title: One-time pad

text: Conventional symmetric encryption algorithms use complex patterns of substitution and transpositions. For the best of these currently in use, it is not known whether there can be a cryptanalytic procedure that can efficiently reverse (or even partially reverse) these transformations without knowing the key used during encryption. Asymmetric encryption algorithms depend on mathematical problems that are thought to be difficult to solve, such as integer factorization or the discrete logarithm. However, there is no proof that these problems are hard, and a mathematical breakthrough could make existing systems vulnerable to attack.


title: One-time pad

text: Given perfect secrecy, in contrast to conventional symmetric encryption, the one-time pad is immune even to brute-force attacks. Trying all keys simply yields all plaintexts, all equally likely to be the actual plaintext. Even with a partially known plaintext, brute-force attacks cannot be used, since an attacker is unable to gain any information about the parts of the key needed to decrypt the rest of the message. The parts of the plaintext that are known will reveal "only" the parts of the key corresponding to them, and they correspond on a strictly one-to-one basis; a uniformly random key's bits will be independent.


title: One-time pad

text: Quantum computers have been shown by Peter Shor and others to be much faster at solving some problems that the security of traditional asymmetric encryption algorithms depends on. The cryptographic algorithms that depend on these problem's difficulty would be rendered obsolete with a powerful enough quantum computer. One-time pads, however, would remain secure, as perfect secrecy does not depend on assumptions about the computational resources of an attacker. Quantum cryptography and post-quantum cryptography involve studying the impact of quantum computers on information security.


title: One-time pad

text: Despite Shannon's proof of its security, the one-time pad has serious drawbacks in practice because it requires:


title: One-time pad

text: One-time pads solve few current practical problems in cryptography. High-quality ciphers are widely available and their security is not currently considered a major worry. Such ciphers are almost always easier to employ than one-time pads because the amount of key material that must be properly and securely generated, distributed and stored is far smaller.Additionally, public key cryptography overcomes the problem of key distribution.


title: One-time pad

text: High-quality random numbers are difficult to generate. The random number generation functions in most programming language libraries are not suitable for cryptographic use. Even those generators that are suitable for normal cryptographic use, including /dev/random and many hardware random number generators, may make some use of cryptographic functions whose security has not been proven. An example of a technique for generating pure randomness is measuring radioactive emissions.


title: One-time pad

text: In particular, one-time use is absolutely necessary. If a one-time pad is used just twice, simple mathematical operations can reduce it to a running key cipher. For example, if formula_14 and formula_15 represent two distinct plaintext messages and they are each encrypted by a common key formula_11, then the respective ciphertexts are given by:


title: One-time pad

text: where formula_19 means XOR. If an attacker were to have both ciphertexts formula_20 and formula_21, then simply taking the XOR of formula_20 and formula_21 yields the XOR of the two plaintexts formula_24. (This is because taking the XOR of the common key formula_11 with itself yields a constant bitstream of zeros.) formula_24 is then the equivalent of a running key cipher.


title: One-time pad

text: If both plaintexts are in a natural language (e.g., English or Russian), each stands a very high chance of being recovered by heuristic cryptanalysis, with possibly a few ambiguities. Of course, a longer message can only be broken for the portion that overlaps a shorter message, plus perhaps a little more by completing a word or phrase. The most famous exploit of this vulnerability occurred with the Venona project.


title: One-time pad

text: Because the pad, like all shared secrets, must be passed and kept secure, and the pad has to be at least as long as the message, there is often no point in using one-time padding, as one can simply send the plain text instead of the pad (as both can be the same size and have to be sent securely). However, once a very long pad has been securely sent (e.g., a computer disk full of random data), it can be used for numerous future messages, until the sum of the message's sizes equals the size of the pad. Quantum key distribution also proposes a solution to this problem, assuming fault-tolerant quantum computers.


title: One-time pad

text: Distributing very long one-time pad keys is inconvenient and usually poses a significant security risk. The pad is essentially the encryption key, but unlike keys for modern ciphers, it must be extremely long and is far too difficult for humans to remember. Storage media such as thumb drives, DVD-Rs or personal digital audio players can be used to carry a very large one-time-pad from place to place in a non-suspicious way, but the need to transport the pad physically is a burden compared to the key negotiation protocols of a modern public-key cryptosystem. Such media cannot reliably be erased securely by any means short of physical destruction (e.g., incineration). A 4.7 GB DVD-R full of one-time-pad data, if shredded into particles in size, leaves over 4 megabits of data on each particle. In addition, the risk of compromise during transit (for example, a pickpocket swiping, copying and replacing the pad) is likely to be much greater in practice than the likelihood of compromise for a cipher such as AES. Finally, the effort needed to manage one-time pad key material scales very badly for large networks of communicants—the number of pads required goes up as the square of the number of users freely exchanging messages. For communication between only two persons, or a star network topology, this is less of a problem.


title: One-time pad

text: The key material must be securely disposed of after use, to ensure the key material is never reused and to protect the messages sent. Because the key material must be transported from one endpoint to another, and persist until the message is sent or received, it can be more vulnerable to forensic recovery than the transient plaintext it protects (because of possible data remanence).


title: One-time pad

text: As traditionally used, one-time pads provide no message authentication, the lack of which can pose a security threat in real-world systems. For example, an attacker who knows that the message contains "meet jane and me tomorrow at three thirty pm" can derive the corresponding codes of the pad directly from the two known elements (the encrypted text and the known plaintext). The attacker can then replace that text by any other text of exactly the same length, such as "three thirty meeting is canceled, stay home". The attacker's knowledge of the one-time pad is limited to this byte length, which must be maintained for any other content of the message to remain valid. This is different from malleability where the plaintext is not necessarily known. Without knowing the message, the attacker can also flip bits in a message sent with a one-time pad, without the recipient being able to detect it. Because of their similarities, attacks on one-time pads are similar to attacks on stream ciphers.


title: One-time pad

text: Standard techniques to prevent this, such as the use of a message authentication code can be used along with a one-time pad system to prevent such attacks, as can classical methods such as variable length padding and Russian copulation, but they all lack the perfect security the OTP itself has. Universal hashing provides a way to authenticate messages up to an arbitrary security bound (i.e., for any , a large enough hash ensures that even a computationally unbounded attacker's likelihood of successful forgery is less than "p"), but this uses additional random data from the pad, and some of these techniques remove the possibility of implementing the system without a computer.


title: One-time pad

text: Due to its relative simplicity of implementation, and due to its promise of perfect secrecy, one-time-pad enjoys high popularity among students learning about cryptography, especially as it is often the first algorithm to be presented and implemented during a course. Such "first" implementations often break the requirements for information theoretical security in one or more ways:


title: One-time pad

text: Despite its problems, the one-time-pad retains some practical interest. In some hypothetical espionage situations, the one-time pad might be useful because encryption and decryption can be computed by hand with only pencil and paper. Nearly all other high quality ciphers are entirely impractical without computers. In the modern world, however, computers (such as those embedded in mobile phones) are so ubiquitous that possessing a computer suitable for performing conventional encryption (for example, a phone that can run concealed cryptographic software) will usually not attract suspicion.


title: One-time pad

text: A common use of the one-time pad in quantum cryptography is being used in association with quantum key distribution (QKD). QKD is typically associated with the one-time pad because it provides a way of distributing a long shared secret key securely and efficiently (assuming the existence of practical quantum networking hardware). A QKD algorithm uses properties of quantum mechanical systems to let two parties agree on a shared, uniformly random string. Algorithms for QKD, such as BB84, are also able to determine whether an adversarial party has been attempting to intercept key material, and allow for a shared secret key to be agreed upon with relatively few messages exchanged and relatively low computational overhead. At a high level, the schemes work by taking advantage of the destructive way quantum states are measured to exchange a secret and detect tampering. In the original BB84 paper, it was proven that the one-time pad, with keys distributed via QKD, is a perfectly secure encryption scheme. However, this result depends on the QKD scheme being implemented correctly in practice. Attacks on real-world QKD systems exist. For instance, many systems do not send a single photon (or other object in the desired quantum state) per bit of the key because of practical limitations, and an attacker could intercept and measure some of the photons associated with a message, gaining information about the key (i.e. leaking information about the pad), while passing along unmeasured photons corresponding to the same bit of the key. Combining QKD with a one-time pad can also loosen the requirements for key reuse. In 1982, Bennett and Brassard showed that if a QKD protocol does not detect that an adversary was trying to intercept an exchanged key, than the key can safely be reused while preserving perfect secrecy.


title: One-time pad

text: There also exists a quantum analogue of the one time pad, which can be used to exchange quantum states along a one-way quantum channel with perfect secrecy, which is sometimes used in quantum computing. It can be shown that a shared secret of at least 2n classical bits is required to exchange an n-qubit quantum state along a one-way quantum channel (by analogue with the result that a key of n bits is required to exchange an n bit message with perfect secrecy). A scheme proposed in 2000 achieves this bound. One way to implement this quantum one-time pad is by dividing the 2n bit key into n pairs of bits. To encrypt the state, for each pair of bits i in the key, one would apply an X gate to qubit i of the state if and only if the first bit of the pair is 1, and apply a Z gate to qubit i of the state if and only if the second bit of the pair is 1. Decryption involves applying this transformation again, since X and Z are their own inverses. This can be shown to be perfectly secret in a quantum setting.


title: One-time pad

text: The one-time pad is an example of post-quantum cryptography, because perfect secrecy is a definition of security that does not depend on the computational resources of the adversary. Consequently, an adversary with a quantum computer would still not be able to gain any more information about a message encrypted with a one time pad than an adversary with just a classical computer.


