title: Elections in the United Kingdom

text: As in many Western democracies, voter apathy is a current concern, after a dramatic decline in election turnout around the end of the 20th century. Turnout in UK General Elections fell from 77% in 1992, and 71% in 1997, to a historic low of 59% in 2001. It has, however, increased since, to 61% in 2005, 65% in 2010, 66% in 2015 and 69% in 2017. In other elections turnout trends have been more varied. At the referendum on Scottish independence in 2014, turnout exceeded 84.5% - the highest in a large-scale poll since the introduction of universal suffrage - and some local authorities recorded turnouts of over 90%. Conversely, the Police and Crime Commissioner elections in November 2012 saw a record low turnout of just 15%, and the Parliamentary by-election in Manchester Central also had a record low peacetime by-election turnout of 18%. Parliamentary by-election turnout is usually around 30-50%, while local government elections typically see turnouts of around 30% when they are not held alongside higher profile contests such as General or European elections.


title: Duat

text: The Duat (, Egyptological pronunciation "do-aht", , also appearing as "Tuat", "Tuaut" or "Akert", "Amenthes", "Amenti", or "Neter-khertet") is the realm of the dead in ancient Egyptian mythology. It has been represented in hieroglyphs as a star-in-circle: 𓇽. The god Osiris was believed to be the lord of the underworld. He was the first mummy as depicted in the Osiris myth and he personified rebirth and life after death. The underworld was also the residence of various other gods along with Osiris.


title: Duat

text: The geography of the "Duat" is similar in outline to the world the Egyptians knew: There are realistic features like rivers, islands, fields, lakes, mounds and caverns, but there were also fantastic lakes of fire, walls of iron, and trees of turquoise. In the "Book of Two Ways" (a Coffin Text) there is even a map-like image of the "Duat".


title: Duat

text: The "Duat" was also a residence for various gods, including Osiris, Anubis, Thoth, Horus, Hathor, and Maat, who all appear to the dead soul as it makes its way toward judgement. In spite of the many demon-like inhabitants of the "Duat", it is not equivalent to the conceptions of Hell in the Abrahamic religions, in which souls are condemned with fiery torment. The absolute punishment for the wicked, in ancient Egyptian thought, was the denial of an afterlife to the deceased, ceasing to exist in the intellectual form (Ancient Egyptian: ꜣḫ; Egypt. Pron.: Akh). The grotesque spirits of the underworld were not evil, but rather acted as directed by the gods, to provide the various ordeals that the deceased had to face.


title: Duat

text: The "Duat" was the region through which the sun god Ra traveled from west to east each night, and it was where he battled Apep, who embodied the primordial chaos which the sun had to defeat in order to rise each morning and bring order back to the earth. It was also the place where people's souls went after death for judgment, though that was not the full extent of the afterlife. Burial chambers formed touching-points between the mundane world and the "Duat". As such, the west bank of the Nile was associated with the dead and funeral barges would mimic the sun god Ra's journey through the sky during the day. The "Akh" (the conscious part of the soul) could use tombs to travel back and forth from the "Duat".


title: Duat

text: Each night the sun god Ra travelled through the Duat, bringing revivification to the dead as their main benefit. Ra travelled under the world upon his Atet barge from west to east; on the course of the underground journey, he was transformed from his aged Atum form into his young Khepri form – the new dawning sun. The role of the dead king, worshiped as a god, was also central to the mythology surrounding the concept of Duat, often depicted as being identical with Ra.


title: Duat

text: Along with the sun god the dead king travelled through the Duat, the Kingdom of Osiris, using the special knowledge he was supposed to possess, which was recorded in the Coffin Texts, that served as a guide to the hereafter not just for the king but for all deceased. According to the "Amduat", the underworld consists of twelve regions signifying the twelve hours of the sun god's journey through it, battling Apep in order to bring order back to the earth in the morning; as his rays illuminated the Duat during the journey, they revived the dead who occupied the underworld and let them enjoy life after death during that hour of the night when they were in the presence of the sun god, after which they resumed their sleep, waiting for the god's return the following night.


title: Duat

text: The rest of the dead journeyed through the various parts of the Duat to be judged, but not to be unified with the sun god like the dead king. If the deceased was successfully able to pass various demons and challenges, then he or she would reach the "weighing of the heart". In this ritual, the heart of the deceased was weighed by Anubis against the feather of Maat, which represents truth and justice.


title: Duat

text: Any heart that is heavier than the feather failed the test, and was rejected and eaten by Ammit, the devourer of souls, as these people were denied existence after death in the Duat. The souls that were lighter than the feather would pass this most important test, and would be allowed to travel toward Aaru, the "Field of Rushes", an ideal version of the world they knew of, in which they would plough, sow, and harvest abundant crops.


title: Duat

text: What is known of the "Duat" derives principally from funerary texts such as the "Book of Gates", the "Book of Caverns", the Coffin Texts, the "Amduat", and the "Book of the Dead". Each of these documents fulfilled a different purpose and give a different conception of the "Duat", and different texts could be inconsistent with one another. Surviving texts differ in age and origin, and there likely was never a single uniform conception of the "Duat", as is the case of many theological concepts in ancient Egypt.


title: Duat

text: The "Book of the Dead" and Coffin Texts were prepared as guidebooks through the "Duat"s dangerous landscape and to a life as an "ꜣḫ" for people who had recently died. Emphasized in some of these texts are mounds and caverns, inhabited by gods, demons, or supernatural animals, which threatened the deceased along their journey. The purpose of the books is not to lay out a geography, but to describe a succession of rites of passage which the dead would have to pass to reach eternal life.


title: Pansy

text: The garden pansy (Viola" × "wittrockiana) is a type of large-flowered hybrid plant cultivated as a garden flower. It is derived by hybridization from several species in the section "Melanium" ("the pansies") of the genus "Viola", particularly "Viola tricolor", a wildflower of Europe and western Asia known as heartsease. It is sometimes known as "Viola tricolor" var. "hortensis", but this scientific name is ambiguous. While "Viola tricolor" var. "hortensis" is a synonym of "Viola" × "wittrockiana", "Viola tricolor" var. "hortensis" refers to a horticultural variety of wild pansy ("Viola tricolor" without interspecific hybridization) that had been illustrated in "Flora Danica" in 1777 before the existence of "Viola" × "wittrockiana".


title: Pansy

text: The chromosome number of "Viola" × "wittrockiana" is 2n = 44–52, with most cultivars being 2n = 48. The flower is in diameter and has two slightly overlapping upper petals, two side petals, and a single bottom petal with a slight beard emanating from the flower's center. These petals are usually white or yellow, purplish, or blue. The plant may grow to in height, and prefers sun to varying degrees and well-draining soils.


title: Pansy

text: English common names, such as "pansy", "viola" and "violet" may be used interchangeably. One possible distinction is that plants considered to be "pansies" are classified in "Viola" sect. "Melanium", and have four petals pointing upwards (the two side petals point upwards), and only one pointing down, whereas those considered to be "violets" are classified in "Viola" sect. "Viola", and have two petals pointing up and three pointing down. Another possible distinction is made by the American Violet Society – the International Cultivar Registration Authority for the genus "Viola". It divides cultivated varieties (cultivars) in "Viola" sect. "Melanium" into four subgroups: B1 – pansies, B2 – violas, B3 – violettas and B4 – cornuta hybrids. On this classification, modern "pansies" differ from the other three subgroups by possessing a well-defined "blotch" or "eye" in the middle of the flower.


title: Pansy

text: Modern horticulturalists tend to use the term "pansy" for those multi-coloured large-flowered hybrids that are grown for bedding purposes every year, while "viola" is usually reserved for smaller, more delicate annuals and perennials.


title: Pansy

text: The name "pansy" is derived from the French word "pensée", "thought", and was imported into Late Middle English as a name of "Viola" in the mid-15th century, as the flower was regarded as a symbol of remembrance. The name "love in idleness" was meant to imply the image of a lover who has little or no other employment than to think of his beloved.


title: Pansy

text: The name "heart's-ease" came from St. Euphrasia, whose name in Greek signifies cheerfulness of mind. The woman, who refused marriage and took the veil, was considered a pattern of humility, hence the name "humble violet".


title: Pansy

text: In Scandinavia, Scotland, and German-speaking countries, the pansy (or its wild parent "Viola tricolor") is or was known as the "stepmother"; the name was accompanied by an aitiological tale about a selfish stepmother, told to children while the teller plucked off corresponding parts of the blossom to fit the plot.


title: Pansy

text: In the early years of the 19th century, Lady Mary Elizabeth Bennet (1785–1861), daughter of the Earl of Tankerville, collected and cultivated every sort of "Viola tricolor" (commonly, heartsease) she could procure in her father's garden at Walton-upon-Thames, Surrey. Under the supervision of her gardener, William Richardson, a large variety of plants was produced via cross-breeding. In 1812, she introduced her pansies to the horticultural world, and, in 1813, Mr. Lee, a well-known florist and nurseryman, further cultivated the flower. Other nurserymen followed Lee's example, and the pansy became a favorite among the public.


title: Pansy

text: About the same time that Lady Bennett was busy cultivating heartsease, James, Lord Gambier was doing the same in his garden at Iver under the advice and guidance of his gardener William Thompson. A yellow viola, "Viola lutea", and a wide-petalled pale yellow species of Russian origin, "Viola altaica" were among the crosses that laid the foundation for the new hybrids classed as "Viola" × "wittrockiana", named for the Swedish botanist Veit Brecher Wittrock (1839–1914). A round flower of overlapping petals was the aim of some early experimenters; in the late 1830s a chance sport that no longer had narrow nectar guides of dark color on the petals but a broad dark blotch on the petals (which came to be called the "face"), was found. It was developed in Gambier's garden and released to the public in 1839 with the name "Medora".


