title: Deron Williams

text: Williams was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia. In elementary school and middle school, Williams won two state wrestling championships. In 1993, as an eight-year-old, he won the 67 lb. weight class Texas State championship. Four years later in 1997, he won the twelve-year-old 116 lb. weight class championship. Williams attended The Colony High School in The Colony, Texas and averaged 17 points, 9.4 assists, and 2 steals per game as a junior in 2001. That year he led his team, the Cougars, to a 32–2 record and the Class 5A state semifinals against Bryan High. In 2002, as a senior, he averaged 17.6 points, 8.5 assists, 6.1 rebounds, and 2.6 steals per game. His team, the Cougars, went 29–2 that season, losing the 5A Texas State semifinals. Williams was a teammate of Bracey Wright who went on to play for Big Ten rival Indiana University.


title: Deron Williams

text: Williams was recruited to play college basketball at the University of Illinois for the 2002–03 NCAA season by Bill Self. In his freshman year, he started 30 of 32 games and ranked third in the Big Ten Conference in assists with 4.53 per game.


title: Deron Williams

text: Bruce Weber assumed the head coach position for the Illini in April 2003 and helped develop Williams throughout his remaining collegiate career. As a sophomore, Williams improved his scoring average from 6.3 to 14.0 points per game and improved his assists per game from the prior year to 6.17. Williams was a First-Team All-Big Ten selection by both the coaches and media.


title: Deron Williams

text: In 2005, as a junior starting point guard, Williams led the Fighting Illini to the NCAA championship game where they lost to the University of North Carolina. That season saw the Illini go undefeated until the final game of the regular season when they lost to Ohio State by one point. Illinois's road to the Final Four was marked by a comeback win over the Arizona Wildcats, where the Illini, led by Williams, came back from fifteen points down in the final minutes to win the game. Williams made the game-tying three-point shot with just 38.5 seconds left in regulation. He then hit the go-ahead three-pointer in overtime, and the Illini never looked back in that game.


title: Deron Williams

text: Williams received many awards after the 2004–05 season. Those honors include being named a consensus Second Team All American, as well as being named First Team All-Big Ten, Big Ten All-Tournament Team, and All-Final Four team and at the conclusion of the academic year, Williams was named as the University of Illinois Athlete of the Year. Williams was also a finalist for the Wooden Award and was named Most Outstanding Player of the Chicago Regional in the NCAA Tournament. Williams was named First-Team All-Big Ten as a sophomore in 2004 and as a junior in 2005, the year in which Williams, called by coach Bruce Weber "the MVP of the team", led the Illini to the Final Four. The team included four other future NBA players, including Dee Brown, Roger Powell, James Augustine, and Luther Head.


title: Deron Williams

text: Williams declared for the NBA draft after the 2005 season, forgoing his final year of collegiate eligibility.


title: Deron Williams

text: Following the season, Williams declared for the 2005 NBA draft. The Utah Jazz selected Williams with the third overall selection, after Andrew Bogut and Marvin Williams. He started the season coming off the bench, eventually moved into the role of starting point guard, and was later sent back to the bench. Williams finished his rookie season averaging 10.8 points and 4.5 assists per game, in 80 games played. Williams was rewarded by being named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team, as well as being the only other rookie besides Chris Paul to receive a first-place vote in the 2005–06 NBA Rookie of the Year voting (Williams received one first-place vote, from Jazz color commentator Ron Boone). Williams and Chris Paul have shared a friendly rivalry that began after the 2005 NBA draft, where Williams and Paul were the third and fourth selections overall. Whether Williams or Paul was the superior point guard is the subject of frequent debate among sports writers and fans.


title: Deron Williams

text: Williams began the 2006–07 season as the starting point guard for the Jazz. The Jazz started the season with a 12–1 record. This record was the best in team history and in the league. During these first 13 games of the season, Williams played remarkably well, delivering five double-doubles. Two of these double-doubles were back-to-back performances of 26/14 and 27/15 (points/assists). Both of these assists totals bested his previous career-high. In the second of those two games, he also had a career-high in steals, with five. On January 17, 2007, in a game against the Detroit Pistons, he recorded a career-high 31 points. A few days later, on January 24, he recorded a career-high 21 assists in a game against the Memphis Grizzlies. In his second season, his numbers improved in almost all categories, increasing to 16.2 points and 9.3 assists per game (second only to Steve Nash in the NBA). The Jazz improved to post a 51–31 record, winning the Northwest Division title.


title: Deron Williams

text: The playoffs ended a three-year playoff drought for the Jazz, and in the first round, they faced the Houston Rockets. Williams scored in double figures in each of the seven games in the series, including a 14 assist, 20 point double-double on May 5 to close out the series. The Jazz won the series 4–3, beating the Rockets in Houston to complete the series. It was their first playoff series victory since 2000.


title: Deron Williams

text: In the second round, Williams and the Jazz faced the Golden State Warriors, the eighth-seeded team that had upset the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks 4–2 in the first round. Williams started off the series strong, posting double-doubles in two of the first four games as the Jazz jumped out to a 3–1 series lead. In the fifth game, Williams was plagued by foul problems and struggled from the floor, hitting only one of eleven shots from the field and scoring just two points. However, despite Williams's poor performance, the Jazz posted a 100–87 victory, sending the Jazz to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 1998 and the John Stockton and Karl Malone era.


title: Deron Williams

text: The Jazz faced the eventual NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs in the conference finals, a team led by Tim Duncan who had posted three NBA championships since 1999. Williams played his best basketball of the season in the first three games, averaging nine assists and over thirty points over that span. Spurs guard Tony Parker recognized Williams's effort after the Jazz won game three 109–83.


title: Deron Williams

text: Spurs forward Bruce Bowen also highlighted Williams's skills, as he compared Williams to the previous Jazz All-Star guard John Stockton.


title: Deron Williams

text: Williams scored a then-career high 41 points on December 8, 2007, in a game against the Dallas Mavericks, although they ended up losing the game. He also had two 20-assist games on the season. He elevated all of his stats, improving to 18.8 points and 10.5 assists per game, third in the league behind Chris Paul and Steve Nash. Despite his strong performance during the season, he was not selected to represent the Western Conference in the NBA All-Star Game, as the point guard position was filled by Allen Iverson, Steve Nash, and Chris Paul. He did win the NBA Skills Challenge over All-Star weekend.


title: Deron Williams

text: Much was made of Williams's new leadership role on the team, and how he calls the majority of the plays on the team instead of coach Jerry Sloan, something not even John Stockton did. In March, Williams recorded 212 assists, the most by any NBA player in any month since John Stockton in January 1992. The Jazz again won the Northwest Division and the four seed, this time with a 54–28 record, and again faced a Houston Rockets team that had home-court advantage in the first round. However, the Jazz won the first two games in Houston and went on to win the series in six games. In the second round, the Jazz lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games. Williams was the leading scorer for the Jazz in the 2008 playoffs.


title: Deron Williams

text: Williams missed thirteen of the first fifteen games of the season due to a second-degree ankle sprain sustained in the preseason against the Chicago Bulls. He returned November 26 against the Memphis Grizzlies. Since that time, he has led the team through an up-and-down season plagued by injuries to several key players (most notably Carlos Boozer and Andrei Kirilenko), but despite averaging 19.2 ppg and 10.0 apg through the All-Star Break, he was again snubbed from the All-Star Game. Similar to the previous year, he responded to the snub with strong play, scoring 30+ points in five consecutive games before the break (he missed one additional game during this time due to a minor injury) and leading the team to a 5–2 record to close out the first half of the season, including a win over the league-leading Los Angeles Lakers to snap their seven-game winning streak. They followed the All-Star Break with a win against the defending champion Boston Celtics.


title: Deron Williams

text: On March 1, 2009, Williams became the second active player after Steve Nash to reach 20 or more assists in at least four games in their career.


title: Deron Williams

text: On December 14, 2009, Williams was named the Western Conference Player of the Week. A week after his teammate and pick and roll partner Carlos Boozer, was named The Western Conference Player of the Week. The Jazz hadn't had consecutive Western Conference Player of the Week Awards since 1997, when Karl Malone won it back to back.


title: Deron Williams

text: On January 28, 2010, Williams was named to participate in the 2010 NBA All-Star Game at Cowboy Stadium in Arlington, Texas. This marked his All-Star debut. He was also invited to participate in the NBA Skills Challenge, where he finished second to Steve Nash.


title: Deron Williams

text: Despite playing with injuries to his wrist and ankle, and playing without starters Andrei Kirilenko and Mehmet Okur, Williams became just the second player in Utah Jazz history to record at least 30 points and 10 or more assists in a playoff game. John Stockton is the only other Jazz player to accomplish said feat, doing so twice in his career. Williams scored 33 points on 7–14 shooting from the field while making 16–18 free throws from the line, while also contributing 14 assists on the road in a game 2 win against the Denver Nuggets. He repeated that feat later in series while scoring 34 points and dishing out 10 assists.


title: Deron Williams

text: On April 28, Williams became the first player in NBA history to record at least 20 points and 10 or more assists in five straight games in a playoff series. Williams points/assists through the first five games, in order, were 26/11, 33/14, 24/10, 24/13, and 34/10.


title: Deron Williams

text: After Sloan resigned mid-season on February 7, 2011, he denied reports that conflicts with Williams forced him to leave. "I forced myself out", Sloan responded. Williams acknowledged he had a disagreement with Sloan during the previous night's game, but he added, "I would never force coach Sloan out of Utah. He's meant more to this town, more to this organization than I have by far. I would have asked out of Utah first."


title: Deron Williams

text: On February 23, 2011, Williams was traded to the New Jersey Nets for guard Devin Harris, forward Derrick Favors, two first round draft picks, and $3 million in cash. While Williams was under contract through with a player option worth $17.7 million for , Jazz chief executive officer Greg Miller did not believe the team could re-sign Williams. "And while I never saw any indication that he wouldn't re-sign with us, I never saw any indication he would", said Miller.


