Signs and symptoms.

Gout can present in multiple ways, although the most common is a recurrent attack of acute inflammatory arthritis (a red, tender, hot, swollen joint). The metatarsal-phalangeal joint at the base of the big toe is affected most often, accounting for half of cases. Other joints, such as the heels, knees, wrists, and fingers, may also be affected. Joint pain usually begins during the night and peaks within 24 hours of onset. This is mainly due to lower body temperature. Other symptoms may rarely occur along with the joint pain, including fatigue and a high fever.  Long-standing elevated uric acid levels (hyperuricemia) may result in other symptoms, including hard, painless deposits of uric acid crystals known as tophi. Extensive tophi may lead to chronic arthritis due to bone erosion. Elevated levels of uric acid may also lead to crystals precipitating in the kidneys, resulting in stone formation and subsequent urate nephropathy.

Cause.

The crystallization of uric acid, often related to relatively high levels in the blood, is the underlying cause of gout. This can occur because of diet, genetic predisposition, or underexcretion of urate, the salts of uric acid. Underexcretion of uric acid by the kidney is the primary cause of hyperuricemia in about 90% of cases, while overproduction is the cause in less than 10%. About 10% of people with hyperuricemia develop gout at some point in their lifetimes. The risk, however, varies depending on the degree of hyperuricemia. When levels are between 415 and 530 μmol/l (7 and 8.9 mg/dl), the risk is 0.5% per year, while in those with a level greater than 535 μmol/l (9 mg/dL), the risk is 4.5% per year.

Lifestyle.

Dietary causes account for about 12% of gout, and include a strong association with the consumption of alcohol, fructose-sweetened drinks, meat, and seafood. Among foods richest in purines yielding high amounts of uric acid are dried anchovies, shrimp, organ meat, dried mushrooms, seaweed, and beer yeast. Chicken and potatoes also appear related. Other triggers include physical trauma and surgery.  Studies in the early 2000s found that other dietary factors are not relevant. Specifically, a diet with moderate purine-rich vegetables (e.g., beans, peas, lentils, and spinach) is not associated with gout. Neither is total dietary protein. Alcohol consumption is strongly associated with increased risk, with wine presenting somewhat less of a risk than beer or spirits. Eating skim milk powder enriched with glycomacropeptide (GMP) and G600 milk fat extract may reduce pain but may result in diarrhea and nausea.  Physical fitness, healthy weight, low-fat dairy products, and to a lesser extent, coffee and taking vitamin C, appear to decrease the risk of gout; however, taking vitamin C supplements does not appear to have a significant effect in people who already have established gout. Peanuts, brown bread, and fruit also appear protective. This is believed to be partly due to their effect in reducing insulin resistance.

Genetics.

Gout is partly genetic, contributing to about 60% of variability in uric acid level. The "SLC2A9", "SLC22A12", and "ABCG2" genes have been found to be commonly associated with gout and variations in them can approximately double the risk. Loss-of-function mutations in "SLC2A9" and "SLC22A12" causes low blood uric acid levels by reducing urate absorption and unopposed urate secretion. The rare genetic disorders familial juvenile hyperuricemic nephropathy, medullary cystic kidney disease, phosphoribosylpyrophosphate synthetase superactivity and hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase deficiency as seen in Lesch–Nyhan syndrome, are complicated by gout.

Medical conditions.

Gout frequently occurs in combination with other medical problems. Metabolic syndrome, a combination of abdominal obesity, hypertension, insulin resistance, and abnormal lipid levels, occurs in nearly 75% of cases. Other conditions commonly complicated by gout include lead poisoning, kidney failure, hemolytic anemia, psoriasis, solid organ transplants, and myeloproliferative disorders such as polycythemia. A body mass index greater than or equal to 35 increases male risk of gout threefold. Chronic lead exposure and lead-contaminated alcohol are risk factors for gout due to the harmful effect of lead on kidney function.

Medication.

Diuretics have been associated with attacks of gout, but a low dose of hydrochlorothiazide does not seem to increase risk. Other medications that increase the risk include niacin, aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid), ACE inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, beta blockers, ritonavir, and pyrazinamide. The immunosuppressive drugs ciclosporin and tacrolimus are also associated with gout, the former more so when used in combination with hydrochlorothiazide.

Pathophysiology.

Gout is a disorder of purine metabolism, and occurs when its final metabolite, uric acid, crystallizes in the form of monosodium urate, precipitating and forming deposits (tophi) in joints, on tendons, and in the surrounding tissues. Microscopic tophi may be walled off by a ring of proteins, which blocks interaction of the crystals with cells and therefore avoids inflammation. Naked crystals may break out of walled-off tophi due to minor physical damage to the joint, medical or surgical stress, or rapid changes in uric acid levels. When they break through the tophi, they trigger a local immune-mediated inflammatory reaction in macrophages, which is initiated by the NLRP3 inflammasome protein complex. Activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome recruits the enzyme caspase 1, which converts pro-interleukin 1β into active interleukin 1β, one of the key proteins in the inflammatory cascade. An evolutionary loss of urate oxidase (uricase), which breaks down uric acid, in humans and higher primates has made this condition common.  The triggers for precipitation of uric acid are not well understood. While it may crystallize at normal levels, it is more likely to do so as levels increase. Other triggers believed to be important in acute episodes of arthritis include cool temperatures, rapid changes in uric acid levels, acidosis, articular hydration and extracellular matrix proteins. The increased precipitation at low temperatures partly explains why the joints in the feet are most commonly affected. Rapid changes in uric acid may occur due to factors including trauma, surgery, chemotherapy and diuretics. The starting or increasing of urate-lowering medications can lead to an acute attack of gout with febuxostat of a particularly high risk. Calcium channel blockers and losartan are associated with a lower risk of gout compared to other medications for hypertension.

Diagnosis.

Gout may be diagnosed and treated without further investigations in someone with hyperuricemia and the classic acute arthritis of the base of the great toe (known as podagra). Synovial fluid analysis should be done if the diagnosis is in doubt. Plain X-rays are usually normal and are not useful for confirming a diagnosis of early gout. They may show signs of chronic gout such as bone erosion.

Synovial fluid.

A definitive diagnosis of gout is based upon the identification of monosodium urate crystals in synovial fluid or a tophus. All synovial fluid samples obtained from undiagnosed inflamed joints by arthrocentesis should be examined for these crystals. Under polarized light microscopy, they have a needle-like morphology and strong negative birefringence. This test is difficult to perform and requires a trained observer. The fluid must be examined relatively soon after aspiration, as temperature and pH affect solubility.

Blood tests.

Hyperuricemia is a classic feature of gout, but nearly half of the time gout occurs without hyperuricemia and most people with raised uric acid levels never develop gout. Thus, the diagnostic utility of measuring uric acid levels is limited. Hyperuricemia is defined as a plasma urate level greater than 420 μmol/l (7.0 mg/dl) in males and 360 μmol/l (6.0 mg/dl) in females. Other blood tests commonly performed are white blood cell count, electrolytes, kidney function and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). However, both the white blood cells and ESR may be elevated due to gout in the absence of infection. A white blood cell count as high as 40.0×10/l (40,000/mm) has been documented.

Differential diagnosis.

The most important differential diagnosis in gout is septic arthritis. This should be considered in those with signs of infection or those who do not improve with treatment. To help with diagnosis, a synovial fluid Gram stain and culture may be performed. Other conditions that can look similar include pseudogout, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, and reactive arthritis. Gouty tophi, in particular when not located in a joint, can be mistaken for basal cell carcinoma or other neoplasms.

Prevention.

