title: Brand New (band)

text: Foxing lead singer Conor Murphy pointed to a motivational speech that Lacey gave the band before their first show opening for Brand New as a pivotal moment in the band's development. Cymbals Eat Guitars singer Joe D’Agostino said that opening for Brand New exposed the band to a wider audience that would not have discovered them had it not been for the tour. Thrice's 2015 reunion came about after band members witnessed an inspiring Brand New concert and conversed with the band about touring again.


title: Cribbage

text: Cribbage, or crib, is a card game, traditionally for two players, that involves playing and grouping cards in combinations which gain points. It can be adapted for three or four players.


title: Cribbage

text: Cribbage has several distinctive features: the cribbage board used for score-keeping, the eponymous "crib", "box", or "kitty" (in parts of Canada)—a separate hand counting for the dealer—two distinct scoring stages (the play and the show) and a unique scoring system including points for groups of cards that total fifteen. It has been characterized as "Britain's national card game" and the only one legally playable on licensed premises (pubs and clubs) without requiring local authority permission.


title: Cribbage

text: The game has relatively few rules yet yields endless subtleties during play, which accounts for its ongoing appeal and popularity. Tactical play varies, depending on which cards one's opponent has played, how many cards in the remaining pack will help the hand one holds, and what one's position on the board is. A game may be decided by only a few points—or even a single point—and the edge often goes to an experienced player who utilizes strategy, including calculating odds and making decisions based on the relative positions of players on the board.


title: Cribbage

text: Both cribbage and its close relative costly colours are descended from the old English card game of noddy. Cribbage added the distinctive feature of a crib and changed the scoring system for "points", whereas costly colours added more combinations but retained the original noddy scoring scheme.


title: Cribbage

text: According to John Aubrey, cribbage was created by the English poet Sir John Suckling in the early 17th century, as a derivation of the game "noddy". While noddy has become a historical, rarely-played game, cribbage has continued unchanged as a popular game in the English-speaking world. The objective of the game is to be the first player to score a target number of points, typically 61 or 121. Points are scored for showing certain jacks, playing the last card, for card combinations adding up to 15 or 31, and for pairs, triples, quadruples (cards of the same rank), runs (sequences of consecutive numbers irrespective of suit) and flushes (sets of cards of the same suit).


title: Cribbage

text: The earliest rules were published in England and appear in Cotgrave (1662) and are soon followed by Willughby (1672) and Cotton (1674).


title: Cribbage

text: The continuing popularity of cribbage is due in some part to the influence of the Victorian novelist Charles Dickens, who depicted the game in his novel "The Old Curiosity Shop".


title: Cribbage

text: Cribbage was popular among prospectors in the American West, and the small mining town of Nelson, Montana, to this day has a sign proclaiming it the "Cribbage Capital of the World".


title: Cribbage

text: Cribbage is played by American submariners, serving as a common pastime. The wardroom of the oldest active submarine in the United States Pacific Fleet carries on board the personal cribbage board of World War II submarine commander and Medal of Honor recipient Rear Admiral Dick O'Kane, and upon the boat's decommissioning, the board is transferred to the next oldest boat.


title: Cribbage

text: Play proceeds through a succession of "hands", each hand consisting of a "deal", "the play" and "the show". At any time during any of these stages, if a player reaches the target score (usually 121), play ends immediately with that player being the winner of the game. This can even happen during the deal, since the dealer scores if a jack is cut as the starter.


title: Cribbage

text: The players cut for first deal, and the person who cuts the lowest card deals. The dealer shuffles and deals five or six cards to each player, depending on the number of players. For two players, each is dealt six cards; for three or four players, each is dealt five cards. In the case of three players, a single card is dealt face down in the centre of the table to start the crib. Once the cards have been dealt, each player chooses four cards to retain, then discards the other one or two face-down to form the "crib" (also called the box), which will be used later by the dealer.


title: Cribbage

text: At this point, each player's hand and the crib will contain exactly four cards. The player on the dealer's left or, in a two-player game, the pone, cuts the remaining pack. The dealer reveals the top card of the lower half, called the "starter card" or "cut", and places it face up on top of the reunited pack. If this card is a jack, the dealer scores two points for "his heels" or "his nibs".


title: Cribbage

text: Starting with the player on the dealer's left, the players each in turn lay one card face up on the table in front of them, stating the count—that is, the cumulative value of the cards that have been laid (for example, the first player lays a five and says "five", the next lays a six and says "eleven", and so on)—without the count going above 31. Face cards (kings, queens, and jacks) count as 10. The cards are not laid in the centre of the table as, at the end of the "play", each player needs to pick up the cards they have laid.


title: Cribbage

text: If a player cannot play without causing the count to exceed 31, they call "Go". Continuing with the player on their left, the other players continue the play until no one can play without the count exceeding 31. A player is obliged to play a card unless there is no card in their hand that can be played without the count exceeding 31 (one cannot voluntarily pass). Once 31 is reached or no one is able to play, the player who played the last card scores one point if the count is still under 31 and two if it is exactly 31. The count is then reset to zero and those players with cards remaining in their hands repeat the process starting with the player to the left of the player who played the last card. When all players have played all of their cards the game proceeds to the "show".


title: Cribbage

text: Players choose the order in which to lay their cards in order to maximize their scores; experienced players refer to this as either good or poor "pegging" or "pegsmanship". If one player reaches the target (usually 61 or 121), the game ends immediately and that player wins. When the scores are level during a game, the players' pegs will be side by side, and it is thought that this gave rise to the phrase "level pegging".


title: Cribbage

text: Once the play is complete, each player in turn, starting with the player on the left of the dealer, displays their own hand on the table and scores points based on its content "in conjunction with the starter card". Points are scored for:


title: Cribbage

text: The dealer scores their hand last and then turns the cards in the crib face up. These cards are then scored by the dealer as an additional hand, also in conjunction with the starter card. Unlike the dealer's own hand, the crib cannot score a four-card flush, but it can score a five-card flush with the starter.


title: Cribbage

text: All scores from 0 to 29 are possible, with the exception of 19, 25, 26 and 27. Players may refer colloquially to a hand scoring zero points as a “nineteen hand”.


title: Cribbage

text: Muggins is a commonly used but optional rule, which must be announced before game play begins. If a player fails to claim their full score on any turn, the opponent may call out "Muggins" and peg any points overlooked by the player.


title: Cribbage

text: A match (much like tennis) consists of more than one game, often an odd number. The match points are scored on the cribbage board using the holes reserved for match points. On a spiral board, these are often at the bottom of the board in a line with 5 or 7 holes. On a conventional board, they are often in the middle of the board or at the top or bottom.


title: Cribbage

text: In a two-player game of cribbage, a player scores one match point for winning a game. Their opponent will start as dealer in the next game. If a player lurches (British) or skunks (US) their opponent (reaches 121 points before their opponent scores 91 points), that player wins two match points for that game. If a player double skunks their opponent (reaches 121 points before their opponent reaches 61), they score three or four match points for the game, depending on local convention. If a player triple skunks their opponent (reaches 121 points before their opponent reaches 31 points), they automatically win the match. Double and triple skunks are not included in the official rules of cribbage play and are optional. There are several different formats for scoring match points.


title: Cribbage

text: Visually, cribbage is known for its scoring board—a series of holes ("streets") on which the score is tallied with pegs (also known as "spilikins"). Scores can be kept on a piece of paper, but a cribbage board is almost always used, since scoring occurs throughout the game, not just at the conclusion of hands as in most other card games.


title: Cribbage

text: Points are registered as having been scored by "pegging" along the crib board. Two pegs are used in a leapfrog fashion, so that if a player loses track during the count one peg still marks the previous score. Some boards have a "game counter" with many additional holes for use with a third peg to count the games won by each side.


title: Cribbage

text: Each of the four 30-point divisions of the cribbage board (1–30, 31–60, 61–90, and 91–120) is colloquially called a "street". Being at 15 points would be on first street, being at 59 points would be on second street, etc.


title: Cribbage

text: The ancestor of cribbage is noddy, a game for two or four players, each receiving just three cards and playing and scoring in a similar manner to modern cribbage. However, instead of scoring 2 points for reaching 15 or 31 (called "hitter"), players scored the number of constituent cards making up the "point". In addition, there was originally a third "point" at 25. Players also scored for pairs, prials, runs and flushes as in cribbage. There was no crib and game was 31.