title: Deron Williams

text: Williams's acquisition gave the Nets a proven NBA star to build around as the team was preparing to make the transition to their new home in Brooklyn. Williams's impact on the Nets was immediately apparent, although he played in just 12 games due to a nagging wrist injury. As a team, the Nets were one of highest scoring teams post all-star break and big men Brook Lopez and Kris Humphries both saw their scoring numbers increase as Williams averaged 12.8 APG during those 12 games. His 47 assists were an NBA record for a player in his first 3 games with a new team and no Net before him recorded double-doubles in their first 5 games with the team. On April 11, 2011, Williams had wrist surgery on his right wrist which ended his season, although he was initially hesitant to having it. "I was angry and tried to tell the doctors that I didn't want to have the surgery", Williams said. "The two doctors had me outvoted, two against one. I couldn't do anything about it. They told me that there was no reason to postpone it and if I didn't have it, I would be dealing with the same pain again."


title: Deron Williams

text: During the 2011 NBA lockout, Williams signed a one-year contract for $5 million net income to play for Beşiktaş of the Turkish Basketball League and the FIBA EuroChallenge. His contract allowed him to return to the NBA with the Nets once the work stoppage ended. Beşiktaş was the same team that signed Allen Iverson in 2010. Because Williams was still under an NBA contract, he required clearance from FIBA in order to play elsewhere.


title: Deron Williams

text: On November 22, 2011, Williams scored 50 points against Göttingen, during a EuroChallenge first group-stage game. In the game, Williams went 17–23 from the field and 7–10 on three-point attempts and 9–11 on free throws. After a tentative agreement to end the 2011 NBA lockout was reached, Williams's jersey #8 was retired by Beşiktaş in a farewell ceremony prior to a game against Zorg en Zekerheid Leiden on November 29, 2011.


title: Deron Williams

text: After the lockout ended, Williams returned to New Jersey, hoping to lead the Nets to the playoffs for the first time since 2007. The Nets caught a bad break in the preseason, though, as Brook Lopez suffered a broken foot that caused him to miss more than 2 months. After winning their opening game at Washington, the Nets went on to lose their next six, putting them in an early hole in the standings in an abbreviated season. The Nets continued to struggle without Lopez, but Williams played well enough to be voted into the All-Star Game for the third time in his career, as he averaged over 22 points and 8 assists at the break.


title: Deron Williams

text: When Lopez returned after the All-Star break, the Nets began to pick up their play. On March 4, 2012, Williams scored a career-high and Nets franchise-high 57 points against the Charlotte Bobcats. He broke the previous team record of 52 points held by Mike Newlin and Ray Williams. It was the most points scored in the NBA that season and the second-most points scored against the Bobcats by one player in a single game, second to Kobe Bryant. Lopez went down again with a sprained ankle and was out for several more weeks.


title: Deron Williams

text: Williams remained optimistic that he would resign with the Nets, but was noncommittal as he said he wanted to keep his options open and become a free agent at the end of the season. Williams reiterated this stance on March 16 after the Nets failed to land All-Star center Dwight Howard at the trade deadline.


title: Deron Williams

text: On July 11, 2012, Williams signed a five-year, $98.7 million deal to remain with the Nets, who had completed their move to Brooklyn. He was encouraged to stay with the Nets after GM Billy King completed a trade with the Atlanta Hawks for six-time All-Star Joe Johnson, as well as re-signing young big man Brook Lopez and defensive player Gerald Wallace. Williams scored the first regular-season points at the new Barclays Center on November 3, 2012, against the Toronto Raptors. The Nets won the game 107-100 as Williams finished the game with 19 points and 9 assists. On November 26, 2012, the Nets played their crosstown rival, the New York Knicks, at the Barclays Center. The game was scheduled to be played on November 1, 2012, and be the first game of the season for the Knicks and the Nets. The game was postponed due to weather in the New York City area involving Hurricane Sandy. The Nets beat the Knicks 96–89 in overtime, with Williams contributing 16 points and 14 assists. On December 27, 2012, the Nets fired head coach Avery Johnson after a 14 win, 14 loss start. Rumors circulated that Williams might have been involved in the firing, but Williams denied playing a role and said he was surprised Johnson was fired.


title: Deron Williams

text: Williams announced that he would miss the final two games before the All-Star break to receive a cortisone shot in both of his ankles and platelet-rich plasma treatment in his ankles. His problems stemmed from a bone spur that was causing inflammation in the ankle.


title: Deron Williams

text: On March 8, 2013, the Nets were playing the Washington Wizards as Williams hit 11 three-pointers in a single game, setting a Nets record. He hit 9 of the 11 threes in the first half, which was an NBA record for three-pointers in a half. Williams finished the night with 42 points in a Nets win.


title: Deron Williams

text: On March 28, 2014, Williams recorded his 21st consecutive game with at least one steal, tying the Hawks' Paul Millsap with the longest such streak in the league in 2013–14. Two days later, Williams recorded a steal for the 22nd straight game, marking the longest streak in the 2013–14 season. On April 4, 2014, Williams recorded his 25th straight game with at least one steal, one short of the Nets' franchise record held by Jason Kidd and Mookie Blaylock. The next day, he tied the Nets' franchise record with a steal against the 76ers. He broke the record the next game with two steals against the Miami Heat on April 8. The streak ended at 31 on April 22 after he failed to record a steal in Game 2 of their first-round playoff matchup against the Toronto Raptors.


title: Deron Williams

text: After leading the Nets to a 4–2 record to start the 2014–15 season, Williams was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week for games played Monday, November 3 through Sunday, November 9. The award marked his first Player of the Week honor as a Net, having previously won the award three times during his tenure with the Jazz, and his first since the week of November 8–14, 2010. Despite a good start to the season injury-wise for Williams, he went down on December 19 in the 91–95 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, limping off the court in the second quarter with a strained right calf and did not return. He subsequently missed the following two games, only to return on December 26 against Boston coming off the bench for the first time this season, losing his starting spot in favor of Jarrett Jack. He was later ruled out indefinitely on January 8 with a fractured rib that he suffered on January 4 against Miami. After an 11-game absence due to the injury, Williams returned to action on February 2 against the Los Angeles Clippers, recording 15 points and 3 assists off the bench in the 102–100 win.


title: Deron Williams

text: On February 20 against the Los Angeles Lakers, Williams regained his starting spot from Jack after 13 straight games coming off the bench. He subsequently recorded 12 points and a season-high 15 assists in the 114–105 win. On April 3, 2015, he scored a season-high 31 points in a 114–109 win over the Toronto Raptors.


title: Deron Williams

text: In Game 4 of the Nets' first-round playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks on April 27, Williams scored a playoff career-high 35 points in a 120–115 overtime win to tie the series at 2-2. The Nets went on to lose the series in six games.


title: Deron Williams

text: On July 11, 2015, Williams was waived by the Nets. He received a buyout from the final two seasons of his contract with the Nets.


title: Deron Williams

text: On July 14, 2015, Williams signed with the Dallas Mavericks. He made his debut for the Mavericks in the team's season opener against the Phoenix Suns on October 28, recording 12 points and 7 assists in a 111–95 win. On December 1, he scored a then season-high 30 points in a 115–112 overtime win over the Portland Trail Blazers. He missed the team's last four games of December with a left hamstring, returning to action on January 1 against the Miami Heat. He played in 20 minutes off the bench against the Heat, finishing with nine points and five assists. On January 5, he scored 25 points and hit the game-winning three-pointer in double overtime against the Sacramento Kings. On March 20, he recorded season highs of 31 points and 16 assists in a 132–120 overtime win over the Portland Trail Blazers, becoming the first Maverick with 30 points and 15 assists in the same game since Jason Kidd did so in 1996. Between late March and early April, Williams missed eight games with a left abdominal strain. The abdominal strain resurfaced for Williams in Game 4 of the Mavericks' first-round playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, ruling him out for the rest of the game after just 89 seconds and later ruled him out for the rest of the season.


title: Deron Williams

text: On July 8, 2016, Williams re-signed with the Mavericks. In the Mavericks' season opener on October 26, 2016, Williams scored a team-high 25 points in a 130–121 overtime loss to the Indiana Pacers. On December 3, he had a season-high 15 assists in a 107–82 win over the Chicago Bulls. Two days later, he had his first double-double of the season with 15 points and 13 assists in a 109–101 loss to the Charlotte Hornets. With seven assists on December 18 against the Sacramento Kings, Williams passed Derek Harper for 21st place on the NBA's all-time assists list with 6,584. On January 22, 2017, he had eight assists against the Los Angeles Lakers and moved into 20th place in NBA history with 6,715 assists, passing Kevin Johnson. On February 11, 2017, against Orlando, Williams returned after missing eight games with a sprained right big toe, getting seven points and four assists in 16 minutes in the first half before sitting out the second half on a minutes restriction. On February 23, 2017, Williams was waived by the Mavericks.


title: Deron Williams

text: On February 27, 2017, Williams signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers. In his debut for the Cavaliers two days later, Williams scored four points in 24 minutes off the bench in a 103–99 loss to the Boston Celtics. On April 10, 2017, he had a season-high 35 points, nine assists and seven rebounds in a 124–121 overtime loss to the Miami Heat.


title: Deron Williams

text: Williams won a bronze medal as a member of the United States U18 team at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship in 2002. He was selected as a member of the USA Olympic team for the 2008 Olympics on June 23, 2008. The team went unbeaten on the way to winning back the gold medal after defeating 2006 World Champion Spain and living up to their "Redeem Team" moniker after missing out in the 2004 Summer Olympics. In 8 games in the 2008 Olympics, Williams averaged 8.0 points per game with 2.8 assists. Williams was one of three-point guards on the national team, alongside Chris Paul and Jason Kidd.


title: Deron Williams

text: In January 2012, Williams made the 19 man roster of the USA men's basketball team for the 2012 Summer Olympics. He ultimately made the final roster. The team won the gold medal by beating Spain for the second consecutive Olympics with a score of 107–100. During the Olympics, Williams averaged 9.0 points per game with 4.6 assists as he collected his second Olympic gold medal.