Both lifestyle changes and medications can decrease uric acid levels. Dietary and lifestyle choices that are effective include reducing intake of purine-rich foods of animal origin such as meat and seafood, alcohol, and fructose (especially high fructose corn syrup). Eating dairy products, vitamin C, coffee, and cherries may help prevent gout attacks, as does losing weight. Gout may be secondary to sleep apnea via the release of purines from oxygen-starved cells. Treatment of apnea can lessen the occurrence of attacks.

Medications.

As of 2020 allopurinol is generally the recommended preventative treatment if medications are used. A number of other medications may occasionally be considered to prevent further episodes of gout, including probenecid, febuxostat, benzbromarone, and colchicine. Long term medications are not recommended until a person has had two attacks of gout, unless destructive joint changes, tophi, or urate nephropathy exist. It is not until this point that medications are cost-effective. They are not usually started until one to two weeks after an acute flare has resolved, due to theoretical concerns of worsening the attack. They are often used in combination with either an NSAID or colchicine for the first three to six months.  While it has been recommended that urate-lowering measures should be increased until serum uric acid levels are below 300–360 μmol/l (5.0–6.0 mg/dl), there is little evidence to support this practice over simple putting people on a standard dose of allopurinol. If these medications are in chronic use at the time of an attack, it is recommended that they be continued. Levels that cannot be brought below 6.0 mg/dl while attacks continue indicates refractory gout.  While historically it is not recommended to start allopurinol during an acute attack of gout, this practice appears acceptable. Allopurinol blocks uric acid production, and is the most commonly used agent. Long term therapy is safe and well tolerated, and can be used in people with renal impairment or urate stones, although hypersensitivity occurs in a small number of individuals.  Febuxostat is only recommended in those who cannot tolerate allopurinol. There are concerns about more deaths with febuxostat compared to allopurinol. Febuxostat may also increase the rate of gout flares during early treatment. However, there is tentative evidence that febuxostat may bring down urate levels more than allopurinol.  Probenecid appears to be less effective than allopurinol and is a second line agent. Probenecid may be used if undersecretion of uric acid is present (24-hour urine uric acid less than 800 mg). It is, however, not recommended if a person has a history of kidney stones. Pegloticase is an option for the 3% of people who are intolerant to other medications. It is a third line agent. Pegloticase is given as an intravenous infusion every two weeks, and reduces uric acid levels. Pegloticase is useful decreasing tophi but has a high rate of side effects and many people develop resistance to it. Potential side effects include kidney stones, anemia and joint pain. In 2016 it was withdrawn from the European market.  Lesinurad reduces blood uric acid levels by preventing uric acid absorption in the kidneys. It was approved in the United States for use together with allopurinol, among those who were unable to reach their uric acid level targets. Side effects include kidney problems and kidney stones.

Treatment.

The initial aim of treatment is to settle the symptoms of an acute attack. Repeated attacks can be prevented by medications that reduce serum uric acid levels. Tentative evidence supports the application of ice for 20 to 30 minutes several times a day to decrease pain. Options for acute treatment include nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), colchicine, and steroids. While steroids and NSAIDs work equally well, steroids may be safer. Options for prevention include allopurinol, febuxostat, and probenecid. Lowering uric acid levels can cure the disease. Treatment of associated health problems is also important. Lifestyle interventions have been poorly studied. It is unclear whether dietary supplements have an effect in people with gout.

NSAIDs.

NSAIDs are the usual first-line treatment for gout. No specific agent is significantly more or less effective than any other. Improvement may be seen within four hours and treatment is recommended for one to two weeks. They are not recommended for those with certain other health problems, such as gastrointestinal bleeding, kidney failure, or heart failure. While indometacin has historically been the most commonly used NSAID, an alternative, such as ibuprofen, may be preferred due to its better side effect profile in the absence of superior effectiveness. For those at risk of gastric side effects from NSAIDs, an additional proton pump inhibitor may be given. There is some evidence that COX-2 inhibitors may work as well as nonselective NSAIDs for acute gout attack with fewer side effects.

Colchicine.

Colchicine is an alternative for those unable to tolerate NSAIDs. At high doses, side effects (primarily gastrointestinal upset) limit its usage. At lower doses, which are still effective, it is well tolerated. Colchicine may interact with other commonly prescribed drugs, such as atorvastatin and erythromycin, among others.

Steroids.

Glucocorticoids have been found to be as effective as NSAIDs and may be used if contraindications exist for NSAIDs. They also lead to improvement when injected into the joint. A joint infection must be excluded, however, as steroids worsen this condition. There were no short-term adverse effects reported.

Others.

Interleukin-1 inhibitors, such as canakinumab, showed moderate effectiveness for pain relief and reduction of joint swelling, but have increased risk of adverse events, such as back pain, headache, and increased blood pressure. They, however, may work less well than usual doses of NSAIDS. The high cost of this class of drugs may also discourage their use for treating gout.

Prognosis.

Without treatment, an acute attack of gout usually resolves in five to seven days; however, 60% of people have a second attack within one year. Those with gout are at increased risk of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, and kidney and cardiovascular disease and thus are at increased risk of death. It is unclear whether medications that lower urate affect cardiovascular disease risks. This may be partly due to its association with insulin resistance and obesity, but some of the increased risk appears to be independent.  Without treatment, episodes of acute gout may develop into chronic gout with destruction of joint surfaces, joint deformity, and painless tophi. These tophi occur in 30% of those who are untreated for five years, often in the helix of the ear, over the olecranon processes, or on the Achilles tendons. With aggressive treatment, they may dissolve. Kidney stones also frequently complicate gout, affecting between 10 and 40% of people and occur due to low urine pH promoting the precipitation of uric acid. Other forms of chronic kidney dysfunction may occur.

Epidemiology.

Gout affects around 1–2% of the Western population at some point in their lifetimes and is becoming more common. Some 5.8 million people were affected in 2013. Rates of gout approximately doubled between 1990 and 2010. This rise is believed to be due to increasing life expectancy, changes in diet and an increase in diseases associated with gout, such as metabolic syndrome and high blood pressure. Factors that influence rates of gout include age, race, and the season of the year. In men over 30 and women over 50, rates are 2%.  In the United States, gout is twice as likely in males of African descent than those of European descent. Rates are high among Pacific Islanders and the Māori, but the disease is rare in aboriginal Australians, despite a higher mean uric acid serum concentration in the latter group. It has become common in China, Polynesia, and urban sub-Saharan Africa. Some studies found that attacks of gout occur more frequently in the spring. This has been attributed to seasonal changes in diet, alcohol consumption, physical activity, and temperature.

History.

The term "gout" was initially used by Randolphus of Bocking, around 1200 AD. It is derived from the Latin word "gutta", meaning "a drop" (of liquid). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this is derived from humorism and "the notion of the 'dropping' of a morbid material from the blood in and around the joints".  Gout has been known since antiquity. Historically, it was referred to as "the king of diseases and the disease of kings" or "rich man's disease". The first documentation of the disease is from Egypt in 2,600 BC in a description of arthritis of the big toe. Greek physician Hippocrates around 400 BC commented on it in his "Aphorisms", noting its absence in eunuchs and premenopausal women. Aulus Cornelius Celsus (30 AD) described the linkage with alcohol, later onset in women and associated kidney problems: Again thick urine, the sediment from which is white, indicates that pain and disease are to be apprehended in the region of joints or viscera... Joint troubles in the hands and feet are very frequent and persistent, such as occur in cases of podagra and cheiragra. These seldom attack eunuchs or boys before coition with a woman, or women except those in whom the menses have become suppressed... some have obtained lifelong security by refraining from wine, mead and venery.  In 1683, Thomas Sydenham, an English physician, described its occurrence in the early hours of the morning and its predilection for older males: Gouty patients are, generally, either old men or men who have so worn themselves out in youth as to have brought on a premature old age—of such dissolute habits none being more common than the premature and excessive indulgence in venery and the like exhausting passions. The victim goes to bed and sleeps in good health. About two o'clock in the morning he is awakened by a severe pain in the great toe; more rarely in the heel, ankle, or instep. The pain is like that of a dislocation and yet parts feel as if cold water were poured over them. Then follows chills and shivers and a little fever... The night is passed in torture, sleeplessness, turning the part affected and perpetual change of posture; the tossing about of body being as incessant as the pain of the tortured joint and being worse as the fit comes on.  Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek first described the microscopic appearance of urate crystals in 1679. In 1848, English physician Alfred Baring Garrod identified excess uric acid in the blood as the cause of gout.