title: Pansy

text: By 1833, there were 400 named pansies available to gardeners who once considered its progenitor, heartsease, a weed. Specific guidelines were formulated for show pansies but amateur gardeners preferred the less demanding fancy pansies. About this time, James Grieve developed the viola and Dr. Charles Stuart developed the violetta, both smaller, more compact plants than the pansy.


title: Pansy

text: Modern horticulturists have developed a wide range of pansy flower colors and bicolors including yellow, gold, orange, purple, violet, red, white, and even near-black (very dark purple). Pansies typically display large showy face markings. The Joker Series has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.


title: Pansy

text: Plants grow well in sunny or partially sunny positions in well-draining soils. Pansies are perennial, but normally grown as biennials or annuals because of their leggy growth. The first year plant produces greenery, and bears flowers and seeds in its second year of growth. Afterwards, the plant dies like an annual. Because of selective human breeding, most garden pansies bloom the first year, some in as little as nine weeks after sowing.


title: Pansy

text: Pansies are purchased as six-packs or "flats" (USA) of young plants from garden centers and planted directly into the garden soil. Plants will grow up to in height with flowers measuring in diameter, though smaller and larger flowering cultivars are available.


title: Pansy

text: Pansies are winter hardy in zones 4–8. They can survive light freezes and short periods of snow cover, but, in areas with prolonged snow cover, a covering of a dry winter mulch is recommended. In warmer climates, zones 9-11, pansies can bloom over the winter, and are often planted in the fall. In warmer zones, pansies may re-seed themselves and return the next year. They are not very heat-tolerant; warm temperatures inhibit blooming and hot muggy air causes rot and death. In colder zones, pansies may not survive without snow cover or protection (mulch) from extreme cold or periods of freezing and thawing. They perform best in zones with moderate temperatures, and equal amounts of mild rainfall and sunshine.


title: Pansy

text: Pansies, for best growth, are watered thoroughly about once a week, depending on climate and rainfall. The plant should never be over-watered. To maximize blooming, plant foods are used about every other week, depending on the type of food used. Regular deadheading can extend the blooming period.


title: Pansy

text: Leaf spot ("Ramularia deflectens") is a fungal infection. Symptoms include dark spots on leaf margins followed by a white web covering the leaves. It is associated with cool damp springs.


title: Pansy

text: Pansy downy mildew is caused by the fungus-like organism "Peronospora violae", which produces purple-brown leaf spots, often with encircling yellowing, that have an accompanying grey mold on the leaf underside. It can severely weaken or kill affected plants.


title: Pansy

text: A disease caused by one or more species of fungus in the Erysiphaceae family. Symptoms include violet-gray powder on fringes and underside of leaves. It is encouraged by stagnant air and can be limited but not necessarily eliminated by fungicide application.


title: Pansy

text: Stem rot, also known as pansy sickness, is a soil-borne fungus and a possible hazard with unsterilized animal manure. The plant may collapse without warning in the middle of the season. The foliage will flag and lose color. Flowers will fade and shrivel prematurely. Stem will snap at the soil line if tugged slightly. The plant is probably a total loss unless tufted. The treatment of stem rot includes the use of fungicides such as Cheshunt or Benomyl, which are used prior to planting. Infected plants are destroyed (burned) to prevent the spread of the pathogen to other plants.


title: Pansy

text: The cucumber mosaic virus is transmitted by aphids. Pansies with the virus have fine yellow veining on young leaves, stunted growth and anomalous flowers. The virus can lie dormant, affect the entire plant and be passed to next generations and to other species. Prevention is key: purchases should consist entirely of healthy plants.


title: Pansy

text: The pansy's connection to pious humility is mentioned by Harte, who writes: "From brute beasts humility I learned;/And in the pansy’s life God’s providence discerned".


title: Pansy

text: Gifford evokes both Christian and classical undertones, writing how "Pansies – still,/More blest than me, thus shall ye live/Your little day, – and when ye die,/Sweet flowers! The grateful muse/Shall give a verse".


title: Pansy

text: Smart proposes "Were it not for thee, oh sun,/Those pansies, that reclining from the bank/View through the immaculate, pellucid stream,/Their portraiture in the inverted Heaven,/Might as well change their triple boast, the white,/The purple, and the gold".


title: Pansy

text: On account of its popularity in both society and its recurring appearances in Romantic poetry, a variety of new nicknames for the flower began to circulate. Dorothea Lynde Dix proclaims that “Perhaps no flower (not excepting even the queenly rose) claims to be so universal a favorite, as the viola tricolor; none currently has been honored with so rich a variety of names, at once expressive of grace, delicacy and tenderness.” Many of these names play on the whimsical nature of love, including “Three Faces under a Hood,” “Flame Flower,” “Jump Up and Kiss Me,” “Flower of Jove,” and “Pink of my John.”


title: Pansy

text: In "Hamlet", Ophelia distributes flowers with the remark, "There's pansies, that's for thoughts" (IV.5). Other poets referencing the pansy include Ben Jonson, Bernard Barton, Michael Drayton, Edmund Spenser, William Wakefield, and William Wordsworth.


title: Pansy

text: Nathaniel Hawthorne published his last literary effort, an unfinished piece, entitled "Pansie, a Fragment", sometimes called "Little Pansie, a fragment" in 1864.


title: Pansy

text: D. H. Lawrence's "Pansies: Poems by D. H. Lawrence" was published in 1929, and Margaret Mitchell originally chose Pansy as the name of her "Gone with the Wind" heroine, but settled on Scarlett just before the book went into print.


title: Pansy

text: The word "pansy" has indicated an effeminate male since Elizabethan times and its usage as a disparaging term for a man or boy who is effeminate, as well as for an avowedly homosexual man, is still used. The word "ponce" (which has now come to mean a pimp) and the adjective "poncey" (effeminate) also derive from "pansy".


title: Pansy

text: In the visual arts, Pierre-Joseph Redouté painted "Bouquet of Pansies" in 1827, and, in 1874, Henri Fantin-Latour painted "Still Life with Pansies". In 1887, van Gogh painted "Mand met viooltjes", and, in 1926, Georgia O'Keeffe created a painting of a black pansy called simply, "Pansy" and followed it with "White Pansy" in 1927. J. J. Grandville created a fantasy flower called Pensée in his "Fleurs Animées".


title: Pansy

text: Because its name means "thought", the pansy was chosen as a symbol of Freethought and has been used in the literature of the American Secular Union. Humanists use it too, as the pansy's current appearance was developed from the heartsease by two centuries of intentional crossbreeding of wild plant hybrids.


title: Pansy

text: The specific colors of the flower – purple, yellow, and white – are meant to symbolize memories, loving thoughts and souvenirs, respectively.


title: Pansy

text: The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) uses the pansy symbol extensively in its lapel pins and literature. The flower has long been associated with human manner, as one man cleverly stated: “Nature sports as much with the colours of this little flower as she does with the features of the human countenance.”


title: Pansy

text: In William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", the "juice of the heartsease" is a love potion and "on sleeping eyelids laid, will make a man or woman madly dote upon the next live creature that it sees." (II.1).


title: Pansy

text: In the language of flowers, a honeyflower and a pansy left by a lover for his beloved means, "I am thinking of our forbidden love". In 1858, the writer James Shirley Hibberd wrote that the French custom of giving a bride a bouquet of pansies (thoughts) and marigolds (cares) symbolized the woes of domestic life rather than marital bliss.


title: Pansy

text: A German fable tells of how the pansy lost its perfume. Originally pansies would have been very fragrant, growing wild in fields and forests. It was said that people would trample the grass completely in eagerness to pick pansies. Unfortunately, the people’s cows were starving due to the ruined fields, so the pansy prayed to give up her perfume. Her prayer was answered, and without her perfumed scent, the fields grew tall, and the cows grew fat on the fresh green grass.


title: Pansy

text: American pioneers thought that “a handful of violets taken into the farmhouse in the spring ensured prosperity, and to neglect this ceremony brought harm to baby chicks and ducklings.” On account of its place in American hearts, a game called “Violet War” also arose. In this game, two players would intertwine the hooks where the pansy blossoms meet the stems, then attempt to pull the two flowers apart like wishbones. Whoever pulled off the most of their opponent’s violet heads was proclaimed the winner. Young American settlers also made pansy dolls by lining up the pansy flower “faces”, pasting on leaf skirts and twig arms to complete the figures.


title: Railway electrification system

text: A railway electrification system supplies electric power to railway trains and trams without an on-board prime mover or local fuel supply.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Electric railways use either electric locomotives (hauling passengers or freight in separate cars), electric multiple units (passenger cars with their own motors) or both.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Electricity is typically generated in large and relatively efficient generating stations, transmitted to the railway network and distributed to the trains. Some electric railways have their own dedicated generating stations and transmission lines, but most purchase power from an electric utility. The railway usually provides its own distribution lines, switches, and transformers.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Power is supplied to moving trains with a (nearly) continuous conductor running along the track that usually takes one of two forms: an overhead line, suspended from poles or towers along the track or from structure or tunnel ceilings, or a third rail mounted at track level and contacted by a sliding "pickup shoe". Both overhead wire and third-rail systems usually use the running rails as the return conductor, but some systems use a separate fourth rail for this purpose.


title: Railway electrification system

text: In comparison to the principal alternative, the diesel engine, electric railways offer substantially better energy efficiency, lower emissions, and lower operating costs.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Electric locomotives are also usually quieter, more powerful, and more responsive and reliable than diesels.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Some electric traction systems provide regenerative braking that turns the train's kinetic energy back into electricity and returns it to the supply system to be used by other trains or the general utility grid.