title: Cribbage

text: Costly colours may have developed separately from noddy, as it retains several original features that are no longer part of cribbage. Again, only three cards are dealt, there is no crib and it uses the same scoring scheme for "points" at 15, 25 and 31 or "hitter". What is new is that deuces play a similar role to jacks and that players may score for "colours"—i.e., having three or four cards of the same suit or colour. Four cards of the same suit are "costly colours", hence the name.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a provisional name, 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), and has also been called the human coronavirus 2019 (HCoV-19 or hCoV-19). SARS‑CoV‑2 is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus that is contagious in humans.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: SARS‑CoV‑2 is a virus of the species "severe acute respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus" (SARSr-CoV), related to the SARS-CoV-1 virus that caused the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak. Despite its close relation to SARS-CoV-1, its closest known relatives, with which it forms a sister group, are the derived SARS viruses BANAL-52 and RaTG13. Available evidence indicates that it is most likely of zoonotic origin and has close genetic similarity to bat coronaviruses, suggesting it emerged from a bat-borne virus. Research is ongoing as to whether SARS‑CoV‑2 came directly from bats or indirectly through any intermediate hosts. The virus shows little genetic diversity, indicating that the spillover event introducing SARS‑CoV‑2 to humans is likely to have occurred in late 2019.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: Epidemiological studies estimate that, in the December 2019–September 2020 period, each infection resulted in an average of 2.4–3.4 new infections when no members of the community are immune and no preventive measures are taken. However, some subsequent variants have become more infectious. The virus primarily spreads between people through close contact and via aerosols and respiratory droplets that are exhaled when talking, breathing, or otherwise exhaling, as well as those produced from coughs and sneezes. It enters human cells by binding to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), a membrane protein that regulates the renin–angiotensin system.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: During the initial outbreak in Wuhan, China, various names were used for the virus; some names used by different sources included "the coronavirus" or "Wuhan coronavirus". In January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended "2019 novel coronavirus" (2019-nCoV) as the provisional name for the virus. This was in accordance with WHO's 2015 guidance against using geographical locations, animal species, or groups of people in disease and virus names.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: On 11 February 2020, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses adopted the official name "severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2" (SARS‑CoV‑2). To avoid confusion with the disease SARS, the WHO sometimes refers to SARS‑CoV‑2 as "the COVID-19 virus" in public health communications and the name HCoV-19 was included in some research articles. Referring to COVID-19 as the "Wuhan virus" has been described as dangerous by WHO officials, and as xenophobic by University of California at Berkeley Asian American studies lecturer Harvey Dong.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: Human-to-human transmission of SARS‑CoV‑2 was confirmed on 20 January 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Transmission was initially assumed to occur primarily via respiratory droplets from coughs and sneezes within a range of about . Laser light scattering experiments suggest that speaking is an additional mode of transmission and a far-reaching one, indoors, with little air flow. Other studies have suggested that the virus may be airborne as well, with aerosols potentially being able to transmit the virus. During human-to-human transmission, between 200 and 800 infectious SARS‑CoV‑2 virions are thought to initiate a new infection. If confirmed, aerosol transmission has biosafety implications because a major concern associated with the risk of working with emerging viruses in the laboratory is the generation of aerosols from various laboratory activities which are not immediately recognizable and may affect other scientific personnel. Indirect contact via contaminated surfaces is another possible cause of infection. Preliminary research indicates that the virus may remain viable on plastic (polypropylene) and stainless steel (AISI 304) for up to three days, but it does not survive on cardboard for more than one day or on copper for more than four hours. The virus is inactivated by soap, which destabilizes its lipid bilayer. Viral RNA has also been found in stool samples and semen from infected individuals.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: The degree to which the virus is infectious during the incubation period is uncertain, but research has indicated that the pharynx reaches peak viral load approximately four days after infection or in the first week of symptoms and declines thereafter. The duration of SARS-CoV-2 RNA shedding is generally between 3 and 46 days after symptom onset.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: A study by a team of researchers from the University of North Carolina found that the nasal cavity is seemingly the dominant initial site of infection, with subsequent aspiration-mediated virus-seeding into the lungs in SARS‑CoV‑2 pathogenesis. They found that there was an infection gradient from high in proximal towards low in distal pulmonary epithelial cultures, with a focal infection in ciliated cells and type 2 pneumocytes in the airway and alveolar regions respectively.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: Studies have identified a range of animals—such as cats, ferrets, hamsters, non-human primates, minks, tree shrews, raccoon dogs, fruit bats, and rabbits—that are susceptible and permissive to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Some institutions have advised that those infected with SARS‑CoV‑2 restrict their contact with animals.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: On 1February 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) indicated that "transmission from asymptomatic cases is likely not a major driver of transmission". One meta-analysis found that 17% of infections are asymptomatic, and asymptomatic individuals were 42% less likely to transmit the virus.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: However, an epidemiological model of the beginning of the outbreak in China suggested that "pre-symptomatic shedding may be typical among documented infections" and that subclinical infections may have been the source of a majority of infections. That may explain how out of 217 on board a cruise liner that docked at Montevideo, only 24 of 128 who tested positive for viral RNA showed symptoms. Similarly, a study of ninety-four patients hospitalized in January and February 2020 estimated patients began shedding virus two to three days before symptoms appear and that "a substantial proportion of transmission probably occurred before first symptoms in the index case". The authors later published a correction that showed that shedding began earlier than first estimated, four to five days before symptoms appear.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: There is uncertainty about reinfection and long-term immunity. It is not known how common reinfection is, but reports have indicated that it is occurring with variable severity.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: The first reported case of reinfection was a 33-year-old man from Hong Kong who first tested positive on 26 March 2020, was discharged on 15 April 2020 after two negative tests, and tested positive again on 15 August 2020 (142 days later), which was confirmed by whole-genome sequencing showing that the viral genomes between the episodes belong to different clades. The findings had the implications that herd immunity may not eliminate the virus if reinfection is not an uncommon occurrence and that vaccines may not be able to provide lifelong protection against the virus.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: Another case study described a 25-year-old man from Nevada who tested positive for SARS‑CoV‑2 on 18 April 2020 and on 5 June 2020 (separated by two negative tests). Since genomic analyses showed significant genetic differences between the SARS‑CoV‑2 variant sampled on those two dates, the case study authors determined this was a reinfection. The man's second infection was symptomatically more severe than the first infection, but the mechanisms that could account for this are not known.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: No natural reservoir for SARS-CoV-2 has been identified. Prior to the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 as a pathogen infecting humans, there had been two previous zoonosis-based coronavirus epidemics, those caused by SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: The first known infections from SARS‑CoV‑2 were discovered in Wuhan, China. The original source of viral transmission to humans remains unclear, as does whether the virus became pathogenic before or after the spillover event. Because many of the early infectees were workers at the Huanan Seafood Market, it has been suggested that the virus might have originated from the market. However, other research indicates that visitors may have introduced the virus to the market, which then facilitated rapid expansion of the infections. A March 2021 WHO-convened report stated that human spillover via an intermediate animal host was the most likely explanation, with direct spillover from bats next most likely. Introduction through the food supply chain and the Huanan Seafood Market was considered another possible, but less likely, explanation. An analysis in November 2021, however, said that the earliest-known case had been misidentified and that the preponderance of early cases linked to the Huanan Market argued for it being the source.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: For a virus recently acquired through a cross-species transmission, rapid evolution is expected. The mutation rate estimated from early cases of SARS-CoV-2 was of per site per year. Coronaviruses in general have high genetic plasticity, but SARS-CoV-2's viral evolution is slowed by the RNA proofreading capability of its replication machinery. For comparison, the viral mutation rate in vivo of SARS-CoV-2 has been found to be lower than that of influenza.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: Research into the natural reservoir of the virus that caused the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak has resulted in the discovery of many SARS-like bat coronaviruses, most originating in horseshoe bats. The closest match by far, published on "Nature (journal)" in February 2022, were viruses BANAL-52 (96.8% resemblance to SARS‑CoV‑2), BANAL-103 and BANAL-236, collected in three different species of bats in Feuang, Laos. An earlier source published in February 2020 identified the virus RaTG13, collected in bats in Mojiang, Yunnan, China to be the closest to SARS‑CoV‑2, with 96.1% resemblance. None of the above are its direct ancestor.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: Bats are considered the most likely natural reservoir of SARS‑CoV‑2. Differences between the bat coronavirus and SARS‑CoV‑2 suggest that humans may have been infected via an intermediate host; although the source of introduction into humans remains unknown.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: Although the role of pangolins as an intermediate host was initially posited (a study published in July 2020 suggested that pangolins are an intermediate host of SARS‑CoV‑2-like coronaviruses), subsequent studies have not substantiated their contribution to the spillover. Evidence against this hypothesis includes the fact that pangolin virus samples are too distant to SARS-CoV-2: isolates obtained from pangolins seized in Guangdong were only 92% identical in sequence to the SARS‑CoV‑2 genome (matches above 90 percent may sound high, but in genomic terms it is a wide evolutionary gap). In addition, despite similarities in a few critical amino acids, pangolin virus samples exhibit poor binding to the human ACE2 receptor.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: SARS‑CoV‑2 belongs to the broad family of viruses known as coronaviruses. It is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA (+ssRNA) virus, with a single linear RNA segment. Coronaviruses infect humans, other mammals, including livestock and companion animals, and avian species. Human coronaviruses are capable of causing illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS, fatality rate ~34%). SARS-CoV-2 is the seventh known coronavirus to infect people, after 229E, NL63, OC43, HKU1, MERS-CoV, and the original SARS-CoV.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: Like the SARS-related coronavirus implicated in the 2003 SARS outbreak, SARS‑CoV‑2 is a member of the subgenus "Sarbecovirus" (beta-CoV lineage B). Coronaviruses undergo frequent recombination. The mechanism of recombination in unsegmented RNA viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 is generally by copy-choice replication, in which gene material switches from one RNA template molecule to another during replication. The SARS-CoV-2 RNA sequence is approximately 30,000 bases in length, relatively long for a coronavirus—which in turn carry the largest genomes among all RNA families. Its genome consists nearly entirely of protein-coding sequences, a trait shared with other coronaviruses.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: A distinguishing feature of SARS‑CoV‑2 is its incorporation of a polybasic site cleaved by furin, which appears to be an important element enhancing its virulence. In SARS-CoV-2 the recognition site is formed by the incorporated 12 codon nucleotide sequence CCT CGG CGG GCA which corresponds to the amino acid sequence P RR A. This sequence is upstream of an arginine and serine which forms the S1/S2 cleavage site (P RR A R↓S) of the spike protein. Although such sites are a common naturally-occurring feature of other viruses within the Subfamily Orthocoronavirinae, it appears in few other viruses from the Beta-CoV genus, and it is unique among members of its subgenus for such a site. The furin cleavage site PRRAR↓ is identical to that of the feline coronavirus, an alphacoronavirus 1 strain.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: Viral genetic sequence data can provide critical information about whether viruses separated by time and space are likely to be epidemiologically linked. With a sufficient number of sequenced genomes, it is possible to reconstruct a phylogenetic tree of the mutation history of a family of viruses. By 12 January 2020, five genomes of SARS‑CoV‑2 had been isolated from Wuhan and reported by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) and other institutions; the number of genomes increased to 42 by 30 January 2020. A phylogenetic analysis of those samples showed they were "highly related with at most seven mutations relative to a common ancestor", implying that the first human infection occurred in November or December 2019. Examination of the topology of the phylogenetic tree at the start of the pandemic also found high similarities between human isolates. 3,422 SARS‑CoV‑2 genomes, belonging to 19 strains, sampled on all continents except Antarctica were publicly available.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: On 11 February 2020, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses announced that according to existing rules that compute hierarchical relationships among coronaviruses based on five conserved sequences of nucleic acids, the differences between what was then called 2019-nCoV and the virus from the 2003 SARS outbreak were insufficient to make them separate viral species. Therefore, they identified 2019-nCoV as a virus of "Severe acute respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus".</onlyinclude>


