed during the dismantling of improvised explosive devices and booby-trapped houses in Ramadi.  On February 28, Iraqi government forces repelled a massive ISIL suicide attack in Abu Ghraib and western Baghdad, which was the largest attack carried out by the group in the area in nearly 2 years. The assault left 30 ISIL militants and 30 Iraqi soldiers dead.  Eventually, on 26 June 2016 the Iraqi Army fully recaptured Al-Fallujah and an Iraqi commander declared it 'fully liberated' from ISIS.

USA support and future tactics.

With 80% of Ramadi left in ruins after months of heavy bombing, as well as scorched earth tactics employed by ISIL, the US and its allies allocated over $50 million to rebuild the city. Due to the offensive's success, the tactics of encirclement and airstrikes used in Ramadi were applied to Fallujah, which was captured by ISIS in January 2014.

The Battle of Ramadi (2015–2016) was a battle launched by the forces of Iraq to successfully recapture the city of Ramadi from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which had taken the city earlier in 2015 in a previous battle. Air power was a major component of the battle, with the United States and other nations conducting over 850 airstrikes in the Ramadi area from July 2015 to late February 2016, and the US crediting airstrikes with 80% of the reason why the city was recaptured. By February 2016, Iraqi forces successfully recaptured the city after two and a half months of fighting. It was predicted that it would take several months to clear the city of the bombs ISIL left behind, with at least 9 months needed to clear the city's Tamim District. At the time, Ramadi had suffered more damage than any other city or town in Iraq. It is the 100th battle in Ramadi since 2003.

La bataille de Ramadi, parfois appelée reconquête de Ramadi, a lieu lors de la seconde guerre civile irakienne de décembre 2015 à février 2016. Elle suit la précédente bataille de Ramadi, qui s'était soldée le par la prise de la totalité de la ville par les djihadistes de l'État islamique. Elle commence le 7 décembre 2015 avec l'assaut des Forces armées irakiennes sur le quartier de Ta'Min, au sud de la ville. La cité est déclarée libérée une première fois par le gouvernement irakien le 28 décembre 2015. Mais l'EI contre-attaque au début du mois de janvier 2016, reprenant environ 20 % de la ville et plusieurs zones aux alentours. Le gouvernement irakien parvient à liquider ces nouvelles poches de résistance, à reprendre les alentours de la ville, et à sécuriser la route entre Ramadi et Bagdad le 9 février 2016, mettant ainsi fin à la bataille.


History.

Linwood owes its existence to the building of cotton and flax mills there at the end of the 18th century. In the following century there were shale coal oil works, ironstone and cotton production businesses in the village. There was a bleachfield at Linwood connected to the spinning mill there. A paper mill was also established as can be seen on older maps. The expansion and economy of Linwood from 1961 onwards relied heavily on the Rootes, later Chrysler then Peugeot Talbot car plant, and the associated Pressed Steel Company body parts pressing facility.  Construction at the car factory began in 1961 to produce the Hillman Imp, a revolutionary small car which went into production when the factory was opened on 2 May 1963, and was not discontinued until 1976. The factory, opened by the Duke of Edinburgh, had the advantage of a direct rail link, which allowed cars to be transported by rail to places all over Britain. The opening and production can be seen in the Rootes Group's 20 minute film. It later produced the Hillman Avenger (later badged as a Chrysler and finally a Talbot) from 1970 and the Imp's successor, the Sunbeam.  After Chrysler UK was bought by Peugeot Talbot, a review of the plant and associated models decided to close the Linwood plant in favour of retaining the Ryton plant near Coventry. Linwood was closed in 1981 with most of the factory demolished soon afterwards. The final remaining part was demolished in 1996. The closure left mass unemployment. The state of the town was immortalised in the song "Letter from America" by The Proclaimers; the lyrics "Linwood no more" referred to the closure of the car factory.  On 10 August 2006, a local community action group, Linwood Sucks, initiated what became a six-year campaign to expose various problems with contaminated land in the area and to highlight the decline of the original town centre. Despite the negative overtones of their name, the group along with qualified collaborators and community support, conducted a great deal of technical research which contributed to a variety of positive changes in the town. One of the initial objectives included research into the lack of playground facilities for the local children. This objective was carried on very successfully by Linwood Active, another group, who would later attain charitable status and redevelop the playground facility at Kintyre Park.  In December 2011, Linwood received the annual "Plook on the Plinth" award for "Scotland's most dismal town", part of the Urban Realm magazine's Carbuncle Awards. The magazine suggests that the award is intended to cause debate and inspire redevelopment.  The Linwood Community Development Trust was formed on 7 December 2011.  In 2014, Paul Coulter's play "Linwood No More" was performed at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow.