title: Deron Williams

text: Williams was baptized as a Christian early 2010. He married Amy Young, whom he had known since second grade and had dated since high school, and has four children.


title: Deron Williams

text: Williams appeared as himself on the Disney Channel show "The Suite Life on Deck" during the season 3 episode "Twister: Part 1" along with Dwight Howard and Kevin Love.


title: Deron Williams

text: An avid boxing and MMA fan, Williams has trained for years in mixed martial arts and boxing and owns a stake in Fortis MMA. On November 5, 2021, it was announced that he will be fighting on the undercard of the Jake Paul vs. Tommy Fury fight. On November 9, 2021, his opponent was revealed to be Frank Gore.


title: Deron Williams

text: Williams was the cover athlete for the video game "NBA Baller Beats" on the Xbox 360. He attended E3 2012 to promote the game, as well play the game in the "NBA Baller Beats" booth. Williams currently has endorsement deals with companies such as Nike, Vitaminwater, Red Bull and MetroPCS; he acquired many of the deals during his successful time with the Utah Jazz. Since joining the Nets, Williams has starred in commercials for Red Bull and MetroPCS.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: "Kallsruh") is the second-largest city of the German state ("Land") of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart, and Mannheim, and the 21st-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. It is also a former capital of Baden, a historic region named after Hohenbaden Castle in the city of Baden-Baden. Located on the right bank of the Rhine near the French border, between the Mannheim/Ludwigshafen conurbation to the north and Strasbourg/Kehl to the south, Karlsruhe is Germany's legal center, being home to the Federal Constitutional Court ("Bundesverfassungsgericht"), the Federal Court of Justice ("Bundesgerichtshof") and the Public Prosecutor General of the Federal Court of Justice ("Generalbundesanwalt beim Bundesgerichtshof").


title: Karlsruhe

text: Karlsruhe was the capital of the Margraviate of Baden-Durlach (Durlach: 1565–1718; Karlsruhe: 1718–1771), the Margraviate of Baden (1771–1803), the Electorate of Baden (1803–1806), the Grand Duchy of Baden (1806–1918), and the Republic of Baden (1918–1945). Its most remarkable building is Karlsruhe Palace, which was built in 1715. There are nine institutions of higher education in the city, most notably the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology ("Karlsruher Institut für Technologie"). Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport ("Flughafen Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden") is the second-busiest airport of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart Airport, and the 17th-busiest airport of Germany.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Karlsruhe lies completely to the east of the Rhine, and almost completely on the Upper Rhine Plain. It contains the Turmberg in the east, and also lies on the borders of the Kraichgau leading to the Northern Black Forest.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The Rhine, one of the world's most important shipping routes, forms the western limits of the city, beyond which lie the towns of Maximiliansau and Wörth am Rhein in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The city centre is about from the river, as measured from the Marktplatz (Market Square). Two tributaries of the Rhine, the Alb and the Pfinz, flow through the city from the Kraichgau to eventually join the Rhine.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The city lies at an altitude between 100 and 322 m (near the communications tower in the suburb of Grünwettersbach). Its geographical coordinates are ; the 49th parallel runs through the city centre, which puts it at the same latitude as much of the Canada–United States border, the cities Vancouver (Canada), Paris (France), Regensburg (Germany), and Hulunbuir (China). Its course is marked by a stone and painted line in the "Stadtgarten" (municipal park). The total area of the city is , hence it is the 30th largest city in Germany measured by land area. The longest north–south distance is and in the east–west direction.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Karlsruhe is part of the urban area of Karlsruhe/Pforzheim, to which certain other towns in the district of Karlsruhe, such as Bruchsal, Ettlingen, Stutensee, and Rheinstetten, as well as the city of Pforzheim, belong.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The city was planned with the palace tower ("Schloss") at the center and 32 streets radiating out from it like the spokes of a wheel, or the ribs of a folding fan, so that one nickname for Karlsruhe in German is the "fan city" ("Fächerstadt"). Almost all of these streets survive to this day. Because of this city layout, in metric geometry, Karlsruhe metric refers to a measure of distance that assumes travel is only possible along radial streets and along circular avenues around the centre.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The city centre is the oldest part of town and lies south of the palace in the quadrant defined by nine of the radial streets. The central part of the palace runs east–west, with two wings, each at a 45° angle, directed southeast and southwest (i.e., parallel with the streets marking the boundaries of the quadrant defining the city center).


title: Karlsruhe

text: The market square lies on the street running south from the palace to Ettlingen. The market square has the town hall ("Rathaus") to the west, the main Lutheran church ("Evangelische Stadtkirche") to the east, and the tomb of Margrave Charles III William in a pyramid in the buildings, resulting in Karlsruhe being one of only three large cities in Germany where buildings are laid out in the neoclassical style.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The area north of the palace is a park and forest. Originally the area to the east of the palace consisted of gardens and forests, some of which remain, but the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (founded in 1825), Wildparkstadion football stadium, and residential areas have been built there. The area west of the palace is now mostly residential.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Karlsruhe experiences an oceanic climate (Köppen "Cfb") and its winter climate is milder, compared to most other German cities, except for the Rhine-Ruhr area. Summers can be very hot with several days above 35°C in a row and with an average of more than 2000 sunshine hours a year, it is also one of the sunniest cities in Germany, like the Rhine-Palatinate area.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Precipitation occurs mainly during the winter, while in summer it is concentrated on single evening thunderstorms. In 2008, the weather station in Karlsruhe, which had been in operation since 1876, was closed; it was replaced by a weather station in Rheinstetten, south of Karlsruhe.


title: Karlsruhe

text: According to legend, the name "Karlsruhe", which translates as "Charles' repose" or "Charles' peace", was given to the new city after a hunting trip when Margrave Charles III William of Baden-Durlach woke from a dream in which he dreamt of founding his new city. A variation of this story claims that he built the new palace to find peace from his wife.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Charles William founded the city on June 17, 1715, after a dispute with the citizens of his previous capital, Durlach. The founding of the city is closely linked to the construction of the palace. Karlsruhe became the capital of Baden-Durlach, and, in 1771, of the united Baden until 1945. Built in 1822, the "Ständehaus" was the first parliament building in a German state. In the aftermath of the democratic revolution of 1848, a republican government was elected there.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Karlsruhe was visited by Thomas Jefferson during his time as the American envoy to France; when Pierre Charles L'Enfant was planning the layout of Washington, D.C., Jefferson passed to him maps of 12 European towns to consult, one of which was a sketch he had made of Karlsruhe during his visit.


title: Karlsruhe

text: In 1860, the first-ever international professional convention of chemists, the Karlsruhe Congress, was held in the city.


title: Karlsruhe

text: In 1907 the town was site of the Hau Riot where large crowds caused disturbance during the trial of murderer Carl Hau.


title: Karlsruhe

text: On Kristallnacht in 1938, the Adass Jeshurun synagogue was burned to the ground, and the city's Jews were later sent to the Dachau concentration camp, Gurs concentration camp, Theresienstadt, and Auschwitz during the Holocaust, with 1,421 of Karlsruhe's Jews being killed. During World War II, it was the location of a forced labour camp for men, and a subcamp of the Auschwitz concentration camp, whose prisoners were mainly Poles and Russians.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Much of the central area, including the palace, was reduced to rubble by Allied bombing during World War II, but was rebuilt after the war. Located in the American zone of the postwar Allied occupation, Karlsruhe was home to an American military base, established in 1945. After the war, the city was part of West Germany until 1990. In 1995, the bases closed, and their facilities were turned over to the city of Karlsruhe.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The following list shows the most significant groups of foreigners residing in the city of Karlsruhe by country.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The "Stadtgarten" is a recreational area near the main railway station ("Hauptbahnhof") and was rebuilt for the 1967 Federal Garden Show ("Bundesgartenschau"). It is also the site of the Karlsruhe Zoo.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The "Durlacher Turmberg" has a look-out tower (hence its name). It is a former keep dating back to the 13th century.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The city has two botanical gardens: the municipal "Botanischer Garten Karlsruhe", which forms part of the Palace complex, and the "Botanischer Garten der Universität Karlsruhe", which is maintained by the university.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The "Marktplatz" has a stone pyramid marking the grave of the city's founder. Built in 1825, it is the emblem of Karlsruhe.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The city is nicknamed the "fan city" ("die Fächerstadt") because of its design layout, with straight streets radiating fan-like from the Palace.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The Karlsruhe Palace ("Schloss") is an interesting piece of architecture; the adjacent "Schlossgarten" includes the Botanical Garden with a palm, cactus and orchid house, and walking paths through the woods to the north.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The so-called "Kleine Kirche" (Little Church), built between 1773 and 1776, is the oldest church of Karlsruhe's city centre.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The architect Friedrich Weinbrenner designed many of the city's most important sights. Another sight is the "Rondellplatz" with its 'Constitution Building Columns' (1826). It is dedicated to Baden's first constitution in 1818, which was one of the most liberal of its time. The "Münze" (mint), erected in 1826/27, was also built by Weinbrenner.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The St. Stephan parish church is one of the masterpieces of neoclassical church architecture in. Weinbrenner, who built this church between 1808 and 1814, orientated it to the Pantheon, Rome.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The neo-Gothic Grand Ducal Burial Chapel, built between 1889 and 1896, is a mausoleum rather than a church, and is located in the middle of the forest.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The main of Karlsruhe is the oldest park-like cemetery in Germany. The crematorium was the first to be built in the style of a church.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Karlsruhe is also home to a natural history museum (the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe), an opera house (the Baden State Theatre), as well as a number of independent theatres and art galleries. The State Art Gallery, built in 1846 by Heinrich Hübsch, displays paintings and sculptures from six centuries, particularly from France, Germany and Holland. Karlsruhe's newly renovated art museum is one of the most important art museums in Baden-Württemberg. Further cultural attractions are scattered throughout Karlsruhe's various incorporated suburbs. Established in 1924, the Scheffel Association is the largest literary society in Germany. Today the "Prinz-Max-Palais", built between 1881 and 1884 in neoclassical style, houses the organisation and includes its museum.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Due to population growth in the late 19th century, Karlsruhe developed several suburban areas ("Vorstadt") in the "Gründerzeit" and especially art nouveau styles of architecture, with many preserved examples.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Karlsruhe is also home to the "Majolika-Manufaktur", the only art-ceramics pottery studio in Germany. Founded in 1901, it is located in the "Schlossgarten". A 'blue streak' ("Blauer Strahl") consisting of 1,645 ceramic tiles, connects the studio with the Palace. It is the world's largest ceramic artwork.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Another tourist attraction is the Centre for Art and Media ("Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie", or ZKM), which is located in a converted ammunition factory.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Karlsruhe is the seat of the German Federal Constitutional Court "(Bundesverfassungsgericht)" and the highest Court of Appeals in civil and criminal cases, the "Bundesgerichtshof". The courts came to Karlsruhe after World War II, when the provinces of Baden and Württemberg were merged. Stuttgart, capital of Württemberg, became the capital of the new province (Württemberg-Baden in 1945 and Baden-Württemberg in 1952). In compensation for the state authorities relocated to Stuttgart, Karlsruhe applied to become the seat of the high court.