Other animals.

Gout is rare in most other animals due to their ability to produce uricase, which breaks down uric acid. Humans and other great apes do not have this ability, thus gout is common. Other animals with uricase include fish, amphibians and most non-primate mammals. The "Tyrannosaurus rex" specimen known as "Sue" is believed to have suffered from gout.

Research.

A number of new medications are under study for treating gout, including anakinra, canakinumab, and rilonacept. Canakinumab may result in better outcomes than a low dose of a steroid, but costs five thousand times more. A recombinant uricase enzyme (rasburicase) is available but its use is limited, as it triggers an immune response. Less antigenic versions are in development.

Gout is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of a red, tender, hot, and swollen joint. Pain typically comes on rapidly, reaching maximal intensity in less than 12 hours. The joint at the base of the big toe is affected in about half of cases. It may also result in tophi, kidney stones, or kidney damage. Gout is due to persistently elevated levels of uric acid in the blood. This occurs from a combination of diet, other health problems, and genetic factors. At high levels, uric acid crystallizes and the crystals deposit in joints, tendons, and surrounding tissues, resulting in an attack of gout. Gout occurs more commonly in those who regularly eat meat or seafood, drink beer, or are overweight. Diagnosis of gout may be confirmed by the presence of crystals in the joint fluid or in a deposit outside the joint. Blood uric acid levels may be normal during an attack. Treatment with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), steroids, or colchicine improves symptoms. Once the acute attack subsides, levels of uric acid can be lowered via lifestyle changes and in those with frequent attacks, allopurinol or probenecid provides long-term prevention. Taking vitamin C and eating a diet high in low-fat dairy products may be preventive. Gout affects about 1 to 2% of the Western population at some point in their lives. It has become more common in recent decades. This is believed to be due to increasing risk factors in the population, such as metabolic syndrome, longer life expectancy, and changes in diet. Older males are most commonly affected. Gout was historically known as "the disease of kings" or "rich man's disease". It has been recognized at least since the time of the ancient Egyptians.

痛风(英语:Gout,学名:metabolic arthritis),又称代谢性关节炎。当涉及到跖趾关节时也称为足痛风(Podagra)。经常被描述为周期性发作的刺激性关节炎,造成关节红、软、热、关节积液等现象。剧烈疼痛通常在十二小时内就发作。大约一半的病例会影响到跖趾关节。痛风也会导致痛风石、肾结石,或者急性尿酸肾病。 导致痛风的原因结合了日常饮食和遗传因素。痛风通常较容易发生在吃很多肉、喝很多啤酒或超重的人身上。潜在机制包含血液中尿酸水平的升高。当尿酸结晶后沉淀在关节、肌腱和周围组织,就会形成痛风。痛风患者的关节液中能看见典型的尿酸结晶。血液中的尿酸水平有可能在痛风发作时恢复正常值。 使用非类固醇消炎止痛药、类固醇,或秋水仙素等药物能改善痛风的症状。患者透过改变生活方式使血液中尿酸水平下降能缓解急性痛风发作,而别嘌呤醇和丙磺舒两种药物能为那些频繁的痛风发病者提供长期预防。服用维生素C和食用低脂制品的饮食习惯也可能预防痛风的发生。 大约百分之一到二的西方人口曾经或正在罹患痛风。近几十年,人们认为由于人群中越来越多的风险因素,例如代谢症候群,较长的平均寿命和饮食上的改变,痛风的影响变得更普遍,其中年龄较长的男性是最普遍受影响的。至少追溯到古埃及时代,痛风在历史上被公认为「国王病」或「富人病」。


History.

As Leslie Lamport (2015) notes, "While concurrent program execution had been considered for years, the computer science of concurrency began with Edsger Dijkstra's seminal 1965 paper that introduced the mutual exclusion problem.... The ensuing decades have seen a huge growth of interest in concurrency—particularly in distributed systems. Looking back at the origins of the field, what stands out is the fundamental role played by Edsger Dijkstra".

Issues.

Because computations in a concurrent system can interact with each other while being executed, the number of possible execution paths in the system can be extremely large, and the resulting outcome can be indeterminate. Concurrent use of shared resources can be a source of indeterminacy leading to issues such as deadlocks, and resource starvation.  Design of concurrent systems often entails finding reliable techniques for coordinating their execution, data exchange, memory allocation, and execution scheduling to minimize response time and maximise throughput.

Theory.

Concurrency theory has been an active field of research in theoretical computer science. One of the first proposals was Carl Adam Petri's seminal work on Petri nets in the early 1960s. In the years since, a wide variety of formalisms have been developed for modeling and reasoning about concurrency.

Models.

A number of formalisms for modeling and understanding concurrent systems have been developed, including:  Some of these models of concurrency are primarily intended to support reasoning and specification, while others can be used through the entire development cycle, including design, implementation, proof, testing and simulation of concurrent systems. Some of these are based on message passing, while others have different mechanisms for concurrency.  The proliferation of different models of concurrency has motivated some researchers to develop ways to unify these different theoretical models. For example, Lee and Sangiovanni-Vincentelli have demonstrated that a so-called "tagged-signal" model can be used to provide a common framework for defining the denotational semantics of a variety of different models of concurrency, while Nielsen, Sassone, and Winskel have demonstrated that category theory can be used to provide a similar unified understanding of different models.  The Concurrency Representation Theorem in the actor model provides a fairly general way to represent concurrent systems that are closed in the sense that they do not receive communications from outside. (Other concurrency systems, e.g., process calculi can be modeled in the actor model using a two-phase commit protocol.) The mathematical denotation denoted by a closed system S is constructed increasingly better approximations from an initial behavior called ⊥ using a behavior approximating function progression to construct a denotation (meaning ) for S as follows:  In this way, S can be mathematically characterized in terms of all its possible behaviors.

Logics.

Various types of temporal logic can be used to help reason about concurrent systems. Some of these logics, such as linear temporal logic and computation tree logic, allow assertions to be made about the sequences of states that a concurrent system can pass through. Others, such as action computational tree logic, Hennessy–Milner logic, and Lamport's temporal logic of actions, build their assertions from sequences of "actions" (changes in state). The principal application of these logics is in writing specifications for concurrent systems.

Practice.

Concurrent programming encompasses programming languages and algorithms used to implement concurrent systems. Concurrent programming is usually considered to be more general than parallel programming because it can involve arbitrary and dynamic patterns of communication and interaction, whereas parallel systems generally have a predefined and well-structured communications pattern. The base goals of concurrent programming include "correctness", "performance" and "robustness". Concurrent systems such as Operating systems and Database management systems are generally designed to operate indefinitely, including automatic recovery from failure, and not terminate unexpectedly (see Concurrency control). Some concurrent systems implement a form of transparent concurrency, in which concurrent computational entities may compete for and share a single resource, but the complexities of this competition and sharing are shielded from the programmer.  Because they use shared resources, concurrent systems in general require the inclusion of some kind of arbiter somewhere in their implementation (often in the underlying hardware), to control access to those resources. The use of arbiters introduces the possibility of indeterminacy in concurrent computation which has major implications for practice including correctness and performance. For example, arbitration introduces unbounded nondeterminism which raises issues with model checking because it causes explosion in the state space and can even cause models to have an infinite number of states.  Some concurrent programming models include coprocesses and deterministic concurrency. In these models, threads of control explicitly yield their timeslices, either to the system or to another process.