Present.

Linwood has undergone a major redevelopment which began in 2008:

Economy.

Linwood is the HQ of the transport and construction company W H Malcolm and was the HQ of Beeks Financial Cloud Group Plc a low latency service provider for institutional capital markets, listed on the AIM market.

Education.

The town has the following educational establishments:  Nursery  Primary Schools  Secondary Schools  Special Education

Transport.

Linwood is on the A761 close to its junction with the A737 which links the town to Glasgow Airport and the motorway network to the east, and Garnock Valley and the North Ayrshire coast to the south-west.  Local transport is served by McGill's Buses who have several services that link the town to the nearby towns of Johnstone, Bridge of Weir, Houston and Paisley, and it also has services which connect the town to Braehead and Glasgow.  Rail transport can be accessed from the nearby Johnstone railway station, which includes a two level park and ride car park. This route provides services westwards to Ayr, Troon, Stranraer, Irvine, Kilwinning, Largs, Ardrossan and Lochwinnoch and eastwards to Paisley, Hillington, Cardonald and to Glasgow Central Station.

Linwood () is a small town in Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland, west of Glasgow. It is about a mile and a half north-east of Johnstone and west of Paisley close to the Black Cart Water and the A737 road.

Linwood est une ville d'Écosse, située dans le council area et région de lieutenance du Renfrewshire. Située à 23 kilomètres au sud-ouest de Glasgow, la ville a été profondément marquée par la présence sur son territoire d'une usine de construction de voitures. Sa construction commence en 1961 pour ouvrir le en présence de Philip Mountbatten, duc d'Édimbourg, avec la production de la petite voiture Hillman Imp de Rootes Motors devenu par la suite Chrysler Europe. La production de ce modèle continua jusqu'en 1976. L'usine produit aussi des, sous ce nom puis sous celui de Chrysler Avenger et enfin celui de Talbot Avenger, ainsi que des, vendues aussi sous le nom de Talbot Sunbeam.


Plot.

When she is a little girl Fiona's (Fiona Gordon) aunt Martha moves from Canada to Paris.  Years later, Fiona receives a letter from her aunt Martha which asks her to come to Paris to help her since she is about to be forced into an old age home since she is 88.  Fiona arrives in Paris only to find her aunt missing. Posing for a photo near the Eiffel tower she falls into the Seine and loses her backpack and belongings. The backpack is found by Dom (Dominique Abel) who lives in a tent by the river. He uses Fiona's money to treat himself to dinner at an expensive restaurant where he runs into Fiona. The two dance and he offers to walk her home. While he is paying Fiona notices that he is wearing her purse and confronts him. He runs away from her and she falls in the Seine a second time.  Dom realizes he is in love with Fiona and returns her backpack to the Canadian embassy where she retrieves it. She goes in search of her aunt, but is told she is dead and the funeral is happening that day. She goes to the funeral, Dom following behind. When they arrive they are asked to give a eulogy and Dom does, despite not knowing aunt Martha, at first saying generic pleasantries before giving an impassioned speech that Martha was a secret racist who hated badly dressed people as well as the homeless. During the reception Fiona realizes that she is at the funeral of Marthe, her aunt's friend. Going to the coffin to check on the body, Dom accidentally gets his tie caught in the coffin lid, and Fiona gets her nose stuck in the elevator trying to help him. When she is revived she is handed an urn containing the remains of Marthe, which she thinks also includes Dom's ashes. In reality Dom is fine, though when Fiona learns this she slaps him angrily.  Meanwhile, Martha has been on the run from nurses from a retirement home that keep visiting her, hoping to persuade her to move in. She crosses paths with Dom several times and nearly crosses paths with Fiona. After Fiona slaps him Dom goes home to his tent and gets drunk, running into Martha who is hiding out in that location. He offers her some of his champagne.  Later that night Fiona falls asleep in Martha's apartment, while Dom falls asleep in his tent with Martha. Dom and Fiona have an erotic dream about each other, leading Dom to have sex with Martha. Afterwards, Martha goes outside and retrieves Fiona's phone from a garbage bin. The two call each other and briefly connect, with Martha saying she has been drinking champagne in New York while sleeping with an attractive man. Fiona puts the clues together to find that Martha is on Île aux Cygnes near the replica of the Statue of Liberty. Arriving and seeing Dom, she realizes that he and her aunt had sex, but asks him to help her find her aunt. He has his dog pick up her scent which leads them to the Eiffel Tower.  Fiona and Dom climb up the Eiffel Tower where they find Martha asleep in a satellite dish. The three pause and admire the view of the city before Martha dies.  After her cremation a small ceremony with Fiona and Dom is held at Île aux Cygnes before they throw her ashes in the Seine. Fiona then reveals that she always intended to learn French and asks Dom if he will help her. He agrees.