title: Railway electrification system

text: While diesel locomotives burn petroleum products, electricity can be generated from diverse sources, including renewable energy. Historically concerns of resource independence have played a role in the decision to electrify railway lines. The landlocked Swiss confederation which almost completely lacks oil or coal deposits but has plentiful hydropower electrified its network in part in reaction to supply issues during both World Wars.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Disadvantages of electric traction include: high capital costs that may be uneconomic on lightly trafficked routes, a relative lack of flexibility (since electric trains need third rails or overhead wires), and a vulnerability to power interruptions. Electro-diesel locomotives and electro-diesel multiple units mitigate these problems somewhat as they are capable of running on diesel power during an outage or on non-electrified routes.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Different regions may use different supply voltages and frequencies, complicating through service and requiring greater complexity of locomotive power. There used to be a historical concern for double-stack rail transport regarding clearances with overhead lines but it is no longer universally true , with both Indian Railways and China Railway regularly operating electric double-stack cargo trains under overhead lines.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Railway electrification has constantly increased in the past decades, and as of 2012, electrified tracks account for nearly one-third of total tracks globally.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Selection of an electrification system is based on economics of energy supply, maintenance, and capital cost compared to the revenue obtained for freight and passenger traffic. Different systems are used for urban and intercity areas; some electric locomotives can switch to different supply voltages to allow flexibility in operation.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Six of the most commonly used voltages have been selected for European and international standardisation. Some of these are independent of the contact system used, so that, for example, 750VDC may be used with either third rail or overhead lines.


title: Railway electrification system

text: There are many other voltage systems used for railway electrification systems around the world, and the list of railway electrification systems covers both standard voltage and non-standard voltage systems.


title: Railway electrification system

text: The permissible range of voltages allowed for the standardised voltages is as stated in standards BSEN50163 and IEC60850. These take into account the number of trains drawing current and their distance from the substation.


title: Railway electrification system

text: 1,500V DC is used in Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong (parts), Ireland, Australia (parts), France (also using , New Zealand (Wellington), Singapore (on the North East MRT Line), the United States (Chicago area on the Metra Electric district and the South Shore Line interurban line and Link light rail in Seattle, Washington). In Slovakia, there are two narrow-gauge lines in the High Tatras (one a cog railway). In the Netherlands it is used on the main system, alongside 25kV on the HSL-Zuid and Betuwelijn, and 3,000V south of Maastricht. In Portugal, it is used in the Cascais Line and in Denmark on the suburban S-train system (1650V DC).


title: Railway electrification system

text: In the United Kingdom, 1,500VDC was used in 1954 for the Woodhead trans-Pennine route (now closed); the system used regenerative braking, allowing for transfer of energy between climbing and descending trains on the steep approaches to the tunnel. The system was also used for suburban electrification in East London and Manchester, now converted to 25kVAC. It is now only used for the Tyne and Wear Metro. In India, 1,500V DC was the first electrification system launched in 1925 in Mumbai area. Between 2012 and 2016, the electrification was converted to 25kV 50Hz, which is the countrywide system.


title: Railway electrification system

text: 3kV DC is used in Belgium, Italy, Spain, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Chile, the northern portion of the Czech Republic, the former republics of the Soviet Union, and in the Netherlands on a few kilometers between Maastricht and Belgium. It was formerly used by the Milwaukee Road from Harlowton, Montana, to Seattle, across the Continental Divide and including extensive branch and loop lines in Montana, and by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (now New Jersey Transit, converted to 25kVAC) in the United States, and the Kolkata suburban railway (Bardhaman Main Line) in India, before it was converted to 25kV 50Hz.


title: Railway electrification system

text: DC voltages between 600V and 800V are used by most tramways, trolleybus networks and underground (subway) systems as the traction motors accept this voltage without the weight of an on-board transformer.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Increasing availability of high-voltage semiconductors may allow the use of higher and more efficient DC voltages that heretofore have only been practical with AC.


title: Railway electrification system

text: The use of medium-voltage DC electrification (MVDC) would solve some of the issues associated with standard-frequency AC electrification systems, especially possible supply grid load imbalance and the phase separation between the electrified sections powered from different phases, whereas high voltage would make the transmission more efficient. UIC conducted a case study for the conversion of the Bordeaux-Hendaye railway line (France), currently electrified at 1.5kV DC, to 9kV DC and found that the conversion would allow to use less bulky overhead wires (saving €20 million per 100route-km) and lower the losses (saving 2GWh per year per 100route-km; equalling about €150,000 p.a.). The line chosen is one of the lines, totalling 6000km, that are in need of renewal.


title: Railway electrification system

text: In the 1960s the Soviets experimented with boosting the overhead voltage from 3 to 6kV. DC rolling stock was equipped with ignitron-based converters to lower the supply voltage to 3kV. The converters turned out to be unreliable and the experiment was curtailed. In 1970 experimental works on system proved a.o. that the equivalent loss levels for a system could be achieved with DC voltage between 11 and 16kV. In the 1980s and 1990s experimental system was being tested on the October Railway near Leningrad (now Petersburg). The experiments ended in 1995 due to the end of funding.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Most electrification systems use overhead wires, but third rail is an option up to 1,500V. Third rail systems almost exclusively use DC distribution. The use of AC is usually not feasible due to the dimensions of a third rail being physically very large compared with the skin depth that AC penetrates to in a steel rail. This effect makes the resistance per unit length unacceptably high compared with the use of DC. Third rail is more compact than overhead wires and can be used in smaller-diameter tunnels, an important factor for subway systems.


title: Railway electrification system

text: The London Underground in England is one of the few networks that uses a four-rail system. The additional rail carries the electrical return that, on third rail and overhead networks, is provided by the running rails. On the London Underground, a top-contact third rail is beside the track, energized at , and a top-contact fourth rail is located centrally between the running rails at , which combine to provide a traction voltage of . The same system was used for Milan's earliest underground line, Milan Metro's line 1, whose more recent lines use an overhead catenary or a third rail.


title: Railway electrification system

text: The key advantage of the four-rail system is that neither running rail carries any current. This scheme was introduced because of the problems of return currents, intended to be carried by the earthed (grounded) running rail, flowing through the iron tunnel linings instead. This can cause electrolytic damage and even arcing if the tunnel segments are not electrically bonded together. The problem was exacerbated because the return current also had a tendency to flow through nearby iron pipes forming the water and gas mains. Some of these, particularly Victorian mains that predated London's underground railways, were not constructed to carry currents and had no adequate electrical bonding between pipe segments. The four-rail system solves the problem. Although the supply has an artificially created earth point, this connection is derived by using resistors which ensures that stray earth currents are kept to manageable levels. Power-only rails can be mounted on strongly insulating ceramic chairs to minimise current leak, but this is not possible for running rails which have to be seated on stronger metal chairs to carry the weight of trains. However, elastomeric rubber pads placed between the rails and chairs can now solve part of the problem by insulating the running rails from the current return should there be a leakage through the running rails.


title: Railway electrification system

text: The Expo and Millennium Line of the Vancouver SkyTrain use side contact fourth-rail systems for their 650V DC supply. Both are located to the side of the train as the space between the running rails is occupied by an aluminum plate, as part of stator of the linear induction propulsion system used on the Innovia ART system. While part of the SkyTrain network, the Canada Line does not use this system and instead uses more traditional motors attached to the wheels and third rail electrification.


title: Railway electrification system

text: A few lines of the Paris Métro in France operate on a four-rail power system. The trains move on rubber tyres which roll on a pair of narrow roll ways made of steel and, in some places, of concrete. Since the tyres do not conduct the return current, the two guide bars provided outside the running 'roll ways' become, in a sense, a third and fourth rail which each provide , so at least electrically it is a four-rail system. Each wheel set of a powered bogie carries one traction motor. A side sliding (side running) contact shoe picks up the current from the vertical face of each guide bar. The return of each traction motor, as well as each wagon, is effected by one contact shoe each that slide on top of each one of the running rails. This and all other rubber-tyred metros that have a track between the roll ways operate in the same manner.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Railways and electrical utilities use AC as opposed to DC for the same reason: to use transformers, which require AC, to produce higher voltages.


title: Railway electrification system

text: The higher the voltage, the lower the current for the same power because Power = Current x voltage and power loss is proportional to the current squared. The lower current reduces line loss, thus allowing higher power to be delivered.


title: Railway electrification system

text: As alternating current is used with high voltages, this method of electrification is only used on overhead lines, never on third rails for safety reasons. Inside the locomotive, a transformer steps the voltage down for use by the traction motors and auxiliary loads.


title: Railway electrification system

text: An early advantage of AC is that the power-wasting resistors used in DC locomotives for speed control were not needed in an AC locomotive: multiple taps on the transformer can supply a range of voltages.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Separate low-voltage transformer windings supply lighting and the motors driving auxiliary machinery.


title: Railway electrification system

text: More recently, the development of very high power semiconductors has caused the classic DC motor to be largely replaced with the three-phase induction motor fed by a variable frequency drive, a special inverter that varies both frequency and voltage to control motor speed.


title: Railway electrification system

text: These drives can run equally well on DC or AC of any frequency, and many modern electric locomotives are designed to handle different supply voltages and frequencies to simplify cross-border operation.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Five European countries Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Norway and Sweden have standardized on 15kV Hz (the 50Hz mains frequency divided by three) single-phase AC. On 16 October 1995, Germany, Austria and Switzerland changed from Hz to 16.7Hz which is no longer exactly one-third of the grid frequency. This solved overheating problems with the rotary converters used to generate some of this power from the grid supply.


