title: Church of Sweden

text: The dioceses of Uppsala, Strängnäs, Västerås, Skara, Linköping, Växjö and the now Finnish diocese of Turku, are the original seven Swedish dioceses, dating from the Middle Ages. The rest have come into existence after that time and the Swedish reformation in the 16th century. The Diocese of Lund was founded in 1060, became an archdiocese in 1104 and lay in Denmark. The Province of Lund consisted of Denmark, Sweden and Finland throughout the Middle Ages (originally also Norway and Iceland), although Uppsala had their own subordinate ecclesiastical province and archbishop from 1164.


title: Church of Sweden

text: Since 1994 the Church of Sweden has been part of the Porvoo Communion, bringing it into full Communion with the Anglican churches of the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula, together with the other Lutheran churches of the Nordic nations and the Baltic states. In 1995 full communion was achieved with the Philippine Independent Church. Since 2015, the Church of Sweden has also been in full communion with the Episcopal Church of the United States.


title: Church of Sweden

text: In 2016, the Church of Sweden reached full communion with the Old Catholic churches within the Union of Utrecht.


title: Freepik

text: Freepik is an image bank website. Content produced and distributed by the online platform includes photographs, illustrations and vector images. The platform distributes its content under a freemium model, which means that users can access much of the content for free, but it is also possible to purchase a subscription with advantages such as access to more exclusive resources, the option of not attributing the content used or a higher number of daily downloads.


title: Freepik

text: Freepik was founded in 2010 in Malaga with the idea of providing free graphic resources to designers around the world. The Spanish stock image platform is used by several million users, including multinationals such as Microsoft, FedEx, Amazon or Spotify.


title: Freepik

text: The platform is part of the Freepik Company, a company that has been chosen by the Financial Times as one of the thirty fastest growing companies on the European continent. Freepik Company is the parent brand of four other creative platforms: Flaticon, Slidesgo, Storyset and Wepik.


title: Freepik

text: The content of Freepik Company products is created by the company's designers and its more than 21,000 collaborators of more than 100 countries, and downloads of its content reach an average of more than 80 million per month.


title: Freepik

text: In 2022 Freepik was named in G2's Best Software 2022 Awards, ranking 17th on the list of best-selling software in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 43rd in the list of best design products.


title: Freepik

text: Freepik was founded in 2010 by brothers Alejandro Sánchez and Pablo Blanes, together with their friend Joaquín Cuenca, founder of Panoramio (acquired by Google). Initially it was a search engine that indexed content from the top 10 free content websites for designers.


title: Freepik

text: In 2015 the subscription model was launched. Users who pay for a Premium account have access to more resources and exclusive content on the platform, without the need to attribute. In addition, the Contributors model has also started: designers and photographers can upload their assets to the platform and earn income from them.


title: Freepik

text: In 2018 Freepik changed its visual identityintroduced a new logo. This redesign included a new font, a modified isotype, as well as the color palette. The objective of this change was to redefine the brand image and bring it closer to graphic design trends.


title: Freepik

text: In 2020 during the Coronavirus outbreak, as part of a Freepik Company CSR initiative, Freepik offered its resources free of charge to healthcare workers, educators, journalists, and workers in public institutions.


title: Octagon

text: In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον "oktágōnon", "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon.


title: Octagon

text: A "regular octagon" has Schläfli symbol {8} and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t{4}, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t{8} is a hexadecagon, {16}. A 3D analog of the octagon can be the rhombicuboctahedron with the triangular faces on it like the replaced edges, if one considers the octagon to be a truncated square.


title: Octagon

text: The sum of all the internal angles of any octagon is 1080°. As with all polygons, the external angles total 360°.


title: Octagon

text: If squares are constructed all internally or all externally on the sides of an octagon, then the midpoints of the segments connecting the centers of opposite squares form a quadrilateral that is both equidiagonal and orthodiagonal (that is, whose diagonals are equal in length and at right angles to each other).


title: Octagon

text: The midpoint octagon of a reference octagon has its eight vertices at the midpoints of the sides of the reference octagon. If squares are constructed all internally or all externally on the sides of the midpoint octagon, then the midpoints of the segments connecting the centers of opposite squares themselves form the vertices of a square.


title: Octagon

text: A regular octagon is a closed figure with sides of the same length and internal angles of the same size. It has eight lines of reflective symmetry and rotational symmetry of order 8. A regular octagon is represented by the Schläfli symbol {8}.


title: Octagon

text: The internal angle at each vertex of a regular octagon is 135° (formula_1 radians). The central angle is 45° (formula_2 radians).


title: Octagon

text: where "S" is the span of the octagon, or the second-shortest diagonal; and "a" is the length of one of the sides, or bases. This is easily proven if one takes an octagon, draws a square around the outside (making sure that four of the eight sides overlap with the four sides of the square) and then takes the corner triangles (these are 45–45–90 triangles) and places them with right angles pointed inward, forming a square. The edges of this square are each the length of the base.


title: Octagon

text: More often the span "S" is known, and the length of the sides, "a", is to be determined, as when cutting a square piece of material into a regular octagon. From the above,


title: Octagon

text: The two end lengths "e" on each side (the leg lengths of the triangles (green in the image) truncated from the square), as well as being formula_12 may be calculated as


title: Octagon

text: The formula for each of them follows from the basic principles of geometry. Here are the formulas for their length:


title: Octagon

text: The regular octagon can be constructed with meccano bars. Twelve bars of size 4, three bars of size 5 and two bars of size 6 are required.


title: Octagon

text: Each side of a regular octagon subtends half a right angle at the centre of the circle which connects its vertices. Its area can thus be computed as the sum of 8 isosceles triangles, leading to the result:


title: Octagon

text: The coordinates for the vertices of a regular octagon centered at the origin and with side length 2 are:


title: Octagon

text: Coxeter states that every zonogon (a 2"m"-gon whose opposite sides are parallel and of equal length) can be dissected into "m"("m"-1)/2 parallelograms.


title: Octagon

text: In particular this is true for regular polygons with evenly many sides, in which case the parallelograms are all rhombi. For the "regular octagon", "m"=4, and it can be divided into 6 rhombs, with one example shown below. This decomposition can be seen as 6 of 24 faces in a Petrie polygon projection plane of the tesseract. The list defines the number of solutions as 8, by the 8 orientations of this one dissection. These squares and rhombs are used in the Ammann–Beenker tilings.


title: Octagon

text: A skew octagon is a skew polygon with 8 vertices and edges but not existing on the same plane. The interior of such an octagon is not generally defined. A "skew zig-zag octagon" has vertices alternating between two parallel planes.


title: Octagon

text: A regular skew octagon is vertex-transitive with equal edge lengths. In 3-dimensions it will be a zig-zag skew octagon and can be seen in the vertices and side edges of a square antiprism with the same D, [2,8] symmetry, order 16.


title: Octagon

text: The regular skew octagon is the Petrie polygon for these higher-dimensional regular and uniform polytopes, shown in these skew orthogonal projections of in A, B, and D Coxeter planes.


title: Octagon

text: The "regular octagon" has Dih symmetry, order 16. There are 3 dihedral subgroups: Dih, Dih, and Dih, and 4 cyclic subgroups: Z, Z, Z, and Z, the last implying no symmetry.


title: Octagon

text: On the regular octagon, there are 11 distinct symmetries. John Conway labels full symmetry as r16. The dihedral symmetries are divided depending on whether they pass through vertices (d for diagonal) or edges (p for perpendiculars) Cyclic symmetries in the middle column are labeled as g for their central gyration orders. Full symmetry of the regular form is r16 and no symmetry is labeled a1.


title: Octagon

text: The most common high symmetry octagons are p8, an isogonal octagon constructed by four mirrors can alternate long and short edges, and d8, an isotoxal octagon constructed with equal edge lengths, but vertices alternating two different internal angles. These two forms are duals of each other and have half the symmetry order of the regular octagon.


title: Octagon

text: Each subgroup symmetry allows one or more degrees of freedom for irregular forms. Only the g8 subgroup has no degrees of freedom but can seen as directed edges.


title: Octagon

text: The octagonal shape is used as a design element in architecture. The Dome of the Rock has a characteristic octagonal plan. The Tower of the Winds in Athens is another example of an octagonal structure. The octagonal plan has also been in church architecture such as St. George's Cathedral, Addis Ababa, Basilica of San Vitale (in Ravenna, Italia), Castel del Monte (Apulia, Italia), Florence Baptistery, Zum Friedefürsten Church (Germany) and a number of octagonal churches in Norway. The central space in the Aachen Cathedral, the Carolingian Palatine Chapel, has a regular octagonal floorplan. Uses of octagons in churches also include lesser design elements, such as the octagonal apse of Nidaros Cathedral.


title: Octagon

text: Architects such as John Andrews have used octagonal floor layouts in buildings for functionally separating office areas from building services, notably the Intelsat Headquarters in Washington D.C., Callam Offices in Canberra, and Octagon Offices in Parramatta, Australia.


title: Vocal cords

text: In humans, vocal cords, also known as vocal folds or voice reeds, are folds of throat tissues that are key in creating sounds through vocalization. The size of vocal cords affects the pitch of voice. Open when breathing and vibrating for speech or singing, the folds are controlled via the recurrent laryngeal branch of the vagus nerve. They are composed of twin infoldings of mucous membrane stretched horizontally, from back to front, across the larynx. They vibrate, modulating the flow of air being expelled from the lungs during phonation.


title: Vocal cords

text: The 'true vocal cords' are distinguished from the 'false vocal folds', known as vestibular folds or "ventricular folds", which sit slightly superior to the more delicate true folds. These have a minimal role in normal phonation, but can produce deep sonorous tones, screams and growls.


title: Vocal cords

text: The length of the vocal fold at birth is approximately six to eight millimeters and grows to its adult length of eight to sixteen millimeters by adolescence. Testosterone, an androgen secreted by the gonads, causes irreversible changes in the cartilages and musculature of the larynx when present in high enough concentrations, such as during an adolescent boy's puberty: The thyroid prominence appears, the vocal folds lengthen and become rounded, and the epithelium thickens with the formation of three distinct layers in the lamina propria.