In computer science, concurrency is the ability of different parts or units of a program, algorithm, or problem to be executed out-of-order or in partial order, without affecting the final outcome. This allows for parallel execution of the concurrent units, which can significantly improve overall speed of the execution in multi-processor and multi-core systems. In more technical terms, concurrency refers to the decomposability property of a program, algorithm, or problem into order-independent or partially-ordered components or units.

在计算机科学中,并行性(英语:Concurrency)是指在一个系统中,拥有多个计算,这些计算有同时执行的特性,而且他们之间有着潜在的互动。因此系统可进行的执行路径会有相当多个,而且结果可能具有不确定性。并发计算可能会在具备多核心的同一个芯片中复合运行,以优先分时线程在同一个处理器中执行,或在不同的处理器执行。


History.

"Contralto" is primarily meaningful only in reference to classical and operatic singing, as other traditions lack a comparable system of vocal categorization. The term "contralto" is only applied to female singers; men singing in a similar range are called "countertenors". The Italian terms "contralto" and "alto" are not synonymous, "alto" technically denoting a specific vocal range in choral singing without regard to factors like tessitura, vocal timbre, vocal facility, and vocal weight. However, there exists some French choral writing (including that of Ravel and Poulenc) with a part labeled "contralto", despite the tessitura and function being that of a classical alto part. The Saracen princess Clorinde in André Campra's 1702 opera "Tancréde" was written for Julie d'Aubigny and is considered the earliest major role for "bas-dessus" or contralto voice.

Vocal range.

The contralto has the lowest vocal range of the female voice types, with the lowest tessitura.  The contralto vocal range is between tenor and mezzo-soprano. Although tenors, baritones, and basses are male singers, some women can sing as low (albeit with a slightly different timbre and texture) as their male counterparts and are often erroneously referred to as "female tenors", "female baritones", or "female basses". Formal terminology might logically be "contralto profundo" (tenor) and "contralto basso" or "oktavistka" (baritone), but these are not traditional.  Some of the rare singers who specialized in the tenor and baritone registers include film actress Zarah Leander, the Persian "āvāz" singer Hayedeh, the child prodigy Ruby Helder (1890 –1938), and Bavarian novelty singer Bally Prell.

Subtypes and roles in opera.

Within the contralto voice type category are three generally recognized subcategories: coloratura contralto, an agile voice specializing in florid passages; lyric contralto, a voice lighter in timbre; and dramatic contralto, the deepest, darkest, and most powerful contralto voice. These subtypes do not always apply with precision to individual singers; some exceptional dramatic contraltos, such as Ernestine Schumann-Heink and Sigrid Onégin, were technically equipped to perform not only heavy, dramatic music by the likes of Wagner but also florid compositions by Donizetti.  True operatic contraltos are rare, and the operatic literature contains few roles written specifically for them. Contraltos sometimes are assigned feminine roles like Angelina in "La Cenerentola", Rosina in "The Barber of Seville", Teodata in "Flavio", Isabella in "L'italiana in Algeri", and Olga in "Eugene Onegin", but more frequently they play female villains or trouser roles. Contraltos may also be cast in roles originally written for castrati. A common saying among contraltos is that they may play only "witches, bitches, or." Examples of contralto roles in the standard operatic repertoire include the following:  indicates a role that may also be sung by a mezzo-soprano.

A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type.

在歌唱方面,女低音(Contralto)是女声中最低的声部,音域通常是从中央Ç下的 ̊F音往上爬升二个八度(F3〜F5)音色相比女高音较宽厚深沉,有时候一些音色比较磁性暗哑,而声音又浑厚的女中音,也会被归类为女低音。诸如 Lady gaga,艾美·怀恩豪斯以及爱黛儿等流行歌手。。柴可夫斯基的歌剧《叶甫根尼·奥涅金》第一幕第一场的《奥尔伽的咏叹调》就是由女低音独唱。另外在一些乐器名称里带有“女低音的音域”之含意。


Capabilities.

On wired shared medium networks, such as Ethernet, Token Ring, and FDDI networks, depending on the network structure (hub or switch), it may be possible to capture all traffic on the network from a single machine on the network. On modern networks, traffic can be captured using a network switch with a so-called "monitoring port" that mirrors all packets that pass through designated ports of the switch. A network tap is an even more reliable solution than to use a monitoring port, since taps are less likely to drop packets during high traffic load.  On wireless LANs, traffic can be captured on one channel at a time, or by using multiple adapters, on several channels simultaneously.  On wired broadcast and wireless LANs, to capture unicast traffic between other machines, the network adapter capturing the traffic must be in promiscuous mode. On wireless LANs, even if the adapter is in promiscuous mode, packets not for the service set the adapter is configured for are usually ignored. To see those packets, the adapter must be in monitor mode. No special provisions are required to capture multicast traffic to a multicast group the packet analyzer is already monitoring, or broadcast traffic.  When traffic is captured, either the entire contents of packets are recorded, or just the headers are recorded. Recording just headers reduces storage requirements, and avoids some legal issues, yet often provides sufficient information to diagnose problems.  Captured information is decoded from raw digital form into a human-readable format that lets users easily review exchanged information. Protocol analyzers vary in their abilities to display and analyze data.  Some protocol analyzers can also generate traffic and thus act as the reference device. These can act as protocol testers. Such testers generate protocol-correct traffic for functional testing, and may also have the ability to deliberately introduce errors to test the device under test (DUT)'s ability to handle errors.  Protocol analyzers can also be hardware-based, either in probe format or, as is increasingly common, combined with a disk array. These devices record packets (or a slice of the packet) to a disk array. This allows historical forensic analysis of packets without users having to recreate any fault.

Uses.

Packet sniffers can:  Packet capture can be used to fulfill a warrant from a law enforcement agency to wiretap all network traffic generated by an individual. Internet service providers and VoIP providers in the United States must comply with Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act regulations. Using packet capture and storage, telecommunications carriers can provide the legally required secure and separate access to targeted network traffic and are able to use the same device for internal security purposes. Collecting data from a carrier system without a warrant is illegal due to laws about interception. By using end-to-end encryption, communications can be kept confidential from telecommunication carriers and legal authorities.

A packet analyzer (also known as a packet sniffer) is a computer program or piece of computer hardware (such as a packet capture appliance) that can intercept and log traffic that passes over a digital network or part of a network. Packet capture is the process of intercepting and logging traffic. As data streams flow across the network, the sniffer captures each packet and, if needed, decodes the packet's raw data, showing the values of various fields in the packet, and analyzes its content according to the appropriate RFC or other specifications.

嗅探(英语:Sniffers)是一种网络流量数据分析的手段,常见于网络安全领域使用,也有用于业务分析领域,一般是指使用嗅探器对数据流的数据截获与封包分析(英语:Packet analysis)。


Etymology and nomenclature.

The word is derived from the Sanskrit root, which is composed of -  The word "swastika" has been used in the Indian subcontinent since 500 BCE. Its appearance in English dates to the 19th century, replacing "gammadion" from Greek. It is alternatively spelled in contemporary texts as "svastika", and other spellings were occasionally used in the 19th and early 20th century, such as "suastika". It was derived from the Sanskrit term (Devanagari ), which transliterates to "" under the commonly used IAST transliteration system, but is pronounced closer to "swastika" when letters are used with their English values. An important early use of the word swastika in a European text was

Appearance.