title: Railway electrification system

text: In the US, the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad, the Pennsylvania Railroad and the adopted 11kV 25Hz single-phase AC. Parts of the original electrified network still operate at 25Hz, with voltage boosted to 12kV, while others were converted to 12.5 or 25kV 60Hz.


title: Railway electrification system

text: In the UK, the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway pioneered overhead electrification of its suburban lines in London, London Bridge to Victoria being opened to traffic on 1December 1909. Victoria to Crystal Palace via Balham and West Norwood opened in May 1911. Peckham Rye to West Norwood opened in June 1912. Further extensions were not made owing to the First World War. Two lines opened in 1925 under the Southern Railway serving Coulsdon North and Sutton railway station. The lines were electrified at 6.7kV 25Hz. It was announced in 1926 that all lines were to be converted to DC third rail and the last overhead-powered electric service ran in September 1929.


title: Railway electrification system

text: 25 kV AC is used at 60Hz on some US lines, in Saudi Arabia, western Japan, South Korea and Taiwan; and at 50Hz in a number of European countries, India, eastern Japan, countries that used to be part of the Soviet Union, on high-speed lines in much of Western Europe (including countries that still run conventional railways under DC but not in countries using 16.7Hz, see above). On "French system" HSLs, the overhead line and a "sleeper" feeder line each carry 25kV in relation to the rails, but in opposite phase so they are at 50kV from each other; autotransformers equalize the tension at regular intervals.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Various railway electrification systems in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries utilised three-phase, rather than single-phase electric power delivery due to ease of design of both power supply and locomotives. These systems could either use standard network frequency and three power cables, or reduced frequency, which allowed for return-phase line to be third rail, rather than an additional overhead wire.


title: Railway electrification system

text: The majority of modern electrification systems take AC energy from a power grid that is delivered to a locomotive, and within the locomotive, transformed and rectified to a lower DC voltage in preparation for use by traction motors. These motors may either be DC motors which directly use the DC or they may be three-phase AC motors which require further conversion of the DC to variable frequency three-phase AC (using power electronics). Thus both systems are faced with the same task: converting and transporting high-voltage AC from the power grid to low-voltage DC in the locomotive. The difference between AC and DC electrification systems lies in where the AC is converted to DC: at the substation or on the train. Energy efficiency and infrastructure costs determine which of these is used on a network, although this is often fixed due to pre-existing electrification systems.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Both the transmission and conversion of electric energy involve losses: ohmic losses in wires and power electronics, magnetic field losses in transformers and smoothing reactors (inductors). Power conversion for a DC system takes place mainly in a railway substation where large, heavy, and more efficient hardware can be used as compared to an AC system where conversion takes place aboard the locomotive where space is limited and losses are significantly higher. However, the higher voltages used in many AC electrification systems reduce transmission losses over longer distances, allowing for fewer substations or more powerful locomotives to be used. Also, the energy used to blow air to cool transformers, power electronics (including rectifiers), and other conversion hardware must be accounted for.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Standard AC electrification systems use much higher voltages than standard DC systems. One of the advantages of raising the voltage is that, to transmit certain level of power, lower current is necessary (). Lowering the current reduces the ohmic losses and allows for less bulky, lighter overhead line equipment and more spacing between traction substations, while maintaining power capacity of the system. On the other hand, the higher voltage requires larger isolation gaps, requiring some elements of infrastructure to be larger. The standard-frequency AC system may introduce imbalance to the supply grid, requiring careful planning and design (as at each substation power is drawn from two out of three phases). The low-frequency AC system may be powered by separate generation and distribution network or a network of converter substations, adding the expense, also low-frequency transformers, used both at the substations and on the rolling stock, are particularly bulky and heavy. The DC system, apart from being limited as to the maximum power that can be transmitted, also can be responsible for electrochemical corrosion due to stray DC currents.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Electric trains need not carry the weight of prime movers, transmission and fuel. This is partly offset by the weight of electrical equipment.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Regenerative braking returns power to the electrification system so that it may be used elsewhere, by other trains on the same system or returned to the general power grid. This is especially useful in mountainous areas where heavily loaded trains must descend long grades.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Central station electricity can often be generated with higher efficiency than a mobile engine/generator. While the efficiency of power plant generation and diesel locomotive generation are roughly the same in the nominal regime, diesel motors decrease in efficiency in non-nominal regimes at low power while if an electric power plant needs to generate less power it will shut down its least efficient generators, thereby increasing efficiency. The electric train can save energy (as compared to diesel) by regenerative braking and by not needing to consume energy by idling as diesel locomotives do when stopped or coasting. However, electric rolling stock may run cooling blowers when stopped or coasting, thus consuming energy.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Large fossil fuel power stations operate at high efficiency, and can be used for district heating or to produce district cooling, leading to a higher total efficiency. Electricity for electric rail systems can also come from renewable energy, nuclear power, or other low-carbon sources, which do not emit pollution or emissions.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Electric locomotives may easily be constructed with greater power output than most diesel locomotives. For passenger operation it is possible to provide enough power with diesel engines (see e.g. 'ICE TD') but, at higher speeds, this proves costly and impractical. Therefore, almost all high speed trains are electric. The high power of electric locomotives also gives them the ability to pull freight at higher speed over gradients; in mixed traffic conditions this increases capacity when the time between trains can be decreased. The higher power of electric locomotives and an electrification can also be a cheaper alternative to a new and less steep railway if train weights are to be increased on a system.


title: Railway electrification system

text: On the other hand, electrification may not be suitable for lines with low frequency of traffic, because lower running cost of trains may be outweighed by the high cost of the electrification infrastructure. Therefore, most long-distance lines in developing or sparsely populated countries are not electrified due to relatively low frequency of trains.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Network effects are a large factor with electrification. When converting lines to electric, the connections with other lines must be considered. Some electrifications have subsequently been removed because of the through traffic to non-electrified lines. If through traffic is to have any benefit, time-consuming engine switches must occur to make such connections or expensive dual mode engines must be used. This is mostly an issue for long-distance trips, but many lines come to be dominated by through traffic from long-haul freight trains (usually running coal, ore, or containers to or from ports). In theory, these trains could enjoy dramatic savings through electrification, but it can be too costly to extend electrification to isolated areas, and unless an entire network is electrified, companies often find that they need to continue use of diesel trains even if sections are electrified. The increasing demand for container traffic, which is more efficient when utilizing the double-stack car, also has network effect issues with existing electrifications due to insufficient clearance of overhead electrical lines for these trains, but electrification can be built or modified to have sufficient clearance, at additional cost.


title: Railway electrification system

text: A problem specifically related to electrified lines are gaps in the electrification. Electric vehicles, especially locomotives, lose power when traversing gaps in the supply, such as phase change gaps in overhead systems, and gaps over points in third rail systems. These become a nuisance if the locomotive stops with its collector on a dead gap, in which case there is no power to restart. Power gaps can be overcome by on-board batteries or motor-flywheel-generator systems.


title: Railway electrification system

text: In 2014, progress is being made in the use of large capacitors to power electric vehicles between stations, and so avoid the need for overhead wires between those stations.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Maintenance costs of the lines may be increased by electrification, but many systems claim lower costs due to reduced wear-and-tear on the track from lighter rolling stock. There are some additional maintenance costs associated with the electrical equipment around the track, such as power sub-stations and the catenary wire itself, but, if there is sufficient traffic, the reduced track and especially the lower engine maintenance and running costs exceed the costs of this maintenance significantly.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Newly electrified lines often show a "sparks effect", whereby electrification in passenger rail systems leads to significant jumps in patronage / revenue. The reasons may include electric trains being seen as more modern and attractive to ride, faster, quieter and smoother service, and the fact that electrification often goes hand in hand with a general infrastructure and rolling stock overhaul / replacement, which leads to better service quality (in a way that theoretically could also be achieved by doing similar upgrades yet without electrification). Whatever the causes of the sparks effect, it is well established for numerous routes that have electrified over decades.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Due to the height restriction imposed by the overhead wires, double-stacked container trains have been traditionally difficult and rare to operate under electrified lines. However, this limitation is being overcome by railways in India, China and African countries by laying new tracks with increased catenary height.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Such installations are in the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor in India where the wire height is at 7.45 metres to accommodate double-stack container trains without the need of well-wagons.


title: Railway electrification system

text: As of 2018, there were of railways electrified at 25kV, either 50 or 60Hz; electrified at ; electrified at 15kV 16.7 or Hz and electrified at .


title: Railway electrification system

text: The Swiss rail network is the largest fully electrified network in the world and one of only two to achieve this, the other being Armenia. China has the largest electrified railway length with just over 70% of the network. A number of countries have zero electrification length.


title: Railway electrification system

text: Several countries have announced plans to electrify all or most of their railway network such as Indian Railways and Israel Railways.


title: Railway electrification system

text: The Trans-Siberian Railway mainly in Russia is completely electrified, making it one of the longest stretches of electrified railways in the world.


title: Rafael Cruz

text: Rafael Bienvenido Cruz y Díaz (born March 22, 1939) is a Cuban-American Protestant preacher and father of Texas U.S. Senator Ted Cruz. He regularly serves as a surrogate in his son's political campaigns.


title: Rafael Cruz

text: Cruz was born in Matanzas, Cuba, in 1939. His father, also named Rafael Cruz, was a salesman for RCA, originally from the Canary Islands, Spain. His mother, Emilia Laudelina Díaz, was a teacher.