Reception.

Critical reception.

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 83% based on 47 reviews, and an average rating of 6.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ""Lost in Paris" is whimsical to a fault, but its fanciful light-heartedness earns the audience's indulgence with charming performances and an infectious absurdity." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Lost in Paris (original title: Paris pieds nus) is a 2016 French-Belgian comedy film written, directed and co-produced by Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon, starring Gordon as a Canadian librarian who meets a homeless man (played by Abel) in Paris. The film also features Emmanuelle Riva and Pierre Richard. The film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on 2 September 2016. It received three nominations at the 8th Magritte Awards, including Best Film, and won Best Editing for Sandrine Deegen.

Paris pieds nus est un film franco-belge réalisé par Dominique Abel et Fiona Gordon en 2015 et sorti en 2016.


History.

Cloudant was founded by Alan Hoffman, Adam Kocoloski, and Michael Miller. The three met in the physics department at MIT where they worked with large data sets from experiments such as the Large Hadron Collider and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. In early 2008 their ideas for fixing the "big data problem" caught the attention of Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator, which resulted in $20,000 seed funding. The company also received an early seed round of $1 million from Avalon Ventures in August 2010. Cloudant was designed for cloud computing, automatically distributing data across multiple servers in addition to scaling the database to accommodate web applications.  In August 2010, Cloudant released free BigCouch under an Apache License(2.0). Cloudant offered services including support, consulting services and training. Cloudant delivered their first product in the third quarter of 2010. Cloudant has over 2500 customers for its hosted service as of January 2011.  In November 2010, Cloudant was recognized as one of ‘10 Cool Open-Source Startups’ by CRN. Cloudant was regularly recognized in the local Boston startup community, named as one of the ‘Top 5 Database Startups’ and ‘Top Ten Cloud Computing Startups’ in Boston’s popular technology column by Joe Kinsella, ‘High Tech in the Hub.’. On February 24, 2014, IBM announced an agreement to acquire Cloudant. The acquisition closed in March, after which Cloudant joined IBM's Information and Analytics Group.  In September, 2016, IBM Cloudant completed the donation of the BigCouch project to The Apache Software Foundation, resulting in the release of Apache CouchDB 2.0. CouchDB 2.0 incorporates many of the improvements made by Cloudant and BigCouch to the original CouchDB project, including clustering capabilities, a declarative query language and performance enhancements.

Differences with CouchDB.

Cloudant's hosted database extends CouchDB in several ways:

Cloudant is an IBM software product, which is primarily delivered as a cloud-based service. Cloudant is a non-relational, distributed database service of the same name. Cloudant is based on the Apache-backed CouchDB project and the open source BigCouch project.

Cloudant est un produit de type "cloud computing" vendu par IBM. Il s'agit d'une base de données non-relationnelle et distribuée, basée sur le projet CouchDB d'Apache, ainsi que sur le projet BigCouch.


Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016

Malte au Concours Eurovision de la chanson 2016

Background.