title: One-time pad

text: One-time pads have been used in special circumstances since the early 1900s. In 1923, they were employed for diplomatic communications by the German diplomatic establishment. The Weimar Republic Diplomatic Service began using the method in about 1920. The breaking of poor Soviet cryptography by the British, with messages made public for political reasons in two instances in the 1920s (ARCOS case), appear to have caused the Soviet Union to adopt one-time pads for some purposes by around 1930. KGB spies are also known to have used pencil and paper one-time pads more recently. Examples include Colonel Rudolf Abel, who was arrested and convicted in New York City in the 1950s, and the 'Krogers' (i.e., Morris and Lona Cohen), who were arrested and convicted of espionage in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s. Both were found with physical one-time pads in their possession.


title: One-time pad

text: A number of nations have used one-time pad systems for their sensitive traffic. Leo Marks reports that the British Special Operations Executive used one-time pads in World War II to encode traffic between its offices. One-time pads for use with its overseas agents were introduced late in the war. A few British one-time tape cipher machines include the Rockex and Noreen. The German Stasi Sprach Machine was also capable of using one time tape that East Germany, Russia, and even Cuba used to send encrypted messages to their agents.


title: One-time pad

text: The World War II voice scrambler SIGSALY was also a form of one-time system. It added noise to the signal at one end and removed it at the other end. The noise was distributed to the channel ends in the form of large shellac records that were manufactured in unique pairs. There were both starting synchronization and longer-term phase drift problems that arose and had to be solved before the system could be used.


title: One-time pad

text: The hotline between Moscow and Washington D.C., established in 1963 after the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, used teleprinters protected by a commercial one-time tape system. Each country prepared the keying tapes used to encode its messages and delivered them via their embassy in the other country. A unique advantage of the OTP in this case was that neither country had to reveal more sensitive encryption methods to the other.


title: One-time pad

text: U.S. Army Special Forces used one-time pads in Vietnam. By using Morse code with one-time pads and continuous wave radio transmission (the carrier for Morse code), they achieved both secrecy and reliable communications.


title: One-time pad

text: Starting in 1988, the African National Congress (ANC) used disk-based one-time pads as part of a secure communication system between ANC leaders outside South Africa and in-country operatives as part of Operation Vula, a successful effort to build a resistance network inside South Africa. Random numbers on the disk were erased after use. A Belgian airline stewardess acted as courier to bring in the pad disks. A regular resupply of new disks was needed as they were used up fairly quickly. One problem with the system was that it could not be used for secure data storage. Later Vula added a stream cipher keyed by book codes to solve this problem.


title: One-time pad

text: A related notion is the one-time code—a signal, used only once; e.g., "Alpha" for "mission completed", "Bravo" for "mission failed" or even "Torch" for "Allied invasion of French Northern Africa" cannot be "decrypted" in any reasonable sense of the word. Understanding the message will require additional information, often 'depth' of repetition, or some traffic analysis. However, such strategies (though often used by real operatives, and baseball coaches) are not a cryptographic one-time pad in any significant sense.


title: One-time pad

text: At least into the 1970s, the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) produced a variety of manual one-time pads, both general purpose and specialized, with 86,000 one-time pads produced in fiscal year 1972. Special purpose pads were produced for what NSA called "pro forma" systems, where “the basic framework, form or format of every message text is identical or nearly so; the same kind of information, message after message, is to be presented in the same order, and only specific values, like numbers, change with each message.” Examples included nuclear launch messages and radio direction finding reports (COMUS).


title: One-time pad

text: General purpose pads were produced in several formats, a simple list of random letters (DIANA) or just numbers (CALYPSO), tiny pads for covert agents (MICKEY MOUSE), and pads designed for more rapid encoding of short messages, at the cost of lower density. One example, ORION, had 50 rows of plaintext alphabets on one side and the corresponding random cipher text letters on the other side. By placing a sheet on top of a piece of carbon paper with the carbon face up, one could circle one letter in each row on one side and the corresponding letter on the other side would be circled by the carbon paper. Thus one ORION sheet could quickly encode or decode a message up to 50 characters long. Production of ORION pads required printing both sides in exact registration, a difficult process, so NSA switched to another pad format, MEDEA, with 25 rows of paired alphabets and random characters. ("See" for illustrations.)


title: One-time pad

text: The NSA also built automated systems for the "centralized headquarters of CIA and Special Forces units so that they can efficiently process the many separate one-time pad messages to and from individual pad holders in the field".


title: One-time pad

text: During World War II and into the 1950s, the U.S. made extensive use of one-time tape systems. In addition to providing confidentiality, circuits secured by one-time tape ran continually, even when there was no traffic, thus protecting against traffic analysis. In 1955, NSA produced some 1,660,000 rolls of one time tape. Each roll was 8 inches in diameter, contained 100,000 characters, lasted 166 minutes and cost $4.55 to produce. By 1972, only 55,000 rolls were produced, as one-time tapes were replaced by rotor machines such as SIGTOT, and later by electronic devices based on shift registers. The NSA describes one-time tape systems like 5-UCO and SIGTOT as being used for intelligence traffic until the introduction of the electronic cipher based KW-26 in 1957.


title: One-time pad

text: While one-time pads provide perfect secrecy if generated and used properly, small mistakes can lead to successful cryptanalysis:


title: Park Güell

text: Parc Güell ( ; ) is a privatized park system composed of gardens and architectural elements located on Carmel Hill, in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Carmel Hill belongs to the mountain range of Collserola – the Parc del Carmel is located on the northern face. Park Güell is located in La Salut, a neighborhood in the Gràcia district of Barcelona. With urbanization in mind, Eusebi Güell assigned the design of the park to Antoni Gaudí, a renowned architect and the face of Catalan modernism.


title: Park Güell

text: The park was built from 1900 to 1914 and was officially opened as a public park in 1926. In 1984, UNESCO declared the park a World Heritage Site under "Works of Antoni Gaudí".


title: Park Güell

text: Park Güell is the reflection of Gaudí's artistic plenitude, which belongs to his naturalist phase (first decade of the 20th century). During this period, the architect perfected his personal style through inspiration from organic shapes. He put into practice a series of new structural solutions rooted in the analysis of geometry. To that, the Catalan artist adds creative liberty and an imaginative, ornamental creation. Starting from a sort of baroquism, his works acquire a structural richness of forms and volumes, free of the rational rigidity or any sort of classic premises. In the design of Park Güell, Gaudí unleashed all his architectonic genius and put to practice much of his innovative structural solutions that would become the symbol of his organic style and that would culminate in the creation of the Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family (Catalan: Sagrada Família).


title: Park Güell

text: Güell and Gaudí conceived this park, situated within a natural park. They imagined an organized grouping of high-quality homes, decked out with all the latest technological advancements to ensure maximum comfort, finished off with an artistic touch. They also envisioned a community strongly influenced by symbolism, since, in the common elements of the park, they were trying to synthesize many of the political and religious ideals shared by patron and architect: therefore there are noticeable concepts originating from political Catalanism – especially in the entrance stairway where the Catalan countries are represented – and from Catholicism – the Monumento al Calvario, originally designed to be a chapel. The mythological elements are so important: apparently Güell and Gaudí's conception of the park was also inspired by the Temple of Apollo of Delphi.


title: Park Güell

text: On the other hand, many experts have tried to link the park to various symbols because of the complex iconography that Gaudí applied to the urban project. Such references go from political vindication to religious exaltation, passing through mythology, history and philosophy. Specifically, many studies claim to see references to Freemasonry, despite the deep religious beliefs of both Gaudí and Count Güell. These references have not been proven in the historiography of the modern architect. The multiplicity of symbols found in the Park Güell is, as previously mentioned, associated to political and religious signs, with a touch of mystery according to the preferences of that time for enigmas and puzzles.


title: Park Güell

text: The park was originally part of a commercially unsuccessful housing site, the idea of Count Eusebi Güell, after whom the park was named. It was inspired by the English garden city movement; the original English name "Park" (in Catalan the name is "Parc Güell"; in Spanish, "Parque Güell"). The site was a rocky hill with little vegetation and few trees, called "Muntanya Pelada" (Bare Mountain). It already included a large country house called Larrard House or Muntaner de Dalt House and was next to a neighbourhood of upper-class houses called "La Salut" (The Health). The intention was to exploit the fresh air (well away from smoky factories) and beautiful views from the site, with sixty triangular lots being provided for luxury houses. Count Eusebi Güell added to the prestige of the development by moving in 1906 to live in Larrard House. Ultimately, only two houses were built, neither designed by Gaudí. One was intended to be a show house, but on being completed in 1904 was put up for sale, and as no buyers came forward, Gaudí, at Güell's suggestion, bought it with his savings and moved in with his family and his father in 1906. This house, where Gaudí lived from 1906 to 1926 (his death), was built by Francesc Berenguer in 1904. It contains original works by Gaudí and several of his collaborators. It is now the Gaudí House Museum (Casa Museu Gaudí) since 1963. In 1969, it was declared a historical artistic monument of national interest.


title: Park Güell

text: It has since been converted into a municipal garden. It can be reached by underground railway (although the stations are at a distance from the Park and at a much lower level below the hill), by city buses, or by commercial tourist buses. Since October 2013 there is an entrance fee to visit the Monumental Zone (main entrance, terrace, viaducts, and the parts containing mosaics), so the entrance to the Park is no longer free. Limited tickets are available that often sell out in advance. Gaudí's house, "la Torre Rosa," – containing furniture that he designed – can be only visited for another entrance fee. There is a reduced rate for those wishing to see both Gaudí's house and the Sagrada Família Church.


title: Park Güell

text: Park Güell is designed and composed to bring the peace and calm that one would expect from a park. The buildings flanking the entrance, though very original and remarkable with fantastically shaped roofs with unusual pinnacles, fit in well with the use of the park as pleasure gardens and seem relatively inconspicuous in the landscape when one considers the flamboyance of other buildings designed by Gaudí. These two buildings make up the Porter's Lodge pavilion. One of these buildings contains a small room with a telephone booth. The other, while once being the porter's house, is now a permanent exhibition of the Barcelona City History Museum MUHBA focused on the building itself, the park and the city.