title: Karlsruhe

text: There are four hospitals: The municipal "Klinikum Karlsruhe" provides the maximum level of medical services, the "St. Vincentius-Kliniken" and the "Diakonissenkrankenhaus", connected to the Catholic and Protestant churches, respectively, offer central services, and the private "Paracelsus-Klinik" basic medical care, according to state hospital demand planning.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Germany's largest oil refinery is located in Karlsruhe, at the western edge of the city, directly on the river Rhine. The "Technologieregion Karlsruhe" is a loose confederation of the region's cities in order to promote high tech industries; today, about 20% of the region's jobs are in research and development. EnBW, one of Germany's biggest electric utility companies, with a revenue of 19.2 billion € in 2012, is headquartered in the city.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Due to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology providing services until the late 1990, Karlsruhe became known as the "internet capital" of Germany. The DENIC, Germany's network information centre, has since moved to Frankfurt, though, where DE-CIX is located.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Two major internet service providers, WEB.DE and schlund+partner/1&1, now both owned by United Internet AG, are located at Karlsruhe.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The library of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology developed the Karlsruher Virtueller Katalog, the first internet site that allowed researchers worldwide (for free) to search multiple library catalogues worldwide.


title: Karlsruhe

text: In the year 2000 the regional online "newspaper" "ka-news.de" was created. As a daily newspaper, it not only provides the news, but also informs readers about upcoming events in Karlsruhe and surrounding areas.


title: Karlsruhe

text: In addition to established companies, Karlsruhe has a vivid and spreading startup community with well-known startups like STAPPZ. Together, the local high tech industry is responsible for over 22.000 jobs.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The current mayor of Karlsruhe is Frank Mentrup of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) since 2013. The most recent mayoral election was held on 6 December 2020, and the results were as follows:


title: Karlsruhe

text: After the castle was founded in 1715, there was also a settlement in which a mayor was appointed from 1718. From 1812 the mayors received the title of Lord Mayor.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The Karlsruhe city council governs the city alongside the Mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 26 May 2019, and the results were as follows:


title: Karlsruhe

text: The Verkehrsbetriebe Karlsruhe (VBK) operates the city's urban public transport network, comprising seven tram routes and a network of bus routes. All city areas can be reached round the clock by tram and a night bus system. The Turmbergbahn funicular railway, to the east of the city centre, is also operated by the VBK. Similar to a premetro tramlines operating in the city centre use two tramway tunnels that were completed on 11 December 2021.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The VBK is also a partner, with the Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft and Deutsche Bahn, in the operation of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn, the rail system that serves a larger area around the city. This system makes it possible to reach other towns in the region, like Ettlingen, Wörth am Rhein, Pforzheim, Bad Wildbad, Bretten, Bruchsal, Heilbronn, Baden-Baden, and even Freudenstadt in the Black Forest right from the city centre. The Stadtbahn is known for pioneering the concept of operating trams on train tracks, to achieve a more effective and attractive public transport system.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Karlsruhe is connected via road and rail, with Autobahn and Intercity Express connections going to Frankfurt, Stuttgart/Munich and Freiburg/Basel from Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof. Since June 2007 it has been connected to the TGV network, reducing travel time to Paris to three hours (previously it had taken five hours).


title: Karlsruhe

text: The Rhine Valley Railway is also an important freight line. Freight trains can bypass Karlsuhe Hauptbahnhof via the Karlsruhe freight bypass railway.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The nearest airport is part of the Baden Airpark (officially "Flughafen Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden") about southwest of Karlsruhe, with regular connections to airports in Germany and Europe in general. Frankfurt International Airport can be reached in about an hour and a half by car (one hour by Intercity Express); Stuttgart Airport can be reached in about one hour (about an hour and a half by train and S-Bahn).


title: Karlsruhe

text: Karlsruhe is at the Bundesautobahn 5 and the Bundesstraße 10. In the city there is a good bike lane infrastructure.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Two interesting facts in transportation history are that both Karl Drais, the inventor of the bicycle, as well as Karl Benz, the inventor of the automobile were born in Karlsruhe. Benz was born in Mühlburg, which later became a borough of Karlsruhe (in 1886). Benz also studied at the Karlsruhe University. Benz's wife Bertha took the world's first long distance-drive with an automobile from Mannheim to Karlsruhe-Grötzingen and Pforzheim (see Bertha Benz Memorial Route). Their professional lives led both men to the neighboring city of Mannheim, where they first applied their most famous inventions.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Jews settled in Karlsruhe soon after its founding. They were attracted by the numerous privileges granted by its founder to settlers, without discrimination as to creed. Official documents attest the presence of several Jewish families at Karlsruhe in 1717. A year later the city council addressed to the margrave a report in which a question was raised as to the proportion of municipal charges to be borne by the newly arrived Jews, who in that year formed an organized congregation, with Rabbi Nathan Uri Kohen of Metz at its head. A document dated 1726 gives the names of twenty-four Jews who had taken part in an election of municipal officers.


title: Karlsruhe

text: As the city grew, permission to settle there became less easily obtained by Jews, and the community developed more slowly. A 1752 Jewry ordinance stated Jews were forbidden to leave the city on Sundays and Christian holidays, or to go out of their houses during church services, but they were exempted from service by court summonses on Sabbaths. They could sell wine only in inns owned by Jews and graze their cattle, not on the commons, but on the wayside only. Nethanael Weill was a rabbi in Karlsruhe from 1750 until his death.


title: Karlsruhe

text: In 1783, by a decree issued by Margrave Charles Frederick of Baden, the Jews ceased to be serfs, and consequently could settle wherever they pleased. The same decree freed them from the "Todfall" tax, paid to the clergy for each Jewish burial. In commemoration of these changes special prayers were prepared by the acting rabbi Jedidiah Tiah Weill, who, succeeding his father in 1770, held the office until 1805.


title: Karlsruhe

text: In 1808 the new constitution of what at that time, during the Napoleonic era, had become the Grand Duchy of Baden granted Jews citizenship status; a subsequent edict, in 1809, constitutionally acknowledged Jews as a religious group. The latter edict provided for a hierarchical organization of the Jewish communities of Baden, under the umbrella of a central council of Baden Jewry (Oberrat der Israeliten Badens), with its seat in Karlsruhe, and the appointment of a chief rabbi of Karlsruhe, as the spiritual head of the Jews in all of Baden. The first chief rabbi of Karlsruhe and Baden was Rabbi Asher Loew, who served from 1809 until his death in 1837.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Complete emancipation was given in 1862, Jews were elected to city council and Baden parliament, and from 1890 were appointed judges. Jews were persecuted in the 'Hep-Hep' riots that occurred in 1819; and anti-Jewish demonstrations were held in 1843, 1848, and the 1880s. The well-known German-Israeli artist Leo Kahn studied in Karlsruhe before leaving for France and Israel in the 1920s and 1930s.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Today, there are about 900 members in the Jewish community, many of whom are recent immigrants from Russia, and an orthodox rabbi.


title: Karlsruhe

text: On 28 October 1938, all Jewish men of Polish extraction were expelled to the Polish border, their families joining them later and most ultimately perishing in the ghettoes and concentration camps. On Kristallnacht (9–10 November 1938), the Adass Jeshurun synagogue was burned to the ground, the main synagogue was damaged, and Jewish men were taken to the Dachau concentration camp after being beaten and tormented. Deportations commenced on 22 October 1940, when 893 Jews were loaded onto trains for the three-day journey to the Gurs concentration camp in France. Another 387 were deported in from 1942 to 1945 to lzbica in the Lublin district (Poland), Theresienstadt, and Auschwitz. Of the 1,280 Jews deported directly from Karlsruhe, 1,175 perished. Another 138 perished after deportation from other German cities or occupied Europe. In all, 1,421 of Karlsruhe's Jews died during the Shoah. A new community was formed after the war by surviving former residents, with a new synagogue erected in 1971. It numbered 359 in 1980.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Karlsruhe is a renowned research and study centre, with one of Germany's finest institutions of higher education.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The Karlsruhe University ("Universität Karlsruhe-TH"), the oldest technical university in Germany, is home to the "Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe" (Karlsruhe Research Center), where engineering and scientific research is performed in the areas of health, earth, and environmental sciences. The Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences ("Hochschule Karlsruhe-HS") is the largest university of technology in the state of Baden-Württemberg, offering both professional and academic education in engineering sciences and business. In 2009, the University of Karlsruhe joined the "Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe" to form the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).


title: Karlsruhe

text: The Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe is one of the smallest universities in Germany, with average 300 students. The Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG) was founded to the same time as its sister institution, the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe ("Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie"). The HfG teaching and research focuses on new media and media art. The Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe is a music conservatory that offers degrees in composition, music performance, education, and radio journalism. Since 1989 it has been located in the Gottesaue Palace.