title: Rafael Cruz

text: Cruz attended Arturo Echemendia primary school in Matanzas. Cruz joined the Cuban Revolution as a teenager and "suffered beatings and imprisonment for protesting the oppressive regime" of dictator Fulgencio Batista. Cruz enrolled at the age of 17 at the University of Santiago in September 1956. According to Cruz, as a teenager, he "didn't know Castro was a Communist". Cruz has stated in interviews that he was jailed by Batista for several days in June or July 1957 and after he was released he applied to and was accepted by the University of Texas in August 1957. He obtained a student visa after an attorney for the family bribed a Batista official to grant him an exit permit. Cruz said he left with $100 sewn into his underwear taking a two-day bus ride from Florida, arriving with little or no English to enroll at the University of Texas.


title: Rafael Cruz

text: He graduated from UT with a degree in mathematics and chemical engineering four years later in 1961. Cruz states he worked his way through college as a dishwasher, making 50 cents an hour and learned English by going to movies. Upon returning he revisited the same groups to give lectures opposing Castro and the Revolution. Cruz recounts that his younger sister fought against the new regime in the counter-revolution and was consequently tortured. He remained regretful for his early support of Castro and expressed his remorse to his son on numerous occasions.


title: Rafael Cruz

text: After Cruz graduated from the University of Texas in 1961, he was granted political asylum in the United States following the expiration of his student visa. In his late twenties, Cruz moved to New Orleans. In 1969 at age 30, during his employment at his new oil company job, he met Wilmington, Delaware, native and divorcée, Eleanor Elizabeth Wilson (born November, 23, 1934 as Eleanor Darragh). Eleanor's first marriage, at age 21, was to Alan Wilson, a mathematician, in 1956. Due to career opportunities, the couple moved to London, England, in 1960. They divorced in 1963. The then 34-year-old computer programmer returned to the United States in 1966. Cruz and Wilson were married in 1969, and shortly after were sent to Calgary, Canada, where their only child, Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz, was born on December 22, 1970. While in Calgary, the couple owned a seismic-data processing firm called R.B. Cruz and Associates for oil drillers. The firm later became Veritas and ultimately part of CGG. Cruz earned Canadian citizenship in 1973. The family of three then moved to Houston, Texas. Eleanor and Rafael Cruz divorced in 1997.


title: Rafael Cruz

text: Cruz left the Catholic Church in 1975 and became an Evangelical Protestant after attending a Bible study with a colleague and having a born again experience. Explaining his leaving the Catholic church, Cruz stated in an interview with "National Review", "The people at the Bible study had a peace that I could not understand, this peace in the midst of trouble. I knew I needed to find that peace by finding Jesus Christ." Following his conversion, his son and wife also became born-again Protestants. In the Cruz home, talk at dinner time was frequently about the Bible. He was ordained as a pastor in 2004.


title: Rafael Cruz

text: Cruz works from his home in Carrollton, a suburb of Dallas, as a traveling preacher and public speaker, campaigning as a surrogate for his son during the 2016 Presidential campaign season. In a 2014 Associated Press story, Cruz was quoted as saying, "I have a burden for this country and I feel that we cannot sit silent." He went on to say that he feels "It's time we stop being politically correct and start being biblically correct."


title: Rafael Cruz

text: About his political involvements in the 1980s, Cruz reflected, "I was on the state board of the Religious Roundtable, a Christian and Jewish religious organization that worked to elect Ronald Reagan." At the time, he told his son, "God has destined you for greatness."


title: Rafael Cruz

text: At the New Beginnings Church in Irving, Texas, in August 2012, Cruz delivered a sermon where he described his son's senatorial campaign as taking place within a context where Christian "kings" were anointed to preside over an "end-time transfer of wealth" from wicked people to the righteous. Cruz urged the congregation to "tithe mightily" to achieve that result. During an interview conducted by "The Christian Post" in 2014, Cruz stated, "I think we cannot separate politics and religion; they are interrelated. They've always been interrelated."


title: Rafael Cruz

text: "Salon" described Cruz as a "Dominionist, devoted to a movement that finds in Genesis a mandate that 'men of faith' seize control of public institutions and govern by biblical principle."


title: Rafael Cruz

text: Cruz was involved with his son's 2016 presidential campaign, playing what "The Boston Globe" described as "a crucial—if sometimes divisive—element of the Texas senator’s campaign to win over conservative Christian voters." Also his son's presidential primary opponent, Donald Trump accused Cruz's father of involvement with John F. Kennedy's assassination. During the campaign, Cruz underwent emergency eye surgery, but returned to campaigning after several weeks' recovery.


title: Rafael Cruz

text: In 1959, at age 20, Cruz married Julia Ann Garza (August 22, 1939–May 18, 2013). Per Cruz, they divorced some time in 1963. Julia later became a professor of linguistics and Latin American literature at California State University, Stanislaus. They had two daughters, Miriam Cruz (1961–2011) and Roxana Cruz (born November 18, 1962), who is a physician. He has three grandchildren.


title: Rafael Cruz

text: In 2005, Cruz renounced his Canadian citizenship to become a naturalized U.S. citizen. Cruz now retains only Cuban and American citizenships.


title: Independent voter

text: An independent voter, often also called an unaffiliated voter or non-affiliated voter in the United States, is a voter who does not align themselves with a political party. An independent is variously defined as a voter who votes for candidates on issues rather than on the basis of a political ideology or partisanship; a voter who does not have long-standing loyalty to, or identification with, a political party; a voter who does not usually vote for the same political party from election to election; or a voter who self-describes as an independent.


title: Independent voter

text: Voting systems outside of the United States, including the British parliamentary system, may include independent voters as being "floater voters" or swing votes.


title: Independent voter

text: The earliest concept of independents is of a person whose political choices, by definition, were made based on issues and candidates (due to lack of party affiliation). Furthermore, early studies of voting behavior conclusively demonstrated that self-identified independent voters are less interested in specific elections than partisan voters, poorly informed about issues and candidates, and less active politically. However, a contrary view emerged: The independent usually voted on the basis of deeply ingrained beliefs, attitudes and loyalties, and is more like the strongly partisan voter than any other voter (or the idealized "independent").


title: Independent voter

text: By the 1960s, scholars attempted to define the independent based on behavior, rather than party identification or loyalty. Focusing on ticket splitters, these studies depicted an independent voter who had the same level of political interest as strong partisans and who voted largely based on the issues with which they strongly agreed or disagreed. However, by focusing on voting behavior, this definition of the independent ignored non-voters. Critics claimed that the independent voter is merely a subset of the larger set of independents, which should also include non-voters. Studies also found that voting and not-voting is deeply affected by the particular candidate running in an election. Voting, therefore, is more reflective of what candidate is running—and therefore a poor measure of partisanship.


title: Independent voter

text: More recently, scholars focused on self-identification as a good measure of a person's political independence. The value of self-identification as a measure of a person's political independence or partisanship is that it is seen as a proxy for the behavior which should be exhibited by the independent voter. Additionally, self-identification could be easily captured either with a nominal question ("Do you self-identify with an existing political party?", a question which is answered with a "yes" or a "no"), or by a structured ordinal question ("Generally speaking, do you consider yourself a Democrat, a Republican, an independent, or what?"). The first analyses of this measure of political independence found that there were significant differences between those individuals who self-identified as "independent" and those who listed "no preference" as to party identification. Individuals who expressed "no preference" usually exhibited low levels of interest in politics, low levels of knowledge about the candidates and issues, low frequency of voting, and less confidence in their ability to influence politics.


title: Independent voter

text: Although some scholars continue to conclude that self-description is the best measure of partisanship or independence, a number of studies have found debilitating problems with this measure. The nature of the voter registration system and the appearance of the ballot, the way the question reinforces a unidimensional interpretation of the political arena, the measure's failure to function in a multi-party political system, the measure's confusion of the theoretical relationship between partisanship and the intent to vote, question wording errors which confuse a social group with a political party, failure to predict policy (versus candidate) preferences, question order, and failure to measure partisanship accurately when there are sizeable differences in party size all confound accurate measurement of partisanship and independence using this measure. Even the nature of a survey instrument as a measure of partisanship and independence has been called into question.


title: Independent voter

text: To many scholars, independence seemed the flip-side of partisanship. Identifying the variables which are significant in creating partisanship would, therefore, identify the variables which are significant in creating political independence. Subsequently, a very large body of scholarship has emerged which has attempted to analyze partisanship.


title: Independent voter

text: Parents appear to be a primary source of political socialization and partisanship. Much of the theoretical basis for this hypothesis emerged from the fields of child psychology and social learning, which studied the ways in which children are socialized and values inculcated in them. Studies of political partisanship have found that partisanship is strongest when both parents have the same political loyalties, these loyalties are strong, both parents have similarly strong party loyalties, and parental partisanship accords with socio-economic status (for example, the wealthy are Republicans or the poor are Labour supporters).


title: Independent voter

text: Social groups are another source of partisanship. Friends, relatives, and neighbors often have the same partisan loyalties and strengths as one's parents. The more homogeneous the social group, the more likely the individual will be to develop strong partisan loyalties. When social group homogeneousness is low, the individual is likely to be less strongly socialized into partisan politics and more likely to seek a different party loyalty (whether by disengaging from partisanship or switching partisan loyalties).


title: Independent voter

text: Life-cycle and generational effects also contribute to partisanship. Initially, studies indicated that the operative variable was the "life-cycle." That is, a person's partisan attachments naturally grew stronger over time as weak socialization became strong and strong socialization became stronger. Additionally, theorists suggested that older voters favored certain policy preferences (such as strong government pensions and old-age health insurance) which led them to (strongly) favor one party over another. Later studies showed that the initial strong effect of the life-cycle variable was mitigated by generational effects. Party identification seemed strongly affected by certain formative generational events (such as the Civil War, the Great Depression or the social upheaval of the 1960s). Several studies concluded that generational effects were distinct from life-cycle effects, and that both factors were significant in creating (or not) partisanship.