Prior to the 2016 Contest, Malta had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty-eight times since its first entry in 1971. Malta briefly competed in the Eurovision Song Contest in the 1970s before withdrawing for sixteen years. The country had, to this point, competed in every contest since returning in 1991. Malta's best placing in the contest thus far was second, which it achieved on two occasions: in 2002 with the song "7th Wonder" performed by Ira Losco and in the 2005 contest with the song "Angel" performed by Chiara. In the 2015 edition, Malta failed to qualify to the final with the song "Warrior" performed by Amber.  For the 2016 Contest, the Maltese national broadcaster, Public Broadcasting Services (PBS), broadcast the event within Malta and organised the selection process for the nation's entry. PBS confirmed their intentions to participate at it on 30 September 2015. Malta selected their entry consistently through a national final procedure, a method that was continued for their 2016 participation.

Before Eurovision.

Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2016.

Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2016 was the national final format developed by PBS to select the Maltese entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016. The competition consisted of a semi-final and final held on 22 and 23 January 2016, respectively, at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in the nation's capital city of Valletta. Both shows were hosted by actor Ben Camille and broadcast on Television Malta (TVM) as well on the broadcaster's website "tvm.com.mt", while the final was also broadcast on the official Eurovision Song Contest website "eurovision.tv".

Format.

The competition consisted of twenty songs competing in the semi-final on 22 January 2016 where the top fourteen entries qualified to compete in the final on 23 January 2016. Five judges evaluated the songs during the shows and each judge had an equal stake in the final result. The sixth set of votes were the results of the public televote, which had a weighting equal to the votes of a single judge. Ties in the final results were broken based on the entry which received the higher score from the judges. The five members of the jury that evaluated the entries during both the semi-final and final consisted of:  The rules and regulations for the competition allowed for the artist, author and composer of the winning entry to change parts of the winning song or the entire song for the Eurovision Song Contest.

Competing entries.

Artists and composers were able to submit their entries between 29 and 30 October 2015 to the PBS Creativity Hub in Gwardamanġa. Artists were also required to submit a cover version of another song along with their entry application. Songwriters from any nationality were able to submit songs as long as the artist were Maltese or possessed Maltese citizenship. Artists were able to submit as many songs as they wished, however, they could only compete with a maximum of two in the semi-final and one in the final. 2015 national final winner Amber was unable to compete due to a rule that prevented the previous winner from competing in the following competition. 153 entries were received by the broadcaster. On 3 December 2015, PBS announced a shortlist of 49 entries that had progressed through the selection process. The twenty songs selected to compete in the semi-final were announced on the TVM programme "Xarabank" on 11 December 2015.  Among the selected competing artists was former Maltese Eurovision entrant Ira Losco who represented Malta in the 2002 contest. Daniel Testa represented Malta in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008. Among the songwriters, Elton Zarb, Muxu, Paul Abela, Gerard James Borg and Philip Vella were all past writers of Maltese Eurovision entries. Paul Giordimaina represented Malta in the 1991 edition and together with Fleur Balzan co-wrote the Maltese entry in 2011; Dimitri Stassos co-wrote the Spanish entry in 2009 and the Greek entry in 2012; Jonas Gladnikoff co-wrote the Irish entries in 2009, 2010 and 2014.

Semi-final.

The semi-final took place on 22 January 2016. Twenty songs competed for fourteen qualifying spots in the final. The running order for the semi-final was announced on 13 January 2016. The show was opened with a guest performance by the 2015 Maltese Eurovision entrant Amber performing "Warrior", while the interval act featured performances by the local bands the Crowns and the New Victorians.

Final.

The final took place on 23 January 2016. The fourteen entries that qualified from the semi-final were performed again and the votes of a six-member jury panel (5/6) and the results of public televoting (1/6) determined the winner. The show was opened with a guest performance of "Not My Soul" performed by Malta's Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015 winner Destiny Chukunyere, while the interval act featured further performances by Chukunyere as well as performances by Amber and the Southville Dancers dance troupe. After the votes from the jury panel and televote were combined, "Chameleon" performed by Ira Losco was the winner. "Chameleon" won the public televote with 40% of the votes.

Song selection.