title: Vocal cords

text: The vocal folds are located within the larynx at the top of the trachea. They are attached at the back to the arytenoid cartilages, and at the front to the thyroid cartilage. They are part of the glottis. Their outer edges are attached to muscle in the larynx while their inner edges form an opening called the rima glottidis. They are constructed from epithelium, but they have a few muscle-fibres in them, namely the vocalis muscle which tightens the front part of the ligament near to the thyroid cartilage. They are flat triangular bands and are pearly white in color. Above both sides of the glottis are the two vestibular folds or false vocal folds which have a small sac between them.


title: Vocal cords

text: The vocal folds are sometimes called 'true vocal folds' to distinguish them from the 'false vocal folds' known as vestibular folds or "ventricular folds". These are a pair of thick folds of mucous membrane that protect and sit slightly higher to the more delicate true folds. They have a minimal role in normal phonation, but are often used to produce deep sonorous tones in Tibetan chant and Tuvan throat singing, as well as in musical screaming and the death growl vocal style.


title: Vocal cords

text: The vocal cords are composed of twin infoldings of 3 distinct tissues: an outer layer of flat cells that do not produce keratin (squamous epithelium). Below this is the superficial layer of the lamina propria, a gel-like layer, which allows the vocal fold to vibrate and produce sound. The vocalis and thyroarytenoid muscles make up the deepest portion. These vocal folds are covered with a mucous membrane and are stretched horizontally, from back to front, across the larynx.


title: Vocal cords

text: Males and females have different vocal fold sizes. Adult male voices are usually lower-pitched due to longer and thicker folds. The male's vocal folds are between 1.75 cm and 2.5 cm (approx 0.75" to 1.0") in length, while females' vocal folds are between 1.25 cm and 1.75 cm (approx 0.5" to 0.75") in length. The vocal folds of children are much shorter than those of adult males and females. The difference in vocal fold length and thickness between males and females causes a difference in vocal pitch. Additionally, genetic factors cause variations between members of the same sex, with males' and females' voices being categorized into voice types.


title: Vocal cords

text: Newborns have a uniform single layered lamina propria, which appears loose with no vocal ligament. The monolayered lamina propria is composed of ground substances such as hyaluronic acid and fibronectin, fibroblasts, elastic fibers, and collagenous fibers. While the fibrous components are sparse, making the lamina propria structure loose, the hyaluronic acid (HA) content is high.


title: Vocal cords

text: HA is a bulky, negatively charged glycosaminoglycan, whose strong affinity with water procures hyaluronic acid its viscoelastic and shock absorbing properties essential to vocal biomechanics. Viscosity and elasticity are critical to voice production. Chan, Gray and Titze, quantified the effect of hyaluronic acid on both the viscosity and the elasticity of vocal folds by comparing the properties of tissues with and without HA. The results showed that removal of hyaluronic acid decreased the stiffness of the vocal cords by an average of 35%, but increased their dynamic viscosity by an average of 70% at frequencies higher than 1 Hz. Newborns have been shown to cry an average of 6.7 hours per day during the first 3 months, with a sustained pitch of 400–600 Hz, and a mean duration per day of 2 hours. Similar treatment on adult vocal cords would quickly result in edema, and subsequently aphonia. Schweinfurth and al. presented the hypothesis that high hyaluronic acid content and distribution in newborn vocal cords is directly associated with newborn crying endurance. These differences in newborn vocal fold composition would also be responsible for newborns inability to articulate sounds, besides the fact that their lamina propria is a uniform structure with no vocal ligament. The layered structure necessary for phonation will start to develop during the infancy and until the adolescence.


title: Vocal cords

text: The fibroblasts in the newborn Reinke's space are immature, showing an oval shape, and a large nucleus-cytoplasm ratio. The rough endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus, as shown by electron micrographs, are not well developed, indicating that the cells are in a resting phase. The collagenous and reticular fibers in the newborn the vocal cords are fewer than in the adult one, adding to the immaturity of the vocal fold tissue.


title: Vocal cords

text: In the infant, many fibrous components were seen to extend from the macula flava towards the Reinke's space. Fibronectin is very abundant in the Reinke's space of newborn and infant. Fibronectin is a glycoprotein that is believed to act as a template for the oriented deposition of the collagen fibers, stabilizing the collagen fibrils. Fibronectin also acts as a skeleton for the elastic tissue formation. Reticular and collagenous fibers were seen to run along the edges of the vocal cords throughout the entire lamina propria. Fibronectin in the Reinke's space appeared to guide those fibers and orient the fibril deposition. The elastic fibers remained sparse and immature during infancy, mostly made of microfibrils. The fibroblasts in the infant Reinke's space were still sparse but spindle-shaped. Their rough endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus were still not well developed, indicating that despite the change in shape, the fibroblasts still remained mostly in a resting phase. Few newly released materials were seen adjacent to the fibroblasts. The ground substance content in the infant Reinke's space seemed to decrease over time, as the fibrous component content increased, thus slowly changing the vocal fold structure.


title: Vocal cords

text: The infant lamina propria is composed of only one layer, as compared to three in the adult, and there is no vocal ligament. The vocal ligament begins to be present in children at about four years of age. Two layers appear in the lamina propria between the ages of six and twelve, and the mature lamina propria, with the superficial, intermediate and deep layers, is only present by the conclusion of adolescence. As vocal fold vibration is a foundation for vocal formants, this presence or absence of tissue layers influences a difference in the number of formants between the adult and pediatric populations. In females, the voice is three tones lower than the child's and has five to twelve formants, as opposed to the pediatric voice with three to six.


title: Vocal cords

text: The length of the vocal fold at birth is approximately six to eight millimeters and grows to its adult length of eight to sixteen millimeters by adolescence. The infant vocal fold is half membranous or anterior glottis, and half cartilaginous or posterior glottis. The adult fold is approximately three-fifths membranous and two-fifths cartilaginous.


title: Vocal cords

text: Puberty usually lasts from 2–5 years, and typically occurs between the ages of 12 to 17. During puberty, voice change is controlled by sex hormones. In females during puberty, the vocal muscle thickens slightly, but remains very supple and narrow. The squamous mucosa also differentiates into three distinct layers (the lamina propria) on the free edge of the vocal folds. The sub- and supraglottic glandular mucosa becomes hormone-dependent to estrogens and progesterone. For women, the actions of estrogens and progesterone produce changes in the extravascular spaces by increasing capillary permeability which allows the passage of intracapillary fluids to the interstitial space as well as modification of glandular secretions. Estrogens have a hypertrophic and proliferative effect on mucosa by reducing the desquamating effect on the superficial layers. The thyroid hormones also affect dynamic function of the vocal folds; (Hashimoto's thyroiditis affects the fluid balance in the vocal folds). Progesterone has an anti-proliferative effect on mucosa and accelerates desquamation. It causes a menstrual-like cycle in the vocal fold epithelium and a drying out of the mucosa with a reduction in secretions of the glandular epithelium. Progesterone has a diuretic effect and decreases capillary permeability, thus trapping the extracellular fluid out of the capillaries and causing tissue congestion.


title: Vocal cords

text: Testosterone, an androgen secreted by the testes, will cause changes in the cartilages and musculature of the larynx for males during puberty. In women, androgens are secreted principally by the adrenal cortex and the ovaries and can have irreversible masculinizing effects if present in high enough concentration. In men, they are essential to male sexuality. In muscles, they cause a hypertrophy of striated muscles with a reduction in the fat cells in skeletal muscles, and a reduction in the whole body fatty mass. Androgens are the most important hormones responsible for the passage of the boy-child voice to man voice, and the change is irreversible. The thyroid prominence appears, the vocal folds lengthen and become rounded, and the epithelium thickens with the formation of three distinct layers in the lamina propria.


title: Vocal cords

text: Human vocal cords are paired structures located in the larynx, just above the trachea, which vibrate and are brought in contact during phonation. The human vocal cords are roughly 12 – 24 mm in length, and 3–5 mm thick. Histologically, the human vocal cords are a laminated structure composed of five different layers. The vocalis muscle, main body of the vocal cords, is covered by the mucosa, which consists of the epithelium and the lamina propria. The latter is a pliable layer of connective tissue subdivided into three layers: the superficial layer (SL), the intermediate layer (IL), and the deep layer (DL). Layer distinction is either made looking at differential in cell content or extracellular matrix (extracellular matrix) content. The most common way being to look at the extracellular matrix content. The SLP has fewer elastic and collagenous fibers than the two other layers, and thus is looser and more pliable. The ILP is mostly composed of elastic fibers, while the DLP has fewer elastic fibers, and more collagenous fibers. In those two layers, which form what is known as the vocalis ligament, the elastic and collagenous fibers are densely packed as bundles that run almost parallel to the edge of the vocal fold.


title: Vocal cords

text: There is a steady increase in the elastin content of the lamina propria as humans age (elastin is a yellow scleroprotein, the essential constituent of the elastic connective tissue) resulting in a decrease in the ability of the lamina propria to expand caused by cross-branching of the elastin fibers. Among other things, this leads to the mature voice being better suited to the rigors of opera.


title: Vocal cords

text: The extracellular matrix of the vocal cord LP is composed of fibrous proteins such as collagen and elastin, and interstitial molecules such as HA, a non-sulfated glycosaminoglycan. While the SLP is rather poor in elastic and collagenous fibers, the ILP and DLP are mostly composed of it, with the concentration of elastic fibers decreasing and the concentration of collagenous fibers increasing as the vocalis muscle is approached. Fibrous proteins and interstitial molecules play different roles within the extracellular matrix. While collagen (mostly type I) provides strength and structural support to the tissue, which are useful to withstanding stress and resisting deformation when subjected to a force, elastin fibers bring elasticity to the tissue, allowing it to return to its original shape after deformation. Interstitial proteins, such as HA, plays important biological and mechanical roles in the vocal cord tissue. In the vocal cord tissue, hyaluronic acid plays a role of shear-thinner, affecting the tissue viscosity, space-filler, shock absorber, as well as wound healing and cell migration promoter. The distribution of those proteins and interstitial molecules has been proven to be affected by both age and gender, and is maintained by the fibroblasts.


title: Vocal cords

text: Vocal fold structure in adults is quite different from that in newborns. Exactly how the vocal cord mature from an immature monolayer in newborns to a mature three layer tissue in adults is still unknown, however a few studies have investigated the subjects and brought some answers.