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: In July 2020, scientists reported that a more infectious SARS‑CoV‑2 variant with spike protein variant G614 has replaced D614 as the dominant form in the pandemic.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: Coronavirus genomes and subgenomes encode six open reading frames (ORFs). In October 2020, researchers discovered a possible overlapping gene named "ORF3d", in the SARS‑CoV‑2 genome. It is unknown if the protein produced by "ORF3d" has any function, but it provokes a strong immune response. "ORF3d" has been identified before, in a variant of coronavirus that infects pangolins.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: There are many thousands of variants of SARS-CoV-2, which can be grouped into the much larger clades. Several different clade nomenclatures have been proposed. Nextstrain divides the variants into five clades (19A, 19B, 20A, 20B, and 20C), while GISAID divides them into seven (L, O, V, S, G, GH, and GR).


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: Several notable variants of SARS-CoV-2 emerged in late 2020. The World Health Organization has currently declared five variants of concern, which are as follows:


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: Other notable variants include 6 other WHO-designated variants under investigation and Cluster 5, which emerged among mink in Denmark and resulted in a mink euthanasia campaign rendering it virtually extinct.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: Each SARS-CoV-2 virion is in diameter; its mass within the global human populace has been estimated as being between 0.1 and 10 kilograms. Like other coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 has four structural proteins, known as the S (spike), E (envelope), M (membrane), and N (nucleocapsid) proteins; the N protein holds the RNA genome, and the S, E, and M proteins together create the viral envelope. Coronavirus S proteins are glycoproteins and also type I membrane proteins (membranes containing a single transmembrane domain oriented on the extracellular side). They are divided into two functional parts (S1 and S2). In SARS-CoV-2, the spike protein, which has been imaged at the atomic level using cryogenic electron microscopy, is the protein responsible for allowing the virus to attach to and fuse with the membrane of a host cell; specifically, its S1 subunit catalyzes attachment, the S2 subunit fusion.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: As of early 2022, about 7 million SARS-CoV-2 genomes had been sequenced and deposited into public databases and another 800,000 or so were added each month.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: SARS-CoV-2 has a linear, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA genome about 30,000 bases long. Its genome has a bias against cytosine (C) and guanine (G) nucleotides, like other coronaviruses. The genome has the highest composition of U (32.2%), followed by A (29.9%), and a similar composition of G (19.6%) and C (18.3%). The nucleotide bias arises from the mutation of guanines and cytosines to adenosines and uracils, respectively. The mutation of CG dinucleotides is thought to arise to avoid the zinc finger antiviral protein related defense mechanism of cells, and to lower the energy to unbind the genome during replication and translation (adenosine and uracil base pair via two hydrogen bonds, cytosine and guanine via three). The depletion of CG dinucleotides in its genome has led the virus to have a noticeable codon usage bias. For instance, arginine's six different codons have a relative synonymous codon usage of AGA (2.67), CGU (1.46), AGG (.81), CGC (.58), CGA (.29), and CGG (.19). A similar codon usage bias trend is seen in other SARS–related coronaviruses.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: Virus infections start when viral particles bind to host surface cellular receptors. Protein modeling experiments on the spike protein of the virus soon suggested that SARS‑CoV‑2 has sufficient affinity to the receptor angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) on human cells to use them as a mechanism of cell entry. By 22 January 2020, a group in China working with the full virus genome and a group in the United States using reverse genetics methods independently and experimentally demonstrated that ACE2 could act as the receptor for SARS‑CoV‑2. Studies have shown that SARS‑CoV‑2 has a higher affinity to human ACE2 than the original SARS virus. SARS‑CoV‑2 may also use basigin to assist in cell entry.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: Initial spike protein priming by transmembrane protease, serine 2 (TMPRSS2) is essential for entry of SARS‑CoV‑2. The host protein neuropilin 1 (NRP1) may aid the virus in host cell entry using ACE2. After a SARS‑CoV‑2 virion attaches to a target cell, the cell's TMPRSS2 cuts open the spike protein of the virus, exposing a fusion peptide in the S2 subunit, and the host receptor ACE2. After fusion, an endosome forms around the virion, separating it from the rest of the host cell. The virion escapes when the pH of the endosome drops or when cathepsin, a host cysteine protease, cleaves it. The virion then releases RNA into the cell and forces the cell to produce and disseminate copies of the virus, which infect more cells.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: SARS‑CoV‑2 produces at least three virulence factors that promote shedding of new virions from host cells and inhibit immune response. Whether they include downregulation of ACE2, as seen in similar coronaviruses, remains under investigation (as of May 2020).


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: Very few drugs are known to effectively inhibit SARS‑CoV‑2. Masitinib is a clinically safe drug and was recently found to inhibit its main protease, 3CLpro and showed >200-fold reduction in viral titers in the lungs and nose in mice. However, it is not approved for the treatment of COVID-19 in humans as of August 2021. In December 2021, the United States granted emergency use authorization to Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir for the treatment of the virus; the European Union, United Kingdom, and Canada followed suit with full authorization soon after. One study found that Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by 88%.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: COVID Moonshot is an international collaborative open-science project started in March 2020 with the goal of developing an un-patented oral antiviral drug for treatment of SARS-CoV-2.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: Retrospective tests collected within the Chinese surveillance system revealed no clear indication of substantial unrecognized circulation of SARS‑CoV‑2 in Wuhan during the latter part of 2019.


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: A meta-analysis from November 2020 estimated the basic reproduction number (formula_1) of the virus to be between 2.39 and 3.44. This means each infection from the virus is expected to result in 2.39 to 3.44 new infections when no members of the community are immune and no preventive measures are taken. The reproduction number may be higher in densely populated conditions such as those found on cruise ships. Human behavior affects the R0 value and hence estimates of R0 differ between different countries, cultures, and social norms. For instance, one study found relatively low R0 (~3.5) in Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands, while Spain and the US had significantly higher R0 values (5.9 to 6.4, respectively).


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: There have been about 96,000 confirmed cases of infection in mainland China. While the proportion of infections that result in confirmed cases or progress to diagnosable disease remains unclear, one mathematical model estimated that 75,815 people were infected on 25 January 2020 in Wuhan alone, at a time when the number of confirmed cases worldwide was only 2,015. Before 24 February 2020, over 95% of all deaths from COVID-19 worldwide had occurred in Hubei province, where Wuhan is located. As of , the percentage had decreased to .


title: SARS-CoV-2

text: As of , there have been total confirmed cases of SARS‑CoV‑2 infection in the ongoing pandemic. The total number of deaths attributed to the virus is .