title: Karlsruhe

text: The Karlshochschule International University (formerly known as "Merkur Internationale Fachhochschule") was founded in 2004. As a foundation-owned, state-approved management school, Karlshochschule offers undergraduate education in both German and English, focusing on international and intercultural management, as well as service- and culture-related industries. Furthermore, an international consecutive Master of Arts in leadership studies is offered in English.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Karlsruhe hosts one of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology's Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) focusing on sustainable energy. Other co‑centres are based in Grenoble, France (CC Alps Valleys); Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and Leuven, Belgium (CC Benelux); Barcelona, Spain (CC Iberia); Kraków, Poland (CC PolandPlus); and Stockholm, Sweden (CC Sweden).


title: Karlsruhe

text: The Karlsruhe University of Education was founded in 1962. It is specialized in educational processes. The university has about 3700 students and 180 full-time researchers and lecturers. It offers a wide range of educational studies, like teaching profession for primary and secondary schools (both optional with a European Teaching Certificate profile), Bachelor programs that specializes in Early Childhood Education and in Health and Leisure Education, Master programs in Educational Science, Intercultural Education, Migration and Multilingualism. Furthermore, the University of Education Karlsruhe offers a Master program for Biodiversity and Environmental Education.


title: Karlsruhe

text: In 1999 the ZKM ("Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie", Centre for Art and Media) was opened. Linking new media theory and practice, the ZKM is located in a former weapons factory. Among the institutes related to the ZKM are the "Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung" (State University of Design), whose president is philosopher Peter Sloterdijk and the Museum for Contemporary Art.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Every year in July there is a large open-air festival lasting three days called simply "Das Fest" ("The Festival").


title: Karlsruhe

text: In July the African Summer Festival is held in the city's Nordstadt. Markets, drumming workshops, exhibitions, a varied children's programme, and musical performances take place during the three days festival.


title: Karlsruhe

text: In the past Karlsruhe has been the host of LinuxTag (the biggest Linux event in Europe) and until 2006 hosted the annual Linux Audio Conference.


title: Karlsruhe

text: Visitors and locals watched the total solar eclipse at noon on August 11, 1999. The city was not only located within the eclipse path but was one of the few within Germany not plagued by bad weather.


title: Muscle contraction

text: Muscle contraction is the activation of tension-generating sites within muscle cells. In physiology, muscle contraction does not necessarily mean muscle shortening because muscle tension can be produced without changes in muscle length, such as when holding something heavy in the same position. The termination of muscle contraction is followed by muscle relaxation, which is a return of the muscle fibers to their low tension-generating state.


title: Muscle contraction

text: For the contractions to happen, the muscle cells must rely on the interaction of two types of filaments which are the thin and thick filaments. Thin filaments are two strands of actin coiled around each, and thick filaments consist of mostly elongated proteins called myosin. Together, these two filaments form myofibrils which are important organelles in the skeletal muscle system. Muscle contraction can also be described based on two variables: length and tension. A muscle contraction is described as isometric if the muscle tension changes but the muscle length remains the same. In contrast, a muscle contraction is isotonic if muscle tension remains the same throughout the contraction. If the muscle length shortens, the contraction is concentric; if the muscle length lengthens, the contraction is eccentric. In natural movements that underlie locomotor activity, muscle contractions are multifaceted as they are able to produce changes in length and tension in a time-varying manner. Therefore, neither length nor tension is likely to remain the same in skeletal muscles that contract during locomotor activity.


title: Muscle contraction

text: In vertebrates, skeletal muscle contractions are neurogenic as they require synaptic input from motor neurons. A single motor neuron is able to innervate multiple muscle fibers, thereby causing the fibers to contract at the same time. Once innervated, the protein filaments within each skeletal muscle fiber slide past each other to produce a contraction, which is explained by the sliding filament theory. The contraction produced can be described as a twitch, summation, or tetanus, depending on the frequency of action potentials. In skeletal muscles, muscle tension is at its greatest when the muscle is stretched to an intermediate length as described by the length-tension relationship.


title: Muscle contraction

text: Unlike skeletal muscle, the contractions of smooth and cardiac muscles are myogenic (meaning that they are initiated by the smooth or heart muscle cells themselves instead of being stimulated by an outside event such as nerve stimulation), although they can be modulated by stimuli from the autonomic nervous system. The mechanisms of contraction in these muscle tissues are similar to those in skeletal muscle tissues.


title: Muscle contraction

text: Muscle contractions can be described based on two variables: force and length. Force itself can be differentiated as either tension or load. Muscle tension is the force exerted by the muscle on an object whereas a load is the force exerted by an object on the muscle. When muscle tension changes without any corresponding changes in muscle length, the muscle contraction is described as isometric. If the muscle length changes while muscle tension remains the same, then the muscle contraction is isotonic. In an isotonic contraction, the muscle length can either shorten to produce a concentric contraction or lengthen to produce an eccentric contraction. In natural movements that underlie locomotor activity, muscle contractions are multifaceted as they are able to produce changes in length and tension in a time-varying manner. Therefore, neither length nor tension is likely to remain constant when the muscle is active during locomotor activity.


title: Muscle contraction

text: An isometric contraction of a muscle generates tension without changing length. An example can be found when the muscles of the hand and forearm grip an object; the joints of the hand do not move, but muscles generate sufficient force to prevent the object from being dropped.


title: Muscle contraction

text: In isotonic contraction, the tension in the muscle remains constant despite a change in muscle length. This occurs when a muscle's force of contraction matches the total load on the muscle.


title: Muscle contraction

text: In concentric contraction, muscle tension is sufficient to overcome the load, and the muscle shortens as it contracts. This occurs when the force generated by the muscle exceeds the load opposing its contraction.


title: Muscle contraction

text: During a concentric contraction, a muscle is stimulated to contract according to the sliding filament theory. This occurs throughout the length of the muscle, generating a force at the origin and insertion, causing the muscle to shorten and changing the angle of the joint. In relation to the elbow, a concentric contraction of the biceps would cause the arm to bend at the elbow as the hand moved from the leg to the shoulder (a biceps curl). A concentric contraction of the triceps would change the angle of the joint in the opposite direction, straightening the arm and moving the hand towards the leg.


title: Muscle contraction

text: In eccentric contraction, the tension generated while isometric is insufficient to overcome the external load on the muscle and the muscle fibers lengthen as they contract. Rather than working to pull a joint in the direction of the muscle contraction, the muscle acts to decelerate the joint at the end of a movement or otherwise control the repositioning of a load. This can occur involuntarily (e.g., when attempting to move a weight too heavy for the muscle to lift) or voluntarily (e.g., when the muscle is 'smoothing out' a movement or resisting gravity such as during downhill walking). Over the short-term, strength training involving both eccentric and concentric contractions appear to increase muscular strength more than training with concentric contractions alone. However, exercise-induced muscle damage is also greater during lengthening contractions.


title: Muscle contraction

text: During an eccentric contraction of the biceps muscle, the elbow starts the movement while bent and then straightens as the hand moves away from the shoulder. During an eccentric contraction of the triceps muscle, the elbow starts the movement straight and then bends as the hand moves towards the shoulder. Desmin, titin, and other z-line proteins are involved in eccentric contractions, but their mechanism is poorly understood in comparison to cross-bridge cycling in concentric contractions.


title: Muscle contraction

text: Though the muscle is doing a negative amount of mechanical work, (work is being done "on" the muscle), chemical energy (of fat or glucose, or temporarily stored in ATP) is nevertheless consumed, although less than would be consumed during a concentric contraction of the same force. For example, one expends more energy going up a flight of stairs than going down the same flight.


title: Muscle contraction

text: Muscles undergoing heavy eccentric loading suffer greater damage when overloaded (such as during muscle building or strength training exercise) as compared to concentric loading. When eccentric contractions are used in weight training, they are normally called "negatives". During a concentric contraction, contractile muscle myofilaments of myosin and actin slide past each other, pulling the Z-lines together. During an eccentric contraction, the myofilaments slide past each other the opposite way, though the actual movement of the myosin heads during an eccentric contraction is not known. Exercise featuring a heavy eccentric load can actually support a greater weight (muscles are approximately 40% stronger during eccentric contractions than during concentric contractions) and also results in greater muscular damage and delayed onset muscle soreness one to two days after training. Exercise that incorporates both eccentric and concentric muscular contractions (i.e., involving a strong contraction and a controlled lowering of the weight) can produce greater gains in strength than concentric contractions alone. While unaccustomed heavy eccentric contractions can easily lead to overtraining, moderate training may confer protection against injury.


title: Muscle contraction

text: Eccentric contractions normally occur as a braking force in opposition to a concentric contraction to protect joints from damage. During virtually any routine movement, eccentric contractions assist in keeping motions smooth, but can also slow rapid movements such as a punch or throw. Part of training for rapid movements such as pitching during baseball involves reducing eccentric braking allowing a greater power to be developed throughout the movement.


title: Muscle contraction

text: Eccentric contractions are being researched for their ability to speed rehabilitation of weak or injured tendons. Achilles tendinitis and patellar tendonitis (also known as jumper's knee or patellar tendonosis) have been shown to benefit from high-load eccentric contractions.


title: Muscle contraction

text: In vertebrate animals, there are three types of muscle tissues: skeletal, smooth, and cardiac. Skeletal muscle constitutes the majority of muscle mass in the body and is responsible for locomotor activity. Smooth muscle forms blood vessels, gastrointestinal tract, and other areas in the body that produce sustained contractions. Cardiac muscle make up the heart, which pumps blood. Skeletal and cardiac muscles are called striated muscle because of their striped appearance under a microscope, which is due to the highly organized alternating pattern of A bands and I bands.


title: Muscle contraction

text: Excluding reflexes, all skeletal muscles contractions occur as a result of signals originating in the brain. The brain sends electrochemical signals through the nervous system to the motor neuron that innervates several muscle fibers. In the case of some reflexes, the signal to contract can originate in the spinal cord through a feedback loop with the grey matter. Other actions such as locomotion, breathing, and chewing have a reflex aspect to them: the contractions can be initiated both consciously or unconsciously.