title: Vocal cords

text: Hirano et al. previously found that the newborns did not have a true lamina propria, but instead had cellular regions called maculae flavae, located at the anterior and posterior ends of the loose vocal fold tissue. Boseley and Hartnick examined at the development and maturation of pediatric human vocal fold lamina propria. Hartnick was the first one to define each layer by a change in their cellular concentration. He also found that the lamina propria monolayer at birth and shortly thereafter was hypercellular, thus confirming Hirano's observations. By 2 months of age, the vocal fold started differentiating into a bilaminar structure of distinct cellular concentration, with the superficial layer being less densely populated than the deeper layer. By 11 months, a three-layered structure starts to be noted in some specimens, again with different cellular population densities. The superficial layer is still hypocellular, followed by an intermediate more hypercellular layer, and a deeper hypercellular layer, just above the vocalis muscle. Even though the vocal cords seem to start organizing, this is not representative of the trilaminar structure seen in adult tissues, where the layer are defined by their differential elastin and collagen fiber compositions. By 7 years of age, all specimens show a three-layered vocal fold structure, based on cellular population densities. At this point, the superficial layer was still hypocellular, the middle layer was the hypercellular one, with also a greater content of elastin and collagen fibers, and the deeper layer was less cellularly populated. Again, the distinction seen between the layers at this stage is not comparable to that seen in the adult tissue. The maturation of the vocal cords did not appear before 13 years of age, where the layers could be defined by their differential fiber composition rather than by their differential cellular population. The pattern now show a hypocellular superficial layer, followed by a middle layer composed predominantly of elastin fiber, and a deeper layer composed predominantly of collagen fibers. This pattern can be seen in older specimens up to 17 years of age, and above. While this study offers a nice way to see the evolution from immature to mature vocal cords, it still does not explain what is the mechanism behind it.


title: Vocal cords

text: Maculae flavae are located at the anterior and posterior ends of the membranous parts of the vocal cords. The histological structure of the macula flava is unique, and Sato and Hirano speculated that it could play an important role in growth, development and aging of the vocal cords. The macula flava is composed of fibroblasts, ground substances, elastic and collagenous fibers. Fibroblasts were numerous and spindle or stellate-shaped. The fibroblasts have been observed to be in active phase, with some newly released amorphous materials present at their surface. From a biomechanical point of view, the role of the macula flava is very important. Hirano and Sato studies suggested that the macula flava is responsible for the synthesis of the fibrous components of the vocal cords. Fibroblasts have been found mostly aligned in the direction of the vocal ligament, along bundles of fibers. It then was suggested that the mechanical stresses during phonation were stimulating the fibroblasts to synthesize those fibers.


title: Vocal cords

text: The viscoelastic properties of human vocal fold lamina propria are essential for their vibration, and depend on the composition and structure of their extracellular matrix. Adult vocal cords have a layered structure which is based on the layers differential in extracellular matrix distribution. Newborns on the other hand, do not have this layered structure. Their vocal cords are uniform, and immature, making their viscoelastic properties most likely unsuitable for phonation. Hyaluronic acid plays a very important role in the vocal fold biomechanics. In fact, hyaluronic acid has been described as the extracellular matrix molecule that not only contributes to the maintenance of an optimal tissue viscosity that allows phonation, but also of an optimal tissue stiffness that allows frequency control. CD44 is a cell surface receptor for HA. Cells such as fibroblasts are responsible for synthesizing extracellular matrix molecules. Cell surface matrix receptors in return, feed back to the cells through cell-matrix interaction, allowing the cell to regulate its metabolism.


title: Vocal cords

text: Sato et al. carried out a histopathologic investigation of unphonated human vocal cords. Vocal fold mucosae, which were unphonated since birth, of three young adults (17, 24, and 28 years old) were looked at using light and electron microscopy. The results show that the vocal fold mucosae were hypoplastic, and rudimentary, and like newborns, did not have any vocal ligament, Reinke's space, or layered structure. Like newborns, the lamina propria appeared as a uniform structure. Some stellate cells were present in the macula flava, but started to show some signs of degeneration. The stellate cells synthesized fewer extracellular matrix molecules, and the cytoplasmic processes were shown to be short and shrinking, suggesting a decreased activity. Those results confirm the hypothesis that phonation stimulates stellate cells into producing more extracellular matrix.


title: Vocal cords

text: Furthermore, using a specially designed bioreactor, Titze et al. showed that fibroblasts exposed to mechanical stimulation have differing levels of extracellular matrix production from fibroblasts that are not exposed to mechanical stimulation. The gene expression levels of extracellular matrix constituents such as fibronectin, MMP1, decorin, fibromodulin, hyaluronic acid synthase 2, and CD44 were altered. All those genes are involved in extracellular matrix remodeling, thus suggesting that mechanical forces applied to the tissue, alter the expression levels of extracellular matrix related genes, which in turn allow the cells present in the tissue to regulate the extracellular matrix constituent synthesis, thus affecting the tissue's composition, structure, and biomechanical properties. In the end, cell-surface receptors close the loop by giving feedback on the surrounding extracellular matrix to the cells, affecting also their gene expression level.


title: Vocal cords

text: Other studies suggest that hormones play also an important role in vocal fold maturation. Hormones are molecules secreted into the blood stream to be delivered at different targeted sites. They usually promote growth, differentiation and functionality in different organs or tissues. Their effect is due to their ability to bind to intracellular receptors, modulating the gene expression, and subsequently regulating protein synthesis. The interaction between the endocrine system and tissues such as breast, brain, testicles, heart, bones, etc., is being extensively studied. It has clearly been seen that the larynx is somewhat affected by hormonal changes, but surprisingly, very few studies are working on elucidating this relationship. The effect of hormonal changes in voice is clearly seen when hearing male and female voices, or when listening to a teenage voice changing during puberty. Actually, it is believed that the number of hormonal receptors in the pre-pubertal phase is higher than in any other age. Menstruation has also been seen to influence the voice. In fact, singers are encouraged by their instructors not to perform during their pre-menstrual period, because of a drop in their voice quality.


title: Vocal cords

text: Vocal fold phonatory functions are known to change from birth to old age. The most significant changes occur in development between birth and puberty, and in old age. Hirano et al. previously described several structural changes associated with aging, in the vocal fold tissue. Some of those changes are: a shortening of the membranous vocal fold in males, a thickening of the vocal fold mucosa and cover in females, and a development of edema in the superficial lamina propria layer in both sexes. Hammond et al. observed that the hyaluronic acid content in the vocal fold lamina propria was significantly higher in males than in females. Although all those studies did show that there are clear structural and functional changes seen in the human vocal cords which are associated with gender and age, none really fully elucidated the underlying cause of those changes. In fact, only a few recent studies started to look at the presence and role of hormone receptors in the vocal cords. Newman et al. found that hormone receptors are indeed present in the vocal cords, and show a statistical distribution difference with respect to age and gender. They have identified the presence of androgen, estrogen, and progesterone receptors in epithelial cells, granular cells and fibroblasts of the vocal cords, suggesting that some of the structural changes seen in the vocal cords could be due to hormonal influences. In this specific study, androgen and progesterone receptors were found more commonly in males than in females. In others studies, it has been suggested that the estrogen/androgen ratio be partly responsible for the voice changes observed at menopause. As previously said, Hammond et al. showed than the hyaluronic acid content was higher in male than in female vocal cords. Bentley et al. demonstrated that sex skin swelling seen in monkey was due to an increase in hyaluronic acid content, which was in fact mediated by estrogen receptors in dermal fibroblasts. An increase in collagen biosynthesis mediated by the estrogen receptors of dermal fibroblasts was also observed. A connection between hormone levels, and extracellular matrix distribution in the vocal cords depending on age and gender could be made. More particularly a connection between higher hormone levels and higher hyaluronic acid content in males could exist in the human vocal fold tissue. Although a relationship between hormone levels and extracellular matrix biosynthesis in vocal fold can be established, the details of this relationship, and the mechanisms of the influence has not been elucidated yet.


title: Vocal cords

text: There is a thinning in the superficial layer of the lamina propria in old age. In aging, the vocal fold undergoes considerable sex-specific changes. In the female larynx, the vocal fold cover thickens with aging. The superficial layer of the lamina propria loses density as it becomes more edematous. The intermediate layer of the lamina propria tends to atrophy only in men. The deep layer of the lamina propria of the male vocal fold thickens because of increased collagen deposits. The vocalis muscle atrophies in both men and women. However, the majority of elderly patients with voice disorders have disease processes associated with aging rather than physiologic aging alone.


title: Vocal cords

text: The larynx is a major (but not the only) source of sound in speech, generating sound through the rhythmic opening and closing of the vocal folds. To oscillate, the vocal folds are brought near enough together such that air pressure builds up beneath the larynx. The folds are pushed apart by this increased subglottal pressure, with the inferior part of each fold leading the superior part. Such a wave-like motion causes a transfer of energy from the airflow to the fold tissues. Under the correct conditions, the energy transferred to the tissues is large enough to overcome losses by dissipation and the oscillation pattern will sustain itself. In essence, sound is generated in the larynx by chopping up a steady flow of air into little puffs of sound waves.


title: Vocal cords

text: The perceived pitch of a person's voice is determined by a number of different factors, most importantly the fundamental frequency of the sound generated by the larynx. The fundamental frequency is influenced by the length, size, and tension of the vocal folds. This frequency averages about 125 Hz in an adult male, 210 Hz in adult females, and over 300 Hz in children. Depth-kymography is an imaging method to visualize the complex horizontal and vertical movements of vocal folds.


title: Vocal cords

text: The vocal folds generate a sound rich in harmonics. The harmonics are produced by collisions of the vocal folds with themselves, by recirculation of some of the air back through the trachea, or both. Some singers can isolate some of those harmonics in a way that is perceived as singing in more than one pitch at the same time—a technique called overtone singing or throat singing such as in the tradition of Tuvan throat singing.


title: Vocal cords

text: The majority of vocal fold lesions primarily arise in the cover of the folds. Since the basal lamina secures the epithelium to the superficial layer of the lamina propria with anchoring fibers, this is a common site for injury. If a person has a phonotrauma or habitual vocal hyperfunction, also known as pressed phonation, the proteins in the basal lamina can shear, causing vocal fold injury, usually seen as nodules or polyps, which increase the mass and thickness of the cover. The squamous cell epithelium of the anterior glottis are also a frequent site of laryngeal cancer caused by smoking.


