title: Curitiba

text: Curitiba has a Jewish community that was originally established in the 1870s. Much of the early Jewish congregation has been assimilated. In 1937 with the rise of Nazi Germany, notable German Jewish academics migrated to Brazil, some settling in Curitiba. Physicist César Lattes and former mayors Jaime Lerner and Saul Raiz were Jewish. A Holocaust memorial is present in the city. The community centre, a Jewish school, a Chabad house (Beit Chabad), a synagogue, and two Jewish cemeteries are there, one of which was defiled in 2004.


title: Curitiba

text: Japanese immigrants began arriving in 1915, with a larger contingent arriving in 1924. Curitiba received a significant Japanese influx. They settled mostly between Paraná and São Paulo state. The city has the second largest Japanese community in Brazil, behind only São Paulo, according to IBGE. Although both cities have around the same proportion of Japanese descendants, other large cities in the interior of the state of Paraná, such as Maringá and Londrina, have an even higher rate. Some estimates suggest that more than 40,000 Japanese-Brazilians live in Curitiba.


title: Curitiba

text: According to the 2010 Brazilian Census, most of the population (62.36%) is Roman Catholic, other religious groups include Protestants or evangelicals (24.03%), Spiritists (2.8%), Nones 6.71%, and people with other religions (3.69).


title: Curitiba

text: Since it was declared capital of the State of Paraná in 1853, the city has gone through several major urban planning projects to avoid uncontrolled growth and thus has become an international role model in dealing with issues including transportation and the environment. The city is Brazil's second largest car manufacturer. Its economy is based on industry, commerce and services. For that reason, Curitiba is considered by many investors to be the best location for investment in Brazil.


title: Curitiba

text: The city receives more than two million tourists every year. Most arrive via the Afonso Pena International Airport, where almost 60,000 flights land annually.


title: Curitiba

text: According to IPEA data, the GDP in 2006 was 32 billion reals, without including agriculture and livestock (0.03%). Industry represented 34.13% and the commerce and service sectors 65.84%. Cidade Industrial de Curitiba, the industrial district, is home to many multinational industries, such as Nissan, Renault, Volkswagen, Philip Morris, Audi, Volvo, HSBC, Siemens, ExxonMobil, Electrolux and Kraft Foods, as well as many well-known national industries, such as Sadia, O Boticário and Positivo Informática.


title: Curitiba

text: Curitiba's infrastructure makes bus travel fast and convenient, effectively creating demand for bus use in the same way that the infrastructure of traditional cities creates demand for private motor vehicles. In July 2001, Curitiba became Brazil's first city to receive the prize "Pole of Information Technology", granted by "InfoExame" magazine. According to the magazine, the companies of "Technology and Information Technology" based in Curitiba in 2001 achieved in revenues, representing a growth of 21% over the previous year.


title: Curitiba

text: The city's 30-year economic growth rate is 7.1%, higher than the national average of 4.2%, and per capita income is 66% higher than the Brazilian average. Between 1975 and 1995, Curitiba's domestic product grew by some 75% more than the entire State of Paraná, and 48% more than Brazil as a whole. In 1994, tourism generated - 4% of the city's net income. Curitiba has municipal health, education and day care networks, neighborhood libraries shared by schools and citizens and Citizenship Streets, where buildings provide essential public services, sports and cultural facilities near transportation terminals. At the Open University, residents can take courses in subjects such as mechanics, hair styling and environmental protection for a small fee. Policies for job creation and income generation became part of the city's strategic planning in the 1990s, for the metropolitan area as well as the city.


title: Curitiba

text: Since 1990, the Municipal Housing Fund has provided financial support to housing for lower income populations. After national housing finance collapsed in 1985, just as people from the countryside poured into Curitiba, the city's public housing program bought one of the few remaining large plots of land, "Novo Bairro" (New Neighborhood), as home for 50,000 families. While landowners built the houses themselves, each received a pair of trees and an hour's consultation with an architect to help them develop their plan. COHAB also built Technology Street, an avenue of 24 homes in the centre of Novo Bairro, each built using different construction techniques.


title: Curitiba

text: Seven large shopping malls are found in Curitiba: Mueller, Estação, Curitiba, Crystal, Palladium, Patio Batel and Park Barigüi. The Rua das Flores (Street of Flowers) is home to the majority of stores. The area is pedestrianized, with no cars around the centre. An essential element of Curitiba shopping is the Feira do Largo da Ordem, or Largo da Ordem Street Fair.


title: Curitiba

text: In 2008, according to IBGE Curitiba's nominal GDP was (or about of ) (with , or , by nominal GDP per capita, about of more than Brazilian 2008 nominal GDP per capita), making it the fourth richest city in the country, after only São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and the capital Brasília.


title: Curitiba

text: Curitiba is the 2nd Pole on Technological Innovation in Brazil, according to IPEA (Applied Economic Research Institute). The


title: Curitiba

text: 2nd Brazil's Best City for Business and 5th South American Best City for Business, according to America Economia Magazine/2005 and 2006. The Best Destination for Business, according to Veja Magazine of 2007. The 3rd position among the Champions of Infrastructure, Exame Magazine of 2006. The 2nd Best City to Work in Southern Brazil, according to Você S.A. Magazine of 2005. The 49th Position, MasterCard Worldwide Centers of Commerce: Emerging Markets Index of 2008. One of the highlights according to the survey Offshoring Horizons performed by Watson Wyatt of 2007. One of the 10 global sustainability centres, according to Ethisphere Institute of 2008. Curitiba is also home to the largest cancer hospital in the South of Brazil, Erasto Gaertner Hospital.


title: Curitiba

text: In the 1990s, the city started a project called "Faróis do Saber" ("Lighthouses of Knowledge"). These libraries are free educational centres that include libraries, free Internet access and other cultural resources. Libraries work with municipal schools, offering a collection of approximately 5000 books, and provide cultural reference and leisure.


title: Curitiba

text: Among Brazilian capitals, Curitiba has the highest literacy rate, and ranks number 1 in education among the Brazilian capitals.


title: Curitiba

text: Curitiba has a planned transportation system, which includes lanes on major streets devoted to a bus rapid transit system. The buses are split into three sections (bi-articulated) and stop at designated elevated tubes, complete with access for disabled riders. Buses charge one price regardless of distance.


title: Curitiba

text: In the 1940s and 1950s, Alfred Agache, cofounder of the French Society for Urban Studies, was hired to produce the first city plan. It emphasised a star of boulevards, with public amenities downtown, an industrial district and sanitation. The plan was too expensive to complete.


title: Curitiba

text: By the 1960s, Curitiba's population had reached 430,000. Some residents feared that the growth in population threatened to damage the character of the city. In 1964, Mayor Ivo Arzua solicited proposals for urban design. Architect Jaime Lerner, who later became mayor, led a team from the Universidade Federal do Paraná that suggested strict controls on urban sprawl, reduced traffic in the downtown area, preservation of Curitiba's Historic Sector and a convenient and affordable public transit system.


title: Curitiba

text: This plan, known as the Curitiba Master Plan, was adopted in 1968. Lerner closed XV de Novembro St. to vehicles, because it had high pedestrian traffic. The plan had a new road design to minimise traffic: the Trinary Road System. This used two one-way streets moving in opposite directions that surround a smaller, two-lane street where the express buses have an exclusive lane. Five of these roads form a star that converges on the city centre. Land farther from these roads is zoned for lower density development, to pull traffic away from the main roads. In a number of areas subject to floods, buildings were condemned and the land became parks.


title: Curitiba

text: Today, Curitiba is considered one of the world's best examples of urban planning. In June 1996, the chairman of the Habitat II summit of mayors and urban planners in Istanbul praised Curitiba as "the most innovative city in the country."


title: Curitiba

text: Curitiba was recently recommended by UNESCO as a model for the reconstruction of the cities of Afghanistan. In the 1980s, the RIT (Rede Integrada de Transporte, "Integrated Transport Network") was created. At the same time, the city began building the "Faróis de Saber" ("Lighthouses of Knowledge") educational centres. The city has more than of public parks and forests.


title: Curitiba

text: In 2007, the city placed third in a list of "15 Green Cities" in the world, according to "Grist" magazine, after Reykjavík in Iceland and Portland, Oregon in the United States. As a result, according to one survey, 99% of Curitibans are happy with their hometown.


title: Curitiba

text: Jaime Lerner suggests urban acupuncture as the future solution for contemporary urban issues; focusing on very narrow pressure points in cities, can create positive ripple effects. Urban "acupuncture" reclaims land for the public and emphasizes the importance of community development through small interventions in design of cities. It emphasises pinpoint interventions that can be accomplished quickly to create an immediate impact.


title: Curitiba

text: The "capacity building job line" was created to accelerate economic development. About 15,000 new jobs were generated by 2013.


title: Curitiba

text: According to Jonas Rabinovitch, a United Nations senior adviser and former planner at the "Curitiba Research and Urban Planning Institute" (IPPUC), up to 8% of Curitiba's population still lived in favelas as of 2016. According to 2010 census data collected by IBGE, 49,700 homes in Curitiba form part of irregular settlements. This is equivalent to 163300 people. The population growth of favelas was 12.4% between 2000 and 2010, higher than the population in general (10.3%).


title: Curitiba

text: For transportation, Curitiba has over 2 million people travel by train while the city also has the most cars per capita in Brazil.


title: Curitiba

text: The Cultural Complex Solar do Barão features the Photography Museum, the Engravings Museum and the Posters Museu. The MuMA – Museu Metropolitano de Arte (Museum of Metropolitan Art) displays artists from the state of Paraná as well as renowned Brazilian painters such as Pancetti, Guignard and Di Cavalcanti.


title: Curitiba

text: The Polish Immigrants Memorial, also known as The Pope's Woods, offers an enjoyable area surrounded by trees, which makes it a perfect choice for a stroll. The Polish Pope John Paul II blessed the first replica of the traditional Polish houses that beautifully make up the Bosque do Papa when he visited the city in 1980.


title: Curitiba

text: In 2003, Curitiba received the "American Capital of Culture" title, granted by the OAS (Organization of American States).


title: Curitiba

text: The capital of Paraná is an important gastronomic center in Brazil, and the typical foods of Curitiba tend be very different when compared to other common Brazilian dishes. The dishes of the local cuisine are a reflection of the history of the municipality and the typical foods. Curitiba's cuisine has mainly been influenced by Italian and German immigrants.