All swastikas are bent crosses based on a chiral symmetry – but they appear with different geometric details: as compact crosses with short legs, as crosses with large arms and as motifs in a pattern of unbroken lines. One distinct representation of a swastika, as a double swastika or swastika made of squares, appears in a Nepalese silver mohar coin of 1685, kingdom of Patan (NS 805) KM# 337.  Chirality describes an absence of reflective symmetry, with the existence of two versions that are mirror images of each other. The mirror-image forms are typically described as: The left-facing version is distinguished in some traditions and languages as a distinct symbol from the right-facing and is called the "sauwastika".  The compact swastika can be seen as a chiral irregular icosagon (20-sided polygon) with fourfold (90°) rotational symmetry. Such a swastika proportioned on a 5 × 5 square grid and with the broken portions of its legs shortened by one unit can tile the plane by translation alone. The Nazi "Hakenkreuz" used a 5 × 5 diagonal grid, but with the legs unshortened.

Written characters.

The sauwastika was adopted as a standard character in Chinese, "" () and as such entered various other East Asian languages, including Chinese script. In Japanese the symbol is called or.  The sauwastika is included in the Unicode character sets

Meaning of the symbol.

European hypotheses of the swastika are often treated in conjunction with cross symbols in general, such as the sun cross of Bronze Age religion. Beyond its certain presence in the "proto-writing" symbol systems, such as the Vinča script, which appeared during the Neolithic.

North pole.

According to René Guénon, the swastika represents the north pole, and the rotational movement around a centre or immutable axis ("axis mundi"), and only secondly it represents the Sun as a reflected function of the north pole. As such it is a symbol of life, of the vivifying role of the supreme principle of the universe, the absolute God, in relation to the cosmic order. It represents the activity (the Hellenic "Logos", the Hindu "Om", the Chinese "Taiyi", "Great One") of the principle of the universe in the formation of the world. According to Guénon, the swastika in its polar value has the same meaning of the yin and yang symbol of the Chinese tradition, and of other traditional symbols of the working

Comet.

In his book "Comet" (1985), Carl Sagan reproduces a Han-dynasty Chinese manuscript (the "Book of Silk", 2nd century BCE) that shows comet tail varieties: most are variations on simple comet tails, but the last shows the comet nucleus with four bent arms extending from it, recalling a swastika. Sagan suggests that in antiquity a comet could have approached so close to Earth that the jets of gas streaming from it, bent

Prehistory.

The earliest known swastika is from 10,000 BCE – part of "an intricate meander pattern of joined-up swastikas" found on a late paleolithic figurine of a bird, carved from mammoth ivory, found in Mezine, Ukraine. It has been suggested that this swastika may be a stylized picture of a stork in flight. As the carving was found near phallic objects, this may also support the idea that the pattern was a fertility symbol.  Mirror-image swastikas (clockwise and anti-clockwise) have been found on ceramic pottery in the Devetashka cave, Bulgaria, dated to 6,000 BCE.  Some of the earliest archaeological evidence of the swastika in the Indian subcontinent can be dated to 3,000 BCE. Investigators have also found seals with "mature and geometrically ordered" swastikas that date to before the Indus Valley Civilisation (3300–1300 BCE). Their efforts have traced references to swastikas in the "Vedas" at about that time. The investigators put forth the theory that the swastika moved westward from India

Historical use.

In Asia, the swastika symbol first appears in the archaeological record around 3000 BCE in the Indus Valley Civilization. It also appears in the Bronze and Iron Age cultures around the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. In all these cultures, the swastika symbol does not appear to occupy any marked position or significance, appearing as just one form of a series of similar symbols of varying complexity. In the Zoroastrian religion of Persia, the swastika was a symbol of the revolving sun, infinity, or continuing creation. It is one of the most common symbols on Mesopotamian coins.  The icon has been of spiritual significance to Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. The swastika is a sacred symbol in the Bön religion, native to Tibet.

South Asia.

Jainism.

In Jainism, it is a symbol of the seventh tīrthaṅkara, Suparśvanātha. In the Śvētāmbara tradition, it is also one of the aṣṭamaṅgala or eight auspicious symbols. All Jain temples and holy books must contain the swastika and ceremonies typically begin and end with creating a swastika mark several times with rice around the altar. Jains use rice to

Hinduism.

The swastika is an important Hindu symbol. The swastika symbol is commonly used before entrances or on doorways of homes or temples, to mark the starting page of financial statements, and mandalas constructed for rituals such as weddings or welcoming a newborn.  The swastika has a particular association with Diwali, being drawn in rangoli (coloured sand) or formed with deepak lights on the floor outside Hindu houses and on wall hangings and other decorations.  In the diverse traditions within Hinduism, both the

Swastika shaped temple tank.

A swastika shaped temple tank built in 800 CE by Kamban Araiyan during the reign of

Buddhism.

In Buddhism, the swastika is considered to symbolize the auspicious footprints of the Buddha. It is an aniconic symbol for the Buddha in many parts of Asia and homologous with the "dharma wheel". The shape symbolizes eternal cycling, a theme found in samsara doctrine of Buddhism.  The swastika symbol is common in esoteric tantric traditions of Buddhism, along with Hinduism, where it is found with Chakra theories and other meditative aids. The clockwise symbol is more common, and contrasts with the counter clockwise version common in the Tibetan Bon tradition and locally called "yungdrung".

East Asia.

Swastika-like symbols were in use in China already in Neolithic scripts. The paired swastika symbols (leftwise and rightwise) are included, at least since the Liao Dynasty (CE 907–1125), as part of the Chinese writing system (卍 and 卐) and are variant characters for 萬 or 万 ("wàn" in Mandarin, 만 ("man") in Korean, Cantonese, and Japanese, "vạn" in Vietnamese) meaning "myriad", "all", or "eternity". The swastika marks the beginning of many Buddhist scriptures. In East Asian countries, the left-facing character is often used as symbol for Buddhism and marks the site of a Buddhist temple on maps. In Chinese, Japanese, and Korean the swastika is also a homonym of the number 10,000, and is commonly used to represent the whole of creation, e.g.

Northern Europe.

Sami.

An object very much like a hammer or a double axe is depicted among the magical symbols on the drums of Sami shamans, used in their religious ceremonies before Christianity was established.

Germanic Iron Age.

The swastika shape (also called a "fylfot") appears on various Germanic Migration Period and Viking Age artifacts, such as the 3rd-century Værløse Fibula from Zealand, Denmark, the Gothic spearhead from Brest-Litovsk, today in Belarus, the 9th-century Snoldelev Stone from Ramsø, Denmark, and numerous Migration Period bracteates drawn left-facing or right-facing.  The pagan Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo, England, contained numerous items bearing the swastika, now housed in the collection of the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The swastika is clearly marked on a hilt and sword belt

Slavic.

According to painter Stanisław Jakubowski the "little sun" (Polish "słoneczko") is an Early Slavic pagan symbol of the Sun, he claimed it was engraved on wooden monuments built near the final resting places of fallen Slavs to represent eternal life. The symbol was first seen in his collection of Early Slavic symbols and architectural features, which he named "Prasłowiańskie motywy architektoniczne" (). His work was published in 1923, by a publishing house that was then based in the Dębniki district of Kraków. In Russia before World War I the swastika was a favorite sign of the last Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. She placed it where she could for happiness, including drawing it in pencil on the walls and windows in the Ipatiev House – where the royal family was executed. There, she also drew a swastika on the wallpaper above the bed where the heir apparently slept. It was printed on some banknotes of the Russian Provisional Government (1917) and some

Celts.

The bronze frontispiece of a ritual pre-Christian () shield found in the River Thames near Battersea Bridge (hence "Battersea Shield") is embossed with 27 swastikas in bronze and red enamel. An Ogham stone found in Anglish, Co Kerry, Ireland (CIIC 141) was modified into an early Christian gravestone, and was decorated with a cross pattée and two swastikas. The Book of Kells () contains swastika-shaped ornamentation. At the Northern edge of Ilkley Moor in West Yorkshire, there is a swastika-shaped pattern engraved in a stone known as the Swastika Stone. A number of swastikas have been found embossed in Galician metal pieces and carved in stones, mostly from the Castro Culture period, although there also are contemporary examples (imitating old patterns for decorative purposes).