title: Park Güell

text: The focal point of the park is the main terrace, surrounded by a long bench in the form of a sea serpent. The curves of the serpent bench form a number of enclaves, creating a more social atmosphere. Gaudí incorporated many motifs of Catalan nationalism, and elements from religious mysticism and ancient poetry, into the Park. Much of the design of the benches was the work not of Gaudí but of his often overlooked collaborator Josep Maria Jujol.


title: Park Güell

text: Roadways around the park to service the intended houses were designed by Gaudí as structures jutting out from the steep hillside or running on viaducts, with separate footpaths in arcades formed under these structures. This minimized the intrusion of the roads, and Gaudí designed them using local stone in a way that integrates them closely into the landscape. His structures echo natural forms, with columns like tree trunks supporting branching vaulting under the roadway, and the curves of vaulting and alignment of sloping columns designed in a similar way to his Church of Colònia Güell so that the inverted catenary arch shapes form perfect compression structures.


title: Park Güell

text: At the park's high-point, there is a stone hill composed of steps leading up to a platform which holds three large crosses. The official name of this is "El Turó de les Tres Creus," however many tourists choose to call it Calvary. Two of the crosses point north–south and east–west, the third, and tallest cross, points skyward. This lookout offers the most complete view of Barcelona and the bay. It is possible to view the main city in panorama, with the Sagrada Família (another one of Antoni Guadí's famous creations), the Agbar Tower, and the Montjuïc area visible at a distance.


title: Park Güell

text: The park supports a wide variety of wildlife, notably several of the non-native species of parrot found in the Barcelona area. Other birds can be seen from the park, with records including short-toed eagle. The park also supports a population of hummingbird hawk moths.


title: Metoprolol

text: Metoprolol, sold under the brand name Lopressor, among others, is a selective β receptor blocker medication. It is used to treat high blood pressure, chest pain due to poor blood flow to the heart, and a number of conditions involving an abnormally fast heart rate. By working on the beta-1 receptor of the cardiac muscle cells, it yields both a chronotropic and inotropic effect. It is also used to prevent further heart problems after myocardial infarction and to prevent headaches in those with migraines.


title: Metoprolol

text: Metoprolol is sold in formulations that can be taken by mouth or given intravenously. The medication is often taken twice a day. The extended-release formulation, metoprolol succinate, is taken once per day. Metoprolol may be combined with hydrochlorothiazide (a diuretic) in a single tablet.


title: Metoprolol

text: Common side effects include trouble sleeping, feeling tired, feeling faint, and abdominal discomfort. Large doses may cause serious toxicity. Risk in pregnancy has not been ruled out. It appears to be safe in breastfeeding. The metabolism of metoprolol can vary widely between patients, often as a result of hepatic impairment or CYP2D6 polymorphism. Care should be taken in patients with asthma; metoprolol should only be used in these patients when the benefits outweigh the risks, for example in heart failure. Stopping this drug should be done slowly to decrease the risk of further health problems.


title: Metoprolol

text: Metoprolol was first made in 1969, patented in 1970, and approved for medical use in 1982. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. It is available as a generic drug. In 2020, it was the sixth most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 66million prescriptions.


title: Metoprolol

text: Metoprolol is used for a number of conditions, including hypertension, angina, acute myocardial infarction, supraventricular tachycardia, ventricular tachycardia, congestive heart failure, and prevention of migraine headaches. It is an adjunct in the treatment of hyperthyroidism.


title: Metoprolol

text: The different salt versions of metoprolol – metoprolol tartrate and metoprolol succinate – are approved for different conditions and are not interchangeable.


title: Metoprolol

text: Metoprolol is sold in formulations that can be taken by mouth or given intravenously. The medication is often taken twice a day. The extended-release formulation, metoprolol succinate, is taken once a day. Metoprolol may be combined with hydrochlorothiazide (a diuretic) in a single tablet.


title: Metoprolol

text: Adverse effects, especially with higher doses, include dizziness, drowsiness, fatigue, diarrhea, unusual dreams, trouble sleeping, depression, and vision problems. β-blockers, including metoprolol, reduce salivary flow via inhibition of the direct sympathetic innervation of the salivary glands. Metoprolol may also cause the hands and feet to feel cold. Due to the high penetration across the blood–brain barrier, lipophilic beta blockers such as propranolol and metoprolol are more likely than other less lipophilic beta blockers to cause sleep disturbances such as insomnia, vivid dreams and nightmares.


title: Metoprolol

text: Serious side effects that are advised to be reported immediately include symptoms of bradycardia (resting heart rate slower than 60 beats per minute), persistent symptoms of dizziness, fainting and unusual fatigue, bluish discoloration of the fingers and toes and/or lips, numbness/tingling/swelling of the hands or feet, sexual dysfunction, erectile dysfunction, hair loss, mental/mood changes, depression, breathing difficulty, cough, dyslipidemia and increased thirst. Consuming alcohol while taking metoprolol may cause mild body rashes and is not advised.


title: Metoprolol

text: It’s well documented that metoprolol reduces long-term mortality and hospitalisation due to worsening heart failure. A meta-analysis further supports reduced incidence of heart failure worsening in patients treated with beta-blockers compared to placebo. However, in some circumstances, particularly when initiating metoprolol in patients with more symptomatic disease, an increased prevalence of hospitalisation and mortality has been reported within the first two months of starting. Patients should monitor for swelling of extremities, fatigue, and shortness of breath.


title: Metoprolol

text: This medicine may cause changes in blood sugar levels or cover up signs of low blood sugar, such as a rapid pulse rate. It also may cause some people to become less alert than they are normally, making it dangerous for them to drive or use machines.


title: Metoprolol

text: Greater care is required with use in those with liver problems or asthma. Stopping this drug should be done slowly to decrease the risk of further health problems.


title: Metoprolol

text: Risk for the fetus has not been ruled out, per being rated pregnancy category C in the United States. Metoprolol is category C in Australia, meaning that it may be suspected of causing harmful effects on the human fetus (but no malformations). It appears to be safe in breastfeeding.


title: Metoprolol

text: Excessive doses of metoprolol can cause severe hypotension, bradycardia, metabolic acidosis, seizures, and cardiorespiratory arrest. Blood or plasma concentrations may be measured to confirm a diagnosis of overdose or poisoning in hospitalized patients or to assist in a medicolegal death investigation. Plasma levels are usually less than 200 μg/L during therapeutic administration, but can range from 1–20 mg/L in overdose victims.


title: Metoprolol

text: Metoprolol blocks β1 adrenergic receptors in heart muscle cells, thereby decreasing the slope of phase 4 in the nodal action potential (reducing Na uptake) and prolonging repolarization of phase 3 (slowing down K release). It also suppresses the norepinephrine-induced increase in the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca leak and the spontaneous SR Ca release, which are the major triggers for atrial fibrillation.


title: Metoprolol

text: Metoprolol undergoes α-hydroxylation and O-demethylation as a substrate of the cytochrome liver enzymes CYP2D6.


title: Metoprolol

text: Metoprolol was synthesized and its activity discovered by Bengt Ablad and Enar Carlsson in 1969. The specific agent in on-market formulations of metoprolol is either metoprolol tartrate or metoprolol succinate, where tartrate is an immediate-release formulation and the succinate is an extended-release formulation (with 100 mg metoprolol tartrate corresponding to 95 mg metoprolol succinate).


title: Metoprolol

text: Metoprolol contains a stereocenter and consists of two enantiomers. This is a racemate, i.e. a 1:1 mixture of ("R")- and the ("S")-form:


title: Metoprolol

text: Application by Validus Pharms for "Lopressor" (metoprolol tartrate), 50 and 100 mg tablet formulations, was first approved in the U.S. by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in August 1978. As of 2022, metaprolol formulations are FDA-approved in the U.S. for treatment of angina, heart failure, myocardial infarction, atrial fibrillation/flutter, and hypertension. Metaprolol is approved for use within the UK, with classification as a prescription-only drug in the beta blocker class, as regulated by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).


title: Metoprolol

text: Metoprolol tartrate, a generic version of "Lopressor", was licensed and authorized in June 1997 to Novartis Pharmaceuticals. In September 2011, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) granted the Intas Pharmaceuticals Limited marketing authorization (licences) for metoprolol tartrate (50 mg and 100 mg tablets) for medicinal prescription only; this was after it was established that there were no new or unexpected safety concerns and that the benefits of metoprolol tartrate were greater than the risks.


title: Metoprolol

text: Because beta blockers can be used to reduce heart rate and minimize tremors, which can enhance performance in sports such as archery, Metoprolol is banned by the world anti-doping agency in some sports. Some bans, as in all forms of billiards, darts, and golf, apply during competition only. In others, such as riflery competition, any form of beta blocker is banned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.


title: Metoprolol

text: Urine tests are used to detect if beta blockers are present. Uncharged drugs and/or metabolites of beta blockers can be analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in selected ion monitoring (GC-MS-SIM). However, in modern times it is increasingly difficult to detect the presence of beta blockers used for sports doping purposes. A disadvantage to using GC-MS-SIM is that prior knowledge of the molecular structure of the target drugs/metabolites is required. Modern times have shown a variance in structures and hence novel beta blockers can go undetected.


title: Metoprolol

text: In the 2000s a lawsuit was brought against the manufacturers of Toprol XL (a time-release formula version of metoprolol) and its generic equivalent (metoprolol-succinate) claiming that to increase profits, lower cost generic versions of Toprol XL were intentionally kept off the market. It alleged that the pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca AB, AstraZeneca LP, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, and Aktiebolaget Hassle violated antitrust and consumer protection law. In a settlement by the companies in 2012, without admission to the claims, they agreed to a settlement pay-out of US$ 11million.