title: Curitiba

text: Curitiba is the home of the largest restaurant in the Americas, and one of the world's largest restaurants, "Restaurante Madalosso". Madalosso can feed more than 4,600 diners at a time in its 10 dining rooms, all named after Italian cities. Founded in 1963, the all-you-can-eat Madalosso focuses on family-style Italian cuisine: ravioli, lasagna, gnocchi, and salads rounded out with grilled meats.


title: Curitiba

text: Curitiba was Brazil's first city to have an IMAX movie theatre. Curitiba has many theaters. The largest and most important one is the Guaíra Theater. Every year, in April, it hosts the Curitiba Theater Festival.


title: Curitiba

text: Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer designed the extravagant state museum of Curitiba. Its design includes a gravity-defying construction that was intended to look like a Paraná Pine, one of the city's symbols, but is widely interpreted by locals as an eye, which gave the Museum its nickname – "Museu do Olho", or Museum of the Eye. In keeping with Curitiba's history and culture of science, the museum offers many science exhibitions, including biennial exhibitions. The Curitiba museum includes the Oscar Niemeyer auditorium.


title: Curitiba

text: Curitiba has yearly festivals related to arts, such as Curitiba Theatre Festival and the Music Workshop of Curitiba. Others celebrate immigrants festivals, such as the Grape Feast (""Festa da Uva""), which is related to Italian immigrants, and the four Matsuri, related to Japanese immigrants.


title: Curitiba

text: The four Matsuri set in Curitiba are: Imin Matsuri (Japanese: 移民祭り, "Immigration Festival") which celebrates the arrival of Japanese immigrants in Brazil, Haru Matsuri (Japanese: 春祭り, "Spring Festival") which celebrates the end of winter and coming of spring, Hana Matsuri (Japanese: 花祭り, "Flower Festival"), which celebrates the birth of Sakyamuni, and Seto Matsuri ("Seto Festival"), in honor of Cláudio Seto, comic artist, precursor of the manga in Brazil and idealist of the first Matsuri in Curitiba.


title: Curitiba

text: Curitiba also hold the famous Psycho Carnival, a three-day festival that happens during the Brazilian Carnival, but devoted to psychobilly and rockabilly genres, attracting people from all over the world. In the same occasion the Zombie Walk also happens. The 2016 edition took more than 20.000 people to the streets.


title: Curitiba

text: On 20–31 March 2006 the Convention on biodiversity took place in Pinhais (a city near Curitiba), addressing items of the 1993 Convention on Biological Diversity adopted by 188 countries.


title: Curitiba

text: Curitiba's public transportation consists entirely of buses. It opened the world's second bus rapid transit (BRT) system, Rede Integrada de Transporte, in 1974. The popularity of Curitiba's BRT has effected a modal shift from automobile travel to bus travel. Based on 1991 traveler survey results, it was estimated that the introduction of the BRT had caused a reduction of about 27 million auto trips per year, annually saving about 27 million liters of fuel. In particular, 28 percent of BRT riders previously traveled by car. Compared to eight other Brazilian cities of its size, Curitiba uses about 30 percent less fuel per capita, resulting in one of the country's lowest rates of ambient air pollution. Some 1,100 buses make 12,500 trips every day, serving more than 1.3 million passengers, 50 times the number from 20 years ago. Eighty percent of travelers use the express or direct bus services. Curitibanos spend only about 10 percent of their income on transportation, far below the national average.


title: Curitiba

text: Curitiba has in its transport fleet the largest bi-articulated bus in the world, with 28 meters in length and capacity for 250 passengers. The bus operates only with soy-based biofuel, which reduces pollutant emissions by 50%.


title: Curitiba

text: The city government has been planning to introduce an underground metro for a number of years and in 2014 announced opened tenders for a 35-year public private partnership contract to build and operate a , 14-station north–south line. The cost is estimated at 4.62 billion reais.


title: Curitiba

text: Moving around in a car can be difficult in and around the city centre because of the many one-way streets and frequent traffic jams. The Trinary Road System allows quick access to the city centre for drivers. Some avenues are spacious and laid out in a grid. Apart from some points around the city centre, Munhoz da Rocha Street and Batel Avenue, traffic jams are not severe.


title: Curitiba

text: Afonso Pena International Airport is Curitiba's main airport. It is located in the nearby city of São José dos Pinhais. All commercial flights operate from this airport.


title: Curitiba

text: Afonso Pena International Airport was evaluated as the best airport in Brazil according to the Ministry of Infrastructure of Brazil.


title: Curitiba

text: The airport obtained the highest marks among all participants for queuing time at customs and the cordiality of customs officials; availability of sockets and seats in the departure lounge; quality of airport signage and vehicle parking facilities; availability and cleanliness of the toilets; general cleaning; airport thermal and acoustic comfort; quality of information on baggage claim conveyor panels, as well as availability of public transport to the airport.


title: Curitiba

text: There is also the Bacacheri Airport, a smaller general aviation facility. It serves the handling of small and medium business aircraft.


title: Curitiba

text: Brazil's transportation and railway company, Rumo, has its headquarters in Curitiba. Serra Verde Express provides a tourist train through scenic country to Morretes and Paranaguá.


title: Curitiba

text: The city has of bike routes, used by around 30 thousand bikers daily. City streets carry almost one million vehicles, of which 2,253 are orange Taxis. To service these vehicles, more than 355 petrol stations serve the city.


title: Curitiba

text: The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in Curitiba, for example to and from work, on a weekday is 72 min. 21% of public transit riders, ride for more than 2 hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 17 min, while 33% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is 7 km, while 12% travel for over 12 km in a single direction.


title: Curitiba

text: Curitiba has 3 teams in the city: Athletico Paranaense, Coritiba and Paraná Clube. Paraná Clube plays at Estádio Durival Britto e Silva, Coritiba plays at Estádio Major Antônio Couto Pereira, and Club Athletico Paranaense plays at Estádio Joaquim Américo Guimarães. Both Coritiba and Athletico Paranaense have won Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, in 1985 and 2001, respectively. Estádio Joaquim Américo Guimarães was one of the 12 stadiums to host games of the 2014 FIFA World Cup held in Brazil. The traditional stadium Vila Capanema have hosted the 1950 FIFA World Cup which still is home to Paraná Clube.


title: Curitiba

text: The Autódromo Internacional de Curitiba (Curitiba International Raceway) is located in nearby Pinhais.


title: Curitiba

text: Curitiba has also one of the main rugby union clubs in Brazil, Curitiba Rugby Clube, national champions in 2014.


title: Curitiba

text: A number of top stars in mixed martial arts are Curitiba natives, including the Rua brothers Maurício "Shogun" and Murilo "Ninja", Wanderlei Silva, Anderson Silva, and women's MMA pioneer Cris Cyborg. Much of the city's success in MMA comes from it hosting the influential Chute Boxe Academy and its successor Universidade da luta.


title: Curitiba

text: Most districts of Curitiba were born of colonial groups, formed by families of European immigrants in the second half of the nineteenth century. The centro (downtown or central business district), where the city was founded, is the most bustling area, housing most of the financial institutions of Curitiba.


title: Curitiba

text: "Bairros" (neighborhoods) of Curitiba define the city's geographical divisions. Administrative powers are not delegated to neighborhoods, although neighborhood associations work to improve their communities.


title: Curitiba

text: Civic Center (In Portuguese: "Centro Cívico)" is where the main government buildings are located. It was the first neighborhood in the municipality of Curitiba, capital of the state of Paraná. The name means <nowiki>'Center of the Citizen"</nowiki>. It was conceived in 1953, with the greater independence which came with the creation of a new state.


title: Curitiba

text: In August 2011, the Civic Center was listed as an urban and architectural ensemble. The buildings on the central axis of Avenida Cândido de Abreu are protected, including Plaza 19 de Dezembro, Tiradentes State College, Courts of Justice, Accounts and Jury buildings, the Iguaçu Palace, the Oscar Niemeyer Museum and the Square Our Lady of Salette.


title: Gianni Agnelli

text: Giovanni "Gianni" Agnelli (; 12 March 192124 January 2003), nicknamed ("The Lawyer"), was an Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat. As the head of Fiat, he controlled 4.4% of Italy's GDP, 3.1% of its industrial workforce and 16.5% of its industrial investment in research. He was the richest man in modern Italian history.


title: Gianni Agnelli

text: Agnelli was regarded as having an impeccable and slightly eccentric fashion sense, which has influenced both Italian and international men's fashion. Agnelli was awarded the decoration Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 1967 and the title Knight of Labour ("Cavaliere del lavoro") in 1977. Following his death in 2003, control of the firm was gradually passed to his grandson and chosen heir, John Elkann.


title: Gianni Agnelli

text: Agnelli was born in Turin, but maintained strong ties with the village of Villar Perosa, near Turin in the Piedmont region. His father was the prominent Italian industrialist Edoardo Agnelli and his mother was Princess Virginia Bourbon del Monte, daughter of Carlo, 4th Prince of San Faustino, head of a noble family established in Perugia. Agnelli was named after his grandfather Giovanni Agnelli, the founder of the Italian car manufacturer Fiat. His maternal grandmother was American.


title: Gianni Agnelli

text: Gianni – as he was known to differentiate from his grandfather, with whom he shared his first name – inherited the command of Fiat and the Agnelli family assets in general in 1966, following a period in which Fiat was temporarily "ruled" by Vittorio Valletta while Gianni was learning how his family's company worked. Agnelli raised Fiat to become the most important company in Italy, and one of the major car-builders of Europe. He also developed the accessory business, with minor companies also operating in military industry. Agnelli and Fiat would come to share a common vision, Agnelli meaning Fiat and, more sensibly, Fiat meaning Agnelli.


title: Gianni Agnelli

text: Agnelli was educated at Pinerolo Cavalry Academy, and studied law at the University of Turin, although he never practiced law. He joined a tank regiment in June 1940 when Italy entered World War II on the side of the Axis powers. He fought on the Eastern Front, being wounded twice. He also served in a Fiat-built armoured-car division in North Africa, where he was shot in the arm by a German officer during a bar fight over a woman. After Italy surrendered, due to his fluency in English, Agnelli became a liaison officer with the occupying American troops. His grandfather, who had manufactured vehicles for the Axis powers during the war, was forced to retire from Fiat, but named Valletta to be his successor. Gianni's grandfather died, leaving Gianni head of the family but Valletta running the company. Fiat then began producing Italy's first inexpensive mass-produced car.