title: Independent voter

text: But if generational events affected partisanship, some scholars hypothesized that lesser political, social, and economic issues might as well. Conceding that major "shocks" such as the Great Depression could realign or dealing partisanship, some scholars reasoned that a series of smaller shocks over time could also dramatically influence the direction and strength of partisanship. Many scholars became convinced that partisanship was not bedrock but shifting sand. Important childhood events (such as becoming aware of a presidential campaign) as well as events in adulthood (such as recessions, war, or shifting racial policies) could also affect the level of partisanship. The concept of "retrospective voting"—in which the voter makes political judgments based on the party-in-power's performance over the past few years—deeply influenced studies of partisanship. Applying the concept of retrospectiveness to partisanship, more recent analyses have concluded that retrospective and prospective political party success play a significant role in the direction and strength of partisanship.


title: Independent voter

text: Both repeated "minor shocks" and retrospective/prospective assessments of political party success are micro-level, rather than macro-level, variables. That is, while very important in creating political independence, they affect individuals only. For example, John may come to believe that Party A is no longer effective and become an independent. Yet, Mary may come to the conclusion that Party A is still effective. Both voters see the same successes and failures, but their retrospective and prospective calculus of success varies.


title: Independent voter

text: This has led some scholars to conclude that independence is not the flip-side of partisanship. Rather, partisanship and political independence may be two distinct variables, each of which must be measured separately and using different theoretical constructs. Other scholars have concluded that the causal direction of partisanship must be questioned. While it has long been assumed that partisanship and the strength of partisanship drive attitudes on issues, these scholars conclude that the causal relationship is reversed.


title: Independent voter

text: Using the self-identification method of measuring political independence, surveys found an increasing number of independent voters beginning in 1966. In 1952, when modern polling on the issue began, the number of independent voters nationwide was 22 percent. By 1976, the number had risen more than half, to 36 percent of the electorate. Regionally, the rise of the independent voter was even more apparent. In the non-Deep South, the number of independent voters had risen from 22 percent to 37 percent. But in the Deep South, the number of independents rose steeply from 14 percent in 1952 to 32 percent in 1976 (and would rise even further, to 35 percent, by 1984).


title: Independent voter

text: Gallup polls data shows independent leaning voters represent the majority of American voters a trend since 2004.


title: Independent voter

text: Although the number of self-identified independents has fallen slightly in the 1990s and 2000s, about 30 percent of American voters still say they are independents (as measured by self-identification).


title: Independent voter

text: Several analyses conclude that (whether through survey error or misconceptualization of the nature of political independence) the number of independent voters has remained relatively unchanged in the United States since the 1950s.


title: Independent voter

text: In the United States, voter identification as an independent varies widely across regions as well as states. Inter-party competition, the organizational strength of each party, electoral variables (such as the ease of voter registration, voting procedures, the timing of primaries and elections, etc.), and even turnout seem to greatly affect the number of independents in a state. The effect of these variables is not uniform across all the states, either.


title: Independent voter

text: In the British parliamentary system, a similar concept of a "floating voter" is used to describe voters who can change their voting alignment and freedom from political parties. This term may also be applied in referendum votes, such as in the vote for "Brexit".


title: Independent voter

text: There is a large swing vote in Iran, known as "Party of the Wind" (), or "grey vote" (), which can be rapidly excited.


title: Independent voter

text: Because independent voters do not have strong affectional ties to political parties, scholars who adhere to the self-identification method for measuring political independence theorize that independents may be more susceptible to the appeals of third-party candidates. It has also been suggested that the more independent voters, the more volatile elections and the political system will be. Others hypothesize that the amount of ticket-splitting will increase, leading to greater parity between the strongest political parties, an increase in the number of minor political parties (particularly "down-ballot" in state, county or local races), or possibly even a breakdown in the political party system.


title: Independent voter

text: Scholars who hold to the behavioral measure of determining political independence point out that there has been little change in the level of ticket-splitting since the initial upsurge in the 1950s. They also posit that, when independents who strongly lean toward one party are included in the same group as that party's strong partisans, there has also been little change in party loyalty since the 1950s. For example, partisan Republicans and independents who lean Republican tend to vote for Republican candidates just as frequently in the 1990s as they did in the 1950s. In the United States, the tendency of both strong and weak partisans to vote a straight ticket in down-ballot races is even stronger than it is for presidential and congressional races.


title: Independent voter

text: Many scholars also say that partisanship is only one of many variables which predict voting choice. A decline in partisanship may have little to no impact on election outcomes, and much depends on fluctuations in these other factors.


title: Independent voter

text: For more than half a century, the concept of a realigning election—a dramatic shift in the electoral coalition supporting the existing political system—has been an important one in political theory. First enunciated by V. O. Key, Jr. in 1955, the theory of realigning elections suggested that certain "critical elections" created sudden, massive shifts in the electorate. The political party and policies of the status quo were changed, and a new governing coalition installed which would rule for decades until the next critical election. The theory of critical elections fit well with what scholars knew about generational effects and the emerging literature on "major shocks" as a variable in determining the existence, direction, and strength of partisanship. It also helped explain the radical shifts in national politics which occurred irregularly in American history. Scholars also hypothesized that realigning elections rejuvenated public support for the political system, which helped explain the relative stability of American political structures. In time, scholars refined the theory somewhat. The concept of "secular realignment" was developed to account for gradual shifts in politics which had similar effects (eventually) to a critical realigning election. Some studies concluded that "secular realignment" came in short, jerky, periods called "punctuations." Initially, the concept of a realigning election was monolithic, that is, the effects were believed to be national in effect. But beginning in the 1980s, political scientists began to conclude that realigning elections could occur on sub-national levels (such as regions or even within states).


title: Independent voter

text: But with the "rise of the independent voter" and no realigning election, scholars developed the theory of the "dealigning election." In the dealigning election, all political parties lose support as partisanship decreases and political independence rises. Split-ticket voting and issue-oriented voting increase, leading to political volatility. Divided government (one party controls the executive branch, while another controls the legislature) becomes the norm.


title: Independent voter

text: A number of scholars have dismissed the theory of realignment and dealignment, however. They argue that the concept is vague and the data do not support mass change in electoral behavior. The large number of qualifications which must be made to the theory of critical elections has rendered it useless, it is argued. The theory of secular realignment has been particularly criticized. The replacement of elderly voters (who die) with a new generation of voters (who come of age and are eligible to vote) is normal, not a unique and irregular "punctuation" or "surge," it is claimed. Still other scholars claim there are no regional dealignment variations while others argue that the concept of realignment and dealignment is no longer useful in an era in which political parties are no longer very important in the political system.


title: Independent voter

text: Scholars argue that political parties play a critical supportive role in democracies. Parties regulate the type and number of people seeking election, mobilize voters and enhance turnout, and provide the coalition-building structure essential for office-holders to govern. Parties also serve as critical reference groups for voters, framing issues and providing and filtering information. These functions, it is claimed cannot otherwise be accomplished, and democracies collapse without them. Only political parties serve these roles.


title: Independent voter

text: Dealignment—the rise in the number of independent voters—has an extremely deleterious effect on democracy, these scholars claim. Dealignment leads to the rise of candidate-centered elections in which parties and ideologies play little part. Without parties, candidates rely ever-more heavily on mass media for communication, political action committees (PACs) for funds, special interest groups for staff, and political consultants for expertise. The increasing reliance on mass communication leads to a withering of political discourse as the sound bite and an emphasis on the horse-race aspect of politics becomes the norm. This limits the amount and kind of information the public receives, leading to less choice for voters. When voters can stay at home and watch television rather than participate in civic life, the public no longer perceives the need to become involved in democracy—and so the civic life of the democracy withers. As PACs and interest groups become more important, the number of people speaking to the public, providing political information and different political choices and views, declines. Additionally, PAC and interest group spokespeople may not be representative of the public or the groups they claim to speak for, creating disenfranchisement of various (often minority) groups. As independent voting and ticket-splitting rise, parties seek to insulate themselves from the whipsaw effect of elections. The power of incumbency becomes increasingly important, and accessibility by the public declines. Parties seek increasingly moderate positions in order to stay electorally viable, further limiting political choice ("both parties look and sound the same"). As the parties distance themselves from the average voter and seem to offer limited policy options, dealignment worsens. As ideology plays less and less a part in elections, it becomes more and more difficult for parties to forge coalitions of like-minded officeholders. Governmental deadlock becomes common, further encouraging independent voting as citizens perceive "their" party to be ineffective. As ticket-splitting rises, divided government becomes the norm, making it even more difficult for office-holders to enact and implement policies. Politics becomes increasingly volatile, with first one party and then another governing. Although parties once held politicians accountable for their actions, their increasing irrelevance in politics leads to a decline in accountability (and thus even less responsiveness and less democracy). The "Imperial Presidency" becomes more important, since single officeholders with great power become the only politicians capable of governing.


title: Independent voter

text: Other scholars have concluded that dealignment has not harmed democracy. Political parties have adapted to the realities of large numbers of independent voters, it is argued. The candidate-centered election has actually revitalized parties, and led to new party structures and behaviors which have allowed parties to survive in the age of mass communication. A minority view, however, suggests that the evidence for a resurgence of political parties too equivocal, and that scholars lack the theoretical concepts to make such judgments.