title: Metoprolol

text: In 2021, metoprolol was one of the 12 compounds identified in sludge samples taken from 12 wastewater treatment plants in California that are otherwise associated with estrogenic activity in in vitro.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: Laura Jane Grace (born Thomas James Gabel; November 8, 1980) is an American musician best known as the founder, lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist of the punk rock band Against Me!. In addition to Against Me!, Grace fronts the band Laura Jane Grace & The Devouring Mothers, a solo project she started in 2016. Grace is notable for being one of the first highly visible punk rock musicians to come out as transgender, after she publicly came out in May 2012. She released her debut solo studio album, "Stay Alive", in 2020.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: Grace was born Thomas James Gabel in Fort Benning, Georgia, the eldest child of United States Army Major Thomas Gabel and Bonnie Gabel (née Grace). Grace has a brother named Mark, who is six years younger. The family moved frequently between military bases due to their father's military career, living briefly in Fort Hood, Texas; Pennsylvania; Ohio; Germany; and at a NATO post in Naples, Italy, during the Gulf War. When she was 8 years old while living in Italy, Grace bought her first guitar from Sears mail order with money saved from mowing lawns. Grace initially took guitar lessons from an army officer's wife, but ended up teaching herself how to play.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: When she was 12 years old, Grace's parents had an acrimonious divorce, which led to Grace and her brother moving with their mom from Naples, Italy – where their father remained – to Naples, Florida to live with their maternal grandmother. In contrast to her time in Italy, Grace has said that moving to Florida was a difficult adjustment. Constantly bullied at school, Grace was drinking alcohol and taking drugs by age 13, substances which included pot, LSD, and cocaine. Grace was arrested for possession of marijuana at 14 and went on to struggle with addiction for years. Grace also regularly skipped school, eventually dropping out of high school.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: Grace has suffered from depression, attributing her "first memorable bout" to feelings of gender dysphoria after her first sexual relationship. She also noted that depression occurs in both sides of her family, with her grandmother (also called Grace) being admitted to hospital regularly.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: While in junior high school Grace became a fan of punk rock, attracted to the nihilistic and anarchistic ideals of the genre. At age 13, she played bass in her first band, known as both the Black Shadows and the Leather Dice as they had never agreed on a name. The band was formed with members of her youth group at church. Their first gigs were at church talent shows playing Nirvana and Pearl Jam covers.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: An arrest at age 14 crystallized her aversion to authority: having gone to the beach on Independence Day 1995 to watch fireworks, "I walked up on the boardwalk, and a cop was like 'Hey, get off the boardwalk; you're blocking the flow of traffic'. So I turned around and got off, and he came up to me again and was like, 'Get off the boardwalk.' And I was like 'I'm "off" the boardwalk. Grace claims to have then been slammed into a police car, thrown face-first to the pavement, jumped on, hogtied, carried "like a suitcase", put in a holding cell, not allowed to call her mom at that time, charged with resisting arrest and battery, placed under house arrest for the summer, and required to do 180 hours of community service, all because "I was a dirty, grubby little punk kid with black spiky hair who hadn't washed his pants in a year." Grace's mother hired an attorney, whom she could ill afford, who took the case to court and lost. Grace was charged as an adult and ultimately convicted of both felonies. Grace later said the experience "changed my life. [It] politicized me." "I have an inherent distrust of mankind. I think authority and government base their power on violence. I refuse to recognize anyone's power over me."


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: After that incident, Grace came to identify with British anarcho-punk band Crass, calling them "to me, the best band to ever blend music and politics": "I felt like Crass' music legitimately made a change. They really backed up what they were doing. I saw that writing a song against something was just as valid as standing on a street corner holding a sign."


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: Grace befriended James Bowman when they met on their first day of freshman year at Naples High School; the two have been close ever since. "We were both punk rock kids with spiky hair and more belts than necessary", recalls Bowman. "We just hung out and smoked pot and did normal kid things." Grace's first tattoo—a Crass logo on the right ankle—was done by Bowman, though she later covered it up with a tattoo of the Rebel Alliance symbol because Bowman had been drunk and inked it sloppily.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: At age 16, Grace published a zine called "Misanthrope," which dealt mostly with political issues of the time. The "highlight of her career" was interviewing Bobby Seale.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: Grace played bass in a band called the Adversaries with Dustin Fridkin and a "revolving cast" of drummers from 1994 to 1996. The lineups were not stable, and the band had various names, including the Snot Rockets, Upper Crust, and eventually the Adversaries. The Adversaries released one (obscure) demo. Their "crowning achievement as a band" (according to Grace) was playing at "The Hardback" in Gainesville, FL. The breakup of the Adversaries led to Grace briefly playing in a band called Common Affliction in 1996. The ending of Common Affliction led to Grace recording the first Against Me! demo tape in December 1996.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: In 1997, at age 17, Grace dropped out of high school and began writing songs, naming the musical project Against Me!. Moving to Gainesville, Florida, at 18, she began performing as Against Me!, either alone on an acoustic guitar or with friend Kevin Mahon accompanying by drumming on pickle buckets. Her songs drew influence from early acoustic protest music, covering topics such as class struggle. Early Against Me! shows were played at dive bars, laundromats, and anywhere else that would allow Grace to perform, to audiences of a few or even zero. Making ends meet by working odd jobs, dumpster diving, selling blood plasma, and living in a low-rent house with twelve roommates across the street from an experimental waste dump, Grace also volunteered with nonprofit socialist groups such as Food Not Bombs. She was arrested again at 18 for obstruction of justice and resisting arrest without violence: "I was picking up [Mahon]. He was like, 'Pop the trunk—I want to throw some stuff in there.' I was waiting in the car and I saw two cop cars come up behind me. I got out and they had my friend on the ground. I went up to the first officer I saw and said, 'Excuse me, officer, what's going on?' He's like, 'Down on the ground—you're going to jail.' I started to ask another question and he grabbed me, slammed me into the cop car, and arrested me."


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: In 2000, Grace convinced Bowman to move to Gainesville and began teaching him how to play Against Me! songs on guitar. After some early EP releases, Against Me! developed into a full band consisting of Grace, Bowman, bassist Dustin Fridkin, and drummer Warren Oakes. Their debut album, "Against Me! Is Reinventing Axl Rose", was released in 2002 through local independent record label No Idea Records. With Fridkin replaced by Andrew Seward, the band signed to DIY indie record label Fat Wreck Chords for 2003's "Against Me! as the Eternal Cowboy" and 2005's "Searching for a Former Clarity". The name "As the Eternal Cowboy" was symbolic of the old fashioned concept of the Western cowboy, always wandering the plains lost and lonely. It was envisioned by Grace as a concept record about love and war. "Searching" sold over 65,000 copies and was their first album to chart on the "Billboard" 200, reaching 114. Against Me! supported it with a tour of all 50 U.S. states.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: As Against Me!'s popularity increased, Grace felt alienated from the male-centric punk scene: "With the band especially, I felt more and more like I was putting on an act – like I was being shoved into this role of 'angry white man in a punk band. The stresses of the band's tour schedule, coupled with going through a divorce at age 24, contributed to her addiction: "I was just getting fucked up all the time: drinking, drugs, whatever. I felt unhealthy and depressed about so many things". Throughout this time Grace made oblique references to gender dysphoria in song lyrics, including "The Disco Before the Breakdown" ("I know they're going to laugh at us / when they see us out together 'holding hands' like this"), "Violence" ("You've been keeping secrets ... Nothing but shame and paranoia"), and "Searching for a Former Clarity" ("In the journal you kept by the side of your bed ... confessing childhood secrets of dressing up in women's clothes / Compulsions you never knew the reasons to"). To help escape the stress and depression, Grace spent 18 months living in hotels on the outskirts of Gainesville while writing the next Against Me! album.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: In December 2005, Against Me! signed to Sire Records, a subsidiary of the Warner Music Group. With increased mainstream exposure, Grace swore off cross-dressing and other expressions of femininity: "You go through periods of binging and purging. I was 25, we were about to go on a long period of touring, and I was like, 'That's it. I'm getting rid of all this. I'm male, and that's it.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: Against Me!'s first major-label album, 2007's "New Wave", brought the band mainstream success: It debuted at no. 57 on the "Billboard" 200; featured their first charting single, "Thrash Unreal", which reached no. 11 on "Billboard"'s Modern Rock Tracks chart; and was named as "Spin"'s album of the year. The song "The Ocean" directly referenced Grace's gender dysphoria, with the lyrics "If I could have chosen, I would have been born a woman / My mother once told me she would have named me Laura / I would grow up to be strong and beautiful like her / One day I'd find an honest man to make my husband". Though Grace anticipated "completely outing myself" with the song, no one involved with the band seemed to pick up on the lyrics' literal meaning. She also wanted to cross-dress in the music video for "Thrash Unreal", but the label's A&R representative vetoed the idea.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: In August 2007, Grace was arrested in Tallahassee, Florida, on charges of battery, following a confrontation with a coffee shop patron after Grace tore down an article about Against Me! that had been hung up and defaced to mock the band. Grace allegedly knocked a cup out of the man's hand, then forced his head into the wooden counter. She admitted to intentionally knocking over the cup but denied hitting the man, and was released on bail the following morning. "We were playing at this place The Beta Bar," she said, "and this coffee shop next door was having a protest show against ours. I mean... go protest the fucking war!"