title: Gianni Agnelli

text: Prior to his marriage on 19 November 1953 to Donna Marella Caracciolo dei principi di Castagneto – a half-American, half-Neapolitan noblewoman who made a small but significant name as a fabric designer, and a bigger name as a tastemaker – Agnelli was a noted playboy whose mistresses included the socialite Pamela Harriman and even Jackie Kennedy. Though Agnelli continued to be involved with other women during his marriage, including the film star Anita Ekberg and the American fashion designer Jackie Rogers, the Agnellis remained married until his death of prostate cancer in 2003 at the age of 81. For most of his life, he was considered to be a man of exquisite taste. He left his extraordinary paintings to the city of Turin in 2002.


title: Gianni Agnelli

text: His only son, Edoardo Agnelli, was born seven months after the couple's wedding, in New York on 9 June 1954. Gianni gave up trying to groom him to take over Fiat, seeing how the boy was more interested in mysticism than making cars (he studied religion at Princeton University and took part in a world day of prayer in Assisi). Edoardo, who seemed burdened by the mantle of his surname, committed suicide on 15 November 2000 by jumping off a bridge near Turin; Gianni himself joined police at the scene. Edoardo never married, but he had one son (born out of wedlock in 1973) who was not recognized by Gianni Agnelli. The Agnellis had only one daughter, Countess Margherita Agnelli de Pahlen. She is the mother of John Elkann, Lapo Elkann and Ginevra Elkann. She has five other children from her second marriage to Count Serge de Pahlen. Maria de Pahlen, Peter de Pahlen, Anna de Pahlen and Tatiana de Pahlen.


title: Gianni Agnelli

text: Agnelli became president of Fiat in 1966. He opened factories in many places, including Russia (at the time the Soviet Union) and South America, and started international alliances and joint-ventures (like Iveco), which marked a new industrial mentality. In the 1970s, during the international petrol crisis, he sold part of the company to Lafico, a Libyan company owned by Colonel Qaddhafi; Agnelli would later repurchase these shares, however.


title: Gianni Agnelli

text: Agnelli was named senator for life in 1991 and subscribed to the independent parliamentary group; he was later named a member of the senate's defence commission.


title: Gianni Agnelli

text: In the early 2000s, Agnelli made overtures to General Motors resulting in an agreement under which General Motors progressively became involved in Fiat. The recent serious crisis of Fiat found Agnelli already fighting against cancer, and he could take little part in these events.


title: Gianni Agnelli

text: Agnelli was also closely connected with Juventus, the most renowned Italian football club, of which he was a fan and the direct owner.


title: Gianni Agnelli

text: Agnelli encountered a number of difficulties with Mediobanca through Cesare Romiti, who caused Agnelli profound anxiety. Mediobanca made a policy of constantly supervising the Fiat because of their financial interests in the company, often becoming significantly involved in executive decisions and important issues. Vincenzo Maranghi, who later became the CEO of the bank, eventually developed a close friendship with Agnelli, despite previous tensions.


title: Gianni Agnelli

text: Nicknamed "L'Avvocato" ("The Lawyer") because he had a degree in law (though he was never admitted to the Order of Lawyers), Agnelli was the most important figure in Italian economy, the symbol of capitalism throughout the second half of 20th century, and regarded by many as the true "King of Italy". A cultivated man of keen intelligence and a peculiar sense of humour, he was perhaps the most famous Italian abroad, forming deep relationships with international bankers and politicians, largely through the Bilderberg Group, whose conferences he attended regularly since 1958. Some of the other Bilderberg regulars became close friends, among them Henry Kissinger. Another longtime associate was David Rockefeller (yet another Bilderberg regular), who appointed him to the "International Advisory Committee" (IAC) of Chase Manhattan Bank, of which Rockefeller was chairman; Agnelli sat on this committee for thirty years. He was also a member of a syndicate with Rockefeller that for a time in the 1980s owned Rockefeller Center.


title: Gianni Agnelli

text: Agnelli stepped down in 1996, but stayed on as honorary chairman until his death. Giovanni Alberto Agnelli, the son of Gianni's younger brother, Umberto Agnelli, died of a rare form of cancer in 1997 at age 33 while he was being groomed by his uncle to head the Fiat Group. John Elkann, the son of Gianni and Marella's daughter, Margherita, was expected to take over Fiat after Gianni's death. However, Umberto became chairman, taking over from Paolo Fresco. Fresco had diversified the Group's holdings, but Umberto refocused its activities on its auto and mechanics division. He then brought in Giuseppe Morchio to mastermind a rescue strategy for the company. Morchio was expected to continue to run the Fiat Group as it attempted to claw its way out of its latest financial crisis. However, upon Umberto's death, Ferrari chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo was named chairman, with Elkann as vice chairman; Morchio immediately offered his resignation. His successor Sergio Marchionne was an expert of reorganisation who between 2002 and 2004 led the Swiss certification company Societé Générale de Surveillance (SGS).


title: Gianni Agnelli

text: Agnelli's fashion sense and style inspired and influenced menswear throughout the years in Italy and around the world. In his retirement speech, Milanese fashion designer Nino Cerruti named Agnelli as one of his biggest inspirations along with James Bond and John F. Kennedy. "Esquire" magazine named Agnelli as one of five best dressed men in the history of the World.


title: Gianni Agnelli

text: Agnelli's dress style featured a foundation of classic suits. He had a large number of bespoke Caraceni suits, which were of high quality and classic design. He was known for wearing his wristwatch over his cuff and was regarded as conveying "sprezzatura", the Italian art of making the difficult look easy.


title: Moderate Party

text: The Moderate Party ( , ; M), commonly referred to as the Moderates ( ), is a liberal-conservative political party in Sweden. The party generally supports tax cuts, the free market, civil liberties and economic liberalism. Internationally, it is a full member of the International Democrat Union and the European People's Party.


title: Moderate Party

text: The party was founded in 1904 as the General Electoral League ("Allmänna valmansförbundet" ) by a group of conservatives in the Riksdag, the Swedish parliament. The party was later known as The Right ("Högern" ; 1938–1952) and Right Wing Party ("Högerpartiet" ; 1952–1969). During this time, the party was usually called the Conservative Party outside of Sweden.


title: Moderate Party

text: After holding minor posts in centre-right governments, the Moderates eventually became the leading opposition party to the Swedish Social Democratic Party and since then those two parties have dominated Swedish politics. After the 1991 Swedish general election, party leader Carl Bildt formed a minority government, the first administration since 1930 to be headed by a member of the party which lasted three years. Under party leader and Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, the party was returned in government after the 2006 and 2010 general elections. In 2010, the party was the leading member of the Alliance, a centre-right coalition, along with the Centre Party (C), the Christian Democrats (KD) and the Liberal People's Party (L), and obtained its best result ever (30.1%), despite the coalition not being able to obtain majority.


title: Moderate Party

text: The current chairman of the party, Ulf Kristersson, was elected at a special party congress on 1 October 2017, following Anna Kinberg Batra's sudden resignation. Kinberg Batra had replaced Reinfeldt, Prime Minister from 2006 to 2014. Under Reinfeldt's leadership, the party moved more towards the centre. Under Kristersson's leadership, the party moved back to the right and opened up to the Sweden Democrats (SD) following the 2018 Swedish general election. Having formed in late 2021 an informal right-wing alliance with SD and former Alliance members, KD and L, with Kristersson as the prime ministerial candidate, the right-wing bloc obtained a narrow win in the 2022 Swedish general election.


title: Moderate Party

text: The party was founded on 17 October 1904 in a restaurant called "Runan" in Stockholm. The intention was to start a campaign organization in support of the group of Conservatives which had emerged in the Riksdag. During the 19th century conservatives had organised themselves in the Riksdag but there was no party to support them. The Swedish right was also threatened by the rise of the Swedish Social Democratic Party (founded in 1889) and the Liberals (1902). The party was called the "General Electoral League" ().


title: Moderate Party

text: At first the party was clearly nationalist and staunchly conservative. The importance of a strong defence was underlined and other societal institutions embraced by the party were the monarchy and the state of law. The party held initially a protectionist view towards the economy; tariffs were widely supported as well as interventionist economical measures such as agricultural subsidies. In the defence policy crisis in 1914 which overturned the parliamentary Liberal government, the party sided with King Gustav but stopped short of accepting a right-wing government by royal appointment, instead opting for an independent-conservative "war cabinet" under Hjalmar Hammarskjöld which was eventually overturned in favour of a Liberal-Social Democratic majority coalition government and thus the breakthrough of parliamentary rule, albeit reluctantly embraced by the right.


title: Moderate Party

text: Arvid Lindman (often called "The Admiral") became influential in the party and served two terms as Prime Minister of Sweden, before and after the enactment of universal suffrage. In 1907 he proposed universal male suffrage to the parliament and in 1912 he was formally elected leader. But the party voted against universal suffrage and the party again voted against women's right to vote. It was only because the party was in the minority that Sweden was able to grant the right to vote for all, pushed through by the Liberals and the Social Democrats (the left), against the objections of the right. Although not one of the founders of the party and not a prominent ideologist, Lindman and his achievements as a leader are often appreciated as being of great importance to the new party. His leadership was marked by a consolidation of the Swedish right, and by transforming the party into a modern, effective, political movement. Lindman was a very pragmatic politician, but without losing his principles. He was a formidable negotiator and peace broker. For this, he was widely respected, even by his fiercest political opponents and when he resigned and left the parliament in 1935, the leader of the Social Democrats, Per Albin Hansson, expressed his "honest thanks over the battle lines".


title: Moderate Party

text: From the beginning of the 20th century, social democracy and the labour movement rose to replace liberalism as the major political force for radical reforms. The Moderate Party intensified its opposition to socialism during the leadership of Lindman—the importance of continuance and strengthening national business were cornerstones. But at the same time, recent social issues gained significant political attention; by appeasing the working class, the party also hoped to reduce the threat of revolutionary tendencies. During the governments led by Lindman, several reforms for social progress were made, and it was his first government that initiated the public state pension.