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The was an economic bubble in Japan from 1986 to 1991 in which real estate and stock market prices were greatly inflated. In early 1992, this price bubble burst and Japan's economy stagnated. The bubble was characterized by rapid acceleration of asset prices and overheated economic activity, as well as an uncontrolled money supply and credit expansion. More specifically, over-confidence and speculation regarding asset and stock prices were closely associated with excessive monetary easing policy at the time. Through the creation of economic policies that cultivated the marketability of assets, eased the access to credit, and encouraged speculation, the Japanese government started a prolonged and exacerbated Japanese asset price bubble.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: By August 1990, the Nikkei stock index had plummeted to half its peak by the time of the fifth monetary tightening by the Bank of Japan (BOJ). By late 1991, other asset prices began to fall. Even though asset prices had visibly collapsed by early 1992, the economy's decline continued for more than a decade. This decline resulted in a huge accumulation of non-performing assets loans (NPL), causing difficulties for many financial institutions. The bursting of the Japanese asset price bubble contributed to what many call the Lost Decade. Japan's average nationwide land prices finally began to increase year-over-year in 2018, with a 0.1% rise over 2017 price levels.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: Early research found that the rapid increase in Japanese asset prices was largely due to the delayed action by the BOJ to address the issue. At the end of August 1987, the BOJ signaled the possibility of tightening monetary policy but decided to delay the decision in view of economic uncertainty related to Black Monday of 1987 in the United States.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: Later research argued an alternative view, that BOJ's reluctance to tighten monetary policy was in spite of the fact that the economy went into expansion in the second half of 1987. The Japanese economy had just recovered from the , which occurred from 1985 to 1986. The endaka recession has been closely linked to the Plaza Accord of September 1985, which led to the strong appreciation of the Japanese yen. The term "endaka fukyō" would in the future be used repeatedly to describe the many times the yen surged and the economy went into recession, posing a conundrum for business and government, trade partners, and anti-monetary interventionists.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The strong appreciation of the yen eroded the Japanese economy since the economy was led by exports and capital investment for export purposes. In fact, in order to overcome the "endaka" recession and stimulate the local economy, an aggressive fiscal policy was adopted, mainly through the expansion of public investment. Simultaneously, the BOJ declared that curbing the yen's appreciation was a national priority. To prevent the yen from appreciating further, monetary policymakers pursued aggressive monetary easing and slashed the official discount rate to as low as 2.5% by February 1987.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The move initially failed to curb further appreciation of the yen, which rose from 200.05 ¥/U$ (first round of monetary easing) to 128.25 ¥/U$ (end of 1987). The course only reversed by the spring of 1988, when the US dollar began to strengthen against the yen. Some researchers have pointed out that "with exception of the first discount rate cut, the subsequent four are heavily influenced by the US: [the] second and the third cut was a joint announcement to cut the discount rate while the fourth and fifth was due to [a] joint statement [of] either Japan-US or the G-7". It has been suggested that the US exerted influence to increase the strength of the yen, which would help with the ongoing attempts to reduce the US-Japan current account deficit. Almost all discount rate cuts announced by the BOJ explicitly expressed the need to stabilize the foreign exchange rate, rather than to stabilize the domestic economy.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: Later, BOJ hinted at the possibility of tightening the policy due to inflationary pressures within the domestic economy. Despite leaving the official discount rate unchanged during the summer of 1987, the BOJ expressed concern over excessive monetary easing, particularly after the money supply and asset prices rose sharply. Nonetheless, Black Monday in the US triggered a delay for the BOJ to switch to a monetary tightening policy. The BOJ officially increased the discount rate on March 31, 1989.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The table below demonstrates the monthly average of the U.S. dollar/Yen spot rate (Yen per USD) at 17:00 JST.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The 1985-1991 asset price bubble affected the entire nation, though the differences in the impact depended on three main factors: the size of the city, the geographical distance from Tokyo metropolis and Osaka, and the historical importance of the city in the central government's policy. Cities within prefectures closer to the Tokyo metropolis experienced far greater asset price inflation compared to cities located in prefectures further from the Tokyo metropolis.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: For definition purposes, Japan Real Estate Institute has classified Tokyo metropolis (including 23 special wards), Yokohama (Kanagawa), Nagoya (Aichi), Kyoto (Kyoto), Osaka (Osaka), and Kobe (Hyogo) as the six major cities most impacted by the price bubble. These six major cities experienced far greater asset price inflation compared to other urban land nationwide. By 1991, commercial land prices rose 302.9% compared to 1985, while residential land and industrial land price jumped 180.5% and 162.0%, respectively, compared to 1985. Nationwide, statistics showed that commercial land, residential land, and industrial land prices were up by 80.9%, 51.1%, and 51.7%, respectively.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: By the early 1980s, Tokyo was an important commercial city due to a high concentration of international financial corporations and interests. The demand for office space continued to soar as more economic activities flooded Tokyo commercial districts, resulting in demand outstripping supply. The government policies to solely concentrate its economic activities in Tokyo, and the lack of diversification of economic activities in other local cities, are also partly to blame for the bubble.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: By 1985, land within Tokyo commercial districts were unable to fulfill market demand. As a result, land prices in Tokyo commercial districts increased sharply within a year. The average price per 1 sq. meter for land in Tokyo commercial districts in 1984 was 1,333,000¥ (U$5,600 assuming in 1984 that 1 U$=238¥). In just a year, the average price per 1 sq. meter for land in Tokyo commercial districts increased to 1,894,000¥ (U$7,958 assuming in 1985 average 1 U$=238¥). This roughly translates to an increase of 42% over just a year. By 1986, the average price per 1 sq. meter for land in Tokyo commercial districts had risen as high as 4,211,000¥ (U$25,065 assuming 1986 average 1 U$=168¥), a jump of 122% compared to 1985. Residential land jumped from an average 297,000¥/U$1,247 per 1 sq. meter (in 1985) to 431,000¥/U$2,565 per 1 sq. meter (in 1986), an increase of 45%.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: Osaka also experienced rapid growth in land prices, especially in commercial districts. Land prices in Osaka gained 35% to a price of 1,159,000¥/1 sq. meter (1986) from an average 855,000¥/1 sq. meter (1985). Since Osaka served primarily as a commercial center in Japan, land prices in Osaka tend to be higher than most other urban lands in Japan.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: By 1987, virtually all land within the Tokyo metropolis was unable to cope with demand. At this point, residential land in Tokyo increased to 890,000¥/1 sq. meter (U$6,180 based on the assumption 1U$ = 144¥) and commercial land 6,493,000¥/1 sq. meter (U$45,090). Consequently, investors flocked to prefectures surrounding the Tokyo metropolis, especially prefectures within the Greater Tokyo Area. Investors were more favorable to prefectures located in Southern Kanto than to Northern Kanto. Hence, land in cities like Yokohama (Kanagawa prefecture), Saitama (Saitama prefecture), and Chiba (Chiba prefecture) tended to be more expensive than cities like Mito (Ibaraki prefecture), Utsunomiya (Tochigi prefecture) and Maebashi (Gunma prefecture). For instance, in 1987, commercial land prices in Yokohama (average 1 sq. meter) were 1,279,000¥, Saitama were 658,000¥ and Chiba were 1,230,000¥. On the other hand, commercial land prices in Mito (average 1 sq. meter) were 153,000¥, Utsunomiya were 179,000¥ and Maebashi were 135,000¥ in 1986.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: Osaka land prices continued to increase, especially in the commercial area, as the prices increased to 2,025,000¥/1 sq. meter in 1987. Kyoto (Kyoto prefecture) and Kobe (Hyogo prefecture) also saw a sharp increase in land prices, especially in commercial areas that gained 31% and 23%, respectively. The effect of the bubble in Osaka spread as far as Nagoya (Aichi prefecture), which saw the commercial land prices gain as much as 28% compared to 1986.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The first sign of a possible bubble collapse appeared in 1988. By this time, non-prime land prices in Tokyo had reached their peak, though some areas in the Tokyo wards started to fall, albeit by a relatively small percentage. Prime land in Ginza district and areas in Central Tokyo continued to rise. Urban land in other cities at this point remained unaffected by the situation faced by the Tokyo metropolis. In Osaka, for instance, the commercial and residential land prices increased by 37% and 41% respectively.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: By 1989, land prices in commercial districts in Tokyo began to stagnate, while land prices in residential areas in Tokyo actually dipped by 4.2% compared to 1988. Land prices in prime areas in Tokyo also peaked around this time; Ginza district was the most expensive, peaking at 30,000,000¥/1 sq. meter (U$218,978 based on assumption 1U$ = 137¥). Yokohama (Kanagawa prefecture) experienced a slowdown due to its location closer to Tokyo. Saitama (Saitama) and Chiba (Chiba) still chalked up healthy gains in land prices. All other urban cities in Japan had yet to see the impact of a slowdown in Tokyo.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: At their peak, prices in central Tokyo were such that the 1.15 square kilometer Tokyo Imperial Palace grounds were estimated to be worth more than all the land in the entire state of California.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: Between 1990 and mid-1991, most urban lands had already reached their peak. The lag effect from the fall of Nikkei 225 pushed down the prices of urban land in most parts of Japan by the end of 1991. The bubble collapse was officially declared in early 1992 – as land prices dropped the most in this period. Tokyo experienced the worst of the catastrophe. Land prices in residential areas on average 1 sq/meter slid 19% while commercial land prices declined 13% compared to 1991. Overall land prices in residential areas and commercial districts in Tokyo fell to the lowest level since 1987.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: Stock trading volumes accounted for by corporations rose from 19% to 39% during the 1980s, while cross ownership rose from 39% in 1950 to 67%. This reduced the number of shares available on the public markets for daily trading, making share prices easier to manipulate and detached from corporate leadership.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: In the 1980s, the direction of stock prices in Japan was largely determined by the asset market, particularly land prices, in Japan. Looking at the monthly performance of Nikkei 225 in 1984, the index largely moved within 9900–11,600 range. As land prices in Tokyo began to rise in 1985, the stock market also moved higher. Indeed, the Nikkei 225 managed to rise past 13,000 by December 2, 1985.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The major surge was obvious by 1986, as the Nikkei 225 gained close to 45% within a year. The trend continued throughout 1987 when it touched as high as 26,029 by early August before being dragged down by the NYSE Black Monday. The strong rally throughout 1988 and 1989 helped the Nikkei 225 touch another new record high at 38,957.44 on December 29, 1989, before closing at 38,915.87. This translated to a gain of more than 224% since January 2, 1985. Some researchers concluded the unusual stock prices are likely due to the rise in land prices since the corporations' net assets increases, hence pushing the stock prices upward. As long as the asset prices continued to strengthen, investors would more likely be attracted to speculate on stock prices. However, this also portrays the weaknesses of corporate governance in Japan.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: On the downside, the tightening of monetary policy in 1989 seemed to affect stock prices. As lending costs increased drastically, coupled with a major slowdown in land prices in Tokyo, the stock market began to fall sharply in early 1990. The Nikkei 225 slid from an opening of 38,921 (January 4, 1990) to a yearly low of 21,902 (December 5, 1990), which resulted in a loss of more than 43% within a year. Stock prices had officially collapsed by the end of 1990. The downward trend continued through the early 1990s, as the Nikkei 225 opened as low as 14,338 on August 19, 1992.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: Initially, the growth of the money supply decelerated in 1986 (the lowest growth rate was 8.3 percent in October–December 1986), which marked the end of the brief "endaka recession". The trend was gradually reversed as it accelerated afterwards and exceeded 10 percent in April–June 1987.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The growth of credit was more conspicuous than that of the money supply. During the bubble period, banks were increasing borrowing activity and at the same time, also financing from capital markets substantially increased against the backdrop of the progress of financial deregulation and the increase of stock prices. As a result, the funding of the corporate and household sectors rapidly increased from around 1988 and recorded a rate of growth close to 14 percent on a year-on-year basis in 1989. Money supply continued to increase even after the BOJ tightened its monetary policy and reached a peak in 1990, thereafter continuing to mark still double-digit growth until the fourth quarter. Money supply and credit dropped sharply by 1991, as bank lending began to drop due to a shift in bank lending attitude.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The Plaza Accord was signed between Japan, the United Kingdom, France, West Germany, and the United States in 1985, aimed at reducing the imbalance in trade between the countries. At that time, Japan had a huge trade surplus, as the Japanese yen was weaker against U.S. dollar, while the United States suffered from a consistent trade deficit. The reason behind the accord was partially complaints by the US regarding the imbalance in the exchange rate between the yen and the dollar since most Japanese products imported in the States had higher quality and lower prices than the domestic products due to the weaker yen against the dollar. After reaching a settlement in the Plaza Accord, central banks in participating countries started selling U.S. dollars. In Japan's case, demands for the yen increased, and the yen appreciated significantly. In 1985, the exchange rate of yen per dollar was 238. After the foreign exchange intervention followed by Plaza Accord, the exchange rate dropped to 165 yen per dollar in 1986 as the yen appreciated. This impacted exports in Japan to the States significantly, almost halving them in 1992 from their peak in 1986, whereas the trade deficit in the United States shrank after the Plaza Accord and the deficit cleared out in 1991. Due to the appreciation in the yen, Japanese companies suffered from huge losses in exports, as they had to sell their products in the States at higher prices than before to make a profit.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: Appreciation in the yen accelerated more than expected because speculators purchased yen and sold US dollars. This further appreciation in the yen shook the economy in Japan because the main source of economic growth in Japan was its export surplus. The GDP growth rate dropped from 6.3% in 1985 to 2.8% in 1986, and Japan experienced recession. To respond to this recession, the government shifted its focus on increasing demand within the country so that domestic products and services could still be consumed.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: To summarize the effect of the Plaza Accord in the long run, it did not succeed in equalizing the trade imbalance between Japan and the United States. Despite the fact that there was no major change in the exchange rate of the yen and the US dollar, the export surplus in Japan began to rise and the trade deficit in the States started to rise again in the 1990s. Overall, the Plaza Accord directly led to appreciation in the yen, and it incentivized lowering the discount rate in 1986 and 1987, which is considered to be one of the direct causes of the asset price bubble.