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: Grace's solo EP, "Heart Burns", was released in October 2008. Timed to coincide with that year's United States presidential election, the EP's songs addressed the country's political and economic climate, criticizing presidential candidate John McCain and the trial of environmental activist Eric McDavid. "I wanted to do something that was the complete opposite of "New Wave" in the sense of approach", she said. "I didn't want to really think about it. I didn't want to obsess about anything. I just wanted to go in and play songs. I wanted to record because it'll be fun, and that's what this is supposed to be about." Grace supported the EP by performing on The Revival Tour with Chuck Ragan of Hot Water Music, Tim Barry of Avail, and Ben Nichols of Lucero.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: Against Me!'s fifth studio album, "White Crosses", was released in 2010 and became their most successful, reaching no. 34 on the "Billboard" 200. By that September, however, Grace began taking week-long writing trips alone, checking into hotels dressed as a woman and writing a concept album titled "Transgender Dysphoria Blues," about a transsexual prostitute. The record was positively received.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: Against Me! cancelled a series of tour dates in October and November 2010 due to "a culmination of circumstances engulfing us", and left Sire/Warner.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: In 2011, Grace purchased an abandoned post office in Elkton, Florida, converting it into a recording studio called Total Treble and launched an accompanying record label for future Against Me! releases, Total Treble Music. The first album recorded at the studio was Cheap Girls' "Giant Orange" (2012), which also marked Grace's first experience as a record producer. Total Treble Studio closed in 2013 after being destroyed in a storm.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: In July 2018, it was announced that Grace would release an album in the fall of 2018 under the name Laura Jane Grace and the Devouring Mothers on Chicago-based Bloodshot Records. The record, "Bought to Rot", was made with bassist Marc Jacob Hudson and drummer Atom Willard (Against Me!, Angels & Airwaves, The Offspring). The release will include a tour with a three night weekly residency in Chicago.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: Grace released "Stay Alive" in 2020, her debut solo studio album. The album was written and recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Grace was left without the ability to record with her band Against Me!, and thus made a solo album instead. The album was recorded over three days in Steve Albini's studio in Chicago. "Stay Alive" was released as a surprise album with no promotion.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: On November 15, 2016, Grace's memoir "", co-written with "Noisey" editor Dan Ozzi, was published. Much of the book is based on Grace's journals, which she had kept since third grade. The book was known under a working title of "Kill Me Loudly" or "Killing Me Loudly" in 2015, when Grace was working with a different publisher.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: Grace has said that she is an anarchist. After leaving Naples, Italy and moving to Naples, Florida, Grace said that she discovered punk rock music around the age of 13. Around the age of 15 or 16 years old, Grace said that she also discovered the anarcho-punk and activist punk rock movements, which she found appealing for its feminist and anti-hate stance against racism, homophobia, and its embrace of body liberation. Grace said she has been influenced by these concepts as core values since learning about them. A band that Grace cites frequently as an example of politics and music is Crass, an English art collective and punk rock band formed in 1977. However, as Against Me! became more successful, the constraints of the punk rock scene, which often had rigid sets of rules, were difficult to embrace, especially during the times when Grace was struggling with gender dysphoria.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: The Against Me! song "Stop!" was part of the Rock the Vote campaign to encourage voting in the 2008 US presidential election.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: At a May 2016 Against Me! show in Durham, North Carolina, Grace set her birth certificate on fire in protest of the North Carolina bathroom bill. Grace said "Goodbye gender" during this act of protest.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: In 2020, Grace played at a fundraiser for Bernie Sanders's campaign for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: Grace participated in a 10-part documentary called "True Trans" where she interviewed "gender variant people from all walks of life" to allow them to tell their stories, in addition to telling hers. In 2015, the show was nominated for an Emmy for New Approaches: Arts, Lifestyle, Culture.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: In 2015, Grace worked with Joan Jett and Miley Cyrus to make videos for the Happy Hippie Foundation to raise money for homeless LGBT youth.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: In March 2006, while touring as an opening act for Alkaline Trio, Grace met visual artist Heather Hannoura, who designed merchandise for Alkaline Trio and other bands. The two spent the summer together on the Warped Tour, began living together, and got tattoos of each other's names. They married in December 2007, after a year-long engagement.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: Grace and Hannoura have a daughter together, Evelyn, born October 30, 2009. Grace's feelings of dysphoria "started coming back really strong" about the time Hannoura became pregnant that February, but were not acted on. The family moved to St. Augustine, Florida, in 2010, when Evelyn was about a year old. The couple separated and then divorced in 2013.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: Grace has lived in Chicago since 2013. She released a song "I Hate Chicago" in 2018 that criticised many aspects of the city.


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: Grace experienced feelings of gender dysphoria from a young age, citing them as her "earliest memories". Grace publicly came out as a transgender woman in May 2012 in an article to "Rolling Stone". Grace announced plans to begin transitioning. Having been inspired to come out after meeting a transgender Against Me! fan, Grace had informed the rest of the band that February. In 2012, she began publicly using the name Laura Jane Grace. "Laura" is the name her mother would have chosen had she been assigned female at birth, "Jane" was selected simply because she thinks it's pretty, and "Grace" is her mother's maiden name. On continuing to perform in Against Me!, Grace said, "However fierce our band was in the past, imagine me, six-foot-two, in heels, fucking screaming into someone's face."


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: In her 2012 interview with "Rolling Stone", Grace revealed plans to take hormones and undergo electrolysis. She said she was also considering surgery. She expressed apprehension about chondrolaryngoplasty and bottom surgery, saying, "I don't give a fuck if I lose my penis. It's just fucking scary because of the surgery. I've needed to have my wisdom teeth removed for five years, and I still haven't." She said that she would live as a woman and undergo psychotherapy for a year before considering gender confirmation surgery: "Right now, I'm in this awkward transition period. I look like a dude, and feel like a dude, and it sucks. But eventually I'll flip, and I'll present as female." In 2015, Grace stated, "I think it's perfectly valid [for a trans person] to never undergo bottom surgery".


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: In response to Grace's announcement, a number of figures in the punk community voiced their support, including musicians Brian Fallon, Brendan Kelly, Franz Nicolay, and Mike Shinoda; cartoonist Mitch Clem; and mixed martial artist CM Punk. Herndon Graddick, President of GLAAD, hoped that Grace's public profile would increase public awareness and acceptance of trans people: "[Laura] is displaying extraordinary courage by coming out as transgender after already establishing herself as a rock star. For many of the band's fans, this may be the first time they're actually thinking about transgender people and the bravery it sometimes takes in order to be true to yourself."