Greco-Roman antiquity.

Ancient Greek architectural, clothing and coin designs are replete with single or interlinking swastika motifs. There are also gold plate fibulae from the 8th century BCE decorated with an engraved swastika. Related symbols in classical Western architecture include the cross, the three-legged triskele or triskelion and the rounded lauburu. The swastika symbol is also known in these contexts by a number of names, especially "gammadion", or rather the tetra-gammadion. The name "gammadion" comes from its being seen as being made up of four Greek gamma (Γ) letters. Ancient Greek architectural designs are replete with the interlinking

Illyrians.

The swastika was widespread among the Illyrians, symbolizing the Sun. The Sun cult was the

Armenia.

In Armenia the swastika is called the "arevakhach" and "kerkhach" () and is the ancient symbol of eternity and eternal light (i.e. God). Swastikas in Armenia were founded on petroglyphs from the copper age, predating the Bronze Age. During the Bronze Age it was depicted on cauldrons, belts, medallions and other

Medieval and early modern Europe.

Swastika shapes have been found on numerous artifacts from Iron Age Europe.  In Christianity, the swastika is used as a hooked version of the Christian Cross, the symbol of Christ's victory over death. Some Christian churches built in the Romanesque and Gothic eras are decorated with swastikas, carrying over earlier Roman designs. Swastikas are prominently displayed in a mosaic in the St. Sophia church of Kiev, Ukraine dating from the 12th century. They also appear as a repeating ornamental motif on a tomb in the Basilica of St. Ambrose in Milan.  A ceiling painted in 1910 in the church of St Laurent in Grenoble has many swastikas. It can be visited today because the church became the archaeological museum of the city. A proposed direct link between it and a swastika floor mosaic in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Amiens, which was built on top of a pagan site at Amiens, France in the 13th century, is considered unlikely.

Africa.

The swastika can be found on

Americas.

The swastika is a Navajo symbol for good luck, also

Early 20th century.

In the Western world, the symbol experienced a resurgence following the archaeological work in the late 19th century of Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered the symbol in the site of ancient Troy and associated it with the ancient migrations of Proto-Indo-Europeans, whose proto-language was not coincidentally termed "Proto-Indo-Germanic" by German language historians. He connected it with similar shapes found on ancient pots in Germany, and theorized that the swastika was a "significant religious symbol of our remote ancestors", linking it to ancient Teutons, Greeks of the time of Homer and Indians of the Vedic era. By the early 20th century, it was used worldwide and was regarded as a symbol of good luck and success.  Schliemann's work soon became intertwined with the political "völkisch" movements, which used the swastika as a symbol for the "Aryan race" – a concept that theorists such as Alfred Rosenberg equated with a Nordic master race originating in northern Europe. Since its adoption by the Nazi Party of Adolf Hitler, the swastika has been associated with Nazism, fascism, racism in its (white supremacy) form, the Axis powers in World War II, and the Holocaust in much of the West. The swastika remains a core symbol of neo-Nazi groups.  The Benedictine choir school at Lambach Abbey, Upper Austria, which Hitler attended for several months as a boy, had a swastika chiseled into the monastery portal and also the wall above the spring grotto in the courtyard by 1868. Their origin was the personal coat of arms of Abbot Theoderich Hagn of the monastery in Lambach, which bore a golden swastika with slanted points on a blue field. The Lambach swastika is probably of Medieval origin.

Europe.

Britain.

In the 1880s the Theosophical Society adopted a swastika as part of its seal, along with an Om, a hexagram or star of David, an Ankh and an Ouroboros. Unlike the much more recent Raëlian movement, the Theosophical Society

Denmark.

The Danish brewery company Carlsberg Group used the swastika as a logo from the 19th century until the middle of the 1930s when it was discontinued because of association with the Nazi Party in neighbouring

Iceland.

The Swastika, or the Thor's hammer as the logo was called, was used as the logo for

Ireland.

The Swastika Laundry was a laundry founded in 1912, located on Shelbourne Road, Ballsbridge, a district of Dublin, Ireland. In the fifties Heinrich Böll came across a van belonging

Finland.

In Finland, the swastika ( meaning 'crooked-head', and later, meaning 'hook-cross') was often used in traditional folk-art products, as a decoration or magical symbol on textiles and wood. The swastika was also used by the Finnish Air Force until 1945, and is still used on air force flags.  The, an elaboration on the swastika, is used by scouts in some instances, and by a student organization. The Finnish village of Tursa uses the as a kind of a certificate of authenticity on products made there, and is the origin of this name of the symbol (meaning 'heart of Tursa'), which is also known as the ('walrus-heart'). Traditional textiles are still made in Finland with swastikas as parts of traditional ornaments.

Latvia.

The swastika is an ancient Baltic thunder cross symbol ("pērkona krusts;" also fire cross, "ugunskrusts"), used to decorate objects, traditional clothing and in archaeological excavations. Latvia adopted the swastika, for its Air Force in 1918/1919 and continued its use until the Soviet occupation in 1940. The cross itself was maroon on a white background, mirroring the colors of the Latvian flag. Earlier

Lithuania.

As in Latvia, the symbol is a traditional

Poland.

The traditional symbols of the Podhale Rifles include the edelweiss flower and the Mountain Cross, a swastika symbol

Sweden.

The Swedish company ASEA, now a part of ABB, in the late 1800s introduced a company logo featuring a swastika. The logo was replaced in 1933, when Adolf

Norway.

The headquarters of the Oslo Municipal Power Station was designed by architects "Bjercke and Eliassen" in 1928–31. Swastikas adorn its wrought iron gates. The architects knew the swastika as a symbol of "electricity" and were probably not yet aware that it had been usurped by the German Nazi party and would soon become the foremost symbol of the German Reich. The fact that these gates survived the cleanup after the German occupation of Norway during WW II is a testimony to the innocence and good faith of the power plant and its architects.

North America.

The swastika motif is found in some traditional Native American art and iconography. Historically, the design has been found in excavations of Mississippian-era sites in the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys, and on objects associated with the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (S.E.C.C.). It is also widely used by a number of southwestern tribes, most notably the Navajo, and plains nations such as the Dakota. Among various tribes, the swastika carries different meanings. To the Hopi it represents the wandering Hopi clan; to the Navajo it is one symbol for the whirling log ("tsin náálwołí"), a sacred image representing a legend that is used in healing rituals. A brightly colored First Nations saddle featuring swastika designs is on display at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada.  The Passamaquoddy Native American tribe, now located in the state of Maine and in Canada, used an elongated swastika on their war canoes in the American colonial period as well as later. A carving of a canoe with a

Nazism.

Use in Nazism.

The swastika was widely used in Europe at the start of the 20th century. It symbolized many things to the Europeans, with the most common symbolism being of good luck and auspiciousness. In the wake of widespread popular usage, in post-World War I Germany, the newly established Nazi Party formally adopted the (, meaning "hooked-cross") in 1920. The emblem was a black "Hooked Cross" (hooks branching clockwise) rotated 45 degrees on a white circle on a red background. This insignia was used on the party's flag, badge, and armband.  In his 1925 work, Adolf Hitler writes that: "I myself, meanwhile, after innumerable attempts, had laid down a final form; a flag with a red background, a white disk, and a black Hakenkreuz in the middle. After long trials I also found a definite proportion between the size of the flag and the size of the white disk, as well as the shape and thickness of the Hakenkreuz."  When Hitler created a flag for the Nazi Party, he sought to incorporate both the Hakenkreuz and "those revered colors expressive of our homage to the glorious past and which

Use by anti-Nazis.