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: When the United States was in recession in early 1980s, the U.S. government pointed to the imbalance of exchange rate of the U.S dollar and Japanese yen as the cause of recession, though the fundamental issue in recession was the fall in competition of domestic producers. To achieve depreciation of the U.S. dollar and appreciation of the Japanese yen, the United States focused on removing financial restrictions in Japan and increasing the demand for the Japanese yen. The financial restrictions in Japan at that time prevented the Japanese yen to be purchased and invested freely outside Japan. In 1983, the United States and Japan committee for Yen and U.S. dollar was established to reduce the friction in the exchange rate of Japanese yen and U.S. dollar. Through this committee, the United States recommended Japan deregulate and ease restrictions on financial and capital transactions. As a result, in 1984, restriction on future exchange transactions was removed in Japan, and it became possible for not only banks but companies to be involved in currency trading. Later in the same year, regulation on converting foreign funds into funds Japanese yen was also eliminated. The abolition of financial restrictions in Japan opened up the Japanese financial market to international trade, and the demand for Japanese yen increased accordingly. At the same time, there was an increasing number of loans from banks to companies for real estate investment purposes in 1985. It partly became the cause of asset price bubble as financial liberalization increased the investment in real estate by companies even before the new monetary policy took hold in 1986.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The accelerating growth in terms of Japanese asset prices is closely associated with a significant drop in short-term interest rates, notably between 1986 and 1987. The BoJ had slashed the official discount rate from 5.00% (January 30, 1986) to 2.50% (February 23, 1987). The official discount rate remained unchanged until May 30, 1989.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: With the exception of the first discount rate cut, most of the discount cut was closely motivated by international policy to intervene in the foreign exchange market. Despite aggressive monetary easing by BOJ, the US dollar slid as much as 35% from ¥237/U$ (September 1985) to ¥153/U$ (February 1987). Consequently, the move by the BOJ was heavily criticized since such moves appeared to influence the outcome of the yen, a much neglected domestic factor. As a result of such a move, money growth was out of control. In the 1985-1987 period, money growth had been lingering around 8% before being pushed up to more than 10% by the end of 1987. By early 1988, growth had reached about 12% per annum.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The Bank of Japan has also been criticized for its role in fueling the asset bubble. The movement of the BOJ to appreciate the Japanese yen rather than stabilizing the asset price inflation and overheating meant little could be done during the peak of the crisis. Despite the Bank of Japan stepping in to hike the interest rate by May 31, 1989, it seemed to have little effect on the asset inflation. Indeed, land prices continued to rise until the early 1990s.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: Japan has one of the world's most complicated taxation systems, with its property tax provisions deserving specific mention. These provisions have been widely abused for speculation and have contributed to costlier land, especially within urban areas.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The inheritance tax is very high in Japan, reported to be 75% of the market price for over 500 million yen until 1988, and it is still 70% of the market price for over 2 billion yen. Yet the appraisal of land for tax purposes used to be about one-half of the market value and the debt was considered at face value during the bubble period. In order to evade inheritance tax, many individuals opt to borrow more money for themselves (since the interest rate was far lower), hence reducing exposure to inheritance tax.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: Furthermore, given that capital gains on land are not taxed until the time of sale and interest rate payments can be deducted from taxable income for companies and individuals investing in assets (condominiums and offices), this has offered more incentive for wealthy individuals and companies to speculate on the asset price. The Japanese property tax stipulated that the statutory standard property tax stood at 1.4%. However, in terms of effective property tax, it is much lower than the published statutory property tax.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: In the 1980s, the local government imposed a tax on the market price of land. Since the valuations did not rise in tandem with the actual rising market price, the effective property tax regressed over time. As a result, the Greater Tokyo area dropped to 0.06% of the market price. As the land price escalated much quicker than the tax rate, most Japanese considered land as an asset rather than for productive purposes. Strong expectations that land prices were likely to increase, coupled with minimal property taxes, meant it made more sense to speculate on the land price than to fully use the land for production purposes.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: As provided under the Japan Civil Code, the rights of a lessee and tenant are protected under the Land Lease Law. This law can be traced back during World War II, whereby most heads of household were conscripted for military duty, leaving their families in danger of being thrown out off their leased land. For this reason, land leasehold contracts automatically renew unless the landlord provides concrete reasoning to object.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: In the event of a dispute between the lessee and tenant, courts may convene a hearing in order to ensure that the rent is "fair and reasonable". If the rent is set by the court, tenants would pay according to the rent set by the court, which meant landlords could not raise the rent more than the actual market price. Hence, rents are actually kept "artificially low" and the market fails to respond according to the rental price set by the market. Due to this, many landlords refused to rent out their land for such steeply discount prices, but rather left the land deserted in order to reap huge capital gains should land prices increase sharply.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: Traditionally, the Japanese are well known to be great deposit savers. However, the trend seemed to reverse by the late 1980s as more Japanese opted to shift funding from banks to the capital market – leaving banks in a tight squeeze as lending costs grew with the shrinking customer base.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: In fact, bank behaviour has gradually become aggressive since 1983 (even before the monetary easing policy in Japan) after the ban on fund-raising in the securities market was lifted around 1980. However, major firms were not keen to use the bank as the source of funding. For this reason, banks were forced to aggressively promote loans to smaller firms backed by properties. Soon, especially around 1987–1988, banks were even more apt to lend to individuals backed by properties. Evidently, even an ordinary salaryman could easily borrow up to 100 million yen for any purpose, provided his house was used as collateral.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: Consequently, this had an adverse impact on the whole Japanese asset bubble. Firstly, cheap and easily available loans reduced the funding costs for the purpose of speculation. Second, stock rises, coupled by low interests rates, reduced the capital costs and aided financing the capital market (e.g. convertible bonds, bonds with warrants, etc.). Third, the combination of a rise in land and stock prices pushed up the value of assets held by corporations, which effectively increased their sources of funding since such these increased the collateral value of the assets.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The asset price burst seemed to exert a strong impact on the overall Japanese economy. By 1992, urban land prices nationwide declined 1.7% from the peak. However, the impact was worse for land in the six major cities, as the average land prices (commercial, residential, and industrial) dropped 15.5% from its peak. Commercial, residential and industrial land prices dropped 15.2%, 17.9%, and 13.1%, respectively.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The entire asset price crisis was far worse, especially in the large business districts of Tokyo. By 2004, prime "A" properties in Tokyo's financial districts had slumped to less than 1 percent of their peak, and Tokyo's residential homes were less than a tenth of their peak, but still managed to be listed as the most expensive in the world until being surpassed in the late 2000s by Moscow and other cities. However, since 2012, Tokyo is once again the world's most expensive city, followed by Osaka with Moscow as number 4. Tens of trillions of dollars of value was wiped out with the combined collapse of the Tokyo stock and real estate markets. Only in 2007 did property prices begin to rise; however, they began to fall in late 2008 due to the global financial crisis.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: At the end of the bubble, it was revealed that corruption, which included bribery, insider trading, stock manipulation schemes and fraud, was pervasive in every aspect of Japanese society, from government officials to ordinary people, during the economic bubble.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The Recruit scandal of 1988, whereby shares in a human resources firm were offered to politicians in return for favors, implicated the entire cabinet and revealed the close relationship between the government and the private sector.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: Nui Onoue, a former restaurant owner in Osaka, was convicted of fraud, and was responsible for the collapse of The Industrial Bank of Japan and Tōyō Shinyo Kinko Bank.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The entire crisis also badly affected direct consumption and investment within Japan. As a result, from a prolonged decline in the asset prices, there was a sharp decline in consumption, which resulted in long term deflation in Japan. The asset price burst also badly affected consumer confidence since a sharp dip reduced household real income.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: At the same time, since the economy was driven by its high rate of reinvestment, the crash hit the stock market particularly hard. The Nikkei 225 at the Tokyo Stock Exchange plunged from a height of 38,915 at the end of December 1989 to 14,309 at the end of August 1992. By 11 March 2003, it plunged to the post-bubble low of 7,862. As investments were increasingly directed out of the country, manufacturers were facing difficulties to uphold their competitive advantage since most manufacturing firms lost some degree of their technological edge. Consequently, Japanese products became less competitive overseas.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: During the asset bubble period, most Japanese corporate balance sheets were backed by assets. Hence, the asset prices influenced the corporate balance sheet. Owing to a lack of corporate governance in Japanese companies, most Japanese corporations had an inclination to convince investors with their healthy balance sheet since most investors believe that such prices are likely bullish. An important effect of the bubble collapse was the deterioration of balance sheets. Since asset prices tumbled, increasing liabilities on a long-term basis projected a bad balance sheet to investors. Many Japanese corporations were facing huge difficulties to reduce the debt ratio – resulting reluctance from the private sector to increase investments.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The government continued to provide support for failing banks and unprofitable businesses, making it impossible for more efficient firms to compete. Through sham loan restructurings, large Japanese banks provided a stream of credit to otherwise insolvent borrowers. The term zombie company was coined to describe Japanese companies that were unable to cover their debt servicing costs from current profits over an extended period of time. Zombie companies reduce the profits for competitive firms, depress job creation, lower productivity and discourage investments.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: During the 1970s and 1980s, life-time employment schemes were widespread, but in a response to the recession that followed the bursting of the bubble, Japanese companies restructured their businesses, which included downsizing and outsourcing. Life-time employment schemes were modified and uncommon, and new college graduates failed to find stable jobs, resorting to unstable and poorly paid jobs.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The easily obtainable credit that helped create and engorge the real estate bubble continued to be a problem for several years, and as late as 1997, banks were still making loans that had a low probability of being repaid. Loan officers and investment staff had a hard time finding anything to invest in that had the prospect of returning a profit. They would sometimes resort to depositing their block of investment cash, as ordinary deposits, in a competing bank, which would bring complaints from that bank's loan officers and investment staff. Correcting the credit problem became even more difficult as the government began to subsidize failing banks and businesses, creating many so-called "zombie businesses". Eventually, a carry trade developed in which money was borrowed from Japan, invested for returns elsewhere, and then the Japanese were paid back, with a nice profit for the trader.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The post-bubble crisis also claimed several victims such as Sanyo Securities Co., Hokkaido Takushoku Bank, and Yamaichi Securities Co. in November 1997. By October 1998, the failure of the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan as well as Nippon Credit Bank in December the same year worsened the financial system unrest, drastically deteriorating consumer and business sentiment and dealing a heavy blow to the economy. To address the crisis, the government injected a total of 9.3 trillion yen in public funds into major banks in March 1998 and March 1999.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The decade beyond 1991 is known as in Japan, due to the gradual effect of the asset bubble collapse and effects.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The Lost Decade eventually became the ‘lost 20 years,’ since Japanese GDP in 2017 was only 2.6% higher than it had been in 1997, with an annualized growth rate of 0.13%.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: During a few years after the bubble crisis, Japan experienced a sharp decline in the GDP growth rate. In 1993, the Japanese government decided on a major increase in government spending. It was aimed to increase domestic demand and stimulate consumption to help pull the economy from recession. However, increasing government spending did not turn as effective as the government predicted it to be. The consumption in households increased in 1993 compared to the previous year and continued increasing for several years, but it started declining again in 1998. It is considered that consumer confidence was at the lowest from uncertainty in the future after the bubble crisis, and consumers preferred to save rather than to spend in such a situation. The budget deficit expanded from increased government spending and decreased tax revenue from the recession.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The central bank imposed a zero-interest policy in the late 1990s to get the economy out of recession after the bubble crisis. The nominal interest rate was reduced from 2% to 0.5% in 1995. Consecutively, the central bank reduced the interest rate to 0.32% and to 0.05% in 1998 and 1999 respectively. It is called the zero-interest policy as the central bank lowered the interest rate as close to 0% as possible. The objective of zero interest rate was to stimulate the economy by making it easier for companies to borrow funds from banks and helping them make investments. As the GDP growth rate recovered back to 3% in 2000 first time after 1996, the government perceived it as the beginning of recovery from recession and stopped the zero interest rate policy by raising the interest rate to 1%. However, the GDP growth rate again tanked to 0.5% the next year in 2001, and the central bank ended up reducing the interest rate again to 0.35% in 2001. Overall, the depression after the bubble crisis was longer than expected. In addition, the uncertainty about the future of the economy was high during the recession, and therefore, lowering the interest rate was not so effective in stimulating investment and the economy overall at that time. The government took the policy of quantitative easing, in 2001. They expanded the maximum amount of deposits in the central bank and lowered the call rate between banks nearly to zero. This marked a better policy for recovering the economy. The economy recovered slowly after 2001, and the quantitative easing was stopped in 2006.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The Japanese asset price bubble is spotlighted in the NHK's series "A Portrait of Postwar Japan" (2015), Episode 2: "The Bubble and the Lost Decades". The documentary creators obtained information from interviews with more than one hundred key figures of the bubble.