Following Losco's win at the Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2016, the singer stated that she was open to the idea of performing a song other than "Chameleon" at the Eurovision Song Contest should it improve Malta's chances of winning. The national final rules set by PBS allowed for the winning song to be partially modified or completely changed. On 19 February 2016, PBS announced that an international jury consisting of representatives from ten countries along with local experts from Malta would be presented with ten songs, including a revamped version of "Chameleon", and would determine which song Ira Losco would ultimately perform at the Eurovision Song Contest.  On 14 March 2016, PBS announced that Losco would perform the song "Walk on Water" at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, which officially replaced "Chameleon" as the Maltese entry through the decision of thirteen international and local judges. "Walk on Water" was written by Lisa Desmond, Tim Larsson, Tobias Lundgren, Molly Pettersson Hammar and Ira Losco herself. The release of the song and official music video was announced on 17 March 2016 during the TVM news bulletin and made available online on the broadcaster's website "tvm.com.mt" and the official Eurovision Song Contest website "eurovision.tv". Losco appeared as a guest during a special edition of the TVM programme "Xarabank" on 18 March to discuss and present the song. The music video for the song was filmed earlier in March in Gozo and at the Malta National Aquarium.

Promotion.

Ira Losco made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Walk on Water" as the Maltese Eurovision entry. On 2 April, Losco performed during the "Eurovision PreParty Riga", which was organised by OGAE Latvia and held at the Spikeri Concert Hall in Riga, Latvia. On 3 April, she performed during the "Eurovision Pre-Party", which was held at the Izvestia Hall in Moscow, Russia and hosted by Dmitry Guberniev. Losco also completed promotional activities in Armenia following her performances in Riga and Moscow. On 9 April, Ira Losco performed during the "Eurovision in Concert" event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Hera Björk. On 16 April, Losco performed "Walk on Water" live during the ČT1 televised broadcast of the charity show "Pomozte dětem", which was held at the La Fabrika theatre in Prague, Czech Republic. The following day, Losco performed during the "London Eurovision Party", which was held at the Café de Paris venue in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O'Connell. In addition to her international appearances, Ira Losco also completed promotional activities in Malta where she appeared during the TVM talk show programme "Xarabank" on 22 April and performed during the "Malta Eurovision Party" at the Aria Complex in San Ġwann on 23 April.

At Eurovision.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2016 took place at the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, Sweden and consisted of two semi-finals on 10 and 12 May, and the final of 14 May 2016. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 25 January 2016, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Malta was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 10 May 2016, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.  Once all the competing songs for the 2016 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Malta was set to perform last in position 18, following the entry from Bosnia and Herzegovina.  The two semi-finals and the final were broadcast in Malta on TVM with commentary by disc jockey Arthur Caruana. The Maltese spokesperson, who announced the top 12 Points awarded by the Maltese jury during the final, was actor Ben Camille.

Semi-final.

Ira Losco took part in technical rehearsals on 3 and 6 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 9 and 10 May. This included the jury show on 9 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries. On the day of the first semi-final, Malta was considered by bookmakers to be the second most likely country to advance into the final.  The Maltese performance featured Ira Losco wearing a black and gold rhinestone dress, designed by Australian designer Alex Zabotto-Bentley, and performing together with one dancer. The performance began with the LED screen floor projecting Ira Losco's face followed by Losco emerging on stage with the dancer performing choreographed movements. The performance was originally to have featured full 360 degree projection mapping on Losco's dress accomplished by real-time tracking technology; however, during the rehearsals, the Maltese delegation opted not to use the technology in the broadcast performance. The creative director for the Maltese performance was Stephane Boko. Ira Losco was joined by four off-stage backing vocalists: Pamela Bezzina, Anna Azzopardi, Lars Säfsund and Molly Pettersson Hammar. The dancer featured during the performance was Skorpion, who also appeared in the music video for "Walk on Water".  At the end of the show, Malta was announced as having finished in the top 10 and consequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that Malta placed third in the semi-final, receiving a total of 209 points: 54 points from the televoting and 155 points from the juries.

Final.

Shortly after the first semi-final, a winners' press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. This draw was done in the order the countries appeared in the semi-final running order. Malta was drawn to compete in the second half. Following this draw, the shows' producers decided upon the running order of the final, as they had done for the semi-finals. Malta was subsequently placed to perform in position 22, following the entry from Ukraine and before the entry from Georgia. On the day of the grand final, bookmakers considered Malta the seventh most likely country to win the competition.  Ira Losco once again took part in dress rehearsals on 13 and 14 May before the final, including the jury final where the professional juries cast their final votes before the live show. Ira Losco performed a repeat of her semi-final performance during the final on 14 May. Malta placed twelfth in the final, scoring 153 points: 16 points from the televoting and 137 points from the juries.