title: Laura Jane Grace

text: Grace confirmed in January 2019 that she underwent facial feminization surgery in December 2018 as part of her transition.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: Peter Senerchia (born October 11, 1967), better known by the ring name Taz (also spelled Tazz) is an American radio personality, color commentator, and retired professional wrestler signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as a commentator and manager.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: He is known for his work in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), where he was a two-time World Heavyweight Champion, a two-time World Television Champion, a three-time World Tag Team Champion, a two-time (and the inaugural) FTW Heavyweight Champion, and the fourth ECW Triple Crown Champion.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: His World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWF/E) career as an in-ring performer came to an early end in 2002 and subsequently saw him transition into a color-commentary role, which he continued to do until his contract with WWE expired in April 2009. Two months later, Senerchia debuted in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling at their Victory Road pay-per-view under his previous Taz ring name and eventually reprised his role as a color commentator for TNA's broadcasts, replacing Don West.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: Senerchia began wrestling in World Wrestling Council (WWC) and made his professional wrestling debut on June 3, 1987 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, after being trained by Johnny Rodz. He wrestled as Kid Krush before moving on to the name The Tazmaniac, of which he would use variations for the rest of his career. In the early 1990s as The Tazmaniac, he wrestled for International World Class Championship Wrestling (IWCCW) and held its Light Heavyweight Championship for six months in 1991. He would follow Tony Rumble in leaving IWCCW to join the newly established Century Wrestling Alliance (CWA). He would also tour in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: Senerchia had his first World Wrestling Federation (WWF) match on August 19, 1991 as The Tazmaniac, when he was defeated by Ray Odyssey. He then made his only appearance ever in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) when he defeated Joey Maggs in a dark match at a "Saturday Night" taping in Atlanta, Georgia on February 8, 1993. He would then make his second appearance in the WWF on May 5, 1993. Wrestling in a dark match at a Wrestling Challenge taping in Portland, ME, Tazmaniac would beat Scott Taylor. He would go on to make two additional appearances on house shows in New Jersey on June 29 and June 30, losing to Jim Powers on each occasion.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: Wrestling as "The Tazmaniac," Senerchia debuted in the Philadelphia-based promotion Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) in October 1993 at NWA Bloodfest. He formed a tag team with Joe Chetti (brother of Chris Chetti) called The Tazmaniacs. When that team broke up, he was put into another team with Kevin Sullivan, with whom he won the Tag Team Championship twice. During his second reign as Tag Team Champion with Sullivan, The Tazmaniac became a double champion when he also won the Television Championship for one night in March 1994. For most of the rest of the year he floated around the tag ranks, teaming with different partners. He held the title once more, this time with Sabu, until Sabu was legitimately fired by ECW owner Paul Heyman for no-showing an event in favor of touring Japan for New Japan Pro-Wrestling. In August 1994, The Tazmaniac competed in a one-night eight-man tournament for the vacant NWA World Heavyweight Championship, losing to Shane Douglas in the quarter-finals.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: The Tazmaniac was put out of action by a legit injury for much of 1995. On July 20, during a tag team match 2 Cold Scorpio and Dean Malenko delivered a spike piledriver to him, and though he knew it was about to be performed, he did not have time to properly protect himself. As he explained on the DVD documentary "The Rise and Fall of ECW", "I landed right on my forehead and just jacked my whole neck back and that was it." The neck injury was so bad that, according to Tommy Dreamer, hospital staff couldn't believe he'd walked into the hospital where he sought help after the match. Though he was unable to wrestle, Paul Heyman continued to pay him per their oral agreement, forging a loyalty between the men.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: Following his neck injury, Taz made appearances with The Steiner Brothers, even standing in their corner during matches with The Eliminators and getting physical with Jason. It was at the November to Remember event, when Taz turned heel and joined up with referee Bill Alfonso. Working as the special referee for Alfonso's match with ECW commissioner Tod Gordon, Taz refused to count to three and assaulted Gordon, then making the count for Alfonso. In his post-match promo, he claimed that no one was looking after him while he was injured and that no one cared (though Heyman was still paying him, the kayfabe story was that he had been forgotten and that Alfonso was the one helping him keep food on his family's table). He was also angry that Sabu was brought back in that very night.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: Taz returned to the ring on December 19, 1995 at Holiday Hell with a new look and wrestling style. The new character had him clad in a black and orange singlet and exhibiting a more physically intense in-ring style, focusing his offense on mat wrestling and suplexes (inspired by working with The Steiner Brothers), which announcer Joey Styles dubbed "Taz-Plexes", earning him the nickname "The Human Suplex Machine". He also debuted his "Tazmission"/Katahajime finishing maneuver, causing opponents to tap out to signal their submission as in mixed martial arts instead of nodding their head or vocally saying "yes". This quirk was soon picked up by other companies throughout the country. Heading into the summer, Taz began feuding with Tommy Dreamer, joining up with Brian Lee to face Dreamer and Terry Gordy and later Dreamer and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams. Taz also developed a friendship with The Eliminators, based on mutual respect, and they occasionally involved themselves in his matches. Perry Saturn and Taz were both trainers at ECW's House of Hardcore wrestling school. For a while, some of the students, including Mako and Chris Chetti, would accompany Taz and Alfonso to the ring as a faction known as Team Taz.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: At November to Remember, things seemed to come full circle, as Taz stormed to the ring and interrupted Styles and "stole Paul E.'s thunder" by announcing that there would be a "big show in the first quarter of the new year", basically telling the fans in attendance that ECW's first pay-per-view was on the horizon. At that "big show", he guaranteed that Sabu would finally face him. Later that night, he came out to force Scorpio to leave the ring and went on an angry tirade, abusing Bob Artese and holding him hostage in the ring. Taz demanded Sabu come out and face him, and twice even led the crowd in a "Sabu, Sabu" chant to get him to enter the ring. Several officials and wrestlers came out and Taz eventually got his hands on Paul E. The lights went out and when they came back on, Sabu was in the ring, across from Taz. This was the first time they had been in the ring together since early 1995. Before they could lock up, the lights went out again.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: During Sabu's match, where he teamed with Rob Van Dam to face The Eliminators and The Gangstas in a three-way dance, Taz attempted to attack his former partner, but Van Dam saved Sabu and was choked out in the aisle. This distraction caused Sabu to get hit with "Total Elimination" and his team lost. Taz also began a mini-feud with Rob Van Dam, dominating him in every match and was also out for a short time to get surgery on his injured shoulder. As 1996 ended and 1997 began, Taz and Sabu continued to try getting at one another, with no actual contact.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: Early in 1997, the antagonism between Sabu and Taz was growing, as Taz attacked Sabu's partner, Rob Van Dam, costing the team matches with The Eliminators and other teams. In the months leading to ECW's first pay-per-view, Taz would choke out low-level wrestlers with the "Tazmission" due to viewing his matches as secondary to his rivalry with Sabu. He then dominated another series of matches with Van Dam before meeting Sabu at Barely Legal, where Taz defeated him with the "Tazmission", only to have his manager Bill Alfonso turn on him and join Sabu and his partner Rob Van Dam. In response, Taz began teaming with Chris Candido to face Sabu and Van Dam.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: Two months later at Wrestlepalooza, Taz lost to Sabu in the rematch, marking his first loss since 1995. However, later in the night, he won the World Television Championship from Shane Douglas to begin his second reign. He defended the title against all comers, including Douglas, Lance Storm, John Kronus, Al Snow, Jerry Lynn and Chris Candido. Throughout late 1997, Taz began feuding with The Triple Threat in addition to Sabu and Van Dam, where he sometimes teamed up with Tommy Dreamer during the feud. At November to Remember, he issued a challenge to World Heavyweight Champion Bam Bam Bigelow. The two would eventually meet, after Bigelow turned on Taz in a match against Shane Douglas and Chris Candido. Taz would ultimately lose the title to Bam Bam Bigelow at Living Dangerously on March 1, 1998.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: After losing the World Television Championship, Taz was elevated into the World Heavyweight Championship picture. In May 1998, with Shane Douglas injured and unable to wrestle, Taz was given an old World Television Championship belt painted orange—his trademark color—and began cutting promos, declaring himself the FTW Heavyweight Champion at It Ain't Seinfeld. Though the championship was unsanctioned in storyline, it was defended at ECW shows until Douglas was healthy. Just before winning the World Heavyweight Championship, Taz "gave" the FTW Heavyweight Title to long-time foe Sabu in a match where he physically pulled Sabu on top of him to allow him to get the pin.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: Taz finally defeated Shane Douglas for the World Heavyweight Championship at Guilty as Charged, thus ending Douglas' year-long reign. Taz was supposed to defend the title against Chris Candido in his first televised title defense at House Party but Douglas attacked Candido before the match and took his place, whom Taz defeated to retain the title in his first successful title defense. He would then begin a feud with Sabu over Taz's World Heavyweight Championship and Sabu's FTW Heavyweight Championship. The rivalry culminated in a title unification match at the Living Dangerously pay-per-view, where Taz defeated Sabu to unify the FTW Heavyweight Championship into the World Heavyweight Championship. He would begin his next rivalry with Chris Candido, whom he defeated to retain the title at CyberSlam. The two were scheduled to a rematch at Hardcore Heaven, which Taz quickly won. However, he was attacked by Dudley Boyz after the match, leading to a title defense against Buh Buh Ray Dudley in a falls count anywhere match in the main event later that night, which Taz won to retain the title. Taz then successfully defended the title against Candido on the June 4 episode of "Hardcore TV" to end the rivalry.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: Taz made his next successful title defense against Spike Dudley in a Falls Count Anywhere match on the June 25 episode of "Hardcore TV". He would begin feuding with the members of Steve Corino's new rising stable, primarily Yoshihiro Tajiri. Taz successfully defended the World Heavyweight Championship against Tajiri at Hostile City Showdown, the Heat Wave pay-per-view and the September 3 episode of "ECW on TNN". During that time, Taz signed with the World Wrestling Federation, before he losing the ECW title as the first man to be eliminated in a three-way dance by Mike Awesome and Masato Tanaka at Anarchy Rulz. This ended his eight-month reign at 252 days. As he walked out of the ring, a large portion of the ECW locker room joined him on the entrance ramp to give him an emotional sendoff. After being off of ECW television for most of the fall, he wrestled one final match as an ECW performer at November to Remember, losing to Rob Van Dam via pinfall. Taz's final televised match in ECW aired on the November 13 episode of "Hardcore TV", in which he received a rematch against Mike Awesome for the World Heavyweight Championship, which he lost. In the DVD "The Rise and Fall of ECW", Taz said that he signed with the WWE because he was in the top of the company and he lost his passion.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: After being contacted by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1999, Taz ultimately signed for the WWF. Beginning in December 1999, what would become Taz's symbol would play on the titantron during various entrances, and the arena would be shrouded in Taz's signature orange color. Taz would later debut for the WWF, with the slightly modified ring name Tazz, at the 2000 Royal Rumble with a win over the previously undefeated Kurt Angle at Madison Square Garden. Just a few months after Taz arrived in the WWF, Mike Awesome, the man he had lost the ECW World Heavyweight Championship to at Anarchy Rulz, secretly signed with WCW. Legal wrangling by Paul Heyman prevented Awesome from taking the championship belt with him, and in a bizarre piece of professional wrestling history, ECW and WWF officials agreed to have Taz, a WWF wrestler, make a surprise appearance at an ECW show to defeat Awesome, a WCW wrestler, for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. Taz held the title for ten days before losing it to Tommy Dreamer, during which time he wore it on various WWF shows, and including an episode of "SmackDown!" where he lost to the WWF Champion Triple H. However, Vince McMahon later expressed some regret over booking Taz to lose to Triple H.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: After he lost the ECW World Heavyweight Championship at CyberSlam, Taz was placed into contention for the Intercontinental Championship, but he never won the title. In the summer, after taking time off for an arm injury, he turned heel and placed into a feud with color commentator Jerry Lawler. The feud included matches at SummerSlam and Unforgiven, which they split. Taz was only able to pick up the Unforgiven win when he received help from Raven, who had returned to the company. Afterwards, the duo formed a tag team that lasted until November.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: When the Invasion angle began, Taz acted as "the voice of the WCW/ECW Alliance", sticking up for them and speaking on their behalf whenever possible. Over the next few weeks, he'd be beaten up by Stone Cold Steve Austin, made out as the weak link and "the example" needed to be made to the other Alliance members. Despite this mistreatment, Taz would still speak positively about Austin and The Alliance as a whole while on commentary. He eventually left the stable after he finally stood up to Austin and attacked Paul Heyman in the weeks leading up to Survivor Series, where The Alliance would go on to lose to Team WWF.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: With injuries mounting, Taz began performing part-time commentary on "Sunday Night Heat" in October 2000. He joined the "SmackDown!" team in February 2001 after Jerry Lawler quit the company, after calling his first pay-per-view on No Way Out with Jim Ross, as well as becoming one of the trainers for the joint WWF/MTV produced reality series "Tough Enough". Lawler returned to the company on November 19, 2001 and resumed his place as commentator, with Taz becoming both a wrestler and a commentator. In January 2002, he and Spike Dudley won the WWF Tag Team Championship, holding it for over a month before losing it to Billy and Chuck.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: When World Wrestling Entertainment split into two brands, Taz was put on the SmackDown! brand, where he resumed his color commentator duties. Not long after he retired from the ring, he became a full-time broadcaster. He co-hosted "SmackDown!" for World Wrestling Entertainment until a third brand, ECW, was introduced in 2006, at which point he became the color commentator for that show. He was also the co-host, with Joey Styles, of "History of Extreme Championship Wrestling" on WWE 24/7 Classics, a show that re-airs archived episodes of the original ECW's weekly television programs. Before and during episodes he and Styles provide insight into the storylines, inner workings, and general ambiance of ECW at the time—as they remember it.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: In February 2006, Taz and his "SmackDown!" broadcasting partner, Michael Cole, hosted a week-long trial run of a show on Howard 101 on Sirius Satellite Radio, but the show was not picked up. He also hosted a talk show on 92.3 Free FM at sporadic intervals between late summer 2006 and early 2007, but it was not picked up and the station changed formats, replacing all post morning programming with music. On June 11, 2006, Taz wrestled his final match to date, defeating Jerry Lawler at ECW One Night Stand.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: During the recording of the April 29, 2008 episode of "ECW", Taz's broadcast partner Mike Adamle abruptly walked off set prior to the main event. Moments later, after reading the promo for the upcoming pay-per-view, Taz walked out as well, leaving the main event with no commentators. On December 13, 2010, Taz joined Right After Wrestling and said that it "pisses him off" when companies try to re-create the original ECW. He stated that the original ECW worked because "It was that era, that group of people, that leader in Paul Heyman. We were that little engine that could."