title: Vocal cords

text: A voice pathology called Reinke's edema, swelling due to abnormal accumulation of fluid, occurs in the superficial lamina propria or Reinke's space. This causes the vocal fold mucosa to appear floppy with excessive movement of the cover that has been described as looking like a loose sock. The greater mass of the vocal folds due to increased fluid lowers the fundamental frequency during phonation.


title: Vocal cords

text: Wound healing is a natural regeneration process of dermal and epidermal tissue involving a sequence of biochemical events. These events are complex and can be categorized into three stages: inflammation, proliferation and tissue remodeling. The study on vocal fold wound healing is not as extensive as that on animal models due to the limited availability of human vocal folds. Vocal fold injuries can have a number of causes including chronic overuse, chemical, thermal and mechanical trauma such as smoking, laryngeal cancer, and surgery. Other benign pathological phenomena like polyps, vocal fold nodules and edema will also introduce disordered phonation.


title: Vocal cords

text: Any injury to human vocal folds elicits a wound healing process characterized by disorganized collagen deposition and, eventually, formation of scar tissue. Verdolini and her group sought to detect and describe acute tissue response of injured rabbit vocal cord model. They quantified the expression of two biochemical markers: interleukin 1 and prostaglandin E2, which are associated with acute wound healing. They found the secretions of these inflammatory mediators were significantly elevated when collected from injured vocal cords versus normal vocal cords. This result was consistent with their previous study about the function of IL-1 and PGE-2 in wound healing. Investigation about the temporal and magnitude of inflammatory response in the vocal cords may benefit for elucidating subsequent pathological events in vocal fold wounding, which is good for clinician to develop therapeutic targets to minimize scar formation. In the proliferative phase of vocal cord wound healing, if the production of hyaluronic acid and collagen is not balanced, which means the hyaluronic acid level is lower than normal, the fibrosis of collagen cannot be regulated. Consequently, regenerative-type wound healing turns to be the formation of scar. Scarring may lead to the deformity of vocal fold edge, the disruption of lipopolysaccharides viscosity and stiffness. Patients suffering from vocal fold scar complain about increased phonatory effort, vocal fatigue, breathlessness, and dysphonia. Vocal fold scar is one of the most challenging problems for otolaryngologists because it is hard to be diagnosed at germinal stage and the function necessity of vocal cords is delicate.


title: Vocal cords

text: The vocal folds are commonly referred to as "vocal cords", and less commonly as "vocal flaps" or "vocal bands". The term "vocal cords" was coined by the French anatomist Antoine Ferrein in 1741. In his violin analogy of the human voice, he postulated that the moving air acted like a bow on "cordes vocales". The alternative spelling in English is "vocal chords", possibly due to the musical connotations or to confusion with the geometrical definition of the word "chord". While both spellings have historical precedents, standard American spelling is "cords". According to the Oxford English Corpus, a database of 21st-century texts that contains everything from academic journal articles to unedited writing and blog entries, contemporary writers opt for the nonstandard "chords" instead of "cords" 49% of the time. The "cords" spelling is also standard in the United Kingdom and Australia.


title: Vocal cords

text: In phonetics, "vocal folds" is preferred over "vocal cords", on the grounds that it is more accurate and illustrative.


Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (often referred to as simply Danger Days) is the fourth studio album by American rock band My Chemical Romance released on November 22, 2010, by Reprise Records. Its songs are associated with the band's well known sound of alternative rock, pop punk, and punk rock as well as introducing new elements, including power pop, pop rock, and electronic rock. The inspiration for the album came from contemporary rock, psychedelic rock, and protopunk bands of the sixties and seventies. It was the final album released by the band before their six-year disbandment from 2013 to 2019.


title: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys

text: The album's storyline follows a city in post-apocalyptic California in 2019, where a few outsiders called Killjoys fight against an evil corporation. In 2013, frontman Gerard Way published a comic that continues the story described in the album.


text: To promote the album, the band embarked on a world tour, titled The World Contamination Tour. It lasted from October 2010 to February 2012, and included concerts in Europe, North America, Asia and Oceania; the band also co-headlined the 10th Annual Honda Civic Tour with Blink-182. Selling 112,000 copies in its first week, The album debuted at the top of the "Billboard" Rock Albums and Alternative Albums charts, and at number 8 on the "Billboard" 200. It also appeared in the music charts in several other countries. By February 2011, "Danger Days" had sold over a million copies worldwide.


text: Following the grueling but highly successful tour for "The Black Parade", My Chemical Romance entered the studio with producer Brendan O'Brien to produce the band's next album. The band, exhausted with the touring for "The Black Parade" and its dark tone, wanted to make a conscious break with the sound of that album, and take a more fun, stripped-down approach with "no concepts, no characters, no costumes, and no extra instrumentation". However, the band became unhappy with the final results of their recordings with O'Brien; while they felt as though they had achieved their goals, they also felt that they were holding themselves back creatively. As a result, My Chemical Romance decided to shelve the album, a move that the band's label, Reprise Records, was supportive of. The sessions with Brendan O'Brien were eventually released in 2012 under the name "Conventional Weapons."


text: After shelving the record, the band returned back to the studio with "The Black Parade" producer Rob Cavallo, who helped reinvigorate and guide the band back on track. Three songs from the band's shelved album, "Bulletproof Heart", "The Only Hope For Me Is You" and "Party Poison" were brought back from the shelved album and re-recorded for the album.


text: Like the band's previous album "The Black Parade", the album is a concept album. The story is based around the fictional lives of the "Killjoys", a group of rebellious rogues living in a post-apocalyptic California in the year 2019. Occasionally narrated by pirate radio DJ Dr. Death Defying (voiced by Steve Montano), the album follows the group as they fight against the evil corporation Better Living Industries (BL/ind.) and its various "Draculoids" and exterminators, such as Korse (portrayed by Grant Morrison in music videos), from the S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W Unit.


text: In music videos and promotional material, the band members would portray their "Killjoy" alter-egos: "Party Poison" (Gerard Way), "Jet-Star" (Ray Toro), "Fun Ghoul" (Frank Iero), and "The Kobra Kid" (Mikey Way). The music video for "Na Na Na" shows the Killjoys' daily lives until Korse defeats them and captures "The Girl," while the video for "Sing" shows the Killjoys' rescue mission to get her back.


text: When asked about the album's title in a November 2010 interview, frontman Gerard Way said that ""Danger Days" is what it takes to do something great. It refers to us, to the fans, for all we know and artists who helped shape the album". "Rolling Stone" calls "Danger Days" a total rejection of the rock "infladísimo" celebrity. "Na Na Na" presents criticism of consumerist culture of the United States. The band described the main theme of "SING" as "subversion, and to delve under the skin of certain individuals politically, socially, and also to reach national television to talk about how we feel about the world." Toro calls "S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W" a psychedelic song that "shows the artistic side of the band," and was heavily inspired by songs like "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by the Beatles. The final track, "Vampire Money," was a reaction to the band being asked to do a song for "The Twilight Saga". Gerard Way said that the reason the song was on the album was because "there's a lot of people chasing that fucking money. "'Twilight"?' A lot of people around us were like, 'Please, for the love of God, do this fucking movie.' But we'd moved on."


text: The band posted a teaser trailer for the album on September 17, 2010, via their official YouTube account, titled "Art Is the Weapon". On September 19, 2010, the band announced "The World Contamination Tour", taking place in parts of the UK, France, Amsterdam and Germany. This was followed by US radio dates in December before moving onto Japan, a full Europe tour, a US tour, European festivals and the Honda Civic Tour with Blink-182 in 2011.


text: The album's first single "Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)" premiered on air September 22, 2010 via WRFF in Philadelphia, BBC Radio 1, and KROQ-FM in Los Angeles. The track is featured in the film Movie 43, and is also featured in the video game "", sung in the fictional language of Simlish. "The Only Hope for Me Is You" was released as a single on October 11, and was also given as a free download to anyone who pre-ordered the album on the iTunes Store. "SING" was covered on the Fox show "Glee". "Planetary (Go!)" was featured in the video game "Gran Turismo 5" and was also used in an advertisement for Super Bowl XLV. "The Kids From Yesterday" was premiered live on October 23, 2010. The songs "Na Na Na" and "Destroya" were also featured on the MTV show "Teen Wolf".


text: Announced in an exclusive interview with "Kerrang!", "Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back" was released as a free download on the band's official website on 5 November 2010. The album premiered on November 16, 2010, on the band's official website, hosted by Dr. Death Defying.


text: Upon its release, "Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys" received generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 70, based on 26 reviews, which indicates "Generally favorable reviews".


text: "Rock Sound" received a preview of the album, commenting "the way they've used everything they learned on "The Black Parade" and tightened up in certain places feels natural and confident" and that it sees "the creativity of the band taking flight musically, graphically and literally." Dan Martin of "NME" got the chance to preview the album and had equally positive reviews. He stated that "[t]his is the best rock record of the year by such a margin that you actually feel rather embarrassed for everybody else." "Alternative Press" reviewed the album, and commented, "It's truly hard to believe this is the same act who exploded onto the scene six years ago with the emo anthem, "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)"", as well as stating, "MCR have fully followed their own larger-than-life creative vision", with a rating of four stars. Matt Heafy, frontman and guitarist of the metal band Trivium, listed the album as the fourth best album of 2010. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic awarded the album four and a half stars out of five and said the band were "Swapping gothic pomp for metallic power pop..." and that "there’s no emo bloodletting but for most listeners it’s crystallized fun, the purest rush My Chemical Romance has ever delivered."


text: "Rock Sound" later reviewed the album, saying that "If MCR were your favourite band in the past it might feel like it’s going to take some steady reappraisal before you ink their new logo on your rough book" and that "Danger Days simply sounds like they’re having way more fun than ever." with a rating of eight stars out of ten. It was number 28 on "Rolling Stone"s list of the 30 Best Albums of 2010.


text: In addition to the standard CD edition, the band also offered the California 2019 Edition exclusively through its official online store. The edition features the standard CD version of the album as well as an exclusive EP, "The Mad Gear and Missile Kid", a 48-page book titled "Art Is the Weapon", a wooden "bad luck beads" bracelet, one of four polyresin prop ray-guns and a matching mask housed in a white box adorned with a photo sleeve. Because of manufacturing problems involving the craftsmanship of the 'ray-guns', the packages were shipped later in the year in February 2011.