title: Moderate Party

text: In the 1920s, the Swedish right slowly started to move towards a classical liberal view on economic issues, mainly under the influence of the liberal economist Gustav Cassel, but the economic downturn following the Great Depression frustrated the possible liberal transition of their economic policy. Before that occurred the party gained its greatest success yet with 29.4% in the general election of 1928, often called the "Cossack Election", on a clearly anti-socialist programme. The government later formed by the party did not accept the concept of the market economy but continued the protectionist policy by generous financial aid. The government also began complete regulation of agriculture. Production associations, with the objective to administer the regulations and running monopolies on imports, were also established during the period. All this made for a corporate control of the Swedish economy unsurpassed since the popularisation of liberalism at the end of the 19th century. The government of Lindman fell in 1930 after the Social Democrats and the Freeminded People's Party had blocked a proposition for raised customs duty on grain.


title: Moderate Party

text: The 1930s saw the party in conflict over how to relate to the rising threat of National Socialism and Fascism. Its loosely affiliated youth organisation, the National Youth League of Sweden () was openly pro-Nazi and set up uniformed "fighting groups" to combat political enemies on the streets. The mother party did not like this development, with Lindman clearly stating that pro-Nazi views were not to be accepted in the party, and in 1933 the National Youth League was separated from the party. While the party set up a new youth league, which came to be called Moderate Youth League or "The Young Swedes" (currently the largest youth league in Sweden in terms of membership), the core of the old one (in spite of some districts, such as Young Swedes-Gothenburg joining the new one) set up its own party—the National League of Sweden—which fought elections as an openly pro-Nazi party and temporarily gained parliamentary representation in the shape of three rightists MPs.


title: Moderate Party

text: The party participated in the third cabinet of Per Albin Hansson during the Second World War. It was a grand coalition including all major parties, only excluding the Communist Party and the pro-Nazi Socialist Party, both parties being members of the parliament at this time.


title: Moderate Party

text: In 1934 the Social Democrats formed a new government, and except for the World War II era, would stay in power until 1976. From having been a ruling party, the General Electoral League turned into a bastion of right-wing opposition, and in 1938 it was renamed the National Organization of the Right ( ), a name that would stay until 1952. Outside Sweden the party was typically called the "Conservative Party".


title: Moderate Party

text: After the Second World War, the party gradually lost support and the Liberals rose to become the second party after the Social Democrats.


title: Moderate Party

text: At the beginning of the 1950s, the party re-emerged after being renamed the Rightist Party (); its name outside Sweden remained "Conservative Party." Under the leadership of Jarl Hjalmarson (1950–1961) the party became an important voice against the rising levels of taxation and a defender of private ownership from, what the party saw as, the growing tendencies of state centralization.


title: Moderate Party

text: The party had significant success in the elections during the 1950s and became the largest party of the opposition in 1958. But the next decade brought changes to the political climate of Sweden. The election of 1968 gave the Social Democrats an absolute majority in the parliament and reduced the Rightist Party to become the smallest party of opposition.


title: Moderate Party

text: By 1968, the dominance of the Social Democratic Party and 24 years of trailing the liberal People's Party among the opposition bloc had pushed the party to the edge of political relevance. Seeking to shed its ultra-conservative image, in 1969, the party changed its name to the Moderate Coalition Party (, generally just referred to as "Moderaterna") or just the Moderate Party.


title: Moderate Party

text: In 1970, Gösta Bohman was elected leader of the Moderate Party. During his leadership the party continued its gradual movement from nationalist traditionalist conservatism towards internationalist liberal conservatism, calling for Swedish membership in the EEC since the 1960s and in practice adopting most policies affiliated with classical liberalism. It also adopted a much more liberal social outlook, which was seen as a key factor in the foundation of the Christian Democratic Gathering in 1964, a socially conservative party. Bohman proved a successful leader, and helped lead the non-socialist opposition to victory in the 1976 election.


title: Moderate Party

text: The Moderate Party joined the government under Thorbjörn Fälldin, with Gösta Bohman as Minister of Economy. The non-socialist parties managed to remain in power until 1982 in different constellations, but the election of 1979 again made the Moderate Party become the second party after the Social Democrats, a position it has held since then. Gösta Bohman was in 1981 replaced by Ulf Adelsohn.


title: Moderate Party

text: In 1986, Carl Bildt was elected leader of the party. A son-in-law of Bohman, he managed to lead the party to an election victory in 1991. The Moderate Party led a center-right coalition between 1991 and 1994, with Bildt serving as the first conservative Prime Minister since Arvid Lindman. The cabinet of Carl Bildt did much to reform the Swedish government: they cut taxes, cut public spending, introduced voucher schools, made it possible for counties to privatize health care, liberalised markets for telecommunications and energy, and privatised former publicly owned companies (further deregulations and privatisations were carried out by the following Social Democratic Cabinet of Göran Persson). The negotiations for membership with the European Union were also finalized.


title: Moderate Party

text: The party gained votes in 1994, but the governing coalition lost its majority. While Bildt stayed on as the Moderate Party leader, failing to unite with the Greens, the non-socialist parties failed to return to government after the election in 1998 as well. Bo Lundgren replaced him and led the party in the disastrous general election of 2002, much owed to his alleged neoliberal stances, for which Lundgren continues to receive praise from younger members. Former head of the Moderate Youth Fredrik Reinfeldt was elected as the new party leader in 2003.


title: Moderate Party

text: Prior to the 2006 general election, the Moderate Party adjusted its position in the political spectrum, moving towards the centre-right. To reflect these changes, the party's unofficial name was altered to The New Moderates (Swedish: "De Nya Moderaterna" ). This has included focus on proactive measures against unemployment, lower taxes combined with reforms to strengthen the Swedish welfare state. The Moderate Party has since 2006 used the slogan "the Swedish Workers' Party", a slogan formerly synonymous with the Social Democrats.


title: Moderate Party

text: In the 2006 general election, the Moderate Party enjoyed its best result since 1928 with 26.2% of the votes. The Moderate Party had formed the Alliance for Sweden, a political and electoral alliance, along with the Centre Party, the Liberal People's Party and the Christian Democrats prior to this election. After the election, the Alliance for Sweden was able to form a coalition government. Party leader Fredrik Reinfeldt took office as Prime Minister of Sweden on 6 October 2006 along with his cabinet. In the 2010 general election, the Moderate Party performed their best results, since the introduction of universal suffrage in 1919, with 30.1% of the votes. However, the minor parties in the Alliance performed relatively poorly, and the Reinfeldt cabinet continued in office as a minority government.


title: Moderate Party

text: He is the longest-serving non–Social Democrat Prime Minister since Erik Gustaf Boström who left office in 1900.


title: Moderate Party

text: In the 2014 European elections, the Moderate Party came in third place nationally with 13.6% of the vote, returning 3 MEPs.


title: Moderate Party

text: In the 2014 general election, the Red-Green coalition outpolled Reinfeldt's incumbent Alliance coalition, prompting its resignation. The Social Democrat Stefan Löfven became Prime Minister on 3 October 2014. Anna Kinberg Batra was elected to succeed Reinfeldt as party leader on 10 January 2015. Ulf Kristersson succeeded Kinberg-Batra on 1 October 2017.


title: Moderate Party

text: The Moderate Party made its worst election result since 2002 in the 2018 general election. Ulf Kristersson announced that the party would "create a new Swedish Model" at the Moderate Party Congress on 5 April 2019 and also that the party would be phasing out the New Moderates name. The party also presented its new logo, the old "M" logo which was used between 1972 and 2006 was adopted again. The change in logo was seen by analysts as a way to show that the party breaks with Reinfeldt's policies. Ulf Kristersson was also critical to multiculturalism.


title: Moderate Party

text: Kristersson held a meeting in December 2019 with Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats, and said that he would cooperate with them in parliament. The anti-immigration party had previously been subject to a "cordon sanitaire" by all other parties, with Kristersson himself ruling out dialogue with them ahead of the 2018 elections. According to Ann-Cathrine Jungar of Södertörn University, this put Sweden in line with several other European countries in which centre-right and radical-right parties cooperate.


title: Moderate Party

text: In October 2022, the Tidö Agreement was formed, which led to the formation of the Kristersson Cabinet as Sweden's government. On 18 October 2022, Ulf Kristersson became the new Prime Minister of Sweden. Moderates formed a centre-right coalition with the Christian Democrats and the Liberals. The new government will be backed by the biggest right-wing party, Sweden Democrats (SD), meaning tougher immigration policies as a crucial part of a policy deal with the SD. Soon after his appointment, new foreign minister, Tobias Billström of Moderate Party, announced that Sweden will renounce "feminist foreign policy", implemented by the previous left-wing government.


title: Moderate Party

text: The Moderate Party states that its ideology is a mix of liberalism and conservatism, and corresponds to what is called liberal conservatism. As is common in European centre-right and conservative parties, the term "liberalism" in Sweden refers to the traditional meaning of classical liberalism rather than progressivism or social liberalism in countries such as Canada or the United States.


title: Moderate Party

text: The party supports free markets and personal freedom and has historically been the essential force for privatisation, deregulation, lowering tax rates, and a reduction of the public-sector growth rate. Other issues emphasized by the party are such as actions against violent crime and sex crime, increasing and promoting the value of working, and quality in the educational system. The party supports same-sex marriage in Sweden and Sweden's membership in the European Union. Moderate Party consider itself as a "green-right" party.


title: Moderate Party

text: The party campaigned for changing currency to the euro in the 2003 referendum. As of 2013, the party was still in favor of the euro, but it expressed that the issue of a membership of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union and the eurozone would not be relevant until the member states have met certain strict requirements set up by the party in regard to budget deficits.


title: Moderate Party

text: After Fredrik Reinfeldt became leader, the party slowly moved further towards the political centre and also adopted pragmatic views. The party abandoned several of its old key features such as a proportional income tax and increased military spending. Criticism of the labour laws, its former characteristic which was neoliberal, was changed towards conserving the Swedish model and a careful embracing of balance on the labour market.