During World War II it was common to use small swastikas to mark air-to-air victories on

Post–World War II stigmatization.

Because of its use by Nazi Germany, the swastika since the 1930s has been largely associated with Nazism. In the aftermath of World War II it has been considered a symbol of hate in the West, and of white supremacy in many Western countries.  As a result, all use of it, or its use as a Nazi or hate symbol, is prohibited in some countries, including Germany. Because of the stigma attached to the symbol, many buildings that have used the symbol as decoration have had the symbol removed. In some countries, such as the United States (in the 2003 case "Virginia v. Black"), the highest courts have ruled that the local governments can prohibit the use of swastika along with other symbols such as cross burning, if the intent of the use is to intimidate others.

Germany.

The German and Austrian postwar criminal code makes the public showing of the (the swastika), the sig rune, the Celtic cross (specifically the variations used by white power activists), the, the odal rune and the skull illegal, except for scholarly reasons. It is also censored from the reprints of 1930s railway timetables published by the. The swastikas on Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain temples are exempt, as religious symbols cannot be banned in Germany.  A controversy was stirred by the decision of several police departments to begin inquiries against anti-fascists. In late 2005 police raided the offices of the punk rock label and mail order store "Nix Gut Records" and confiscated merchandise depicting crossed-out swastikas and fists smashing swastikas. In 2006 the police department started an inquiry against anti-fascist youths using a placard depicting

Attempted ban in the European Union.

The European Union's Executive Commission proposed a European Union-wide anti-racism law in 2001, but European Union states failed to agree on the balance between prohibiting racism and freedom of expression. An attempt to ban the swastika across the EU in early 2005 failed after objections from the British Government and others. In early 2007, while Germany held the European Union presidency, Berlin proposed

United States.

The public display of Nazi-era German flags (or any other flags) is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees the right to freedom of speech. The Nazi "Reichskriegsflagge" has also been seen on display at white supremacist events within United States borders.  As with many neo-Nazi groups across the world, the American Nazi Party's used the swastika s part of its flag before its first dissolution in

Media.

In 2010, Microsoft officially spoke out against use of the swastika by players of the first-person shooter "". In "Black Ops", players are allowed to customize their name tags to represent, essentially, whatever they want. The swastika can be created and used, but Stephen Toulouse, director of Xbox Live policy and enforcement, stated that players with the symbol on their name tag will be banned (if someone reports it as inappropriate) from Xbox Live.  In the "Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular" in Disney Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida, the swastikas on German trucks, aircraft and actor uniforms in the reenactment of a scene

Contemporary use.

Asia.

Central Asia.

In 2005, authorities in Tajikistan called for the widespread adoption of the swastika as a national symbol. President Emomali Rahmonov declared the swastika an Aryan symbol, and 2006 "the

East and Southeast Asia.

In East Asia, the swastika is prevalent in Buddhist monasteries and communities. It is commonly found in Buddhist temples, religious artefacts, texts related to Buddhism and schools founded by Buddhist religious groups. It also appears as a design or motif (singularly or woven into a pattern) on textiles, architecture and various decorative objects as a symbol of luck and good fortune. The icon is also found as a sacred symbol in the Bon tradition, but in the left facing mode.  Many Chinese religions make use of the swastika symbol, including Guiyidao and Shanrendao. The Red Swastika Society, which is the

Indian subcontinent.

In Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, the swastika is common. Temples, businesses and other organisations, such as the Buddhist libraries, Ahmedabad Stock Exchange and the Nepal Chamber of Commerce, use the swastika in reliefs or logos. Swastikas are ubiquitous in Indian and Nepalese communities, located on shops, buildings, transport vehicles, and clothing. The swastika

Western misinterpretation of Asian use.

Since the end of the 20th century, and through the early 21st century, confusion and controversy has occurred when consumer goods bearing the traditional Jain, Buddhist, or Hindu symbols have been exported to the West, notably to North America and Europe, and have been interpreted by consumers as bearing a Nazi symbol. This has resulted in several such products having been boycotted or pulled from shelves.  When a ten-year-old boy in Lynbrook, New York, bought a set of Pokémon cards imported from Japan in 1999, two of the cards

New religious movements.

Besides its use as a religious symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, which can be traced

The swastika or sauwastika as a character, 卐 ("right-facing" or "clockwise") or 卍 ("left-facing" or "counterclockwise") respectively is a geometrical figure and an ancient religious icon in the cultures of Eurasia. It is used as a symbol of divinity and spirituality in Indian religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. In the Western world, it was a symbol of auspiciousness and good luck until the 1930s when the right-facing form 卐 became a feature of Nazi symbolism as an emblem of the Aryan race. As a result of World War II and the Holocaust, many people in the West still strongly associate it with Nazism and antisemitism.

卐(右旋)或卍(左旋)(中文读作「万」;注音:ㄨㄢˋ;拼音:wàn;粤拼:maan6;该字称“万字”)是一个古老的符号,也是汉字系统的其中一对字符。「卐」和「卍」两个字符已作为中日韩统一表意文字收录于Unicode之中。


The Frankfurt School.

Members of The Frankfurt School were much influenced by the dialectical materialism and historical materialism of Karl Marx, as well as the revisitation of the dialectical idealism of Hegel; both events are studied not in isolation, but as part of the process of change. As a group later joined by Jürgen Habermas, they were responsible for the formulation of critical theory. In works such as "Dialectic of Enlightenment" and "Negative Dialectics", Adorno and Horkheimer theorized that the phenomenon of mass culture has a political implication, namely that all the many forms of popular culture are parts of a single "culture industry" whose purpose is to ensure the continued obedience of the "masses" to market interests.

The theory.

The essay is concerned with the production of cultural content in capitalist societies. It critiques the supply-driven nature of cultural economies as well as the apparently inferior products of the system. Horkheimer and Adorno argue that mass-produced entertainment aims, by its very nature, to appeal to vast audiences and therefore both the intellectual stimulation of high art and the basic release of low art. The essay does not suggest that all products of this system are inherently inferior, simply that they have replaced other forms of entertainment without properly fulfilling the important roles played by the now defunct sources of culture.  Horkheimer and Adorno make consistent comparisons between Fascist Germany and the American film industry. They highlight the presence of mass-produced culture, created and disseminated by exclusive institutions and consumed by a passive, homogenised audience in both systems. This illustrates the logic of domination in post-enlightenment modern society, by monopoly capitalism or the nation state. Horkheimer and Adorno draw attention to the problems associated with a system that 'integrates its consumers from above', arguing that in attempting to realise enlightenment values of reason and order, the holistic power of the individual is undermined.

Influences.

Adorno and Horkheimer's work was influenced by both the broader socio-political environment in which it was written and by other major theorists. Written in California in the early 1940s in an era which characterized them as two ethnically Jewish, German émigrés, "The Culture Industry" is influenced by European politics and the war by which the continent was consumed. Simultaneously, the American film industry was characterised by an unprecedented level of studio monopolisation, it was "Hollywood at its most classical, American mass culture at its most Fordist".  Horkheimer and Adorno were influenced heavily by major developers of social, political and economic theory, most notably:

Elements.