title: Japanese asset price bubble

text: The video game "Yakuza 0" developed by Sega takes place in late 1988 during the Japanese asset price bubble and references the bubble.


title: Synapse

text: In the nervous system, a synapse is a structure that permits a neuron (or nerve cell) to pass an electrical or chemical signal to another neuron or to the target effector cell.


title: Synapse

text: Synapses are essential to the transmission of nervous impulses from one neuron to another. Neurons are specialized to pass signals to individual target cells, and synapses are the means by which they do so. At a synapse, the plasma membrane of the signal-passing neuron (the "presynaptic" neuron) comes into close apposition with the membrane of the target ("postsynaptic") cell. Both the presynaptic and postsynaptic sites contain extensive arrays of molecular machinery that link the two membranes together and carry out the signaling process. In many synapses, the presynaptic part is located on an axon and the postsynaptic part is located on a dendrite or soma. Astrocytes also exchange information with the synaptic neurons, responding to synaptic activity and, in turn, regulating neurotransmission. Synapses (at least chemical synapses) are stabilized in position by synaptic adhesion molecules (SAMs) projecting from both the pre- and post-synaptic neuron and sticking together where they overlap; SAMs may also assist in the generation and functioning of synapses.


title: Synapse

text: Santiago Ramón y Cajal proposed that neurons are not continuous throughout the body, yet still communicate with each other, an idea known as the neuron doctrine. The word "synapse" was introduced in 1897 by the English neurophysiologist Charles Sherrington in Michael Foster's "Textbook of Physiology". Sherrington struggled to find a good term that emphasized a union between two "separate" elements, and the actual term "synapse" was suggested by the English classical scholar Arthur Woollgar Verrall, a friend of Foster. The word was derived from the Greek "synapsis" (), meaning "conjunction", which in turn derives from ( ("together") and ("to fasten"))


title: Synapse

text: However, while the synaptic gap remained a theoretical construct, and sometimes reported as a discontinuity between contiguous axonal terminations and dendrites or cell bodies, histological methods using the best light microscopes of the day could not visually resolve their separation which is now known to be about 20nm. It needed the electron microscope in the 1950s to show the finer structure of the synapse with its separate, parallel pre- and postsynaptic membranes and processes, and the cleft between the two.


title: Synapse

text: Synaptic communication is distinct from an ephaptic coupling, in which communication between neurons occurs via indirect electric fields.


title: Synapse

text: An autapse is a chemical or electrical synapse that forms when the axon of one neuron synapses onto dendrites of the same neuron.


title: Synapse

text: Synapses can be classified by the type of cellular structures serving as the pre- and post-synaptic components. The vast majority of synapses in the mammalian nervous system are classical axo-dendritic synapses (axon synapsing upon a dendrite), however, a variety of other arrangements exist. These include but are not limited to axo-axonic, dendro-dendritic, axo-secretory, axo-ciliary, somato-dendritic, dendro-somatic, and somato-somatic synapses.


title: Synapse

text: The axon can synapse onto a dendrite, onto a cell body, or onto another axon or axon terminal, as well as into the bloodstream or diffusely into the adjacent nervous tissue.