title: Independent voter

text: Yet another strain of thought has concluded that "realignment" is occurring. The slow "secular realignment" is not yet over, these scholars say. Regional differences in the level and impact of dealignment simply point up the fact that major shifts in political coalitions are occurring. Slowly but surely, these studies conclude, realignment is happening and will be obvious within a generation. These scholars argue that the surge in independent voters which began in the 1960s has ended, and that there are distinct signs that partisanship is on the rise again.


title: Virtual reality headset

text: A virtual reality headset (or VR headset) is a head-mounted device that provides virtual reality for the wearer. VR headsets are widely used with VR video games but they are also used in other applications, including simulators and trainers. VR headsets typically include a stereoscopic display (providing separate images for each eye), stereo sound, and sensors like accelerometers and gyroscopes for tracking the pose of the user's head to match the orientation of the virtual camera with the user's eye positions in the real world.


title: Virtual reality headset

text: Some VR headsets also have eye-tracking sensors and gaming controllers. The VR glasses use a technology called head-tracking, which changes the field of vision as a person turns their head. The technology may not be perfect, as there is latency if the head moves too fast. Still, it does offer an immersive experience.


title: Virtual reality headset

text: The Sega VR, announced in 1991 and seen in early 1993 at the Winter CES, was never released for consoles, but was utilized for the Sega VR-1 motion simulator arcade attraction in 1994. Another early VR headset, the Forte VFX1, was announced at CES in 1994. The VFX-1 has stereoscopic displays, 3-axis head-tracking, and stereo headphones. Sony, another pioneer, released the Glasstron in 1997, which has an optional positional sensor, allowing the wearer to view the surroundings, with the perspective moving as the user's head moves, giving a deep sense of immersion. These VR headsets gave players a new visual perspective of seeing the battlefield from inside the cockpit of their craft. However, these early headsets failed commercially due to their limited technology, and they were described by John Carmack as like "looking through toilet paper tubes".


title: Virtual reality headset

text: In 2012, a crowdfunding campaign began for a VR headset known as Oculus Rift; the project was led by several prominent video game developers, including Carmack who later became the company's CTO. In March 2014, the project's parent company Oculus VR was acquired by Facebook for $2 billion. The final consumer-oriented release of Oculus Rift began shipping on 28 March 2016.


title: Virtual reality headset

text: In March 2014, Sony demonstrated a prototype headset for PlayStation 4, which was later named PlayStation VR. In 2014, Valve demonstrated some headset prototypes, which led to a partnership with HTC to produce the Vive, which focuses on "room scale" VR environments that users can naturally navigate within and interact with. The Vive was released in April 2016 and PlayStation VR in October 2016.


title: Virtual reality headset

text: Virtual reality headsets and viewers have also been designed for smartphones. Unlike headsets with integrated displays, these units are essentially enclosures which a smartphone can be inserted into. VR content is viewed from the screen of the device itself through lenses acting as a stereoscope, rather than using dedicated internal displays. Google released a series of specifications and associated DIY kits for virtual reality viewers known as Google Cardboard; these viewers are capable of being constructed using low-cost materials (and a smartphone with a gyroscope), such as cardboard (hence the naming). Samsung Electronics partnered with Oculus VR to co-develop the Samsung Gear VR (which is only compatible with recent Samsung Galaxy devices), while LG Electronics developed a headset with dedicated displays for its LG G5 smartphone known as LG 360 VR. Asian hardware manufacturers like Xion and Kolke have developed inexpensive virtual reality headsets. In 2017, Chinese company Tencent announced it was preparing to launch its virtual reality headset that year. In 2019, Oculus and PlayStation VR dominated the VR headset market.


title: Virtual reality headset

text: Virtual reality headsets have significantly higher requirements for latency—the time it takes from a change in input to have a visual effect—than ordinary video games. If the system is too sluggish to react to head movement, then it can cause the user to experience virtual reality sickness, a kind of motion sickness. According to a Valve engineer, the ideal latency would be 7-15 milliseconds.


title: Virtual reality headset

text: The graphics processing unit (GPU) also needs to be powerful enough to render the required amount of frames. Oculus cited the limited processing power of Xbox One and PlayStation 4 as the reason why they targeted the PC gaming market with their first devices.


title: Virtual reality headset

text: Foveated rendering is a new technique to reduce the rendering workload. It uses eye tracking hardware to determine at what point the user is looking and reduces rendering resolution farther from the user's gaze. This can be unnoticeable to the user because human peripheral vision is far less sensitive than the fovea.


title: Virtual reality headset

text: There are different optics and visual qualities that will affect how the individual perceives the image quality and how they experience the virtual world. The image clarity depends on the display resolution, optic quality, refresh rate, and the field of view.


title: Virtual reality headset

text: Because virtual reality headsets stretch a single display across a wide field of view (up to 110° for some devices according to manufacturers), the magnification factor makes flaws in display technology much more apparent. One issue is the so-called screen-door effect, where the gaps between rows and columns of pixels become visible, kind of like looking through a screen door. This was especially noticeable in earlier prototypes and development kits, which had lower resolutions than the retail versions.


title: Virtual reality headset

text: The lenses of the headset are responsible for mapping the up-close display to a wide field of view, while also providing a more comfortable distant point of focus. One challenge with this is providing consistency of focus: because eyes are free to turn within the headset, it is important to avoid having to refocus to prevent eye strain.


title: Virtual reality headset

text: Fresnel lenses are commonly used in virtual reality headsets due to their compactness and lightweight structure. The lenses do not use multiple pieces of material in their lenses like other lenses, but the lens will be broken down into sections, allowing the individual to have a wider range of view. The issue seen with the lens consists of seeing the ridges of the lenses when the headset is not properly aligned on the head.


title: Virtual reality headset

text: The lenses introduce distortion and chromatic aberration, which are typically corrected in software. The lenses can also be adjusted dynamically to account for a user's eyeglass prescription so that the user can use the headset without corrective eyeglasses.


title: Virtual reality headset

text: Motion capture was used by Nintendo's Wii game console by having the player use a controller to interact with the game of their choice, often being sports games. Soon after the release of Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox received a full body reading system called Kinect compatible with Valve's modding system. Later, Sony released a similar motion capture device for their PlayStation named the PlayStation Move. These gaming devices use motion capture to control avatars within a game, where the player's movements are copied by the avatar to complete the game. This means that the player is not truly engaged in the virtual reality world.


title: Virtual reality headset

text: Virtual reality headsets are being currently used as a means to train medical students for surgery. It allows them to perform essential procedures in a virtual, controlled environment. Students perform surgeries on virtual patients, which allows them to acquire the skills needed to perform surgeries on real patients. It also allows the students to revisit the surgeries from the perspective of the lead surgeon.


title: Virtual reality headset

text: Traditionally, students had to participate in surgeries and often they would miss essential parts. Now, with the use of VR headsets, students can watch surgical procedures from the perspective of the lead surgeon without missing essential parts. Students can also pause, rewind, and fast forward surgeries. They also can perfect their techniques in a real-time simulation in a risk-free environment.


title: Virtual reality headset

text: Besides for training purposes, augmented reality headsets are also already being used for image-guided surgery.


title: Virtual reality headset

text: Recently vitrtual headset mounted Iphone has been used to capture high quality videos and images of retina. https://www.e-tjo.org/text.asp?0/0/0/0/355559


title: Virtual reality headset

text: Virtual reality headsets have been used by the United States Armed Forces. It is a particularly useful tool for training military personnel without putting them in harm's way.


title: Virtual reality headset

text: The virtual reality headset allows the military personnel to interact with virtual reality people to make it feel real. They can talk to one another and do varying actions to make the virtual reality world feel like they are actually in that situation. There are also disadvantages and advantages when military personnel use the headset. The disadvantage is the headset is made for an indoor area, with a cool environment, and away from any heat, so when military personnel has just the headset on, no military equipment, it is not like their basic training. The advantages consist of repeating the situations multiple times and the cost of having the headset is less, due to no military equipment being needed.


title: Virtual reality headset

text: Virtual reality headsets have been linked to rising cases of rashes, swelling, burning, itching, hives, and bumps. On 27 July 2021, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and Health Canada have coordinated a recall of Facebook's Oculus Quest 2 after 5,716 reports of facial skin irritation were reported with 45 cases requiring medical attention. Despite complaints issued by consumers such as swollen painful itchy eyes being reported as early as October 2020, the recall only occurred in July 2021. Facebook did not halt Oculus sales immediately citing data that only "0.01% of people using Quest 2" had serious allergic reactions and dermatological and toxicological reports came out negative for contaminants that could be causing the swollen painful rashes upon skin contact. Facebook doesn't know the origin of this reaction and instead they sent a free silicone cover to cover the allergic user's faces. Over four million Oculus head sets have been recalled. Facebook's VR headsets also was banned from Germany in September 2020 after it faced criticism from the German Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) for requiring its users to have valid Facebook accounts before covering their head with the Oculus. Germany has one of the world's leading antitrust agencies and Facebook's ruling raised concerns of regulation and antitrust monopolies.


title: Sean Yseult

text: Sean Yseult (; born Shauna Reynolds; June 6, 1966) is an American rock musician who currently plays bass guitar in the band Star & Dagger. She has played various instruments with different bands since the mid-1980s, and is best known for playing bass in White Zombie.


title: Sean Yseult

text: Her parents were both college English professors. Her mother, Ann Reynolds, taught the poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer, while her father, Michael South Reynolds, was an authority on the life of Ernest Hemingway.


title: Sean Yseult

text: The atmosphere in the family home was bohemian, with artists and scholars gathering for deep conversation and socializing. Yseult's parents took her and her sister to many artistic events.


title: Sean Yseult

text: Before her days as a bassist, Yseult studied fine art and ballet while attending North Carolina School of the Arts for high school.