Voting.

Voting during the three shows was conducted under a new system that involved each country now awarding two sets of points from 1–8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.  Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Malta and awarded by Malta in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

Split voting results.

The following five members comprised the Maltese jury:

After Eurovision.

Losco and the Maltese delegation flew to Malta International Airport on 15 May and was greeted by fans upon her arrival at 5:00 pm CEST. She recognised the competitiveness of the contest in recent years, "It is always nice to be given such a warm welcome. During my journey at the Eurovision, the fans’ constant support instilled in me greater confidence and serenity." She received praise from her manager Howard Keith Debono, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and the Leader of the Opposition Simon Busuttil. Two days later, Losco urged fellow Maltese musicians not to be pretentious over the contest, citing its relevance to competition within the music industry and its growing quality. However, she stated she would not commit to representing Malta at the Eurovision Song Contest for a third time, "The industry is cut-throat, as every artist knows. It’s great to go and busk and try your luck in another country but this is an experience that should also be one to aspire to, for artists in any country."

Malta participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "Walk on Water" written by Lisa Desmond, Tim Larsson, Tobias Lundgren, Molly Pettersson Hammar and Ira Losco. The song was performed by Losco, who had previously represented Malta at the Eurovision Song Contest in the 2002 edition where she achieved second place with the song "7th Wonder".

Malte a confirmé sa participation au Concours Eurovision de la chanson 2016 à Stockholm en Suède le. Le pays est représenté par Ira Losco, sélectionnée lors de l'émission "Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2016". La chanson "Walk On Water" est sélectionnée en interne.


Life.

Stephen Hagiochristophorites was of humble origin. The archbishop Eustathius of Thessalonica records that his father was a tax-collector. In the second half of the reign of Manuel I Komnenos (r. 1143–1180), Hagiochristophorites tried to attach himself to the imperial court, but was confronted by the ridicule and hostility of the aristocracy. Indeed, according to Eustathius, when he attempted to seduce an aristocratic lady and take her to wife to advance his own position, he was publicly flogged and had his nose cut off. Nevertheless, his determination was rewarded, and he was able to climb the administrative hierarchy, finally culminating in the office of administrator of the army, which he apparently received by Manuel I himself and held during the short reign of his son, Alexios II Komnenos (r. 1180–1182).  Hagiochristophorites continued in this post when the rebellion of Andronikos I Komnenos brought him to the throne, an event that marked a radical change in his fortunes. Within a very short time, Hagiochristophorites established himself as the new emperor's most trusted and powerful minister. Along with Constantine Tripsychos and Theodore Dadibrenos, Hagiochristophorites strangled Alexios II Komnenos with a bowstring in September/October 1183, leaving Andronikos as the sole emperor, a feat for which he was rewarded with the rank of "pansebastos sebastos" and the post of "logothetes tou dromou".  By September 1185, discontent in Constantinople was seething against Andronikos' regime: popular rumour said that a celebrated image of Saint Paul was shedding tears, and even a court soothsayer, Skleros Seth, had foretold that the name of Andronikos' successor would start with an "I". Andronikos and his followers took this to mean the young aristocrat Isaac Angelos, and on 11 September, they struck: while the emperor retired to a palace on the Asian suburbs of the city, Hagiochristophorites and his attendants went to Isaac Angelos' house near the Peribleptos Monastery. Isaac at first panicked but then resolved to go down fighting, and, wielding a sword and riding his horse, charged his assailants. Faced with this unexpected attack, Hagiochristophorites turned to flee, but Isaac struck him on the head and left him dead. After wounding the attendants and forcing them to flee, Isaac galloped down the Mese thoroughfare on horseback to the Hagia Sophia, shouting to the populace of his deed. Thus driven to an act of open sedition, and with the populace rallying behind him, on the next day Isaac was crowned emperor by the Patriarch Basil Kamateros, while Andronikos fled and was captured and executed a few days later.

Reputation.