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: In August 2008, Taz filled in for Mick Foley as a color commentator on the SmackDown brand after Edge attacked Foley in the previous week, while Raw wrestler Matt Striker filled in for Taz on the ECW brand. When Foley left the company, Taz became the permanent color commentator for the SmackDown brand once again. On April 3, 2009, WWE announced that Taz left WWE when his contract had expired before WrestleMania 25. Two days later after his departure from WWE, his WWE.com profile was moved from the active SmackDown roster list to the alumni list for a short time before being completely removed, and confirming his departure from the company.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: In October 2018, Taz talked about what led to his WWE departure stating "I left on my own terms. My contract was up the week going into WrestleMania, I wasn’t there. That was it. I was done at the Dallas TV before that...They offered me a new deal, which was a great deal...I had to get out of there...I saw Vince in Dallas and I officially gave word, shook his hand, said I was leaving in Dallas. He and I were crying and hugging, ‘I’m gonna miss you.’ I thanked him for everything. It was great. I remember talking to Stephanie [McMahon] and Triple H……Stephanie was just looking at me, ‘I’m really surprised. Why are you doing this?’ She couldn’t understand why I would leave. She wasn’t mean. She wasn’t disrespectful. ‘I need to do this. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. There’s no ill will.’ She was the same way with me. So was Hunter. They were extremely awesome to me; but, like an adult to an adult she was just wondering why and I was, 'I just need a break'". In April 2020, Taz further reflected his other reasons for his WWE departure stating "I didn’t want to be around anybody named McMahon at that time, They were annoying, and it was the pompous, the arrogance. But the arrogance, not politics, the arrogance. That’s what I keep saying. That’s the adjective that keeps jumping out at me. Just the disposition of that elitist attitude, it got to the point where I was like, ‘you know what?..I’m out".


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: At Victory Road, Senercia, under his Taz ring name, made his official Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) debut during Samoa Joe's match against Sting, revealing himself to be Joe's on-screen adviser and consequently a heel as well as an ally of the Main Event Mafia. The match ending was booked as Taz's presence enabling Joe to recover from Sting's "Scorpion Deathlock" and win the match via submission after applying the "Coquina Clutch".


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: On the August 20, 2009 episode of "Impact!", Taz replaced Don West as the promotion's color commentator and also became a face upon stating that he was only loosely associated with the Mafia and that he had taught Joe everything he knew and that it was now up to Joe to use his newfound skills. In May 2012, Taz began appearing as a judge in the monthly Gut Check segment on "Impact Wrestling".


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: On the January 17, 2013 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Taz was a groomsman at the wedding between Bully Ray and Brooke Hogan. As Ray and Brooke exchanged their vows, Taz interrupted the ceremony and proclaimed himself to be a member of Aces & Eights after revealing a kutte underneath his coat, turning heel again in the process. Following his revelation, Aces & Eights ambushed the ceremony and attacked Ray, his groomsmen Tommy Dreamer and Brother Runt and Brooke's father Hulk Hogan. The following week on "Impact Wrestling", Taz revealed that he joined Aces & Eights because of his desire to be a member of a group that adheres to a higher power. On the November 21 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Aces & Eights was forced to disband after Bully Ray lost to Mr. Anderson, which also saw Anderson retain his career in TNA.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: Three days later on April 18, 2015, Taz stated that what led to his TNA departure was "that he was asked for his release and he got it and said that it was all professional and he left the proper way. He revealed that his deal was up in the Summer anyway and was already looking into alternatives and the way he said it was that he was not going to renew his deal anyway even though TNA wanted him to stay. He confirmed the reports that payments were not coming in and his checks came late and had to do what he had to do. “I did a service, I wasn’t paid for that service,“ Taz said, adding that TNA understood his situation. Once the checks were not coming, he gave TNA his notice and that was it. He said that he would have liked to make a little bit more money but then again everyone felt like that and despite not making the most he was happy from the financial side of things".


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: In November 2016, Taz made an appearance on the WWE Network special, "The Authentic Untold Story of ECW", alongside former ECW management Paul Heyman and wrestlers Bubba Ray Dudley, D-Von Dudley, and Tommy Dreamer. In the one-hour special hosted by Corey Graves, the guests talked about their experiences in ECW and the promotion's legacy on professional wrestling.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: On October 12, 2019, Taz made a guest appearance for All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he appeared on the October 22nd edition of "AEW Dark" as a guest commentator. On November 9, 2019, Taz made his guest appearance during Full Gear as the pre-show commentator. On the January 1, 2020 episode of "AEW Dynamite", Taz made his "Dynamite" debut on commentary filling in for Tony Schiavone. On January 16, 2020, it was announced that Taz had officially signed a multi-year deal with AEW, and he was made a member of the AEW broadcast team.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: At Double or Nothing on May 20, 2020, Taz accompanied newcomer Brian Cage to the ring during the Casino Ladder Match and in what appeared to be the role of a manager, establishing himself as a heel in the process. Cage would win the match, which also made him the number one contender for the AEW World Championship, and Taz celebrated the victory with him afterwards. On Night 2 of Fyter Fest, Taz rewarded Cage with the FTW Championship he held during his later years in ECW. At Fight for the Fallen, Cage lost to Jon Moxley after Taz threw in the towel. Soon after, Taz would recruit Ricky Starks to create a group known as Team Taz along with Cage as they began feuding with Darby Allin. On the November 18, 2020 episode of "Dynamite", Will Hobbs joined Team Taz after hitting Cody Rhodes with Cage's FTW championship belt and then helping Taz, Cage and Starks when they attacked Rhodes and Allin.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: On August 4, 2021, it was announced that Taz would permanently join the commentary team on "AEW Rampage" beginning August 13, 2021. In June 2022, Taz switched to full-time commentary on "AEW Dynamite", in a commentary team rotation swap with Jim Ross.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: Taz's character was influenced by The Missing Link, The Steiner Brothers and The Wild Samoans. Taz is nicknamed the "Human Suplex Machine" due to his wide array of suplex variations he would utilise in matches. His finishing move, the "Tazmission", is a Katahajime judo chokehold. He also sometimes combined this submission with a suplex, creating a half nelson choke suplex, called the "Tazmission-Plex". He has also claimed to have named the T-Bone Suplex. When Taz was signed by WWF, other wrestlers complained to Vince McMahon about his style, calling him dangerous and didn't want to work with him. However, Kurt Angle defended Taz, saying that "Taz was never dangerous with his suplexes".


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: Senerchia is of Italian descent. He married Teresa Smith, and together they have one son, Tyler Cole (born May 4, 1999), who wrestles under the ring name Hook. Tyler has trained with Cody Rhodes and made several appearances in AEW as part of his father's stable Team Taz, debuting in action on December 10, 2021.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: Senerchia has a tattoo of the Looney Tunes Tasmanian Devil on his upper right biceps, which he states he got after being inspired by an identical tattoo sported by Road Warrior Animal. He also has a self-designed tattoo on his left lower biceps.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: Senerchia played high school football, as well as in college, playing for the LIU Post Pioneers. He also studied judo prior to entering the professional wrestling circuit, reaching a second-degree black belt. He is a fan of the New York Mets, New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, New York Islanders, and the Buffalo Bills.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: In September 1998, Senerchia was arrested on charges of indecent exposure and contributing to the delinquency of a child after allegedly exposing himself to a 15 year-old salon worker during a massage. The charges were dropped in October 1999.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: Beginning in 2018, Senerchia was a nationally syndicated morning radio personality, co-hosting "Taz and The Moose" with Marc "The Moose" Malusis on CBS Sports Radio weekdays from 6-9 a.m. Eastern. In December 2019, Senerchia announced he was leaving the show.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: Senerchia also had his own podcast, called "The Taz Show", (formerly known as "The Human Podcast Machine)", where he discusses the latest in the professional wrestling world. The show has since discontinued.


title: Taz (wrestler)

text: Senerchia (as Taz) appears as a playable character in "ECW Hardcore Revolution", "WWF No Mercy, ", WWE WrestleMania X8 (video game)", "WWF SmackDown! Just Bring It", "WWE SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth", "WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007" and "WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009".


title: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

text: The erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR or sed rate) is the rate at which red blood cells in anticoagulated whole blood descend in a standardized tube over a period of one hour. It is a common hematology test, and is a non-specific measure of inflammation.


title: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

text: To perform the test, anticoagulated blood is traditionally placed in an upright tube, known as a Westergren tube, and the distance which the red blood cells fall is measured and reported in millimetre at the end of one hour.


title: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

text: Since the introduction of automated analyzers into the clinical laboratory, the ESR test has been automatically performed.


title: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

text: The ESR is governed by the balance between pro-sedimentation factors, mainly fibrinogen, and those factors resisting sedimentation, namely the negative charge of the erythrocytes (zeta potential). When an inflammatory process is present, the high proportion of fibrinogen in the blood causes red blood cells to stick to each other. The red cells form stacks called "rouleaux" which settle faster, due to their increased density. Rouleaux formation can also occur in association with some lymphoproliferative disorders in which one or more paraproteins are secreted in high amounts. While abnormal in humans, rouleaux formation can be a normal physiological finding in horses, cats, and pigs.