title: Moderate Party

text: With the ascension of Anna Kinberg Batra as party leader, the party adjusted its position in the political spectrum and moved back towards the political right. The party abandoned its previously liberal stance on immigration, notably manifested by Fredrik Reinfeldt's summer speech in 2014 in which he appealed for "open hearts" to meet the expected migrant waves. The party supports border controls and tougher rules for immigrants, including temporary residence permits, stricter requirements for family reunification and cuts in welfare benefits. Swedish values was a recurring subject in Anna Kindberg Batra's speech at the Almedalen Week in 2016, and she said that immigrants should make efforts to learn the Swedish language and take part of Swedish societal orientation, or risk getting reduced benefits and harder to get permanent residence permits. Since 2015, the party has taken up its demand for increased military spending, and has supported the re-introduction of mandatory military service, inactivated in Sweden under Fredrik Reinfeldt in 2010.


title: Moderate Party

text: The party is in favour of Swedish membership of NATO and supported Sweden's application for membership. The party expressed a wish that a membership is applied for together with Finland which is what happened in May 2022.


title: Moderate Party

text: The party is organised on national, county and municipal level. Currently the party has around 600 local party associations and 26 county or city associations Each county or city association sends delegates to the party congress, which is held every third year. The 200 congress delegates elect a party chairman, two deputy party chairmen, and members of the party board. The party board appoints a party secretary.


title: Moderate Party

text: In December 2009, the party's reported membership was 55,612 people, the second largest membership after the Social Democrats.


title: Blockchain.com

text: Blockchain.com (formerly Blockchain.info) is a cryptocurrency financial services company. The company began as the first Bitcoin blockchain explorer in 2011 and later created a cryptocurrency wallet that accounted for 28% of bitcoin transactions between 2012 and 2020. It also operates a cryptocurrency exchange and provides institutional markets lending business and data, charts, and analytics.


title: Blockchain.com

text: Blockchain.com is a private company. The company is led by CEO Peter Smith, one of its three founders. The company's board members include: Smith; co-founder Nicolas Cary; Antony Jenkins; Jim Messina, the former deputy chief of staff for Barack Obama, and Jeremy Liew, a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners.


title: Blockchain.com

text: Between 2012 and February 2021, the company raised a total of $190 million in venture capital funding. In March 2021, it raised an additional $300 million investment. Investors in the company include partners of DST Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners, VY Capital, GV, Baillie Gifford, Lakestar, Eldridge, Kyle Bass, Access Industries, Moore Strategic Ventures and Rovida Advisors.


title: Blockchain.com

text: Blockchain.info was established by Ben Reeves in 2011. He launched a website which could be used to track bitcoin transactions. The website was a block explorer, a website that allowed bitcoin users to see the details of public cryptocurrency transactions if they have the identifying hash code for the transaction.


title: Blockchain.com

text: In early 2012, Reeves and Brian Armstrong, the co-founder of crypto-currency exchange Coinbase, applied to Y Combinator's summer class. They proposed a payment platform for bitcoin where users could keep a digital wallet, exchange other currency for bitcoins for a percentage fee, and make payments in bitcoin. Due to different opinions they parted ways prior to attending Y Combinator. Reeves wanted to create a platform where users controlled access to their bitcoin information, while Armstrong felt that the platform should retain custody of the users wallets. After parting ways with Armstrong, Reeves continued to work on Blockchain.info.


title: Blockchain.com

text: From 2013 to 2014, Blockchain's user base grew from 100,000 wallet users in early 2013 to 1.5 million in April 2014. By 2014, Blockchain.com was the most popular bitcoin wallet and was led by Nicolas Cary as CEO. It had acquired two companies, ZeroBlock in 2013, and RTBTC in early 2014, through which it added data analytics services, and brought these services together under one umbrella. In December 2013, Blockchain.com acquired ZeroBlock, an app for bitcoin pricing. The following year, it acquired the data analytics platform RTBTC. It integrated RTBTC's technology with its existing services, establishing one platform offering cryptocurrency wallet, pricing and analytics, and the cryptocurrency explorer.


title: Blockchain.com

text: In February 2014, Apple Inc. removed the Blockchain.com app from the iOS App Store, prompting a public outcry in the bitcoin community, most notably within the Reddit community. At the time, it was the only bitcoin wallet app available for Apple users, as Apple had removed or denied other apps. In July 2014, Apple reinstated the Blockchain.com app.


title: Blockchain.com

text: During 2014, Peter Smith joined the founding team as its CEO. The three founders, Reeves, Cary and Smith worked from Reeves' flat in York and formally established the company when bitcoin investor Roger Ver provided initial funding. By October 2014, it had 2.3 million consumer wallets and raised $30.5 million in its first external fundraising round, with investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners and Mosaic Ventures. This was the biggest round of financing in the digital currency sector at that time. The World Economic Forum named the company as one of 2016's "Technology Pioneers". In 2017, the company carried out a second round of fundraising. It closed $40 million in funding that June and the company was valued at $280 million.


title: Blockchain.com

text: In 2018, Blockchain started selling services for institutional cryptocurrency. In July 2019, Blockchain.com launched its cryptocurrency exchange, and promoted it as faster than others. In September 2020, the company joined the Coalition for App Fairness which aims to negotiate for better conditions for the inclusion of apps in app stores. In mid-2018, the company acquired Tsukemen, an app-development startup company based in San Francisco.


title: Blockchain.com

text: In 2020 the company had 31 million users and as of 2021, there were 65 million Blockchain.com wallets and 28% of bitcoin transactions since 2012 were initiated or received by a Blockchain.com wallet. In February 2021, Blockchain.com raised a $120 million funding round from investors including Moore Strategic Ventures, Kyle Bass, Access Industries, Rovida Advisors, Lightspeed Venture Partners, GV, Lakestar, and Eldridge. Including previous venture capital funding rounds, the company had raised $190 million altogether. One month later, the company announced a further $300 million fundraising round. One third of the amount raised was funded by investment firm Baillie Gifford which invested $100 million. Based on the fundraising round, the company was valued at $5.2 billion.


title: Blockchain.com

text: In 2022, Blockchain.com's CEO wrote to shareholders informing them that Three Arrows Capital rapidly becoming insolvent meant a default impact of approximately $270 million worth of cryptocurrency and US dollar loans to Blockchain.com. The firm laid off 25% of its staff, about 150 people, on July 21.


title: Blockchain.com

text: As a cryptocurrency company, Blockchain.com provides a platform for holding, using, managing crypto assets, and exploring cryptocurrency transactions. It also develops financial services standards and infrastructure for cryptocurrencies. The company's platform provides market data and analytics. It follows cryptocurrency's aims of being decentralized and anonymous; some of its cryptocurrency products are managed by the end user and not accessible by Blockchain.com itself.


title: Blockchain.com

text: Its main products are its cryptocurrency wallet, exchange, block explorer, and institutional markets offering.


title: Blockchain.com

text: The company offers a hosted cryptocurrency wallet which is a method to store cryptocurrency in a digital file that can be accessed online. The wallet can be used with different cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. Its wallets can be used to send and receive digital currency transactions, as well as swap between different cryptocurrencies. Blockchain.com has a non-custodial wallet, meaning that it is controlled completely by the user and the company has no access to the wallet's data. Users access their wallet with a private key, a recovery phrase known only to the user.


title: Blockchain.com

text: A cryptocurrency exchange helps to convert your digital assets in money and money into the digital assets. They work like a stockbroker. The company has an exchange to allow its users to buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies. Additionally, the exchange's user interface can be customized by traders to show them relevant information depending on their level of experience.


title: Blockchain.com

text: In addition to its services for individuals, Blockchain.com also provides institutional investors with cryptocurrency-based financial services. The company's institutional markets business provides cryptocurrency lending, borrowing, trading and custody of financial assets. It also carries out over-the-counter transactions for large traders, acting as a broker to keep trades private and prevent price swings occurring based on market knowledge of the trades.


title: Blockchain.com

text: The company operates a blockchain explorer that allows the user to see public cryptocurrency transactions and related information. This allows anyone who has a transaction's hash code to see the addresses of the wallets the transaction was sent from and received to, the amount of the transaction, and any fees. The tool can be used for analysis of transaction activity, cryptocurrency data, and analytics. The company sells advertising on the otherwise free service.


title: Young adult

text: A young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages of human development significantly influencing the definition of the term; generally, the term is often used to refer to adults in approximately the age range of 18 to 35 or 39 years. However, the term "young adult" is very often misused informally or in literary sense to refer to children down to ages 12 or 13 due to the category of young adult literature targeting this demographic in the lower age limit. This broad extension of "young adult" to minors has been greatly disputed, as they are not considered adults by the law or in any other cultures outside of religion (such as the Bar or Bat Mitzvah in Judaism), and the tradition of "biological" adulthood beginning at puberty has become archaic.


title: Young adult

text: For a variety of reasons, timelines on young adulthood cannot be exactly defined—producing different results according to the different mix of overlapping indices (legal, maturational, occupational, sexual, emotional and the like) employed, or on whether 'a "developmental perspective"... [or] the "socialization perspective" is taken. 'Sub-phases in this timetable of psycho-social growth patterns... are not rigid, and both social change and individual variations must be taken into account'—not to mention regional and cultural differences. Arguably indeed, with people living longer, and also reaching puberty earlier, 'age norms for major life events have become highly elastic' by the twenty-first century.


title: Young adult

text: Some have suggested that, after "Pre-adulthood"... in the first 20 years or so... the second era, "Early Adulthood", lasts from about age 17 to 45... the adult era of greatest energy and abundance and of greatest contradiction and stress.' Within that framework, 'the "Early Adult Transition" (17–22) is a developmental bridge between pre-adulthood and early adulthood', recognizing that 'the transition into adulthood is not a clear-cut dividing line'. One might alternatively speak of 'a "Provisional Adulthood (18–30)"... [&] the initiation to First Adulthood' as following that. Alternatively, MIT has generally defined "young adulthood" as 18 to 22 or 25, although this is likely to align with the typical age range of college students.


title: Young adult

text: Despite all such fluidity, there is broad agreement that it is essentially the twenties and thirties which constitute "Early adulthood"... the basis for what Levinson calls "the Dream"—a vision of his [or her] goals in life which provide motivation and enthusiasm for the future.'


title: Young adult

text: Young/prime adulthood can be considered the healthiest time of life and young adults are generally in good health, subject neither to disease nor the problems of senescence. Strength and physical performance reach their peak from 18 to 39 years of age. Flexibility may decrease with age throughout adulthood.


title: Young adult

text: In developed countries, mortality rates for the 18–40 age group are typically very low. Men are more likely to die at this age than women, particularly in the 18–25 group: reasons include car accidents and suicide. Mortality statistics among men and women level off during the late twenties and thirties, due in part to good health and less risk-taking behavior.


title: Young adult

text: Regarding disease, cancer is much less common in young than in older adults. Exceptions are testicular cancer, cervical cancer, and Hodgkin's lymphoma.


title: Young adult

text: In sub-Saharan Africa, HIV/AIDS has hit the early adult population particularly hard. According to a United Nations report, AIDS has significantly increased mortality of between ages 20 to 55 for African males and 20 to 45 for African females, reducing the life expectancy in South Africa by 18 years and in Botswana by 34 years.


title: Young adult

text: According to Erik Erikson, in the wake of the adolescent emphasis upon identity formation, 'the young adult, emerging from the search for and insistence on identity, is eager and willing to fuse their identity with that of others. He [or she] is ready for intimacy, that is, the capacity to commit... to concrete affiliations and partnerships.' To do so means the ability 'to face the fear of ego loss in situations which call for self-abandon: in the solidarity of close affiliations, in orgasms and sexual unions, in close friendships and in physical combat'. Avoidance of such experiences 'because of a fear of ego-loss may lead to a deep sense of isolation and consequent self-absorption'.


title: Young adult

text: Where isolation is avoided, the young adult may find instead that 'satisfactory sex relations... in some way take the edge off the hostilities and potential rages caused by the oppositeness of male and female, of fact and fancy, of love and hate'; and may grow into the ability to exchange intimacy, love and compassion.


title: Young adult

text: In modern societies, young adults in their late teens and early 20s encounter a number of issues as they finish school and begin to hold full-time jobs and take on other responsibilities of adulthood; and 'the young adult is usually preoccupied with self-growth in the context of society and relationships with others.' The danger is that in 'the second era, "Early Adulthood"... we must make crucially important choices regarding marriage, family, work, and lifestyle before we have the maturity or life experience to choose wisely.'


title: Young adult

text: While 'young adulthood is filled with avid quests for intimate relationships and other major commitments involving career and life goals', there is also "a parallel pursuit for the formulation of a set of moral values". Erikson has argued that it is only now that what he calls the 'ideological mind' of adolescence gives way to 'that "ethical sense" which is the mark of the adult.'


title: Young adult

text: Reaching adulthood in modern society is not always a linear or clean transition. As generations continue to adapt, new markers of adulthood are created that add different social expectations of what it means to be an adult.


title: Young adult

text: Daniel Levinson argued that developmental sequences continue to occur as we transition into adulthood. Levinson's theory centers around Erik Erikson's conception of life courses. This theory of Erikson includes patterns and relationships of events for the person's life that distinguishes them. The study of the life courses covers all aspects of the life relationships, internal and external feelings, bodily changes, and the good and bad times that are experienced. Preadulthood, Early Adulthood, Middle Adulthood, and Late Adulthood are the four eras that constitute the life course. Preadulthood begins with conception and continues to roughly the age of 22. During these years the person grows from being extremely dependent and undifferentiated to being a more independent responsible adult. This is the era that we see the most biopsychosocial growth. The Early Adulthood Transition is part of this first stage while also being a part of the second stage, this is from the age of 17 to 22. Here is when the preadulthood era begins to draw to a close and the transition to early adulthood begins. It is here that the individual begins to modify their relationship from the preadult world so that they fit better to the adult world they are creating. The second era Early adulthood begins at age 17 and goes till 45. It begins during the early adulthood transition, and has the greatest amount of energy, contradiction and stress. This is typically the time for forming and pursuing aspirations, finding a place in society, forming families and as the era ends establishing a solid position in the adult world. The third period (Middle Adulthood) begins at age 45 and goes till 65, here we begin to see a decline in our biological capacities, the decline is not enough to completely deplete us of the energy we had during early adulthood and it allows for us to continue to have a socially valuable life. The final era is late adulthood this begins with age 65 and goes till death. In this era the individual has to find a new balance between involvement with society and the self. The individual is experiencing more fully the process of dying and here should be given the ability to freely choose the mode of life.


title: Young adult

text: After the relative upheaval of the early 30s, the middle to late 30s are often characterized by settling down: 'the establishment phase', involving 'what we would call "major life investments"—work, family, friends, community activities, and values.' With the making of the major investments in life the individual makes deeper commitments investing more of himself to these commitments he's made. What has been termed 'the "Culminating Life Structure for Early Adulthood" (33–40) is the vehicle for completing this era and realizing our youthful aspirations.' People in their thirties may increase the financial and emotional investments they make in their lives, and may have been employed long enough to gain promotions and raises. They often become more focused on advancing their careers and gaining stability in their personal lives—'with marriage and child-rearing,' starting a family, coming to the fore as priorities.


title: Young adult

text: Gail Sheehy, however, signposts the same twenties/thirties division rather differently, arguing that nowadays 'the twenties have stretched out into a long Provisional Adulthood', and that in fact 'the transition to the Turbulent Thirties marks the initiation to First Adulthood.'


title: Young adult

text: Young Adulthood then draws to its close with 'the "Midlife Transition", from roughly age 40 to 45'—producing 'a brand-new passage in the forties, when First Adulthood ends and Second Adulthood begins.' It is here in this Midlife Transition that we often find there is an ending of early adulthood as well as individuals making changes in their lives, with the biggest change being the career they are in. Early adulthood can be seen as ended as a person stops seeking adult status or wanting to feel like an adult. By the time we reach the midlife transition we move from talking about how old we are to bolster our reputation and emphasize how young they are. In the midlife transition individuals start to focus on the things that become important in their lives that effect their personal lives. Those individuals focus more on the present than the future and the past. Levinson thought midlife to be a time of development of crisis. However, research today in the United States shows that individuals do not experience a midlife crisis. Instead individuals report midlife to be a freeing and satisfying period of life. An important thing to consider as we go through the midlife transition is the physical changes that we experience (outside of the changes that occur to the individual's character). Body image is an important aspect of the physical changes that are often experienced, and midlife transition may necessitate changes to one's perceived body image.


title: Young adult

text: Here in the Midlife transition the issue isn't whether the individual has achieved or failed in accomplishing the goals they formed in the previous era. Rather the issue at hand is what the individual should be doing with the experience of disparity between one's goals and one's outcomes. In this transitional period from early adulthood to middle adulthood, the changes we make tend to focus less on the self and more on the relationships that we have.


title: Aldehyde

text: In organic chemistry, an aldehyde () is an organic compound containing a functional group with the structure . The functional group itself (without the "R" side chain) can be referred to as an aldehyde but can also be classified as a formyl group. Aldehydes are common and play important roles in the technology and biological spheres.


title: Aldehyde

text: Aldehydes feature a carbon center that is connected by a double bond to oxygen and a single bond to hydrogen and single bond to a third substituent, which is carbon or, in the case of formaldehyde, hydrogen. The central carbon is often described as being sp-hybridized. The aldehyde group is somewhat polar. The C=O bond length is about 120-122 picometers.


title: Aldehyde

text: Aldehydes have properties that are diverse and that depend on the remainder of the molecule. Smaller aldehydes are more soluble in water, formaldehyde and acetaldehyde completely so. The volatile aldehydes have pungent odors.


title: Aldehyde

text: Aldehydes can be identified by spectroscopic methods. Using IR spectroscopy, they display a strong "ν" band near 1700 cm. In their H NMR spectra, the formyl hydrogen center absorbs near "δ" 9.5 to 10, which is a distinctive part of the spectrum. This signal shows the characteristic coupling to any protons on the α carbon with a small coupling constant typically less than 3.0 Hz. The C NMR spectra of aldehydes and ketones gives a suppressed (weak) but distinctive signal at "δ" 190 to 205.


title: Aldehyde

text: Important aldehydes and related compounds. The aldehyde group (or formyl group) is colored red. From the left: (1) formaldehyde and (2) its trimer 1,3,5-trioxane, (3) acetaldehyde and (4) its enol vinyl alcohol, (5) glucose (pyranose form as α--glucopyranose), (6) the flavorant cinnamaldehyde, (7) retinal, which forms with opsins potoreceptors, and (8) the vitamin pyridoxal.


title: Aldehyde

text: Traces of many aldehydes are found in essential oils and often contribute to their favorable odours, e.g. cinnamaldehyde, cilantro, and vanillin. Possibly because of the high reactivity of the formyl group, aldehydes are not common in several of the natural building blocks: amino acids, nucleic acids, lipids. Most sugars, however, are derivatives of aldehydes. These aldoses exist as hemiacetals, a sort of masked form of the parent aldehyde. For example, in aqueous solution only a tiny fraction of glucose exists as the aldehyde.


title: Aldehyde

text: There are several methods for preparing aldehydes, but the dominant technology is hydroformylation. Illustrative is the generation of butyraldehyde by hydroformylation of propene:


title: Aldehyde

text: Aldehydes are commonly generated by alcohol oxidation. In industry, formaldehyde is produced on a large scale by oxidation of methanol. Oxygen is the reagent of choice, being "green" and cheap. In the laboratory, more specialized oxidizing agents are used, but chromium(VI) reagents are popular. Oxidation can be achieved by heating the alcohol with an acidified solution of potassium dichromate. In this case, excess dichromate will further oxidize the aldehyde to a carboxylic acid, so either the aldehyde is distilled out as it forms (if volatile) or milder reagents such as PCC are used.


title: Aldehyde

text: Oxidation of primary alcohols to form aldehydes can be achieved under milder, chromium-free conditions by employing methods or reagents such as IBX acid, Dess–Martin periodinane, Swern oxidation, TEMPO.


title: Aldehyde

text: Another oxidation route significant in industry is the Wacker process, whereby ethylene is oxidized to acetaldehyde in the presence of copper and palladium catalysts (acetaldehyde is also produced on a large scale by the hydration of acetylene).


title: Aldehyde

text: On the laboratory scale, α-hydroxy acids are used as precursors to prepare aldehydes via oxidative cleavage.