Anything made by a person is a materialization of their labour and an expression of their intentions. There will also be a use value: the benefit to the consumer will be derived from its utility. The exchange value will reflect its utility and the conditions of the market: the prices paid by the television broadcaster or at the box office. Yet, the modern soap operas with their interchangeable plots and formulaic narrative conventions reflect standardized production techniques and the falling value of a mass-produced cultural product. Only rarely is a film released that makes a more positive impression on the general discourse and achieves a higher exchange value, e.g. "Patton" (1970), starring George C. Scott as the eponymous American general, was released at a time of considerable anti-war sentiment. The opening shot is of Patton in front of an American flag making an impassioned speech. This was a form of dialectic in which the audience could identify with the patriotism either sincerely (the thesis) or ironically (the antithesis) and so set the tone of the interpretation for the remainder of the film. However, the film is manipulating specific historical events, not only as entertainment, but also as a form of propaganda by demonstrating a link between success in strategic resource management situations and specified leadership qualities. Given that the subtext was instrumental and not "value free", ethical and philosophical considerations arise.  Normally, only high art criticizes the world outside its boundaries, but access to this form of communication is limited to the elite classes where the risks of introducing social instability are slight. A film like "Patton" is popular art which intends controversy in a world of social order and unity which, according to Adorno, is regressing into a cultural blandness. To Hegel, order is good "a priori", i.e. it does not have to answer to those living under it. But, if order is disturbed? In "Negative Dialectics", Adorno believed this tended towards progress by stimulating the possibility of class conflict. Marx's theory of Historical Materialism was teleological, i.e. society follows through a dialectic of unfolding stages from ancient modes of production to feudalism to capitalism to a future communism. But Adorno felt that the culture industry would never permit a sufficient core of challenging material to emerge on to the market that might disturb the "status quo" and stimulate the final communist state to emerge.

Mass culture.

A center point of the "Dialectic of Enlightenment" is the topic of "the Enlightenment as the deception of the masses". The term "culture industry" is intended to refer to the commercial marketing of culture, the branch of industry that deals specifically with the production of culture that is in contrast to "authentic culture".  Horkheimer and Adorno contend that industrially produced culture robs people of their imagination and takes over their thinking for them. The culture industry delivers the "goods" so that the people then only have left the task of consuming them. Through mass production, everything becomes homogenized and whatever diversity remains is constituted of small trivialities. Everything becomes compressed through a process of the imposition of schemas under the premise that what's best is to mirror physical reality as closely as possible. Psychological drives become stoked to the point where sublimation is no longer possible.  Movies serve as an example. "All films have become similar in their basic form. They are shaped to reflect facts of reality as closely as possible. Even fantasy films, which claim to not reflect such reality, don't really live up to what they claim to be. No matter how unusual they strive to be, the endings are usually easy to predict because of the existence of prior films which followed the same schemas. Also, for example, erotic depictions become so strong and so pronounced that a transformation to other forms is no longer possible."  The aims of the culture industry are—as in every industry—economic in nature. All endeavors become focused on economic success.  Authentic culture, however, is not goal-oriented, but is an end in itself. Authentic culture fosters the capacity of human imagination by presenting suggestions and possibilities, but in a different way than the culture industry does since it leaves room for independent thought. Authentic culture does not become channeled into regurgitating reality but goes levels beyond such. Authentic culture is unique and cannot be forced into any pre-formed schemas.  As for discovering the causes of the development of the culture industry, Horkheimer and Adorno contend that it arises from companies' pursuit of the maximization of profit, in the economic sense. However, this cannot be said to be culture, or what culture is supposed to be. It can only be described as being a form of commerce, just like any other kind of commerce.  The culture industry argument is often assumed to be fundamentally pessimistic in nature because its purveyors seem to condemn "mass media" and their consumers. However, for Adorno, the term "culture industry" does not refer to "mass culture", or the culture of the masses of people in terms of something being produced by the masses and conveying the representations of the masses. On the contrary, such involvement of the masses is only apparent, or a type of seeming democratic participation. Adorno contends that what is actually occurring is a type of "defrauding of the masses". Horkheimer and Adorno deliberately chose the term "culture industry" instead of "mass culture" or "mass media". "The culture industry perpetually cheats its consumers of what it perpetually promises." The culture industry even encroaches upon the small distractions of leisure activity: "Amusement has become an extension of labor under late capitalism." Horkheimer and Adorno, above all, in their critical analyses, delve into what they call "the fraying of art" and the "de-artification of art", and discuss how the arts are defused by the culture industry. Works of art have become commodified: Beethoven, Mozart and Wagner are only used in fragmentary forms when included in advertisement. According to Critical Theory, "selling out" is not the decisive factor involved, but rather it's the manner in which art is commodified and how art and culture are changed that is the crucial issue.  "Culture today is infecting everything with sameness." For Adorno and Horkheimer, subversion has become no longer possible.

Observations.

Wiggershaus states: "The other side of Adorno's apparently paradoxical definition was ignored: that rational objectivity was still possible for the modern work of art, in any significant sense, only as a product of subjectivity"This would deny Adorno contemporary political significance, arguing that politics in a prosperous society is more concerned with action than with thought. He also notes that the young generation of critical theorists largely ignore Adorno's work which, in part, stems from Adorno's inability to draw practical conclusions from his theories.  Adorno is also accused of a lack of consistency in his claims to be implementing Marxism. Whereas he accepted the classical Marxist analysis of society showing how one class exercises domination over another, he deviated from Marx in his failure to use dialectic as a method to propose ways to change. Marx's theory depended on the willingness of the working class to overthrow the ruling class, but Adorno and Horkheimer postulated that the culture industry has undermined the revolutionary movement. Adorno's idea that the mass of the people are only objects of the culture industry is linked to his feeling that the time when the working class could be the tool of overthrowing capitalism is over. Other critics note that "High culture" too is not exempt from a role in the justification of capitalism. The establishment and reinforcement of elitism is seen by these critics as a key element in the role of such genres as opera and ballet.  Nevertheless, Adorno's work is still of interest. Writing in the New Yorker in 2014, music critic Alex Ross, argued that Adorno's work has a renewed importance in the digital age: "The pop hegemony is all but complete, its superstars dominating the media and wielding the economic might of tycoons...Culture appears more monolithic than ever, with a few gigantic corporations—Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon—presiding over unprecedented monopolies.".  Scholar Jack Zipes, influenced by Adorno, critiqued the mass commercialisation and corporate hegemony behind the Harry Potter franchise. He argued that the commodities of the culture industry are “popular” because they are homogenous and obey standard conventions; the media then influences the tastes of children. In his analysis of Harry Potter’s global brand, Zipes wrote, “It must conform to the standards of exception set by the mass media and promoted by the culture industry in general. To be a phenomenon means that a person or commodity must conform to the hegemonic groups that determine what makes up a phenomenon ”.

The term culture industry () was coined by the critical theorists Theodor Adorno (1903–1969) and Max Horkheimer (1895–1973), and was presented as critical vocabulary in the chapter "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception", of the book "Dialectic of Enlightenment" (1947), wherein they proposed that popular culture is akin to a factory producing standardized cultural goods—films, radio programmes, magazines, etc.—that are used to manipulate mass society into passivity. Consumption of the easy pleasures of popular culture, made available by the mass communications media, renders people docile and content, no matter how difficult their economic circumstances. The inherent danger of the culture industry is the cultivation of false psychological needs that can only be met and satisfied by the products of capitalism; thus Adorno and Horkheimer especially perceived mass-produced culture as dangerous to the more technically and intellectually difficult high arts. In contrast, true psychological needs are freedom, creativity, and genuine happiness, which refer to an earlier demarcation of human needs, established by Herbert Marcuse. (See "Eros and Civilization", 1955).

文化工业是德国法兰克福学派的学者马克斯·霍克海默及狄奥多·阿多诺等人提出的概念,用以批判资本主义社会下大众文化的商品化及标准化。它首次出现于霍克海默与阿多诺合著的《启蒙辩证法》(1944年)中的重要章节《文化工业:作为大众欺骗的启蒙》。在这个章节中作者分析了后资本主义时代文化的生产和功能的转变。阿多诺称文化工业是从上向下“有意识地结合其消费者”。这部著作标志着批判理论早期的结束。