title: Muscle contraction

text: A neuromuscular junction is a chemical synapse formed by the contact between a motor neuron and a muscle fiber. It is the site in which a motor neuron transmits a signal to a muscle fiber to initiate muscle contraction. The sequence of events that results in the depolarization of the muscle fiber at the neuromuscular junction begins when an action potential is initiated in the cell body of a motor neuron, which is then propagated by saltatory conduction along its axon toward the neuromuscular junction. Once it reaches the terminal bouton, the action potential causes a ion influx into the terminal by way of the voltage-gated calcium channels. The influx causes synaptic vesicles containing the neurotransmitter acetylcholine to fuse with the plasma membrane, releasing acetylcholine into the synaptic cleft between the motor neuron terminal and the neuromuscular junction of the skeletal muscle fiber. Acetylcholine diffuses across the synapse and binds to and activates nicotinic acetylcholine receptors on the neuromuscular junction. Activation of the nicotinic receptor opens its intrinsic sodium/potassium channel, causing sodium to rush in and potassium to trickle out. As a result, the sarcolemma reverses polarity and its voltage quickly jumps from the resting membrane potential of -90mV to as high as +75mV as sodium enters. The membrane potential then becomes hyperpolarized when potassium exits and is then adjusted back to the resting membrane potential. This rapid fluctuation is called the end-plate potential The voltage-gated ion channels of the sarcolemma next to the end plate open in response to the end plate potential. They are sodium and potassium specific and only allow one through. This wave of ion movements creates the action potential that spreads from the motor end plate in all directions. If action potentials stop arriving, then acetylcholine ceases to be released from the terminal bouton. The remaining acetylcholine in the synaptic cleft is either degraded by active acetylcholine esterase or reabsorbed by the synaptic knob and none is left to replace the degraded acetylcholine.


title: Muscle contraction

text: Excitation–contraction coupling is the process by which a muscular action potential in the muscle fiber causes the myofibrils to contract. In skeletal muscle, excitation–contraction coupling relies on a direct coupling between key proteins, the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) calcium release channel (identified as the ryanodine receptor 1, RYR1) and voltage-gated L-type calcium channels (identified as dihydropyridine receptors, DHPRs). DHPRs are located on the sarcolemma (which includes the surface sarcolemma and the transverse tubules), while the RyRs reside across the SR membrane. The close apposition of a transverse tubule and two SR regions containing RyRs is described as a triad and is predominantly where excitation–contraction coupling takes place. Excitation–contraction coupling occurs when depolarization of skeletal muscle cell results in a muscle action potential, which spreads across the cell surface and into the muscle fiber's network of T-tubules, thereby depolarizing the inner portion of the muscle fiber. Depolarization of the inner portions activates dihydropyridine receptors in the terminal cisternae, which are in close proximity to ryanodine receptors in the adjacent sarcoplasmic reticulum. The activated dihydropyridine receptors physically interact with ryanodine receptors to activate them via foot processes (involving conformational changes that allosterically activates the ryanodine receptors). As the ryanodine receptors open, is released from the sarcoplasmic reticulum into the local junctional space and diffuses into the bulk cytoplasm to cause a calcium spark. Note that the sarcoplasmic reticulum has a large calcium buffering capacity partially due to a calcium-binding protein called calsequestrin. The near synchronous activation of thousands of calcium sparks by the action potential causes a cell-wide increase in calcium giving rise to the upstroke of the calcium transient. The released into the cytosol binds to Troponin C by the actin filaments, to allow cross-bridge cycling, producing force and, in some situations, motion. The sarco/endoplasmic reticulum calcium-ATPase (SERCA) actively pumps back into the sarcoplasmic reticulum. As declines back to resting levels, the force declines and relaxation occurs.


title: Muscle contraction

text: The sliding filament theory describes a process used by muscles to contract. It is a cycle of repetitive events that cause a thin filament to slide over a thick filament and generate tension in the muscle. It was independently developed by Andrew Huxley and Rolf Niedergerke and by Hugh Huxley and Jean Hanson in 1954. Physiologically, this contraction is not uniform across the sarcomere; the central position of the thick filaments becomes unstable and can shift during contraction but this is countered by the actions of the elastic myofilament of titin. This fine myofilament maintains uniform tension across the sarcomere by pulling the thick filament into a central position.


title: Muscle contraction

text: Cross-bridge cycling is a sequence of molecular events that underlies the sliding filament theory. A cross-bridge is a myosin projection, consisting of two myosin heads, that extends from the thick filaments. Each myosin head has two binding sites: one for adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and another for actin. The binding of ATP to a myosin head detaches myosin from actin, thereby allowing myosin to bind to another actin molecule. Once attached, the ATP is hydrolyzed by myosin, which uses the released energy to move into the "cocked position" whereby it binds weakly to a part of the actin binding site. The remainder of the actin binding site is blocked by tropomyosin. With the ATP hydrolyzed, the cocked myosin head now contains adenosine diphosphate (ADP) + P. Two ions bind to troponin C on the actin filaments. The troponin- complex causes tropomyosin to slide over and unblock the remainder of the actin binding site. Unblocking the rest of the actin binding sites allows the two myosin heads to close and myosin to bind strongly to actin. The myosin head then releases the inorganic phosphate and initiates a "power stroke," which generates a force of 2 pN. The power stroke moves the actin filament inwards, thereby shortening the sarcomere. Myosin then releases ADP but still remains tightly bound to actin. At the end of the power stroke, ADP is released from the myosin head, leaving myosin attached to actin in a rigor state until another ATP binds to myosin. A lack of ATP would result in the rigor state characteristic of rigor mortis. Once another ATP binds to myosin, the myosin head will again detach from actin and another cross-bridge cycle occurs.


title: Muscle contraction

text: Cross-bridge cycling is able to continue as long as there are sufficient amounts of ATP and in the cytoplasm. Termination of cross-bridge cycling can occur when is actively pumped back into the sarcoplasmic reticulum. When is no longer present on the thin filament, the tropomyosin changes conformation back to its previous state so as to block the binding sites again. The myosin ceases binding to the thin filament, and the muscle relaxes. The ions leave the troponin molecule in order to maintain the ion concentration in the sarcoplasm. The active pumping of ions into the sarcoplasmic reticulum creates a deficiency in the fluid around the myofibrils. This causes the removal of ions from the troponin. Thus, the tropomyosin-troponin complex again covers the binding sites on the actin filaments and contraction ceases.


title: Muscle contraction

text: The strength of skeletal muscle contractions can be broadly separated into twitch, summation, and tetanus. A twitch is a single contraction and relaxation cycle produced by an action potential within the muscle fiber itself. The time between a stimulus to the motor nerve and the subsequent contraction of the innervated muscle is called the latent period, which usually takes about 10 ms and is caused by the time taken for nerve action potential to propagate, the time for chemical transmission at the neuromuscular junction, then the subsequent steps in excitation-contraction coupling.


title: Muscle contraction

text: If another muscle action potential were to be produced before the complete relaxation of a muscle twitch, then the next twitch will simply sum onto the previous twitch, thereby producing a "summation". Summation can be achieved in two ways: "frequency summation" and "multiple fiber summation". In frequency summation, the force exerted by the skeletal muscle is controlled by varying the frequency at which action potentials are sent to muscle fibers. Action potentials do not arrive at muscles synchronously, and, during a contraction, some fraction of the fibers in the muscle will be firing at any given time. In a typical circumstance, when humans are exerting their muscles as hard as they are consciously able, roughly one-third of the fibers in each of those muscles will fire at once, though this ratio can be affected by various physiological and psychological factors (including Golgi tendon organs and Renshaw cells). This 'low' level of contraction is a protective mechanism to prevent avulsion of the tendon—the force generated by a 95% contraction of all fibers is sufficient to damage the body. In multiple fiber summation, if the central nervous system sends a weak signal to contract a muscle, the smaller motor units, being more excitable than the larger ones, are stimulated first. As the strength of the signal increases, more motor units are excited in addition to larger ones, with the largest motor units having as much as 50 times the contractile strength as the smaller ones. As more and larger motor units are activated, the force of muscle contraction becomes progressively stronger. A concept known as the size principle, allows for a gradation of muscle force during weak contraction to occur in small steps, which then become progressively larger when greater amounts of force are required.


title: Muscle contraction

text: Finally, if the frequency of muscle action potentials increases such that the muscle contraction reaches its peak force and plateaus at this level, then the contraction is a "tetanus".


title: Muscle contraction

text: Length-tension relationship relates the strength of an isometric contraction to the length of the muscle at which the contraction occurs. Muscles operate with greatest active tension when close to an ideal length (often their resting length). When stretched or shortened beyond this (whether due to the action of the muscle itself or by an outside force), the maximum active tension generated decreases. This decrease is minimal for small deviations, but the tension drops off rapidly as the length deviates further from the ideal. Due to the presence of elastic proteins within a muscle cell (such as titin) and extracellular matrix, as the muscle is stretched beyond a given length, there is an entirely passive tension, which opposes lengthening. Combined, there is a strong resistance to lengthening an active muscle far beyond the peak of active tension.


title: Muscle contraction

text: Force–velocity relationship relates the speed at which a muscle changes its length (usually regulated by external forces, such as load or other muscles) to the amount of force that it generates. Force declines in a hyperbolic fashion relative to the isometric force as the shortening velocity increases, eventually reaching zero at some maximum velocity. The reverse holds true for when the muscle is stretched – force increases above isometric maximum, until finally reaching an absolute maximum. This intrinsic property of active muscle tissue plays a role in the active damping of joints that are actuated by simultaneously-active opposing muscles. In such cases, the force-velocity profile enhances the force produced by the lengthening muscle at the expense of the shortening muscle. This favoring of whichever muscle returns the joint to equilibrium effectively increases the damping of the joint. Moreover, the strength of the damping increases with muscle force. The motor system can thus actively control joint damping via the simultaneous contraction (co-contraction) of opposing muscle groups.