text: An iTunes deluxe version was also released featuring the song "We Don't Need Another Song About California" and the music video for "Na Na Na".


text: In 2009, Way announced his intent to create a companion comic series titled "The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys". He later announced at the 2012 New York Comic Con that he would co-write the series with Shaun Simon, the artwork would be done by Becky Cloonan, and that the first issue of the series would be released on June 6, 2013, with a preview of the book getting released on Free Comic Book Day. Way commented that the series would serve as the "last part of the story" and as a "coming to age story about a young girl".


text: "The Mad Gear and Missile Kid" is an exclusive three-track EP by a fictional alter-ego band of the same name, and comes with the California 2019 special edition of the album. Guitarist Frank Iero told MTV "It's basically what the Killjoys are listening to in the car as they're having those gun battles".


title: Jody Watley

text: Jody Vanessa Watley (born January 30, 1959) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and artist, whose music crosses genres including pop, R&B, jazz, dance, and electronic soul. During the late 1970s and early 1980s she was a member of the r&b/funk band Shalamar, who scored many hits, notably so in the UK. In 1988, she won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist (as a solo artist) and has been nominated for three Grammy awards.


title: Jody Watley

text: In 2008, she was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from "Billboard" magazine, and was also prominently featured in the historic black issue of "Vogue Italia" in 2008.


title: Jody Watley

text: In December 2016, "Billboard" ranked her as the 21st most successful dance artist of all-time. and in 2017 Black Music Honors TV special recognized Watley as Crossover Music Icon Honoree for her groundbreaking achievements and influence.


title: Jody Watley

text: In August 2018, "Billboard" ranked Jody Watley as one of the top female artists of all-time, at number 53.


title: Jody Watley

text: In March 2021, Jody Watley was named the First Ambassador of the National Museum of African American Music.


title: Jody Watley

text: In 2022, Jody Watley received an honorary doctorate in business and Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award from Joe Biden at Jody Watley Day at Georgia State Capitol, and was inducted into Women's Songwriters Hall Of Fame.


title: Jody Watley

text: Watley was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Watley made her first stage appearance at eight years old with family friend and godfather Jackie Wilson. She got her start on the TV dance show "Soul Train" at the age of 14. At Dorsey High School she was voted "best dancer" in her senior class poll. Documented by "Ebony" magazine in 1977 as a part of "The New Generation," Jody Watley was one of the most popular dancers on the show and recognized as a trendsetter for her style and dance moves.


title: Jody Watley

text: As standouts on the television show, Watley and fellow Soul Train dancer Jeffrey Daniel were selected to join Gary Mumford and become original members of the R&B group Shalamar by show creator Don Cornelius. (Mumford was shortly replaced by Gerald Brown, and Brown himself was soon replaced by Howard Hewett as lead vocalist). The lineup of Hewett, Watley, and Daniel would be the most successful. Watley remained with Shalamar from 1977 to 1983. The trio released several albums and scored several hits including the US Top 20 "Dead Giveaway", and the R&B hits "The Second Time Around", "For The Lover In You", and "A Night To Remember". Because of conflicts within the group, disagreements about the artistic direction of Shalamar with Dick Griffey, and lack of payment from Solar Records, she finally left the group in 1983, prior to the release of "The Look" album.


title: Jody Watley

text: Post-Shalamar in 1984, Watley moved to England, and while there she recorded a guest vocal with British Jamaican roots reggae group Musical Youth for their album, "Different Style!". She also recorded with Gary Langan, Anne Dudley and J.J Jeczalik (who later became Art of Noise). She had a brief stint with Phonogram Records where two singles were released (in the UK, Europe and Australia – though crucially not America) under the moniker "Jody" (no second name), "Where the Boys Are" and "Girls Night Out". Also during this era, and after departing the group, she took part in Bob Geldof's Band Aid recording of "Do They Know It's Christmas", which included Bono, Boy George, Sting, George Michael, Phil Collins, Status Quo, Paul Weller, Bananarama and other prominent Irish and British artists.


title: Jody Watley

text: After two and a half years in England, Watley returned to America and secured a recording deal with MCA Records, eager to establish her own identity. Her debut solo studio album, titled "Jody Watley", was released in March 1987, and she co-wrote six of the album's nine songs with partner Andre Cymone, who also produced her first 4 albums. In an interview with "Rolling Stone", Watley would say that she wanted to showcase her voice against "really funky hard dance tracks". The album's lead single, "Looking for a New Love", became a hit and was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album peaked at number ten on the US "Billboard" 200, number one on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and sold 2 million copies in the United States and a total of 4 million copies worldwide. It produced five uptempo dance and R&B singles that charted on the "Billboard" Hot 100, with three peaking within the top ten: "Looking for a New Love" (#2); "Still a Thrill" (#56); "Don't You Want Me" (#6); "Some Kind of Lover" (#10); and "Most of All" (#60) Also included on her debut album was a duet with George Michael, "Learn to Say No", produced by Bernard Edwards of Chic fame.


title: Jody Watley

text: At the 30th Annual Grammy Awards of 1988, Watley won the award for Best New Artist, and was nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. That same year, she also received nominations for two MTV Video Music Awards and three Soul Train Awards. After Shalamar she had two singles released under the name of "Jody", without her last name even though adverts in UK pop magazine, "Smash Hits", mentioned that she was "Formerly of Shalamar". This "technicality" (no second name), allowed her controversially to be considered a "New Artist" at the Grammy's, beating Breakfast Club, Cutting Crew, Terence Trent D'Arby and Swing Out Sister. Shortly after winning the Grammy, Watley would be featured in "Harper's Bazaar" magazine photographed by Francesco Scavullo.


title: Jody Watley

text: In the spring of 1989, Watley released her second studio album, "Larger Than Life", co-writing eleven of the album’s twelve songs. The album sold over 4 million copies worldwide, reaching number 16 on the "Billboard" 200, and produced four singles: "Real Love" Certified Gold by RIAA (US #2, #1 R&B, #2 Dance, UK #31), a Gold-certificated single and her first Top 40 UK single since "Looking for a New Love" in 1987; "Friends" featuring Eric B. & Rakim, (US #9, #3 R&B, #7 Dance, UK #21)was the first R&B, Pop, Rap, Dance collaboration to crossover Top 10 on multiple charts; and "Everything" (US #4, #3 R&B), her first ballad released as a single. The album's fourth and final single, "Precious Love", was a minor hit, peaking at number 87 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. "Friends" is notable for being the first multi-format hit single to include the formula of a pop star featuring a guest rapper with the custom full 16-bar verses and bridge concept, and distinguishable from the rap "Intro" by Melle Mel on Chaka Khan's notable cover of Prince's song "I Feel for You". The successful "Friends" formula would become a mainstay formula in commercial pop music and was added as a category at the Grammy's under Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration in 2002.


title: Jody Watley

text: During the summer of 1989, the "Real Love" video, directed by Hollywood director David Fincher, was nominated for seven MTV Video Music Awards including Breakthrough Video, Best Art Direction, Best Dance Video and Best Female Video at the 1989 ceremony. That record was held until Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson's video "Scream" received 11 VMA nominations in 1995. The next year, she was nominated for two Soul Train Awards, an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Female Artist, and a Narm Award for Best Selling R&B Female Album. While riding high on her "Larger Than Life World Tour", a remix album, titled "You Wanna Dance with Me?", was released in October 1989 and achieved Gold status in America. 1989 also saw Watley featured in "Harper’s Bazaar" "Ten Most Beautiful Women" issue, photographed by Matthew Rolston. That same year Watley appeared on the cover of the Japanese high fashion magazine "SPUR" for its debut issue.


title: Jody Watley

text: Watley released the million selling "Dance to Fitness" a first for an African-American woman and artist.


title: Jody Watley

text: Watley would state that she was eager to change her musical range and image, and no longer wanted to be seen as just a dance diva.


title: Jody Watley

text: She was inspired toward a more introspective approach for ‘Affairs Of The Heart", wanting to address social concerns. In December 1991, Watley released her third album, "Affairs of the Heart", described by Justin Kantor in "Guide to Soul" as an overlooked standout of her 1980s and 1990s output. The album peaked at No. 124 on the US chart, and #21 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart.


title: Jody Watley

text: The lead single, "I Want You," failed to crack the top 40, peaking at No. 61 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart, though peaking at No. 5 on the US R&B singles chart, and #17 Dance. The second single, "I'm The One You Need", reached No. 3 Dance and peaked at No. 19 on the US Hot 100. The final single was the ballad "It All Begins With You", her first single to miss the US Hot 100. Watley earned an invitation by President George H. W. Bush in 1992 to perform this song at the White House. Watley used the opportunity to encourage the government to provide more support and funding for public schools. Watley recorded "It's All There" for the movie "Switch" with the composer Henry Mancini.


title: Jody Watley

text: Apparently undeterred by disappointing sales, Watley stated she was more concerned with broadening her creative boundaries than in having huge record sales.


title: Jody Watley

text: In November 1993, MCA released her fourth solo album, the introspective relationship themed "Intimacy". Noting that the new jack swing was popular in R&B at the time, Amy Linden wrote in "People" magazine that "Intimacy" continued the process of Watley’s move toward more refreshingly adult themes and that Watley was deserving of serious attention. Watley herself said that the songs she wrote were always personal statements.


title: Jody Watley

text: "Intimacy" with its songs of "romance and angst" reached No. 164 on the US Top 200 Album Chart and No. 38 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart. The first single was "Your Love Keeps Working On Me", barely scraped onto the Hot 100 at No. 100' and also peaked at No. 2 Dance and No. 26 R&B/Hip-Hop. Watley added video director to her resume for the next single, the spoken word tune "When a Man Loves a Woman". "When A Man Loves A Woman" reached No. 11 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop and US No. 8 Dance. Although not a pop hit in the US or UK as well, the BBG Remix of this song topped the Dance charts in the UK. The album also contained the song "Ecstasy", produced by David Morales, which became an underground hit and later appeared on her "Greatest Hits" collection. Like its predecessor, "Intimacy" would not be a strong seller, but would continue to give Watley better critical success.