The rise of this "most celebrated of the parvenues" (Charles Brand) to such power, his haughtiness and ruthlessness, and his complicity in the murder of Alexios II and in Andronikos' increasingly tyrannical rule, with its bloody purges of the aristocracy, combined to make Hagiochristophorites an object of hatred for the traditional elites, as attested in the writings of contemporaries and subsequent historians. Choniates describes Stephen's role in the proscriptions as the "ringleader and chief" of Andronikos' partisans, "whose thunderous voice crashed through the palace, sweeping away [...] all who were deemed suspect by Andronikos." Indeed, Choniates records that his surname, literally meaning "Holy Bearer of Christ"—although originally probably reflecting a place of origin dedicated to Saint Christopher—was popularly changed to Ἀντιχριστοφορίτης, "Antichristophorites", literally meaning "bearer of the Antichrist", for, in the words of Choniates, "he was the most shameless of Andronikos' attendants, filled with every wickedness". Likewise, Niketas' brother, the Archbishop of Athens Michael Choniates called him "the iron nerve of tyranny", while a "dialogue of the dead" written after Andronikos' overthrow depicts him, head still cloven in two, trying to tax the dead in Hades in order to pay for his passage on Charon's boat.

Stephen Hagiochristophorites (, "Stephanos Hagiochristophorites"; ca. 1130 – 11 September 1185) was the most powerful member of the court of Byzantine emperor Andronikos I Komnenos (ruled 1182–85), and was killed by Isaac II Angelos, who the next day deposed and replaced Andronikos, while trying to arrest him.

Étienne Hagiochristophoritès (en grec : Στέφανος Ἁγιοχριστοφορίτης, vers 1130 - ) est le principal ministre byzantin durant le règne de l'empereur Andronic I Comnène, Basileus de 1183 à 1185. Au moment de la révolte d'Isaac II Ange, Étienne est envoyé pour l'arrêter mais il est tué par Isaac qui, le lendemain, dépose et exécute Andronic.


Education.

Sarnak graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand (BSc 1975, BSc(Hons) 1976) and Stanford University (PhD 1980), under the direction of Paul Cohen. Sarnak's highly cited work (with A. Lubotzky and R. Philips) applied deep results in number theory to Ramanujan graphs, with connections to combinatorics and computer science.

Career and research.

Sarnak has made major contributions to analysis and number theory. He is widely recognised internationally as one of the leading analytic number theorists of his generation. His early work on the existence of cusp forms led to the disproof of a conjecture of Atle Selberg. He has obtained the strongest known bounds towards the Ramanujan–Petersson conjectures for sparse graphs, and he was one of the first to exploit connections between certain questions of theoretical physics and analytic number theory. There are fundamental contributions to arithmetical quantum chaos, a term which he introduced, and to the relationship between random matrix theory and the zeros of L-functions. His work on subconvexity for Rankin–Selberg L-functions led to the resolution of Hilbert's eleventh problem. During his career he has held numerous appointments including:

Awards and honours.

Peter Sarnak was awarded the Pólya Prize of Society of Industrial & Applied Mathematics in 1998, the Ostrowski Prize in 2001, the Levi L. Conant Prize in 2003, the Frank Nelson Cole Prize in Number Theory in 2005 and a Lester R. Ford Award in 2012. He is the recipient of the 2014 Wolf Prize in Mathematics. The University of the Witwatersrand conferred an honorary doctorate on Professor Peter Sarnak on 2 July 2014 for his distinguished contribution to the field of mathematics.  He was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in 1990 in Kyoto and a plenary speaker at the ICM in 1998 in Berlin.  He was also elected as member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) and Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2002. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2010. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Chicago in 2015. He was elected to the 2018 class of fellows of the American Mathematical Society. In 2019 he became the 10th non-British citizen to ever be awarded the Sylvester Medal of the Royal Society.

Peter Clive Sarnak (born 18 December 1953) is a South African-born mathematician with dual South-African and American nationalities. Sarnak has been a member of the permanent faculty of the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study since 2007. He is also Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University since 2002, succeeding Andrew Wiles, and is an editor of the Annals of Mathematics. He is known for his work in analytic number theory. He also sits on the Board of Adjudicators and the selection committee for the Mathematics award, given under the auspices of the Shaw Prize.

Peter Clive Sarnak (né en 1953) est un mathématicien sud-africain naturalisé américain. Depuis 1991, il est professeur de mathématiques à l'université de Princeton et notamment éditeur des "Annals of Mathematics". Spécialiste de la théorie analytique des nombres, Sarnak est membre de la faculté de mathématiques de l"'Institute for Advanced Study".