title: Synapse

text: It is widely accepted that the synapse plays a role in the formation of memory. As neurotransmitters activate receptors across the synaptic cleft, the connection between the two neurons is strengthened when both neurons are active at the same time, as a result of the receptor's signaling mechanisms. The strength of two connected neural pathways is thought to result in the storage of information, resulting in memory. This process of synaptic strengthening is known as long-term potentiation.


title: Synapse

text: By altering the release of neurotransmitters, the plasticity of synapses can be controlled in the presynaptic cell. The postsynaptic cell can be regulated by altering the function and number of its receptors. Changes in postsynaptic signaling are most commonly associated with a N-methyl-d-aspartic acid receptor (NMDAR)-dependent long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) due to the influx of calcium into the post-synaptic cell, which are the most analyzed forms of plasticity at excitatory synapses.


title: Synapse

text: For technical reasons, synaptic structure and function have been historically studied at unusually large model synapses, for example:


title: Synapse

text: The function of neurons depends upon cell polarity. The distinctive structure of nerve cells allows action potentials to travel directionally (from dendrites to cell body down the axon), and for these signals to then be received and carried on by post-synaptic neurons or received by effector cells. Nerve cells have long been used as models for cellular polarization, and of particular interest are the mechanisms underlying the polarized localization of synaptic molecules. PIP2 signaling regulated by IMPase plays an integral role in synaptic polarity.


title: Synapse

text: Phosphoinositides (PIP, PIP2, and PIP3) are molecules that have been shown to affect neuronal polarity. A gene ("ttx-7") was identified in "Caenorhabditis elegans" that encodes "myo"-inositol monophosphatase (IMPase), an enzyme that produces inositol by dephosphorylating inositol phosphate. Organisms with mutant "ttx-7" genes demonstrated behavioral and localization defects, which were rescued by expression of IMPase. This led to the conclusion that IMPase is required for the correct localization of synaptic protein components. The "egl-8" gene encodes a homolog of phospholipase Cβ (PLCβ), an enzyme that cleaves PIP2. When "ttx-7" mutants also had a mutant "egl-8" gene, the defects caused by the faulty "ttx-7" gene were largely reversed. These results suggest that PIP2 signaling establishes polarized localization of synaptic components in living neurons.


title: Synapse

text: Modulation of neurotransmitter release by G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) is a prominent presynaptic mechanism for regulation of synaptic transmission. The activation of GPCRs located at the presynaptic terminal, can decrease the probability of neurotransmitter release. This presynaptic depression involves activation of Gi/o-type G-proteins that mediate different inhibitory mechanisms, including inhibition of voltage-gated calcium channels, activation of potassium channels, and direct inhibition of the vesicle fusion process. Endocannabinoids, synthesized in and released from postsynaptic neuronal elements, and their cognate receptors, including the (GPCR) CB1 receptor, located at the presynaptic terminal, are involved in this modulation by an retrograde signaling process, in which these compounds are synthesized in and released from postsynaptic neuronal elements, and travel back to the presynaptic terminal to act on the CB1 receptor for short-term (STD) or long-term synaptic depression (LTD), that cause a short or long lasting decrease in neurotransmitter release.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The hierarchy of the Catholic Church consists of its bishops, priests, and deacons. In the ecclesiological sense of the term, "hierarchy" strictly means the "holy ordering" of the Church, the Body of Christ, so to respect the diversity of gifts and ministries necessary for genuine unity ().


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: In canonical and general usage, it refers to those who exercise authority within a Christian church. In the Catholic Church, authority rests chiefly with the bishops, while priests and deacons serve as their assistants, co-workers or helpers. Accordingly, "hierarchy of the Catholic Church" is also used to refer to the bishops alone. The term "pope" was still used loosely until the sixth century, being at times assumed by other bishops. The term "hierarchy" became popular only in the sixth century, due to the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: As of 31 December 2020, the Catholic Church consisted of 2,903 dioceses or equivalent jurisdictions, each overseen by a bishop. Dioceses are divided into individual communities called parishes, each staffed by one or more priests, deacons, or lay ecclesial ministers. Ordinarily, care of a parish is entrusted to a priest, though there are exceptions. Approximately 22% of all parishes do not have a resident pastor, and 3,485 parishes worldwide are entrusted to a deacon or lay ecclesial minister.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: All clergy, including deacons, priests, and bishops, may preach, teach, baptize, witness marriages, and conduct funeral liturgies. Only priests and bishops can celebrate the sacraments of the Eucharist (though others may be ministers of Holy Communion), Penance (Reconciliation, Confession), Confirmation (priests may administer this sacrament with prior ecclesiastical approval), and Anointing of the Sick. Only bishops can administer the sacrament of Holy Orders, by which men are ordained as bishops, priests or deacons.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The bishops, who possess the fullness of orders, and therefore the fullness of both priesthood and diaconate, are as a body (the College of Bishops) considered the successors of the Apostles and are "constituted Pastors in the Church, to be the teachers of doctrine, the priests of sacred worship and the ministers of governance" and "represent the Church." In 2012, there were 5,133 Catholic bishops; at the end of 2014, there were 5,237 Catholic bishops. The Pope himself is a bishop (the bishop of Rome) and traditionally uses the title "Venerable Brother" when writing formally to another bishop.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The typical role of a bishop is to provide pastoral governance for a diocese. Bishops who fulfill this function are known as diocesan ordinaries, because they have what canon law calls ordinary (i.e. not delegated) authority for a diocese. These bishops may be known as hierarchs in the Eastern Catholic Churches. Other bishops may be appointed to assist ordinaries (auxiliary bishops and coadjutor bishops) or to carry out a function in a broader field of service to the Church, such as appointments as papal nuncios or as officials in the Roman Curia.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Bishops of a country or region may form an episcopal conference and meet periodically to discuss current problems. Decisions in certain fields, notably liturgy, fall within the exclusive competence of these conferences. The decisions of the conferences are binding on the individual bishops only if agreed to by at least two-thirds of the membership and confirmed by the Holy See.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Bishops are normally ordained to the episcopate by at least three other bishops, though for validity only one is needed and a mandatum from the Holy See is required. Ordination to the episcopate is considered the completion of the sacrament of Holy Orders; even when a bishop retires from his active service, he remains a bishop, since the ontological effect of Holy Orders is permanent. On the other hand, titles such as archbishop or patriarch imply no ontological alteration, and existing bishops who rise to those offices do not require further ordination.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Sacramentally, all bishops are equal. According to jurisdiction, office, and privileges, however, various ranks are distinguished, as indicated below. All bishops are "vicars of Christ".


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: "Pope" is a pronominal honorific, not an office or a title, meaning "Father" (the common honorific for all clergy). The honorific "pope" was from the early 3rd century used for any bishop in the West, and is known in Greek as far back as Homer's "Odyssey" (6:57). In the East, "pope" is still a common form of address for clergy in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, and is the style of the bishop of Alexandria. Pope Marcellinus (died 304) is the first Bishop of Rome shown in sources to have had the title "pope" used of him. From the 6th century, the imperial chancery of Constantinople normally reserved this designation for the Bishop of Rome. From the early 6th century, it began to be confined in the West to the Bishop of Rome, a practice that was firmly in place by the 11th century, when Pope Gregory VII declared it reserved for the Bishop of Rome.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: As bishop of the Church of Rome, he is successor to the co-patrons of that local church, Saint Peter and Saint Paul. As such, the Church of Rome, and its bishop, has always had a prominence in the Catholic communion and at least to some degree primacy among his peers, the other bishops, as Peter had a certain primacy among his peers, the other apostles. The exact nature of that primacy is one of the most significant ecumenical issues of the age, and has developed as a doctrine throughout the entire history of the Church.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The Catechism of the Catholic Church, quoting the Second Vatican Council's document "Lumen gentium", states: "The "pope", Bishop of Rome and Peter's successor, 'is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful.'" Communion with the bishop of Rome has become such a significant identifier of Catholic identity that at times the Catholic Church has been known in its entirety as "Roman Catholic," though this is inaccurate in Catholic theology (ecclesiology).


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Three other of the pope's offices stem directly from his office as bishop of the Church of Rome. As the Latin Church owes its identity and development to its origins in the liturgical, juridical, and theological patrimony of Rome, the bishop of Rome is de facto the patriarch of the Latin Church. According to Pope Benedict XVI, there has been much 'confusion' between the pope's primacy as patriarch of the western church and his primacy as first patriarch among equals, that this "failure to distinguish" between the roles and responsibilities of these two distinct positions leads in time to the "extreme centralization of the Catholic Church" and the schism between East and West.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: As the first local Church of Italy, the bishop of Rome is the Primate of Italy and is empowered to appoint the president of the Italian Bishops' Conference.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The Church of Rome is also the principal church of the Province of Rome, so the bishop of Rome is Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman province.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: As a bishop, the pope is referred to as a Vicar of Christ. This title was common to all bishops from the fourth through twelfth centuries, reserved to the bishop of Rome from the twelfth through early twentieth centuries, and restored to all bishops at the Second Vatican Council.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The pope resides in Vatican City, an independent state within the city of Rome, set up by the 1929 Lateran Pacts between the Holy See and Italy. As popes were sovereigns of the papal states (754–1870), so do they exercise absolute civil authority in the microstate of Vatican City since 1929.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Ambassadors are accredited not to the Vatican City State but to the "Holy See," which was subject to international law even before the state was instituted. The body of officials that assist the Pope in governance of the Church as a whole is known as the Roman curia. The term "Holy See" (i.e. of Rome) is generally used only of the Pope and the curia, because the Code of Canon Law, which concerns governance of the Latin Church as a whole and not internal affairs of the see (diocese) of Rome itself, necessarily uses the term in this technical sense.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Finally, the title "Servant of the servants of God" was an addition of Pope Gregory the Great, a reminder that in Christianity, leadership is always about service/ministry ("diakonia").