title: Muscle contraction

text: Smooth muscles can be divided into two subgroups: single-unit and multiunit. Single-unit smooth muscle cells can be found in the gut and blood vessels. Because these cells are linked together by gap junctions, they are able to contract as a functional syncytium. Single-unit smooth muscle cells contract myogenically, which can be modulated by the autonomic nervous system.


title: Muscle contraction

text: Unlike single-unit smooth muscle cells, multiunit smooth muscle cells are found in the muscle of the eye and in the base of hair follicles. Multiunit smooth muscle cells contract by being separately stimulated by nerves of the autonomic nervous system. As such, they allow for fine control and gradual responses, much like motor unit recruitment in skeletal muscle.


title: Muscle contraction

text: The contractile activity of smooth muscle cells can be tonic (sustained) or phasic (transient) and is influenced by multiple inputs such as spontaneous electrical activity, neural and hormonal inputs, local changes in chemical composition, and stretch. This is in contrast to the contractile activity of skeletal muscle cells, which relies on a single neural input. Some types of smooth muscle cells are able to generate their own action potentials spontaneously, which usually occur following a pacemaker potential or a slow wave potential. These action potentials are generated by the influx of extracellular , and not . Like skeletal muscles, cytosolic ions are also required for crossbridge cycling in smooth muscle cells.


title: Muscle contraction

text: The two sources for cytosolic in smooth muscle cells are the extracellular entering through calcium channels and the ions that are released from the sarcoplasmic reticulum. The elevation of cytosolic results in more binding to calmodulin, which then binds and activates myosin light-chain kinase. The calcium-calmodulin-myosin light-chain kinase complex phosphorylates myosin on the 20 kilodalton (kDa) myosin light chains on amino acid residue-serine 19, initiating contraction and activating the myosin ATPase. Unlike skeletal muscle cells, smooth muscle cells lack troponin, even though they contain the thin filament protein tropomyosin and other notable proteins – caldesmon and calponin. Thus, smooth muscle contractions are initiated by the -activated phosphorylation of myosin rather than binding to the troponin complex that regulates myosin binding sites on actin like in skeletal and cardiac muscles.


title: Muscle contraction

text: Termination of crossbridge cycling (and leaving the muscle in latch-state) occurs when myosin light chain phosphatase removes the phosphate groups from the myosin heads. Phosphorylation of the 20 kDa myosin light chains correlates well with the shortening velocity of smooth muscle. During this period, there is a rapid burst of energy utilization as measured by oxygen consumption. Within a few minutes of initiation, the calcium level markedly decreases, the 20 kDa myosin light chains' phosphorylation decreases, and energy utilization decreases; however, force in tonic smooth muscle is maintained. During contraction of muscle, rapidly cycling crossbridges form between activated actin and phosphorylated myosin, generating force. It is hypothesized that the maintenance of force results from dephosphorylated "latch-bridges" that slowly cycle and maintain force. A number of kinases such as rho kinase, DAPK3, and protein kinase C are believed to participate in the sustained phase of contraction, and flux may be significant.


title: Muscle contraction

text: Although smooth muscle contractions are myogenic, the rate and strength of their contractions can be modulated by the autonomic nervous system. Postganglionic nerve fibers of parasympathetic nervous system release the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which binds to muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs) on smooth muscle cells. These receptors are metabotropic, or G-protein coupled receptors that initiate a second messenger cascade. Conversely, postganglionic nerve fibers of the sympathetic nervous system release the neurotransmitters epinephrine and norepinephrine, which bind to adrenergic receptors that are also metabotropic. The exact effects on the smooth muscle depend on the specific characteristics of the receptor activated—both parasympathetic input and sympathetic input can be either excitatory (contractile) or inhibitory (relaxing).


title: Muscle contraction

text: There are two types of cardiac muscle cells: autorhythmic and contractile. Autorhythmic cells do not contract, but instead set the pace of contraction for other cardiac muscle cells, which can be modulated by the autonomic nervous system. In contrast, contractile muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) constitute the majority of the heart muscle and are able to contract.


title: Muscle contraction

text: In both skeletal and cardiac muscle excitation-contraction (E-C) coupling, depolarization conduction and Ca release processes occur. However, though the proteins involved are similar, they are distinct in structure and regulation. The dihydropyridine receptors (DHPRs) are encoded by different genes, and the ryanodine receptors (RyRs) are distinct isoforms. Besides, DHPR contacts with RyR1 (main RyR isoform in skeletal muscle) to regulate Ca release in skeletal muscle, while the L-type calcium channel (DHPR on cardiac myocytes) and RyR2 (main RyR isoform in cardiac muscle) are not physically coupled in cardiac muscle, but face with each other by a junctional coupling.


title: Muscle contraction

text: Unlike skeletal muscle, E-C coupling in cardiac muscle is thought to depend primarily on a mechanism called calcium-induced calcium release, which is based on the junctional structure between T-tubule and sarcoplasmic reticulum. Junctophilin-2 (JPH2) is essential to maintain this structure, as well as the integrity of T-tubule. Another protein, receptor accessory protein 5 (REEP5), functions to keep the normal morphology of junctional SR. Defects of junctional coupling can result from deficiencies of either of the two proteins. During the process of calcium-induced calcium release, RyR2s are activated by a calcium trigger, which is brought about by the flow of Ca through the L-type calcium channels. After this, cardiac muscle tends to exhibit diad structures, rather than triads.


title: Muscle contraction

text: Excitation-contraction coupling in cardiac muscle cells occurs when an action potential is initiated by pacemaker cells in the sinoatrial node or Atrioventricular node and conducted to all cells in the heart via gap junctions. The action potential travels along the surface membrane into T-tubules (the latter are not seen in all cardiac cell types) and the depolarisation causes extracellular to enter the cell via L-type calcium channels and possibly sodium-calcium exchanger (NCX) during the early part of the plateau phase. Although this Ca influx only count for about 10% of the Ca needed for activation, it is relatively larger than that of skeletal muscle. This influx causes a small local increase in intracellular . The increase of intracellular is detected by RyR2 in the membrane of the sarcoplasmic reticulum, which releases in a positive feedback physiological response. This positive feedback is known as calcium-induced calcium release and gives rise to calcium sparks ( sparks). The spatial and temporal summation of ~30,000 sparks gives a cell-wide increase in cytoplasmic calcium concentration. The increase in cytosolic calcium following the flow of calcium through the cell membrane and sarcoplasmic reticulum is moderated by calcium buffers, which bind a large proportion of intracellular calcium. As a result, a large increase in total calcium leads to a relatively small rise in free .


title: Muscle contraction

text: The cytoplasmic calcium binds to Troponin C, moving the tropomyosin complex off the actin binding site allowing the myosin head to bind to the actin filament. From this point on, the contractile mechanism is essentially the same as for skeletal muscle (above). Briefly, using ATP hydrolysis, the myosin head pulls the actin filament toward the centre of the sarcomere.


title: Muscle contraction

text: Following systole, intracellular calcium is taken up by the sarco/endoplasmic reticulum ATPase (SERCA) pump back into the sarcoplasmic reticulum ready for the next cycle to begin. Calcium is also ejected from the cell mainly by the sodium-calcium exchanger (NCX) and, to a lesser extent, a plasma membrane calcium ATPase. Some calcium is also taken up by the mitochondria. An enzyme, phospholamban, serves as a brake for SERCA. At low heart rates, phospholamban is active and slows down the activity of the ATPase so that does not have to leave the cell entirely. At high heart rates, phospholamban is phosphorylated and deactivated thus taking most from the cytoplasm back into the sarcoplasmic reticulum. Once again, calcium buffers moderate this fall in concentration, permitting a relatively small decrease in free concentration in response to a large change in total calcium. The falling concentration allows the troponin complex to dissociate from the actin filament thereby ending contraction. The heart relaxes, allowing the ventricles to fill with blood and begin the cardiac cycle again.


title: Muscle contraction

text: In annelids such as earthworms and leeches, circular and longitudinal muscles cells form the body wall of these animals and are responsible for their movement. In an earthworm that is moving through a soil, for example, contractions of circular and longitudinal muscles occur reciprocally while the coelomic fluid serves as a hydroskeleton by maintaining turgidity of the earthworm. When the circular muscles in the anterior segments contract, the anterior portion of animal's body begins to constrict radially, which pushes the incompressible coelomic fluid forward and increasing the length of the animal. As a result, the front end of the animal moves forward. As the front end of the earthworm becomes anchored and the circular muscles in the anterior segments become relaxed, a wave of longitudinal muscle contractions passes backwards, which pulls the rest of animal's trailing body forward. These alternating waves of circular and longitudinal contractions is called peristalsis, which underlies the creeping movement of earthworms.


title: Muscle contraction

text: Invertebrates such as annelids, mollusks, and nematodes, possess obliquely striated muscles, which contain bands of thick and thin filaments that are arranged helically rather than transversely, like in vertebrate skeletal or cardiac muscles. In bivalves, the obliquely striated muscles can maintain tension over long periods without using too much energy. Bivalves use these muscles to keep their shells closed.


title: Muscle contraction

text: Advanced insects such as wasps, flies, bees, and beetles possess asynchronous muscles that constitute the flight muscles in these animals. These flight muscles are often called "fibrillar muscles" because they contain myofibrils that are thick and conspicuous. A remarkable feature of these muscles is that they do not require stimulation for each muscle contraction. Hence, they are called "asynchronous muscles" because the number of contractions in these muscles do not correspond (or synchronize) with the number of action potentials. For example, a wing muscle of a tethered fly may receive action potentials at a frequency of 3 Hz but it is able to beat at a frequency of 120 Hz. The high frequency beating is made possible because the muscles are connected to a resonant system, which is driven to a natural frequency of vibration.


title: Muscle contraction

text: In 1780, Luigi Galvani discovered that the muscles of dead frogs' legs twitched when struck by an electrical spark. This was one of the first forays into the study of bioelectricity, a field that still studies the electrical patterns and signals in tissues such as nerves and muscles.