title: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

text: The ESR is increased in inflammation, pregnancy, anemia, autoimmune disorders (such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus), infections, some kidney diseases and some cancers (such as lymphoma and multiple myeloma). The ESR is decreased in polycythemia, hyperviscosity, sickle cell anemia, leukemia, chronic fatigue syndrome, low plasma protein (due to liver or kidney disease) and congestive heart failure. Although increases in immunoglobulins usually increase the ESR, very high levels can reduce it again due to hyperviscosity of the plasma. This is especially likely with IgM-class paraproteins, and to a lesser extent, IgA-class. The basal ESR is slightly higher in females.


title: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

text: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) is the measure of ability of erythrocytes (red blood cell) to fall through the blood plasma and accumulate together at the base of container in one hour.


title: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

text: In normal conditions, the red blood cells are negatively charged and therefore repel each other rather than stacking. ESR is also reduced by high blood viscosity, which slows the rate of fall.


title: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

text: The rate of erythrocyte sedimentation is affected by both inflammatory and non-inflammatory conditions.


title: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

text: In inflammatory conditions, fibrinogen, other clotting proteins, and alpha globulin are positively charged, thus increasing the ESR. ESR begins to rise at 24 to 48 hours after the onset of acute self-limited inflammation, decreases slowly as inflammation resolves, and can take weeks to months to return to normal levels. For ESR values more than 100 mm/hour, there is a 90% probability that an underlying cause would be found upon investigation.


title: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

text: In non-inflammatory conditions, plasma albumin concentration, size, shape, and number of red blood cells, and the concentration of immunoglobulin can affect the ESR. Non-inflammatory conditions that can cause raised ESR include anemia, kidney failure, obesity, ageing, and female sex. ESR is also higher in women during menstruation and pregnancy. The value of ESR does not change whether dialysis is performed or not. Therefore, ESR is not a reliable measure of inflammation in those with kidney injuries as the ESR value is already elevated.


title: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

text: An increased number of red blood cells (polycythemia) causes reduced ESR as blood viscosity increases. Hemoglobinopathy such as sickle-cell disease can have low ESR due to an improper shape of red blood cells that impairs stacking.


title: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

text: ESR can sometimes be useful in diagnosing diseases, such as multiple myeloma, temporal arteritis, polymyalgia rheumatica, various auto-immune diseases, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and chronic kidney diseases. In many of these cases, the ESR may exceed 100 mm/hour.


title: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

text: It is commonly used for a differential diagnosis for Kawasaki's disease (from Takayasu's arteritis; which would have a markedly elevated ESR) and it may be increased in some chronic infective conditions like tuberculosis and infective endocarditis. It is also elevated in subacute thyroiditis also known as DeQuervain's.


title: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

text: In markedly increased ESR of over 100 mm/h, infection is the most common cause (33% of cases in an American study), followed by cancer (17%), kidney disease (17%) and noninfectious inflammatory disorders (14%). Yet, in pneumonia the ESR stays under 100.


title: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

text: The usefulness of the ESR in current practice has been questioned by some, as it is a relatively imprecise and non-specific test compared to other available diagnostic tests. Current literature suggests that and ESR should be "obtained on all patients over the age of 50" who have an intense headache.


title: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

text: It is a component of the PCDAI (pediatric Crohn's disease activity index), an index for assessment of the severity of inflammatory bowel disease in children.


title: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

text: The clinical usefulness of ESR is limited to monitoring the response to therapy in certain inflammatory diseases such as temporal arteritis, polymyalgia rheumatica and rheumatoid arthritis. It can also be used as a crude measure of response in Hodgkin's lymphoma. Additionally, ESR levels are used to define one of the several possible adverse prognostic factors in the staging of Hodgkin's lymphoma.


title: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

text: Westergren's original normal values (men 3 mm/h and women 7 mm/h) made no allowance for a person's age. Later studies from 1967 confirmed that ESR values tend to rise with age and to be generally higher in women.


title: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

text: Values of the ESR also appear to be slightly higher in normal populations of African-Americans than Caucasians of both genders. Values also appear to be higher in anemic individuals than non-anemic individuals.


title: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

text: The widely used rule calculating normal maximum ESR values in adults (98% confidence limit) is given by a formula devised in 1983 from a study of ≈1000 individuals over the age of 20: The normal values of ESR in men is age (in years) divided by 2; for women, the normal value is age (in years) plus 10, divided by 2.


title: Behavior

text: Behavior (American English) or behaviour (British English) is the range of actions and mannerisms made by individuals, organisms, systems or artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or organisms as well as the inanimate physical environment. It is the computed response of the system or organism to various stimuli or inputs, whether internal or external, conscious or subconscious, overt or covert, and voluntary or involuntary.


title: Behavior

text: Taking a behavior informatics perspective, a behavior consists of actor, operation, interactions, and their properties. This can be represented as a behavior vector.


title: Behavior

text: Although disagreement exists as to how to precisely define behavior in a biological context, one common interpretation based on a meta-analysis of scientific literature states that "behavior is the internally coordinated responses (actions or inactions) of whole living organisms (individuals or groups) to internal and/or external stimuli".


title: Behavior

text: A broader definition of behavior, applicable to plants and other organisms, is similar to the concept of phenotypic plasticity. It describes behavior as a response to an event or environment change during the course of the lifetime of an individual, differing from other physiological or biochemical changes that occur more rapidly, and excluding changes that are result of development (ontogeny).


title: Behavior

text: Behavior can be regarded as any action of an organism that changes its relationship to its environment. Behavior provides outputs from the organism to the environment.


title: Behavior

text: The endocrine system and the nervous system likely influence human behavior. Complexity in the behavior of an organism may be correlated to the complexity of its nervous system. Generally, organisms with more complex nervous systems have a greater capacity to learn new responses and thus adjust their behavior.


title: Behavior

text: Ethology is the scientific and objective study of animal behavior, usually with a focus on behavior under natural conditions, and viewing behavior as an evolutionarily adaptive trait. behaviorism is a term that also describes the scientific and objective study of animal behavior, usually referring to measured responses to stimuli or trained behavioral responses in a laboratory context, without a particular emphasis on evolutionary adaptivity.


title: Behavior

text: Consumer behavior involves the processes consumers go through, and reactions they have towards products or services. It has to do with consumption, and the processes consumers go through around purchasing and consuming goods and services. Consumers recognise needs or wants, and go through a process to satisfy these needs. Consumer behavior is the process they go through as customers, which includes types of products purchased, amount spent, frequency of purchases and what influences them to make the purchase decision or not.


title: Behavior

text: Circumstances that influence consumer behavior are varied, with contributions from both internal and external factors. Internal factors include attitudes, needs, motives, preferences and perceptual processes, whilst external factors include marketing activities, social and economic factors, and cultural aspects. Doctor Lars Perner of the University of Southern California claims that there are also physical factors that influence consumer behavior, for example if a consumer is hungry, then this physical feeling of hunger will influence them so that they go and purchase a sandwich to satisfy the hunger.


title: Behavior

text: There is a model described by Lars Perner which illustrates the decision-making process with regards to consumer behavior. It begins with recognition of a problem, the consumer recognises a need or want which has not been satisfied. This leads the consumer to search for information, if it is a low involvement product then the search will be internal, identifying alternatives purely from memory. If the product is high involvement then the search be more thorough, such as reading reviews or reports or asking friends.


title: Behavior

text: The consumer will then evaluate his or her alternatives, comparing price, quality, doing trade-offs between products and narrowing down the choice by eliminating the less appealing products until there is one left. After this has been identified, the consumer will purchase the product.


title: Behavior

text: Finally the consumer will evaluate the purchase decision, and the purchased product, bringing in factors such as value for money, quality of goods and purchase experience. However, this logical process does not always happen this way, people are emotional and irrational creatures. People make decisions with emotion and then justify it with logic according to Robert Caladini Ph.D. Psychology.


title: Behavior

text: The Marketing mix (4 P's) are a marketing tool, and stand for Price, Promotion, Product and Placement.


title: Behavior

text: Because consumer behavior is influenced greatly by business to consumer marketing, the 4 P's will have an effect on consumer's behavior. The price of a good or service is largely determined by the market, as businesses will set their prices to be similar to that of other business so as to remain competitive whilst making a profit. When market prices for a product are high, it will cause consumers to purchase less and use purchased goods for longer periods of time, meaning they are purchasing the product less often. Alternatively, when market prices for a product are low, consumers are more likely to purchase more of the product, and more often.


title: Behavior

text: The way that promotion influences consumer behavior has changed over time. In the past, large promotional campaigns and heavy advertising would convert into sales for a business, but nowadays businesses can have success on products with little or no advertising. This is due to the Internet, and in particular social media. They rely on word of mouth from consumers using social media, and as products trend online, so sales increase as products effectively promote themselves. Thus, promotion by businesses does not necessarily result in consumer behavior trending towards purchasing products.


title: Behavior

text: The way that product influences consumer behavior is through consumer willingness to pay, and consumer preferences. This means that even if a company were to have a long history of products in the market, consumers will still pick a cheaper product over the company in question's product if it means they will pay less for something that is very similar. This is due to consumer willingness to pay, or their willingness to part with their money they have earned. Product also influences consumer behavior through customer preferences. For example, take Pepsi vs Coca-Cola, a Pepsi-drinker is less likely to purchase Coca-Cola, even if it is cheaper and more convenient. This is due to the preference of the consumer, and no matter how hard the opposing company tries they will not be able to force the customer to change their mind.


title: Behavior

text: Product placement in the modern era has little influence on consumer behavior, due to the availability of goods online. If a customer can purchase a good from the comfort of their home instead of purchasing in-store, then the placement of products is not going to influence their purchase decision.