title: Sean Yseult

text: Yseult played bass in White Zombie for 11 years before they disbanded in 1998. In 1996, she participated along with Jay Yuenger in the tribute band to the Germs called Ruined Eye. After the breakup of White Zombie in September 1998, Yseult started playing bass for the band Rock City Morgue. She formed the Famous Monsters in 1995 which also featured Katie Lynn Campbell, bassist for the Toronto-based C'mon.


title: Sean Yseult

text: On November 1, 2010, Yseult released "I'm in the Band", a book containing tour diaries and photos as well as detailing her eleven years spent as a member of White Zombie.


title: Sean Yseult

text: When "Rock N Roll Experience Magazine" asked Yseult in 2011 why she was not involved in the White Zombie box set her reply was, "It was a little bit of a fuck you to me & J. which was kinda weird since we were 2/3rd's of the band but anyways."


title: Sean Yseult

text: Yseult moved to New Orleans in 1996, after White Zombie disbanded. She married Supagroup musician Chris Lee on January 12, 2008, in New Orleans, Louisiana, where she lives. With her husband, in 2002 she founded, then ran, a dive bar popular among artists and musicians, The Saint, in New Orleans's Garden District.


title: Sean Yseult

text: Yseult earned her degree in graphic design at Parsons The New School for Design in New York City. She also began showing her photography in galleries in 2002. In 2006, she began a design line featuring wallpaper, pillows, scarves with her hand drawn graphics. Gallery shows include exhibitions in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Yseult has also been a member of The Rawk Show – Fine Art by Musicians, in Texas among other shows. In 2018, Yseult debuted a photography exhibit, entitled "They All Axed for You", at the Boyd Satellite Gallery in New Orleans.


title: Autumn in My Heart

text: Autumn in My Heart () is a 2000 South Korean romantic television drama starring Song Seung-heon, Song Hye-kyo, and Won Bin. The series is the first installment of season-themed tetralogy "Endless Love" drama series directed by Yoon Seok-ho. It aired on KBS2 from September 18 to November 7, 2000, on Mondays and Tuesdays at 21:55 (KST) for 16 episodes.


title: Autumn in My Heart

text: The series was very successful in South Korea, averaging viewership ratings of 38.6% and reaching a peak viewership of 46.1%. It is considered a pioneer in Korean melodramatic series, launching a worldwide fever that is commonly referred to as the "Korean Wave". Tours of sites in Korea related to the show have been developed following its success.


title: Autumn in My Heart

text: The story begins with toddler Yoon Joon-suh, accidentally causing the switch of his sister and another baby when he drops the name cards on the two babies' cribs in the hospital's baby room. A nurse who comes in puts the name cards back incorrectly. The story then jumps forward to the teenage years of the two main characters: Yoon Eun-suh (Moon Geun-young) and Yoon Joon-suh (Choi Woo-hyuk). Eun-suh is the most popular girl in class, which incites the jealousy of her rival, Choi Shin-ae (Lee Ae-jung). Shin-ae is smart but does not get the attention she craves from the teacher and her classmates.


title: Autumn in My Heart

text: When Eun-suh gets hit by a truck and needs a blood transfusion, it is found out that she is not the Yoons' biological daughter. She instead belongs to the Chois. Choi Shin-ae is also discovered to not be the Choi's biological daughter, but the Yoons'. In the end, the two daughters return to their original birth parents. Shin-ae moves in with the Yoon family, and Eun-suh moves in with Mrs. Choi, (her biological father is dead) who operates a small restaurant living in abject poverty. Their situations are now reversed. Shin-ae is the more popular girl in class and Eun-suh is the one ignored. Shortly after the switch, the Yoon family moves to the United States and Eun-suh loses touch with them.


title: Autumn in My Heart

text: Ten years later, Joon-suh (Song Seung-heon) returns to South Korea as a successful artist. He goes back to his hometown. He encounters his old friend, Han Tae-seok (Won Bin), who stays at the hotel where Eun-suh (Song Hye-kyo) works as a telephone receptionist. Tae-seok, (who doesn't know about the brother and sister mix-up) falls in love with Eun-suh and manipulates her until she is fired from her job. One day Eun-suh sees Joon-suh and follows him to the beach where he is with his fiancée Yumi (Han Na-na) and Tae-seok. The two "siblings" finally meet again after ten years.


title: Autumn in My Heart

text: Eun-suh and Joon-suh appears to have a sibling relationship in front of the others, but they meet each other secretly and fall in love. Shin-ae (Han Chae-young) finds out about their relationship and exposes the two after she finds a love letter Eun-suh wrote to Joon-suh. The two decide to stay together, but are soon forced apart again because their parents are against the union. Yumi hurts herself and blackmails Joon-suh with suicide to hold on to him.


title: Autumn in My Heart

text: As a fight between Joon-suh and Tae-seok erupts over their love for Eun-suh, she discovers she has leukemia (the same fatal condition that killed her biological father). She doesn't tell anyone except Tae-seok, who offers to pay for her treatment. When her health deteriorates, the others begin finding out the extent of her condition. Eun-suh soon falls into a coma. Joon-suh finds out about Eun-suh's health and reacts with shock and fear, while Tae-seok forces Joon-suh to try to wake up Eun-suh. Eventually, Eun-suh wakes up, but is too weak to follow the treatment. When it is clear that there is no hope, Joon-suh takes her home so she can spend her last days with him. At this point, Yumi finally lets go of Joon-suh. Joon-suh proposes to Eun-suh and they get married. Eun-suh dies as Joon-suh carries her around the beach where they spent her birthday as teenagers.


title: Autumn in My Heart

text: Before Eun-suh dies, she tells Joon-suh to move on and continue living. However, Joon-suh, dazed and grief-stricken by the death of his love, is struck by a truck in the same place as Eun-suh's accident during her teenage years.


title: Autumn in My Heart

text: The 13-track soundtrack for "Autumn in My Heart" includes Jung Il-young's heartfelt ballads "Reason", "Prayer" and "In My Dream" as well as the main flute theme and the guitar and piano versions of some of the songs. "Romance", also known as "Forbidden Love" is a classic piece used for this soundtrack. It comes from a famous work of unknown authorship "Spanish Romance".


title: Autumn in My Heart

text: A song played during emotional scenes, but excluded from the soundtrack, was "Return to Love" by Kevin Kern.


title: Romanization of Russian

text: The romanization of the Russian language (the transliteration of Russian text from the Cyrillic script into the Latin script), aside from its primary use for including Russian names and words in text written in a Latin alphabet, is also essential for computer users to input Russian text who either do not have a keyboard or word processor set up for inputting Cyrillic, or else are not capable of typing rapidly using a native Russian keyboard layout (JCUKEN). In the latter case, they would type using a system of transliteration fitted for their keyboard layout, such as for English QWERTY keyboards, and then use an automated tool to convert the text into Cyrillic.


title: Romanization of Russian

text: There are a number of distinct and competing standards for the romanization of Russian Cyrillic, with none of them having received much popularity, and, in reality, transliteration is often carried out without any consistent standards.


title: Romanization of Russian

text: Scientific transliteration, also known as the "International Scholarly System", is a system that has been used in linguistics since the 19th century. It is based on the Czech alphabet and formed the basis of the GOST and ISO systems.


title: Romanization of Russian

text: Developed by the National Administration for Geodesy and Cartography at the USSR Council of Ministers, GOST 16876-71 has been in service since 1973. Replaced by GOST 7.79-2000.


title: Romanization of Russian

text: This standard is an equivalent of GOST 16876-71 and was adopted as an official standard of the COMECON.


title: Romanization of Russian

text: GOST 7.79-2000 "System of Standards on Information, Librarianship, and Publishing–Rules for Transliteration of the Cyrillic Characters Using the Latin Alphabet" is an adoption of ISO 9:1995. It is the official standard of both Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).


title: Romanization of Russian

text: GOST 52535.1-2006 "Identification cards. Machine readable travel documents. Part 1. Machine readable passports" is an adoption of an ICAO standard for travel documents. It was used in Russian passports for a short period during 2010–2013 (see below). The standard was substituted in 2013 by GOST R ISO/IEC 7501-1-2013, which does not contain romanization, but directly refers to the ICAO romanization (see below).


title: Romanization of Russian

text: according to GOST 10807-78 (tables 17, 18), which was amended by newer Russian GOST R 52290-2004 (tables Г.4, Г.5), the romanizations in both the standards are practically identical.


title: Romanization of Russian

text: ISO/R 9, established in 1954 and updated in 1968, was the adoption of the scientific transliteration by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It covers Russian and seven other Slavic languages.


title: Romanization of Russian

text: ISO 9:1995 is the current transliteration standard from ISO. It is based on its predecessor ISO/R 9:1968, which it deprecates; for Russian, the two are the same except in the treatment of five modern letters. ISO 9:1995 is the first language-independent, univocal system of one character for one character equivalents (by the use of diacritics) that faithfully represents the original and allows for reverse transliteration for Cyrillic text in any contemporary language.


title: Romanization of Russian

text: The UNGEGN, a Working Group of the United Nations, in 1987 recommended a romanization system for geographical names, which was based on the 1983 version of GOST 16876-71. It may be found in some international cartographic products.


title: Romanization of Russian

text: American Library Association and Library of Congress (ALA-LC) romanization tables for Slavic alphabets are used in North American libraries and in the British Library since 1975.


title: Romanization of Russian

text: The formal, unambiguous version of the system for bibliographic cataloguing requires some diacritics, two-letter tie characters, and prime marks. The standard is also often adapted as a "simplified" or "modified Library of Congress system" for use in text for a non-specialized audience, omitting the special characters and diacritics, simplifying endings, and modifying iotated initials.