title: Jody Watley

text: Having parted ways with MCA Records, Watley took an independent path and started her own label, Avitone Records, and released her fifth studio album, "Affection", in July 1995. The album was engineered and produced by the Booker T. Jones and Angelo Earl. She aligned Avitone with the independent Bellmark Records for distribution. According to a review of the album "Affection" by Jose Promis of "Allmusic", the release lacked the urgency and immediency of her dance-era hits, but was an engaging collection of slow burners, mid tempo and jazzy R&B. The album’s title track, "Affection", didn't crack the Hot 100 but became a moderate R&B hit, peaking at No. 28 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart


title: Jody Watley

text: In 1996, Watley played Rizzo in the musical "Grease" on Broadway theater in New York City, the first African American woman to play the role. Watley was photographed by Victor Skrebneski for the Saks Fifth Avenue Defining Style Fall Catalog, where she appeared in a 15 page high fashion layout. That fall, Watley appeared on the platinum-selling single "This Is For The Lover In You" by Babyface. The single also featured LL Cool J and Watley’s former Shalamar bandmates Howard Hewett and Jeffrey Daniel, essentially reforming the group for the single. It was a remake of Shalamar’s R&B hit "For The Lover In You". As the year wound to a close, Watley took a hiatus from her own Avitone label, and signed with Big Beat/Atlantic Records. The same year MCA Records released her "Greatest Hits" album with Watley’s recordings for MCA.


title: Jody Watley

text: After spending most of 1997 in the recording studio crafting her sixth studio album, "Flower", Watley was back in early 1998 with its lead singles "Off The Hook" and "If I'm Not In Love". "Off The Hook" peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart and No. 73 Billboard Hot 100 but fared much better on Billboard’s Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. Propelled by remixes from Masters At Work and Soul Solution(Dance act), the track reached No. 1 on the dance chart, making it her first No. 1 Hot Dance Music/Club Play hit in nine years. Later the same year, a single of "If I'm Not In Love" was released, with promo mixes by Sal Dano (credited as BK Dano), Lenny Bertoldo, and 95 North (Richard Payton and Doug Smith) and that song reached No. 2 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. Big Beat Records was absorbed into its parent label, Atlantic Records, which then shelved the album from a U.S. release, and left Watley in legal limbo for two years. "Flower" was, however, released in Canada, Great Britain, and Japan. The critically acclaimed release was championed by many UK magazines, including "Blues and Soul" and "Echoes" among others.<br>


title: Jody Watley

text: A previously unreleased song featuring Watley with George Duke titled "Baby Love" was included as a bonus track on The Best of George Duke The Electra Years in 1997. "


title: Jody Watley

text: It was during the time she was unable to record, that Watley says she was inspired by 4Hero whose 1998 album "Two Pages" exposed her to the underground electronic dance music outside of the mainstream; she credits this inspiration for not retiring after the disappointment of how "Flower" was handled. "The Saturday Night Experience Vol. 1", as Watley told music historian David Nathan.


title: Jody Watley

text: In November 1999, Jody reactivated her independent label, Avitone, and released her seventh studio album via Universal Japan "The Saturday Night Experience featuring Jody Watley Vol. 1", a collection of organic club music tracks, inspired by her newfound love of electronic music. It was released exclusively in Japan along with a single, "Another Chapter," with remixes by DJ Soma. Also included on the project was the drum and bass title song "Saturday Night Experience". As Watley told music historian David Nathan, ""The Saturday Night Experience" was intended to be a concept album, aimed at people looking for something different." "The Saturday Night Experience ", as told to music historian David Nathan, Watley stated she had no desire to release the project in the U.S. The title song of the same name was licensed to Giant Step and included on their compilation "Giant Sessions, Volume 1 Mixed by Ron Trent". The following year, MCA released "20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The Best of Jody Watley".


title: Jody Watley

text: In 2001, Jody released her eighth studio album, "Midnight Lounge" in Europe and Japan. In an interview with "Billboard" magazine Watley would say, "An artist should always explore new frontiers." "Midnight Lounge" was a collection of tracks that combined a blend of soul, jazz, R&B, and electronic club music.


title: Jody Watley

text: After achieving moderate success in its original release, Watley arranged for it to be released in the U.S. through her Avitone imprint in a short-term license deal with Shanachie Records on March 11, 2003. "Midnight Lounge" was Watley’s first studio album released in the U.S. in eight years, reaching Top 20 status on Billboard Top Electronic Albums chart. Roy Ayers appeared on the Masters At Work produced, "I Love to Love", Junior Vasquez and several other producers contributed remixes to the single release of "Whenever", bringing the track to No. 19 on the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play Chart. One of the album’s other singles, "Photographs", became notable in the underground club scene with mixes by Phil Asher and East West Connection. The music and growth of Watley would achieve critical acclaim for the project and Watley, noting she had successfully updated her sound over the years and evolved successfully into a soulful chanteuse.


title: Jody Watley

text: In 2005, Watley made history on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play Chart when she re-released her 1987 hit "Looking For a New Love" on Curvve Recordings. The 2005 remix reached No. 1 on the Billboard Dance/Club Play chart, making her the first artist ever to take the same song to No. 1 in two different decades. Jody Watley now has the distinction of being among the few artists who have been to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in all of the past three decades (the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s). The same year, Watley was invited to participate in the Force of Nature Relief Concert to aid the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. During the trip Watley and others (including The Black Eyed Peas, Lauryn Hill, and Jackie Chan) were invited to the Royal Palace to meet The King and Queen of Malaysia for a special Tea reception in showing their gratitude for all involved with Force of Nature.


title: Jody Watley

text: The Makeover would bring Watley together with 4Hero and King Britt among others in an electronic musical style. Understanding the shifting paradigms in the music industry and the changing business models, Watley’s Avitone Recordings arranged for "The Makeover" to be released exclusively to the Virgin Megastore chain in its first ever CD exclusive. It debuted at No. 1 for the retailer, and was accompanied by a Virgin mini-tour where she performed for customers and signed copies of the CD. The first single was a cover of Madonna's "Borderline". The single reached No. 2 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in January 2007. The second single, a cover of Chic's "I Want Your Love," reached No. 1 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play in June 2007.


title: Jody Watley

text: In 2007, Watley was listed as No. 5 in the Year End Billboard Dance Play Artists. Her single "I Want Your Love" was No. 15 and "Borderline" No. 19 according to Billboard Year End Chart Review for 2007. In January 2008, "I Want Your Love" topped the U.K. Dance Charts in January, giving her first U.K. mainstream dance hit in two decades. In 2008, she launched an online music store, while scoring another Top Five Billboard Dance Single, "A Beautiful Life," bringing the total of Top Five Singles for "The Makeover" to three. In May 2008, continuing over a decade of support for various charities dedicated to raising funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS, Watley performed at Life Ball, Europe's largest gala for the cause held in Vienna, Austria. In May 2009, Watley’s Avitone signed a distribution deal with London-based Alternative Distribution Alliance Global.


title: Jody Watley

text: In October 2009, an "International" version of "The Makeover' was released in the U.K. to positive reviews. Pete Lewis from Blues & Soul noted her evolution as an artist and performer as being showcased on the album. Further stating Watley being hailed by some, as exemplifying the 21st century recording artist continuing to exercise her own creative path. Distinguishable from the original release, The Makeover "International Edition" featured new cover art and track listing. New inclusions featured the bossa-soul rendering of Bob Marley’s "Waiting in Vain", a sparsely arranged version of Carole King's 1960s ballad "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow", Erasure's anthem "A Little Respect", and a reworking of the Diana Ross dance classic "Love Hangover". Replacing the downtempo ambient version found on the 2006 "The Makeover", Watley recorded the new arrangement originally suggested by songwriter Pam Sawyer, for Ross.


title: Jody Watley

text: Reg Dancy from Basic Soul would write that Watley was able to handpick songs and make them seem as if they had been written for her.


title: Jody Watley

text: Added to the line-up of producers which included King Britt, Mark de-Clive Lowe, 4Hero, DJ Spinna, and longtime co-collaborator Rodney Lee, are remixer/producers Marco Zappala from Brazil and Craig C. from the UK.


title: Jody Watley

text: In February 2010, Jody Watley joined Jamie Foxx onstage at a post Grammy event for a duet performance of her signature hit "Looking For a New Love" and also appeared in the VH1 documentary "Soul Train: The Hippest Trip In America". On October 27, 2012, Watley starred in the one time international humanitarian musical event "Loving the Silent Tears" with performers from 16 countries and cultures, created by Al Kasha directed by Vincent Paterson and choreographed by Bonnie Story at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles


title: Jody Watley

text: Jody Watley recorded collaborations with the electro pop duo French Horn Rebellion on singles titled "Cold Enough" and "Dancing Out" also featuring Young Empires in December 2012 and June 2013. Watley added high-profile summer concerts including Grammy All-Stars in Chengdu, China at Chengdu Sports Centre and Essence Music Festival in July 2013.


title: Jody Watley

text: Jody Watley released a new single "Nightlife", in 2013. The song, which marked a return to disco dance, was a Top 5 British Urban Single, Top 10 Commercial Pop Single Music Week and Billboard Hot Dance Club Play Top 20 Single in 2014.


title: Jody Watley

text: On July 28, 2014, the EP "Paradise" was released through Watley's longtime Avitone label, digital outlets, and limited edition CD exclusively through her official website the EP contains the single "Nightlife", along with 5 new songs and collaborations with Mark de Clive Lowe, string arranger and musician Miguel Atwood Ferguson and newcomers Count de Money (France), Luminodisco (Italy) and Soulpersona (UK) Jody Watley collaborated with music new jack pop duo French Horn Rebellion.