title: Aldehyde

text: Aldehydes participate in many reactions. From the industrial perspective, important reactions are (a) condensations, e.g., to prepare plasticizers and polyols, and (b) reduction to produce alcohols, especially "oxo-alcohols". From the biological perspective, the key reactions involve addition of nucleophiles to the formyl carbon in the formation of imines (oxidative deamination) and hemiacetals (structures of aldose sugars).


title: Aldehyde

text: Because of resonance stabilization of the conjugate base, an α-hydrogen in an aldehyde is weakly acidic, with a p"K" near 17. This acidification is attributed to (i) the electron-withdrawing quality of the formyl center and (ii) the fact that the conjugate base, an enolate anion, delocalizes its negative charge. The formyl proton itself does not readily undergo deprotonation.


title: Aldehyde

text: Aldehydes (except those without an alpha carbon, or without protons on the alpha carbon, such as formaldehyde and benzaldehyde) can exist in either the keto or the enol tautomer. Keto–enol tautomerism is catalyzed by either acid or base. Usually the enol is the minority tautomer, but it is more reactive. The enolization typically reverses several times per second.


title: Aldehyde

text: The formyl group can be readily reduced to a primary alcohol (−CHOH). Typically this conversion is accomplished by catalytic hydrogenation either directly or by transfer hydrogenation. Stoichiometric reductions are also popular, as can be effected with sodium borohydride.


title: Aldehyde

text: The formyl group readily oxidizes to the corresponding carboxyl group (−COOH). The preferred oxidant in industry is oxygen or air. In the laboratory, popular oxidizing agents include potassium permanganate, nitric acid, chromium(VI) oxide, and chromic acid. The combination of manganese dioxide, cyanide, acetic acid and methanol will convert the aldehyde to a methyl ester.


title: Aldehyde

text: Another oxidation reaction is the basis of the "silver-mirror test". In this test, an aldehyde is treated with Tollens' reagent, which is prepared by adding a drop of sodium hydroxide solution into silver nitrate solution to give a precipitate of silver(I) oxide, and then adding just enough dilute ammonia solution to redissolve the precipitate in aqueous ammonia to produce [Ag(NH)] complex. This reagent converts aldehydes to carboxylic acids without attacking carbon–carbon double bonds. The name "silver-mirror test" arises because this reaction produces a precipitate of silver, whose presence can be used to test for the presence of an aldehyde.


title: Aldehyde

text: A further oxidation reaction involves Fehling's reagent as a test. The Cu complex ions are reduced to a red-brick-coloured CuO precipitate.


title: Aldehyde

text: If the aldehyde cannot form an enolate (e.g., benzaldehyde), addition of strong base induces the Cannizzaro reaction. This reaction results in disproportionation, producing a mixture of alcohol and carboxylic acid.


title: Aldehyde

text: Nucleophiles add readily to the carbonyl group. In the product, the carbonyl carbon becomes sp-hybridized, being bonded to the nucleophile, and the oxygen center becomes protonated:


title: Aldehyde

text: In many cases, a water molecule is removed after the addition takes place; in this case, the reaction is classed as an addition–elimination or addition–condensation reaction. There are many variations of nucleophilic addition reactions.


title: Aldehyde

text: In the acetalisation reaction, under acidic or basic conditions, an alcohol adds to the carbonyl group and a proton is transferred to form a hemiacetal. Under acidic conditions, the hemiacetal and the alcohol can further react to form an acetal and water. Simple hemiacetals are usually unstable, although cyclic ones such as glucose can be stable. Acetals are stable, but revert to the aldehyde in the presence of acid. Aldehydes can react with water to form hydrates, R−CH(OH). These diols are stable when strong electron withdrawing groups are present, as in chloral hydrate. The mechanism of formation is identical to hemiacetal formation.


title: Aldehyde

text: In alkylimino-de-oxo-bisubstitution, a primary or secondary amine adds to the carbonyl group and a proton is transferred from the nitrogen to the oxygen atom to create a carbinolamine. In the case of a primary amine, a water molecule can be eliminated from the carbinolamine intermediate to yield an imine or its trimer, a hexahydrotriazine This reaction is catalyzed by acid. Hydroxylamine (NHOH) can also add to the carbonyl group. After the elimination of water, this results in an oxime. An ammonia derivative of the form HNNR such as hydrazine (HNNH) or 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine can also be the nucleophile and after the elimination of water, resulting in the formation of a hydrazone, which are usually orange crystalline solids. This reaction forms the basis of a test for aldehydes and ketones.


title: Aldehyde

text: The cyano group in HCN can add to the carbonyl group to form cyanohydrins, R−CH(OH)CN. In this reaction the CN ion is the nucleophile that attacks the partially positive carbon atom of the carbonyl group. The mechanism involves a pair of electrons from the carbonyl-group double bond transferring to the oxygen atom, leaving it single-bonded to carbon and giving the oxygen atom a negative charge. This intermediate ion rapidly reacts with H, such as from the HCN molecule, to form the alcohol group of the cyanohydrin.


title: Aldehyde

text: Organometallic compounds, such as organolithium reagents, Grignard reagents, or acetylides, undergo nucleophilic addition reactions, yielding a substituted alcohol group. Related reactions include organostannane additions, Barbier reactions, and the Nozaki–Hiyama–Kishi reaction.


title: Aldehyde

text: In the aldol reaction, the metal enolates of ketones, esters, amides, and carboxylic acids add to aldehydes to form β-hydroxycarbonyl compounds (aldols). Acid or base-catalyzed dehydration then leads to α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. The combination of these two steps is known as the aldol condensation.


title: Aldehyde

text: The Prins reaction occurs when a nucleophilic alkene or alkyne reacts with an aldehyde as electrophile. The product of the Prins reaction varies with reaction conditions and substrates employed.


title: Aldehyde

text: A dialdehyde is an organic chemical compound with two aldehyde groups. The nomenclature of dialdehydes have the ending "-dial" or sometimes "-dialdehyde". Short aliphatic dialdehydes are sometimes named after the diacid from which they can be derived. An example is butanedial, which is also called succinaldehyde (from succinic acid).


title: Aldehyde

text: Some aldehydes are substrates for aldehyde dehydrogenase enzymes which metabolize aldehydes in the body. There are toxicities associated with some aldehydes that are related to neurodegenerative disease, heart disease, and some types of cancer.


title: Aldehyde

text: Of all aldehydes, formaldehyde is produced on the largest scale, about . It is mainly used in the production of resins when combined with urea, melamine, and phenol (e.g., Bakelite). It is a precursor to methylene diphenyl diisocyanate ("MDI"), a precursor to polyurethanes. The second main aldehyde is butyraldehyde, of which about are prepared by hydroformylation. It is the principal precursor to 2-ethylhexanol, which is used as a plasticizer. Acetaldehyde once was a dominating product, but production levels have declined to less than because it mainly served as a precursor to acetic acid, which is now prepared by carbonylation of methanol. Many other aldehydes find commercial applications, often as precursors to alcohols, the so-called oxo alcohols, which are used in detergents. Some aldehydes are produced only on a small scale (less than 1000 tons per year) and are used as ingredients in flavours and perfumes such as Chanel No. 5. These include cinnamaldehyde and its derivatives, citral, and lilial.


title: Aldehyde

text: The common names for aldehydes do not strictly follow official guidelines, such as those recommended by IUPAC, but these rules are useful. IUPAC prescribes the following nomenclature for aldehydes:


title: Aldehyde

text: The word "aldehyde" was coined by Justus von Liebig as a contraction of the Latin (dehydrogenated alcohol). In the past, aldehydes were sometimes named after the corresponding alcohols, for example, "vinous aldehyde" for acetaldehyde. ("Vinous" is from Latin "wine", the traditional source of ethanol, cognate with "vinyl".)


title: Aldehyde

text: The term "formyl group" is derived from the Latin word "ant". This word can be recognized in the simplest aldehyde, formaldehyde, and in the simplest carboxylic acid, formic acid.


title: Loudspeaker

text: A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or speaker driver) is an electroacoustic transducer that converts an electrical audio signal into a corresponding sound. A "speaker system", also often simply referred to as a "speaker" or "loudspeaker", comprises one or more such speaker "drivers", an enclosure, and electrical connections possibly including a crossover network. The speaker driver can be viewed as a linear motor attached to a diaphragm which couples that motor's movement to motion of air, that is, sound. An audio signal, typically from a microphone, recording, or radio broadcast, is amplified electronically to a power level capable of driving that motor in order to reproduce the sound corresponding to the original unamplified electronic signal. This is thus the opposite function to the microphone; indeed the "dynamic speaker" driver, by far the most common type, is a linear motor in the same basic configuration as the dynamic microphone which uses such a motor in reverse, as a generator.


title: Loudspeaker

text: The dynamic speaker was invented in 1925 by Edward W. Kellogg and Chester W. Rice issued as US Patent 1,707,570. Apr 2, 1929. When the electrical current from an audio signal passes through its voice coila coil of wire capable of moving axially in a cylindrical gap containing a concentrated magnetic field produced by a permanent magnetthe coil is forced to move rapidly back and forth due to Faraday's law of induction; this attaches to a diaphragm or "speaker cone" (as it is usually conically shaped for sturdiness) in contact with air, thus creating sound waves. In addition to dynamic speakers, several other technologies are possible for creating sound from an electrical signal, a few of which are in commercial use.


title: Loudspeaker

text: In order for a speaker to efficiently produce sound, especially at lower frequencies, the speaker driver must be baffled so that the sound emanating from its rear does not cancel out the (intended) sound from the front; this generally takes the form of a speaker enclosure or "speaker cabinet", an often rectangular box made of wood, but sometimes metal or plastic. The enclosure's design plays an important acoustic role thus determining the resulting sound quality. Most high fidelity speaker systems (picture at right) include two or more sorts of speaker drivers, each specialized in one part of the audible frequency range . The smaller drivers capable of reproducing the highest audio frequencies are called tweeters, those for middle frequencies are called mid-range drivers and those for low frequencies are called woofers. Sometimes the reproduction of the very lowest frequencies (20-~50 Hz) is augmented by a so-called subwoofer often in its own (large) enclosure. In a two-way or three-way speaker system (one with drivers covering two or three different frequency ranges) there is a small amount of passive electronics called a crossover network which helps direct components of the electronic signal to the speaker drivers best capable of reproducing those frequencies. In a so-called powered speaker system, the power amplifier actually feeding the speaker drivers is built into the enclosure itself; these have become more and more common especially as computer speakers.


title: Loudspeaker

text: Smaller speakers are found in devices such as radios, televisions, portable audio players, personal computers (computer speakers), headphones, and earphones. Larger, louder speaker systems are used for home hi-fi systems ("stereos"), electronic musical instruments, sound reinforcement in theatres and concert halls, and in public address systems.


title: Loudspeaker

text: The term "loudspeaker" may refer to individual transducers (also known as "drivers") or to complete speaker systems consisting of an enclosure and one or more drivers.


title: Loudspeaker

text: To adequately and accurately reproduce a wide range of frequencies with even coverage, most loudspeaker systems employ more than one driver, particularly for higher sound pressure level or maximum accuracy. Individual drivers are used to reproduce different frequency ranges. The drivers are named subwoofers (for very low frequencies); woofers (low frequencies); mid-range speakers (middle frequencies); tweeters (high frequencies); and sometimes supertweeters, for the highest audible frequencies and beyond. The terms for different speaker drivers differ, depending on the application. In two-way systems there is no mid-range driver, so the task of reproducing the mid-range sounds is divided between the woofer and tweeter. Home stereos use the designation "tweeter" for the high-frequency driver, while professional concert systems may designate them as "HF" or "highs". When multiple drivers are used in a system, a filter network, called an audio crossover, separates the incoming signal into different frequency ranges and routes them to the appropriate driver. A loudspeaker system with "n" separate frequency bands is described as ""n"-way speakers": a two-way system will have a woofer and a tweeter; a three-way system employs a woofer, a mid-range, and a tweeter. Loudspeaker drivers of the type pictured are termed "dynamic" (short for electrodynamic) to distinguish them from other sorts including moving iron speakers, and speakers using piezoelectric or electrostatic systems.


title: Loudspeaker

text: Johann Philipp Reis installed an electric loudspeaker in his "telephone" in 1861; it was capable of reproducing clear tones, but later revisions could also reproduce muffled speech. Alexander Graham Bell patented his first electric loudspeaker (a moving iron type capable of reproducing intelligible speech) as part of his telephone in 1876, which was followed in 1877 by an improved version from Ernst Siemens. During this time, Thomas Edison was issued a British patent for a system using compressed air as an amplifying mechanism for his early cylinder phonographs, but he ultimately settled for the familiar metal horn driven by a membrane attached to the stylus. In 1898, Horace Short patented a design for a loudspeaker driven by compressed air; he then sold the rights to Charles Parsons, who was issued several additional British patents before 1910. A few companies, including the Victor Talking Machine Company and Pathé, produced record players using compressed-air loudspeakers. Compressed-air designs are significantly limited by their poor sound quality and their inability to reproduce sound at low volume. Variants of the design were used for public address applications, and more recently, other variations have been used to test space-equipment resistance to the very loud sound and vibration levels that the launching of rockets produces.


title: Loudspeaker

text: The first experimental moving-coil (also called "dynamic") loudspeaker was invented by Oliver Lodge in 1898. The first practical moving-coil loudspeakers were manufactured by Danish engineer Peter L. Jensen and Edwin Pridham in 1915, in Napa, California. Like previous loudspeakers these used horns to amplify the sound produced by a small diaphragm. Jensen was denied patents. Being unsuccessful in selling their product to telephone companies, in 1915 they changed their target market to radios and public address systems, and named their product Magnavox. Jensen was, for years after the invention of the loudspeaker, a part owner of The Magnavox Company.


title: Loudspeaker

text: The moving-coil principle commonly used today in speakers was patented in 1925 by Edward W. Kellogg and Chester W. Rice issued as US Patent 1,707,570. Apr 2, 1929. The key difference between previous attempts and the patent by Rice and Kellogg is the adjustment of mechanical parameters to provide a reasonably flat frequency response.


title: Loudspeaker

text: These first loudspeakers used electromagnets, because large, powerful permanent magnets were generally not available at a reasonable price. The coil of an electromagnet, called a field coil, was energized by a current through a second pair of connections to the driver. This winding usually served a dual role, acting also as a choke coil, filtering the power supply of the amplifier that the loudspeaker was connected to. AC ripple in the current was attenuated by the action of passing through the choke coil. However, AC line frequencies tended to modulate the audio signal going to the voice coil and added to the audible hum. In 1930 Jensen introduced the first commercial fixed-magnet loudspeaker; however, the large, heavy iron magnets of the day were impractical and field-coil speakers remained predominant until the widespread availability of lightweight alnico magnets after World War II.


title: Loudspeaker

text: In the 1930s, loudspeaker manufacturers began to combine two and three drivers or sets of drivers each optimized for a different frequency range in order to improve frequency response and increase sound pressure level. In 1937, the first film industry-standard loudspeaker system, "The Shearer Horn System for Theatres", a two-way system, was introduced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It used four 15″ low-frequency drivers, a crossover network set for 375 Hz, and a single multi-cellular horn with two compression drivers providing the high frequencies. John Kenneth Hilliard, James Bullough Lansing, and Douglas Shearer all played roles in creating the system. At the 1939 New York World's Fair, a very large two-way public address system was mounted on a tower at Flushing Meadows. The eight 27″ low-frequency drivers were designed by Rudy Bozak in his role as chief engineer for Cinaudagraph. High-frequency drivers were likely made by Western Electric.


title: Loudspeaker

text: Altec Lansing introduced the "604", which became their most famous coaxial Duplex driver, in 1943. It incorporated a high-frequency horn that sent sound through a hole in the pole piece of a 15-inch woofer for near-point-source performance. Altec's "Voice of the Theatre" loudspeaker system was first sold in 1945, offering better coherence and clarity at the high output levels necessary in movie theaters. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences immediately began testing its sonic characteristics; they made it the film house industry standard in 1955.


title: Loudspeaker

text: In 1954, Edgar Villchur developed the acoustic suspension principle of loudspeaker design. This allowed for better bass response than previously obtainable from drivers mounted in larger cabinets. He and his partner Henry Kloss formed the Acoustic Research company to manufacture and market speaker systems using this principle. Subsequently, continuous developments in enclosure design and materials led to significant audible improvements.


title: Loudspeaker

text: The most notable improvements to date in modern dynamic drivers, and the loudspeakers that employ them, are improvements in cone materials, the introduction of higher-temperature adhesives, improved permanent magnet materials, improved measurement techniques, computer-aided design, and finite element analysis. At low frequencies, the application of electrical network theory to the acoustic performance allowed by various enclosure designs (initially by Thiele, and later by Small) has been very important at the design level.


title: Loudspeaker

text: The most common type of driver, commonly called a dynamic loudspeaker, uses a lightweight diaphragm, or "cone", connected to a rigid "basket", or "frame", via a flexible suspension, commonly called a "spider", that constrains a voice coil to move axially through a cylindrical magnetic gap. A protective dust cap glued in the cone's center prevents dust, most importantly ferromagnetic debris, from entering the gap.


title: Loudspeaker

text: When an electrical signal is applied to the voice coil, a magnetic field is created by the electric current in the voice coil, making it a variable electromagnet. The coil and the driver's magnetic system interact in a manner similar to a solenoid, generating a mechanical force that moves the coil (and thus, the attached cone). Application of alternating current moves the cone back and forth, accelerating and reproducing sound under the control of the applied electrical signal coming from the amplifier.


title: Loudspeaker

text: The diaphragm is usually manufactured with a cone- or dome-shaped profile. A variety of different materials may be used, but the most common are paper, plastic, and metal. The ideal material is rigid, to prevent uncontrolled cone motions, has low mass to minimize starting force requirements and energy storage issues and is well damped to reduce vibrations continuing after the signal has stopped with little or no audible ringing due to its resonance frequency as determined by its usage. In practice, all three of these criteria cannot be met simultaneously using existing materials; thus, driver design involves trade-offs. For example, paper is light and typically well damped, but is not stiff; metal may be stiff and light, but it usually has poor damping; plastic can be light, but typically, the stiffer it is made, the poorer the damping. As a result, many cones are made of some sort of composite material. For example, a cone might be made of cellulose paper, into which some carbon fiber, Kevlar, glass, hemp or bamboo fibers have been added; or it might use a honeycomb sandwich construction; or a coating might be applied to it so as to provide additional stiffening or damping.


title: Loudspeaker

text: The chassis, frame, or basket, is designed to be rigid, preventing deformation that could change critical alignments with the magnet gap, perhaps allowing the voice coil to rub against the magnet around the gap. Chassis are typically cast from aluminum alloy, in heavier magnet-structure speakers; or stamped from thin sheet steel in lighter-structure drivers. Other materials such as molded plastic and damped plastic compound baskets are becoming common, especially for inexpensive, low-mass drivers. A metallic chassis can play an important role in conducting heat away from the voice coil; heating during operation changes resistance, causes physical dimensional changes, and if extreme, broils the varnish on the voice coil; it may even demagnetize permanent magnets.


title: Loudspeaker

text: The suspension system keeps the coil centered in the gap and provides a restoring (centering) force that returns the cone to a neutral position after moving. A typical suspension system consists of two parts: the "spider", which connects the diaphragm or voice coil to the lower frame and provides the majority of the restoring force, and the "surround", which helps center the coil/cone assembly and allows free pistonic motion aligned with the magnetic gap. The spider is usually made of a corrugated fabric disk, impregnated with a stiffening resin. The name comes from the shape of early suspensions, which were two concentric rings of Bakelite material, joined by six or eight curved "legs". Variations of this topology included the addition of a felt disc to provide a barrier to particles that might otherwise cause the voice coil to rub.


title: Loudspeaker

text: The cone surround can be rubber or polyester foam, treated paper or a ring of corrugated, resin-coated fabric; it is attached to both the outer cone circumference and to the upper frame. These diverse surround materials, their shape and treatment can dramatically affect the acoustic output of a driver; each implementation has advantages and disadvantages. Polyester foam, for example, is lightweight and economical, though usually leaks air to some degree and is degraded by time, exposure to ozone, UV light, humidity and elevated temperatures, limiting useful life before failure.