title: Muscle contraction

text: In 1952, the term excitation–contraction coupling was coined to describe the physiological process of converting an electrical stimulus to a mechanical response. This process is fundamental to muscle physiology, whereby the electrical stimulus is usually an action potential and the mechanical response is contraction. Excitation–contraction coupling can be dysregulated in many diseases. Though excitation–contraction coupling has been known for over half a century, it is still an active area of biomedical research. The general scheme is that an action potential arrives to depolarize the cell membrane. By mechanisms specific to the muscle type, this depolarization results in an increase in cytosolic calcium that is called a calcium transient. This increase in calcium activates calcium-sensitive contractile proteins that then use ATP to cause cell shortening.


title: Muscle contraction

text: The mechanism for muscle contraction evaded scientists for years and requires continued research and updating. The sliding filament theory was independently developed by Andrew F. Huxley and Rolf Niedergerke and by Hugh Huxley and Jean Hanson. Their findings were published as two consecutive papers published in the 22 May 1954 issue of "Nature" under the common theme "Structural Changes in Muscle During Contraction".


title: Françoise Bettencourt Meyers

text: Françoise Bettencourt Meyers (; born 10 July 1953) is a French businesswoman, philanthropist, writer, pianist and billionaire heiress, the richest woman in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$75.3 billion as of March 2022, according to "Forbes". She is the only child, heiress of Liliane Bettencourt and granddaughter of L'Oréal founder Eugène Schueller. Her mother died in September 2017, after which her fortune tripled with her investments through her family holding company, Tethys Invest, and the high valuation of L'Oréal shares on the stock exchange.


title: Françoise Bettencourt Meyers

text: Raised to be a strict Catholic, she has written several Bible commentaries. She is the only daughter and heiress of Liliane Bettencourt. She married Jean-Pierre Meyers, the grandson of a rabbi murdered at Auschwitz, and they raised their children Jean-Victor and Nicolas as Jewish. Her marriage caused controversy because of her grandfather Eugène Schueller's trial for collaboration with the Nazi government; he was L'Oreal's founder. Bettencourt Meyers and her family still own a 33% stake in the company.


title: Françoise Bettencourt Meyers

text: In 2008, she sued François-Marie Banier for taking money from her mother, and she started proceedings to have her mother declared mentally incompetent. The revelations in the secret recordings that she used in evidence led to the Woerth-Bettencourt scandal.


title: Françoise Bettencourt Meyers

text: In December 2010, Bettencourt Meyers announced that she had settled out of court with both her mother and Banier.


title: Françoise Bettencourt Meyers

text: Her mother died in September 2017 when her net worth was about $39.5 billion, which makes Bettencourt Meyers among the top 20 richest people in the world.


title: Françoise Bettencourt Meyers

text: After a fire severely damaged Notre-Dame de Paris, Bettencourt Meyers and L'Oréal pledged $226 million to repair the cathedral.


title: Françoise Bettencourt Meyers

text: As of January 2022, she is the richest woman in the world, with an estimated fortune of $94.9 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.


title: Judiciary

text: The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law in legal cases.


title: Judiciary

text: The judiciary is the system of courts that interprets, defends, and applies the law in the name of the state. The judiciary can also be thought of as the mechanism for the resolution of disputes. Under the doctrine of the separation of powers, the judiciary generally does not make statutory law (which is the responsibility of the legislature) or enforce law (which is the responsibility of the executive), but rather interprets, defends, and applies the law to the facts of each case. However, in some countries the judiciary does make common law.


title: Judiciary

text: In many jurisdictions the judicial branch has the power to change laws through the process of judicial review. Courts with judicial review power may annul the laws and rules of the state when it finds them incompatible with a higher norm, such as primary legislation, the provisions of the constitution, treaties or international law. Judges constitute a critical force for interpretation and implementation of a constitution, thus in common law countries creating the body of constitutional law.


title: Judiciary

text: This is a more general overview of the development of the judiciary and judicial systems over the course of history.


title: Judiciary

text: The most important part was "Ius Civile" (Latin for "civil law"). This consisted of "Mos Maiorum" (Latin for "way of the ancestors") and "Leges" (Latin for "laws"). "Mos Maiorum" was the rules of conduct based on social norms created over the years by predecessors. In 451–449 BC, the "Mos Maiorum" was written down in the Twelve Tables. "Leges" were rules set by the leaders, first the kings, later the popular assembly during the Republic. In these early years, the legal process consisted of two phases. The first phase, "In Iure", was the judicial process. One would go to the head of the judicial system (at first the priests as law was part of religion) who would look at the applicable rules to the case. Parties in the case could be assisted by jurists. Then the second phase would start, the "Apud Iudicem". The case would be put before the judges, which were normal Roman citizens in an uneven number. No experience was required as the applicable rules were already selected. They would merely have to judge the case.


title: Judiciary

text: The most important change in this period was the shift from priest to praetor as the head of the judicial system. The praetor would also make an edict in which he would declare new laws or principles for the year he was elected. This edict is also known as praetorian law.


title: Judiciary

text: The Principate is the first part of the Roman Empire, which started with the reign of Augustus. This time period is also known as the "classical era of Roman Law" In this era, the praetor's edict was now known as "edictum perpetuum", which were all the edicts collected in one edict by Hadrian. Also, a new judicial process came up: "cognitio extraordinaria" (Latin for "extraordinary process"). This came into being due to the largess of the empire. This process only had one phase, where the case was presented to a professional judge who was a representative of the emperor. Appeal was possible to the immediate superior.


title: Judiciary

text: During this time period, legal experts started to come up. They studied the law and were advisors to the emperor. They also were allowed to give legal advise on behalf of the emperor.


title: Judiciary

text: This era is also known as the "post-classical era of Roman law". The most important legal event during this era was the Codification by Justinianus: the Corpus Iuris Civilis. This contained all Roman Law. It was both a collection of the work of the legal experts and commentary on it, and a collection of new laws. The "Corpus Iuris Civilis" consisted of four parts:


title: Judiciary

text: During the late Middle Ages, education started to grow. First education was limited to the monasteries and abbies, but expanded to cathedrals and schools in the city in the 11th century, eventually creating universities. The universities had five faculties: arts, medicine, theology, canon law and "Ius Civile", or civil law. Canon law, or ecclesiastical law are laws created by the Pope, head of the Roman Catholic Church. The last form was also called secular law, or Roman law. It was mainly based on the "Corpus Iuris Civilis," which had been rediscovered in 1070. Roman law was mainly used for "worldly" affairs, while canon law was used for questions related to the church.


title: Judiciary

text: The period starting in the 11th century with the discovery of the "Corpus Iuris Civilis" is also called the Scholastics, which can be divided in the early and late scholastics. It is characterised with the renewed interest in the old texts.


title: Judiciary

text: The rediscovery of the Digesta from the "Corpus Iuris Civilis" led the university of Bologna to start teaching Roman law. Professors at the university were asked to research the Roman laws and advise the Emperor and the Pope with regards to the old laws. This led to the Glossators to start translating and recreating the "Corpus Iuris Civilis" and create literature around it:


title: Judiciary

text: The successors of the Glossators were the Post-Glossators or Commentators. They looked at a subject in a logical and systematic way by writing comments with the texts, treatises and "consilia", which are advises given according to the old Roman law.


title: Judiciary

text: Canon law knows a few forms of laws: the "canones", decisions made by Councils, and the "decreta", decisions made by the Popes. The monk Gratian, one of the well-known decretists, started to organise all of the church law, which is now known as the "Decretum Gratiani", or simply as "Decretum". It forms the first part of the collection of six legal texts, which together became known as the "Corpus Juris Canonici". It was used by canonists of the Roman Catholic Church until Pentecost (19 May) 1918, when a revised "Code of Canon Law" ("Codex Iuris Canonici") promulgated by Pope Benedict XV on 27 May 1917 obtained legal force.


title: Judiciary

text: The Decretalists, like the post-glossators for "Ius Civile", started to write treatises, comments and advises with the texts.


title: Judiciary

text: Around the 15th century, a process of reception and acculturation started with both laws. The final product was known as "Ius Commune". It was a combination of canon law, which represented the common norms and principles, and Roman law, which were the actual rules and terms. It meant the creation of more legal texts and books and a more systematic way of going through the legal process. In the new legal process, appeal was possible. The process would be partially inquisitorial, where the judge would actively investigate all the evidence before him, but also partially adversarial, where both parties are responsible for finding the evidence to convince the judge.


title: Judiciary

text: After the French Revolution, lawmakers stopped interpretation of law by judges, and the legislature was the only body permitted to interpret the law; this prohibition was later overturned by the Napoleonic Code.


title: Judiciary

text: In common law jurisdictions, courts interpret law; this includes constitutions, statutes, and regulations. They also make law (but in a limited sense, limited to the facts of particular cases) based upon prior case law in areas where the legislature has not made law. For instance, the tort of negligence is not derived from statute law in most common law jurisdictions. The term "common law" refers to this kind of law. Common law decisions set precedent for all courts to follow. This is sometimes called "stare decisis".


title: Judiciary

text: In the United States court system, the Supreme Court is the final authority on the interpretation of the federal Constitution and all statutes and regulations created pursuant to it, as well as the constitutionality of the various state laws; in the US federal court system, federal cases are tried in trial courts, known as the US district courts, followed by appellate courts and then the Supreme Court. State courts, which try 98% of litigation, may have different names and organization; trial courts may be called "courts of common plea", appellate courts "superior courts" or "commonwealth courts". The judicial system, whether state or federal, begins with a court of first instance, is appealed to an appellate court, and then ends at the court of last resort.


title: Judiciary

text: In France, the final authority on the interpretation of the law is the Council of State for administrative cases, and the Court of Cassation for civil and criminal cases.


title: Judiciary

text: In the People's Republic of China, the final authority on the interpretation of the law is the National People's Congress.


title: Judiciary

text: Other countries such as Argentina have mixed systems that include lower courts, appeals courts, a cassation court (for criminal law) and a Supreme Court. In this system the Supreme Court is always the final authority, but criminal cases have four stages, one more than civil law does. On the court sits a total of nine justices. This number has been changed several times.