title: Jody Watley

text: Also in 2014, Watley, a well documented original member of Shalamar became the legal registered owner though not without challenge. Watley would state that the term "Reloaded" was to make sure the public knew this was not a reunion with past members and that she found the challenge exciting to rebrand the group bringing it to a new generation while finally finding a way to bring both catalogues together for a dynamic concert experience. Watley launched a new online boutique devoted to Shalamar merchandise in tandem with her own longstanding Jody Watley Boutique founded in 1999. A string of new American Tour Dates in support of Paradise and introducing the newly reloaded Shalamar included, Oakland, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, San Jose, Washington D.C. Sacramento, Atlantic City and more. media blitz to introduce the members that included television in major markets and concerts expanding in and outside of the United States and included Brazil, The Netherlands and the UK. The reloaded version of the group features renowned choreographer Rosero McCoy and newcomer Nate Allen Smith an Ohio native singer, dancer, choreographer Shalamar Reloaded released a promotional single titled "SlowDance" on July 17, 2015, through Watley's Avitone label. The single was subsequently picked up by independent label Spectra Music Group and released on October 20, 2015, along with a new video directed by Damien Sandoval. Jody Watley and the new trademarked Shalamar was also featured in a SIRIUSXM Special "In The Groove with B.K Kirkland which aired in July 2015. The SRL trio with Nate Smith and Rosero McCoy also made television appearances on Chicago's WGN Morning News debut performance and KTLA Morning New with Sam Rubin It was also announced that the ever eclectic Watley would be a guest vocalist on highly acclaimed funkster Dam-Funk's second album "Invite The Light" via "Rolling Stone". Jody Watley and Shalamar Reloaded continue to add touring dates in the United States. They have also had festival appearances in the United Kingdom including Let's Rock London. Jody has also taken to Shalamar Reloaded to Japan, Brazil and Netherlands and added them to Superfreestyle arena dates in America as of 2015 and 2016 announcements. In 2016, Watley made the choice to redirect her efforts to the now formed Shalamar Reloaded, wanting a fresh start for her new group without the negativity and baggage. Shalamar Reloaded continue a quest to build a new base releasing their second single and video "O.R.I.G.IN.A.L" in May 2016, "The Mood" and continued adding a series of critically well received concerts. In 2017, Shalamar Reloaded changed their name and all social media to a simple moniker of SRL in concerts and promotions with plans to release a debut album "Bridges". In 2017, Watley rebranded her music collective once again, opting for Jody Watley & SRL (Soul Revolution Love). All previous releases were removed from digital outlets and social media pages updated or removed completely. Re-releasing the song "The Mood" at the start of 2018 with a remix by Italian Producer Alex Di Cio The Mood became a Number 2 UK Soul Chart Single The follow-up "The Passion" also reached the UK Soul Chart Top 3. In the midst of that, Watley released the Bob Marley jazzy makeover of the classic "Waiting In Vain" making her first entry into the Billboard Magazine Top 25 and Smooth Jazz Top 10.


title: Jody Watley

text: In 1988, Watley filmed the video to "Looking For A New Love" and made a conscious decision to use fashion to help her express her vision, wearing clothes and accessories from designers such as Issey Miyake and Philip Treacy. In 1990, Watley would continue to be involved with fashion. On her second album, she was photographed by fashion photographer Steven Meisel, where she continued to make her own style statements. In the videos for "Real Love", Watley would introduce a higher fashion aesthetic blending vintage and custom designs. "Friends" mixed couture by Jean-Paul Gaultier, with an urban sensibility. She released a million-selling home video, "Dance To Fitness". She was featured in the first celebrity ad campaign for Gap LA Eyeworks and in magazines such as "Harper’s Bazaar", "Vogue", "Vogue Italia", "Rolling Stone", "Essence", and "Vanity Fair". She was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People of 1990 in "People".


title: Jody Watley

text: In the same year, she contributed a jazzy rendition of "After You, Who?" the compilation album ""Red Hot + Blue"", an AIDS-awareness charity recording of songs by Cole Porter produced by the Red Hot Organization. Watley was photographed by Victor Skrebneski, for the Saks Fifth Avenue Defining Style Fall Catalog, where she appeared in a 15 page high fashion layout in 1996. In 2006, Watley would walk the runway with designer Kevan Hall for LA Fashion Week. The style icon is also noted as an influence on contemporary designer Malan Breton, contemporary A.Potts whose Spring/Summer 2021 collection was inspired by Watley and countless uncredited trends in contemporary style.


title: Jody Watley

text: Her early music influences are Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, The Jackson 5, The Carpenters, Roberta Flack, Prince, Grace Jones and various jazz artists including Nancy Wilson.


title: Jody Watley

text: T-Boz of TLC cited Watley's song "Still a Thrill" as an example setting her vocal tone for her singing career. In a personal video, she sent to Watley (and was given permission to share on her YouTube channel) T-Boz thanked Watley for this song during her teenage years citing she was "hitting them notes" and helping her sing at a lower register to better suit her vocal range. Fellow TLC member Lisa Lopes was seen in a video pre-TLC dancing to Watley's song "Friends" which Watley acknowledged during one of her concerts.


title: Jody Watley

text: Selena was influenced by Watley's song "Looking for a New Love" as the reason she wanted to crossover to the English-language market. Selena has also performed this song in concert which was notably documented in her .


title: Jody Watley

text: Jody Watley is an influencer who brought high fashion mixed with street style, along with her signature hoop earrings to the mainstream, fashion magazine features,ad campaigns, a million selling fitness video, the first black woman on the cover of a Japanese fashion magazine and a style of branding an image now common in the music industry.


title: Jody Watley

text: Watley has two children: a daughter, Lauren, with former fiancé and music producer Leon Sylvers III and a son Arie, with ex-husband Andre Cymone. She is the goddaughter of Jackie Wilson. Her younger sister is singer and former pornographic actress Michele Watley, better known as Midori.


title: Ischia

text: Ischia ( , , ) is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about from Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. Roughly trapezoidal in shape, it measures approximately east to west and north to south and has about of coastline and a surface area of . It is almost entirely mountainous; the highest peak is Mount Epomeo, at . The island is very densely populated, with 62,000 residents (more than 1,300 inhabitants per square km).


title: Ischia

text: Ischia is also well known for its thermal water and thermal gardens used since ancient times. Its volcanic nature makes Ischia one of the largest spas in Europe. Ischia's thermal waters are alkaline. Already the first Euboic settlers (8th century BC), as evidenced by the numerous archaeological finds found in the site of Pithecusa and preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Villa Arbusto in Lacco Ameno, appreciated and used the waters of the island's thermal springs. The Greeks, in fact, used the thermal waters to restore the spirit and the body and as a remedy for the healing of the after-effects of war wounds (in the pre-antibiotic era), attributing supernatural powers to the waters and vapors that gushed from the earth; it is no coincidence that temples dedicated to divinities such as that of Apollo in Delphi rose in every spa town. Strabo, a Greek historian and geographer, mentions the island of Ischia and the virtues of its thermal springs in his monumental geographical work (Geograph. Lib. V). If the Greeks were the first peoples to learn about the powers of thermal waters, the Romans exalted them as an instrument of care and relaxation through the creation of public Thermae and they used the numerous springs of the island surely and profitably (as evidenced by the votive tablets found at the Source of Nitrodi in Barano d'Ischia, where there was a small temple dedicated to Apollo and to the Nitrodie Nymphs, guardians of the waters) even without lavish settlements; In fact, on the island, as in Rome and in other ancient thermal centres, no impressive vestiges of thermal buildings have been found, probably due to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes that frequently violently shook the crags. The decline of the power of Rome coincided with the abandonment of the use of bathrooms also in Ischia: in fact, there are no traces of the use of water in the Middle Ages.


title: Ischia

text: Ischia is the name of the main "comune" of the island. The other "comuni" of the island are Barano d'Ischia, Casamicciola Terme, Forio, Lacco Ameno and Serrara Fontana.


title: Ischia

text: The roughly trapezoidal island is formed by a complex volcano immediately southwest of the Campi Flegrei area at the western side of the Bay of Naples. The eruption of the trachytic Green Tuff Ignimbrite about 56,000 years ago was followed by caldera formation. The highest point of the island, Monte Epomeo (), is a volcanic horst consisting of green tuff that was submerged after its eruption and then uplifted. Volcanism on the island has been significantly affected by tectonism that formed a series of horsts and grabens; resurgent doming produced at least of uplift during the past 33,000 years. Many small monogenetic volcanoes formed around the uplifted block. Volcanism during the Holocene produced a series of pumiceous tephras, tuff rings, lava domes, and lava flows. The last eruption of Ischia, in 1302, produced a spatter cone and the Arso lava flow, which reached the NE coast.


title: Ischia

text: The surrounding waters, including gulfs of Gaeta, Naples and Pozzuoli are both rich and healthy, providing habitat to around seven species of whales and dolphins, including massive fin and sperm whales. Special research programmes on local cetaceans have been conducted to monitor and protect this bio-diversity.


title: Ischia

text: Virgil poetically referred to it as "Inarime" and still later as "Arime". Martianus Capella followed Virgil in this allusive name, which was never in common circulation: the Romans called it "Aenaria", the Greeks, Πιθηκοῦσαι, "Pithekoūsai".


title: Ischia

text: "(In)arime" and "Pithekousai" both appear to derive from words for "monkey" (Etruscan "arimos", Ancient Greek πίθηκος, "píthēkos", "monkey"). However, Pliny derives the Greek name from the local clay deposits, not from "píthēkos"; he explains the Latin name "Aenaria" as connected to a landing by Aeneas ("Princeton Encyclopedia"). If the island actually was, like Gibraltar, home to a population of monkeys, they were already extinct by historical times as no record of them is mentioned in ancient sources.


title: Ischia

text: The current name appears for the first time in a letter from Pope Leo III to Charlemagne in 813: the name "iscla" mentioned there would allegedly derive from "insula", though there is an argument made for a Semitic origin in "I-schra", "black island".


title: Ischia

text: An acropolis site of the Monte Vico area was inhabited from the Bronze Age, as Mycenaean and Iron Age pottery findings attest. Euboean Greeks from Eretria and Chalcis arrived in the 8th century BC to establish an emporium for trade with the Etruscans of the mainland. This settlement was home to a mixed population of Greeks, Etruscans, and Phoenicians. Because of its fine harbor and the safety from raids afforded by the sea, the settlement of Pithecusae became successful through trade in iron and with mainland Italy; in 700 BC, Pithecusae was home to 5,000–10,000 people.


title: Ischia

text: The ceramic Euboean artifact inscribed with a reference to "Nestor's Cup" was discovered in a grave on the island in 1953. Engraved upon the cup are a few lines written in the Greek alphabet. Dating from c. 730 BC, it is one of the most important testimonies of the early Greek alphabet, from which the Latin alphabet descended via the Etruscan alphabet. According to certain scholars, the inscription also might be the oldest written reference to the Iliad.