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The present rules governing the election of a pope are found in the apostolic constitution "Universi Dominici Gregis". This deals with the powers, from the death of a pope to the announcement of his successor's election, of the cardinals and the departments of the Roman curia; with the funeral arrangements for the dead pope; and with the place, time and manner of voting of the meeting of the cardinal electors, a meeting known as a conclave. This word is derived from Latin "com-" (together) and "clavis" (key) and refers to the locking away of the participants from outside influences, a measure that was introduced first as a means instead of forcing them to reach a decision.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Like all bishops, the pope has the option of resigning, though unlike other bishops, it is not required. The best known cases are those of Pope Celestine V in 1294, Pope Gregory XII in 1415 and Pope Benedict XVI in 2013. Approximately 10% of all popes left or were removed from office before death.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The heads of some autonomous (in Latin, "sui iuris") particular Churches consisting of several local Churches (dioceses) have the title of Patriarch.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The pope, as patriarch of the Latin Church, is the head of the only sui iuris Church in the West, leading to the relatively short-lived title Patriarch of the West (in use 1863–2006). Eastern patriarchs are elected by the synod of bishops of their particular Church.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: These have authority not only over the bishops of their particular Church, including metropolitans, but also directly over all the faithful. Eastern Catholic patriarchs have precedence over all other bishops, with the exceptions laid down by the Pope. The honorary title prefixed to their names is "His Beatitude".


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Other autonomous particular Churches are headed by a major archbishop. The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church uses the title "Catholicos" for their major archbishop. With few exceptions, the authority of a major archbishop in his "sui iuris" Church is equivalent to that of a patriarch in his Church. This less prestigious office was established in 1963 for those Eastern Catholic Churches which have developed in size and stability to allow full self-governance if historical, ecumenical, or political conditions do not allow their elevation to a patriarchate.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: There are also titular patriarchs in the Latin Church, who, for various historical reasons, were granted the title, but never the corresponding office and responsibilities, of "patriarch". They include the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Patriarch of Venice, the Patriarch of Lisbon, and the Patriarch of the East Indies. All of these offices are honorary, and the patriarchs are not the heads of autonomous particular Churches. The Patriarch of the East Indies is the archbishop of Goa, while the other patriarchs are the archbishops of the named cities. The title of Patriarch of the West Indies was in the past granted to some Spanish bishops (not always of the same see), but is long in abeyance.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Cardinals are princes of the Church appointed by the Pope. He generally chooses bishops who head departments of the Roman Curia or important episcopal sees throughout the world. As a whole, the cardinals compose a College of Cardinals which advises the Pope, and those cardinals under the age of 80 at the death or resignation of a Pope elect his successor. Their heraldic achievement is surmounted by the red galero and tassels as a form of martyred position in the Church.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Not all cardinals are bishops. Domenico Bartolucci, Karl Josef Becker, Roberto Tucci and Albert Vanhoye are examples of 21st-century non-bishop cardinals. The 1917 Code of Canon Law introduced the requirement that a cardinal must be at least a priest. Previously, they need only be in minor orders and not even deacons. Teodolfo Mertel, who died in 1899, was the last non-priest cardinal. In 1962, Pope John XXIII made it a rule that a man who has been nominated a cardinal is required to be consecrated a bishop, if not one already, but some ask for and obtain dispensation from this requirement. It is rare that the Pope will appoint Cardinals who are priests only and not consecrated as a bishop.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The 1917 Code of Canon Law, continuing the tradition observed, for instance, at the First Vatican Council, laid down that cardinals have precedence over all other prelates, even patriarchs. The 1983 Code of Canon Law did not deal with questions of precedence.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The cardinalate is not an integral part of the theological structure of the Catholic Church, but largely an honorific distinction that has its origins in the 1059 assignation of the right of electing the Pope exclusively to the principal clergy of Rome and the bishops of the seven suburbicarian dioceses. Because of their resulting importance, the term "cardinal" (from Latin "cardo", meaning "hinge") was applied to them. In the 12th century the practice of appointing ecclesiastics from outside Rome as cardinals began. Each cardinal is still assigned a church in Rome as his "titular church" or is linked with one of the suburbicarian dioceses. Of these sees, the Dean of the College of Cardinals holds that of Ostia, while keeping his preceding link with one of the other six sees. Traditionally, only six cardinals held the rank of Cardinal Bishop, but when Eastern patriarchs are made cardinals, they too hold the rank of Cardinal Bishop, without being assigned a suburbicarian see. The other cardinals have the rank either of Cardinal Priest or Cardinal Deacon, the former rank being normally assigned to bishops in charge of dioceses, and the latter to officials of the Curia and to priests raised to the cardinalate.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The Latin Church title of primate has in some countries been granted to the bishop of a particular (usually metropolitan) see. It once involved authority over all the other sees in the country or region, but now only gives a "prerogative of honor" with no power of governance unless an exception is made in certain matters by a privilege granted by the Holy See or by an approved custom. The title is usually assigned to the ordinary of the first diocese or the oldest archdiocese in the country. Thus in Poland, the primate is the archbishop of the oldest archdiocese (Gniezno, founded in 1000), and not the oldest diocese (Poznań, founded in 968).


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Notably, the Archbishop of Baltimore is not formally considered a primate of the Catholic Church in the United States, but "prerogative of the place".


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The closest equivalent position in Eastern Orthodoxy is an exarch holding authority over other bishops without being a patriarch. In the Eastern Catholic Churches, exarchs, whether apostolic or patriarchal, do not hold authority over other bishops (see below).


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: A Latin Church Metropolitan is the bishop of the principal (the "metropolitan") see of an ecclesiastical province composed of several dioceses. The metropolitan receives a pallium from the pope as a symbol of his office.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The metropolitan bishop has limited oversight authority over the suffragan dioceses in their province, including ensuring that the faith and ecclesiastical discipline are properly observed. He also has the power to name a diocesan administrator for a vacant suffragan see if the diocesan council of consultors fails to properly elect one. His diocesan tribunal additionally serves by default as the ecclesiastical court of appeal for suffragans (court of second instance), and the metropolitan has the option of judging those appeals personally.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The metropolitans of a given territory are also involved in the selection of bishops. Every three years, they compile a list of "provimvedis" - a list of priests who may be suitable for the office of bishop. This is forwarded to the local apostolic nuncio, who evaluates the candidates in a consultative and confidential process. The nuncio in turn forwards the best candidates to the Dicastery for Bishops in Rome, who conduct a final evaluation of candidates and offer their findings to the pope for his final decision of appointment.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Eastern Metropolitans in patriarchal or major archiepiscopal churches have a level of authority similar to that of Latin metropolitans, subject to the specific laws and customs of their "sui iuris" church. Eastern metropolitans who "head" a metropolitan "sui iuris" church have much greater authority within their church, although it is less than that of a major archbishop or patriarch.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: All metropolitans have the title of Archbishop, and the metropolitan see is usually referred to as an archdiocese or archeparchy, a title held not only by the 553 metropolitan sees but also by 77 other sees. An exception is the metropolitan Diocese of Rome.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The title of "archbishop" is held not only by bishops who head metropolitan sees, but also by those who head archdioceses that are not metropolitan sees (most of these are in Europe and the Levant). In addition, it is held by certain other bishops, referred to as "Titular Archbishops" (see "Other Bishops" below) who have been given no-longer-residential archdioceses as their titular sees—many of these in administrative or diplomatic posts, for instance as papal nuncios or secretaries of curial congregations. The bishop of a non-archiepiscopal see may be given the personal title of archbishop without also elevating his see (such a bishop is known as an archbishop "ad personam"), though this practice has seen significantly reduced usage since the Second Vatican Council.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The bishop or eparch of a see, even if he does not also hold a title such as archbishop, metropolitan, major archbishop, patriarch or pope, is the centre of unity for his diocese or eparchy, and, as a member of the College of Bishops, shares in responsibility for governance of the whole Church (cf. "Catechism of the Catholic Church", 886).


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Within the Catholic Church the following posts have similarities to that of a diocesan bishop, but are not necessarily held by a bishop.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Canon 368 of the 1983 "Code of Canon Law" lists five Latin Church jurisdictional areas that are considered equivalent to a diocese. These are headed by:


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Of somewhat similar standing is the diocesan administrator (formerly called a vicar capitular) elected to govern a diocese during a vacancy. Apart from certain limitations of nature and law, he has, on a caretaker basis, the same obligations and powers as a diocesan bishop (canons 427–429 of the "Code of Canon Law"). Occasionally an apostolic administrator is appointed by the Holy See to run a vacant diocese, or even a diocese whose bishop is incapacitated or otherwise impeded.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: A diocesan bishop may have bishops who assist in his ministry. The coadjutor bishop of a see has the right of succession on the death or resignation of the diocesan bishop, and, if the see is an archdiocese, holds the title of archbishop. Similarly, a retired diocesan bishop keeps his connection with the see to which he was appointed, and is known as bishop (or archbishop) emeritus of that see. On the other hand, an auxiliary bishop, who may also hold posts such as vicar general or episcopal vicar, is appointed bishop of a titular see, a see that in the course of history has ceased to exist as an actual jurisdictional unit.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Important titles or functions usually, but not necessarily, held by (arch)bishops who are not in charge of a diocese or an equivalent community include those of Apostolic Delegate, Apostolic Nuncio, Papal Legate, Patriarchal Vicar, Pontifical Delegate.