title: Ischia

text: In 474 BC, Hiero I of Syracuse came to the aid of the Cumaeans, who lived on the mainland opposite Ischia, against the Etruscans and defeated them on the sea. He occupied Ischia and the surrounding Parthenopean islands and left behind a garrison to build a fortress before the city of Ischia itself. This was still extant in the Middle Ages, but the original garrison fled before the eruptions of 470 BC and the island was taken over by Neapolitans. The Romans seized Ischia (and Naples) in 322 BC.


title: Ischia

text: In 6 AD, Augustus restored the island to Naples in exchange for Capri. Ischia suffered from the barbarian invasions, being taken first by the Heruli and then by the Ostrogoths, being ultimately absorbed into the Eastern Roman Empire. The Byzantines gave the island over to Naples in 588, and by 661, it was being administered by a Count liege to the Duke of Naples. The area was devastated by the Saracens in 813 and 847; in 1004 it was occupied by Henry II of Germany; the Norman Roger II of Sicily took it in 1130 granting the island to the Norman Aldoyn de Candida created Count d’Ischia; the island was raided by the Pisans in 1135 and 1137 and subsequently fell under the Hohenstaufen and then Angevin rule. After the Sicilian Vespers in 1282, the island rebelled, recognizing Peter III of Aragon, but was retaken by the Angevins the following year. It was conquered in 1284 by the forces of Aragon, and Charles II of Anjou was unable to successfully retake it until 1299.


title: Ischia

text: As a consequence of the island's last eruption in 1302, the population fled to Baia, where they remained for 4 years. In 1320 Robert of Anjou and his wife Sancia visited the island and were hosted by Cesare Sterlich, who had been sent by Charles II from the Holy See to govern the island in 1306 and was by this time nearly 100 years of age.


title: Ischia

text: Ischia suffered greatly in the struggles between the Angevin and Durazzo dynasties. It was taken by Carlo Durazzo in 1382, retaken by Louis II of Anjou in 1385 and captured yet again by Ladislaus of Naples in 1386; it was sacked by the fleet of the Antipope John XXIII under the command of Gaspare Cossa in 1410 only to be retaken by Ladislaus the following year. In 1422 Joan II gave the island to her adoptive son Alfonso V of Aragon, though, when he fell into disgrace, she retook it with the help of Genoa in 1424. In 1438 Alfonso reoccupied the castle, kicking out all the men and proclaiming it an Aragonese colony, marrying to his garrison the wives and daughters of the expelled. He set about building a bridge linking the castle to the rest of the island, and he carved out a large gallery, both of which are still to be seen today. In 1442, he gave the island to one of his favorites, Lucretia d'Alagno, who in turn entrusted the island's governance to her brother-in-law, Giovanni Torella. Upon the death of Alfonso in 1458, they returned the island to the Angevin side. Ferdinand I of Naples ordered Alessandro Sforza to chase Torella out of the castle and gave the island over, in 1462, to Garceraldo Requesens. In 1464, after a brief Torellan insurrection, Marino Caracciolo was set up as governor.


title: Ischia

text: In February 1495, with the arrival of Charles VIII, Ferdinand II landed on the island and took possession of the castle, and, after having killed the disloyal castellan Giusto di Candida with his own hands, left the island under the control of Innico d'Avalos, marquis of Pescara and Vasto, who ably defended the place from the French flotilla. With him came his sister Costanza and through them, they founded the D'Avalos dynasty, which would last on the island into the 18th century.


title: Ischia

text: Throughout the 16th century, the island suffered the incursions of pirates and Barbary privateers from North Africa: in 1543 and 1544 Hayreddin Barbarossa laid waste to the island, taking 4,000 prisoners in the process. In 1548 and 1552, Ischia was beset by his successor Dragut Rais. With the increasing rarity and diminishing severity of the piratical attacks later in the century and the construction of better defences, the islanders began to venture out of the castle, and it was then that the historic centre of the town of Ischia was begun. Even so, many inhabitants still ended up slaves to the pirates, the last known being taken in 1796.


title: Ischia

text: During the 1647 revolution of Masaniello, there was an attempted rebellion against the feudal landowners.


title: Ischia

text: With the extinction of the D'Avalos line in 1729, the island reverted to state property. In March 1734, it was taken by the Bourbons and administered by a royal governor seated within the castle. The island participated in the short-lived Republic of Naples starting in March 1799, but by 3 April, Commodore Thomas Troubridge under the command of Lord Nelson had put down the revolt on Ischia as well as on neighboring Procida. By decree of the governor, many of the rebels were hanged in a square on Procida, now Piazza dei Martiri (Square of the Martyrs). Among these was Francesco Buonocore, who had received the island to administer from the French Championnet in Naples. On 13 February 1806, the island was occupied by the French, and on the 24th was unsuccessfully attacked by the British.


title: Ischia

text: On 21 and 22 June 1809, the islands of Ischia and Procida were attacked by an Anglo-Bourbon fleet. Procida surrendered on 24 June and Ischia soon afterwards. However, the British soon returned to their bases in Sicily and Malta.


title: Ischia

text: Ischia developed into a well-known artist colony at the beginning of the 20th century. Writers and painters from all over the world were attracted. Eduard Bargheer, Hans Purrmann and Arrigo Wittler lived on the island. Rudolf Levy, Werner Gilles, Max Peiffer Watenphul with Kurt Craemer and Vincent Weber stayed in the fishing village of Sant'Angelo on the southern tip of the island shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1936 Ischia had a population of 30,418.


title: Ischia

text: Spa tourism did not resume again until the early 1950s. At that time, a quite remarkable artist colony of writers, composers and visual artists lived in Forio, including Ingeborg Bachmann. Elizabeth Taylor and Luchino Visconti stayed here for filming.


title: Ischia

text: On 21 August 2017 Ischia experienced a 4.2 magnitude earthquake which killed 2 people and injured 42 more.


title: Ischia

text: The island is home to the Ischia Film Festival, an international cinema competition celebrated in June or July, dedicated to all the works that have promoted the value of the local territory.


title: Ischia

text: In addition to the works noted above, multiple media works have been set or filmed on the island. For example:


title: Ischia

text: The island of Ischia is home to the eponymous "Denominazione di origine controllata" (DOC) that produces both red and white wines though white wines account for nearly 80% of the island's wine production. Vineyards planted within the boundaries of the DOC tend to be on volcanic soils with high pumice, phosphorus and potassium content.


title: Ischia

text: The white wines of the island are composed primarily of Forastera (at least 65% according to DOC regulation) and Biancolella (up to 20%) with up to 15% of other local grape varieties such as Arilla and San Lunardo. Grapes are limited to a harvest yield of no more than 10 tonnes/ha with a finished minimum alcohol level of at least 11%. For wines labeled as "Bianco Superiore", the yield is further restricted to a maximum of 8 tonnes/ha with a minimum alcohol level of 12%. Only certain subareas of the Ischia DOC can produce "Bianco Superiore" with the blend needing to contain 50% Forastera, 40% Biancolella and 10% San Lunardo.


title: Ischia

text: Red wines produced under the Ischia DOC are composed of 50% Guarnaccia, 40% Piedirosso (known under the local synonym of Per'e Palummo) and 10% Barbera. Like the white wines, red grapes destined for DOC production are limited to a harvest yield of no more than 10 tonnes/ha though the minimum finished alcohol level is higher at 11.5% ABV.


title: Ischia

text: Ischia is a popular tourist destination, welcoming up to 6 million visitors per year, mainly from the Italian mainland as well as other European countries like Germany and the United Kingdom (approximately 5,000 Germans are resident on the island), although it has become an increasingly popular destination for Eastern Europeans. The number of Russian guests rose steadily from the 2000s onwards, before the number came to an almost complete standstill due to the currency depreciation of the ruble and COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Ischia

text: From Ischia, various destinations such as Naples, Vesuvius, Amalfi Coast, Capri, Herculaneum, Paestum and the neighboring island Procida can be booked. Ischia is easily reached by ferry from Naples.The number of thermal spas on the islands makes it particularly popular with tourists seeking "wellness" holidays. A regular visitor was Angela Merkel, the former German chancellor.


title: Ischia

text: The Aragonese Castle ("Castello Aragonese", Ischia Ponte) was built on a rock near the island in 474 BC, by Hiero I of Syracuse. At the same time, two towers were built to control enemy fleets' movements. The rock was then occupied by Parthenopeans (the ancient inhabitants of Naples). In 326 BC, the fortress was captured by Romans and then again by the Parthenopeans. In 1441 Alfonso V of Aragon connected the rock to the island with a stone bridge instead of the prior wood bridge and fortified the walls in order to defend the inhabitants against the raids of pirates. Around 1700, approximately 2000 families lived on the islet, including a Poor Clares convent, an abbey of Basilian monks (of the Greek Orthodox Church), the bishop and the seminar, and the prince, with a military garrison. There were also thirteen churches. In 1912, the castle was sold to a private owner. Today the castle is the most visited monument on the island. It is accessed through a tunnel with large openings which let the light enter. Along the tunnel, there is a small chapel consecrated to Saint John Joseph of the Cross (San Giovan Giuseppe della Croce), the patron saint of the island. More comfortable access is also possible with a modern lift. After arriving outside, it is possible to visit the Church of the Immacolata and the Cathedral of Assunta. The first was built in 1737 on the location of a smaller chapel dedicated to Saint Francis and closed after the suppression of convents in 1806, as well as the Poor Clares convent.


title: Ischia

text: The gardens, located in Forio-San Francesco, were originally the property of the English composer William Walton. Walton lived in the villa next to the gardens with his Argentinian wife Susana. When the composer arrived on the island in 1946, he immediately called Russell Page from England to lay out the garden. Wonderful tropical and Mediterranean plants were planted, and some have now reached amazing proportions. The gardens include wonderful views over the city and the harbour of Forio. A museum dedicated to the life and work of William Walton now comprises part of the garden complex. There's also a recital room where renowned musical artists perform on a regular schedule.


title: Ischia

text: "Villa La Colombaia" is located in Lacco Ameno and Forio territories. Surrounded by a park, the villa (called "The Dovecote") was commissioned by Luigi Patalano, a famous local socialist and journalist. It is now the seat of a cultural institution and museum dedicated to Luchino Visconti. The institution promotes cultural activities such as music, cinema, theatre, art exhibitions, workshops and cinema reviews. The villa and the park are open to the public.


title: Ischia

text: Committees and associations work to promote tourism on the island and provide services and activities for residents. Among these are: