title: Country Grammar

text: "Country Grammar" entered the New Zealand Albums Chart on the week of September 24, 2000, at number 5. It reached its peak at number 3, for twenty-eight weeks after its debut on the chart, where it remained there for two non-consecutive weeks. It stayed on the chart for forty-two weeks before dropping out. The album was certified Triple Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) for shipments of 45,000 units. On the Australian Albums Chart, "Country Grammar" debuted at number 45. It re-entered the chart five times, and reached its peak at number 4 on the week of October 7, 2001. The album remained on the chart for thirty-three weeks, and was certified Triple platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). "Country Grammar" reached at number 7 on the Canadian Albums Chart, and stayed on the chart for twenty-five weeks before dropping out. It was certified Triple Platinum by Music Canada (MC), denoting shipments of 300,000 copies. On the Dutch Albums Chart, the album peaked at number 8.


title: Country Grammar

text: On the UK Albums Chart, "Country Grammar" reached at number 14, and stayed on it for 31 weeks. It was certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), for shipments of 100,000 units. The album peaked within the top thirty on the Belgian Albums Chart (Flanders), Finnish Albums Chart and Danish Albums Chart. It reached number 45 on the German Albums Chart, remaining on it for 43 weeks. It peaked on the Swiss Albums Chart and French Albums Chart at numbers 90 and 109 respectively. "Country Grammar" topped the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums year-end chart in 2000.


title: Country Grammar

text: According to "Billboard", as of 2022, "Country Grammar" is one of the 15 best-performing 21st-century albums without any of its singles being number-one hits on the "Billboard" Hot 100. "Country Grammar" success cemented Nelly's position as one of the most successful hip hop acts of the emerging decade. "Vibe" emphasized Nelly's expeditious fame, writing that the rapper debuted without the benefit of "guest spots or Pen and Pixel produced teasers on his CD cover". The magazine continued to note the rapper's absence of being associated with a notable group, "he just came out and sold two million records in less than a month". Nelly's success helped in making St. Louis more notable for emerging hip hop acts, increasing the city's general reputation. "Country Grammar" experienced commercial success, topping the US "Billboard" 200 chart for five weeks in 2000, eventually going on to sell over 9 million copies in the US, making it the ninth best-selling rap album of all time in the country. It is one of the highest certified albums in the US history, being certified ten times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Nelly ranked third on the "Billboard" 2000–2009 decade-end chart, due to the success of "Country Grammar" as well as his follow-up album "Nellyville" (2002). The latter album went on to sell 6,488,000 copies in the US.


title: Country Grammar

text: "Country Grammar" was ranked as the 85th best album of all time on the "Billboard Top 200 Albums of All Time".


title: Country Grammar

text: For the 20th anniversary of the album, Nelly performed the entire album live at MelodyVR. On February 19, 2021, the rapper released the album "Country Grammar Live" alongside a documentary film, "Country Grammar – A St. Lunatics Story".


title: Thermal paste

text: Thermal paste (also called thermal compound, thermal grease, thermal interface material (TIM), thermal gel, heat paste, heat sink compound, heat sink paste or CPU grease) is a thermally conductive (but usually electrically insulating) chemical compound, which is commonly used as an interface between heat sinks and heat sources such as high-power semiconductor devices. The main role of thermal paste is to eliminate air gaps or spaces (which act as thermal insulation) from the interface area in order to maximize heat transfer and dissipation. Thermal paste is an example of a thermal interface material.


title: Thermal paste

text: As opposed to thermal adhesive, thermal paste does not add mechanical strength to the bond between heat source and heat sink. It has to be coupled with a mechanical fixation mechanism such as screws to hold the heat sink in place and to apply pressure, spreading and thinning the thermal paste.


title: Thermal paste

text: Thermal paste consists of a polymerizable liquid matrix and large volume fractions of electrically insulating, but thermally conductive filler. Typical matrix materials are epoxies, silicones (silicone grease), urethanes, and acrylates; solvent-based systems, hot-melt adhesives, and pressure-sensitive adhesive tapes are also available. Aluminum oxide, boron nitride, zinc oxide, and increasingly aluminum nitride are used as fillers for these types of adhesives. The filler loading can be as high as 70–80% by mass, and raises the thermal conductivity of the base matrix from 0.17–0.3 W/(m·K) (watts per meter-kelvin) up to about 4 W/(m·K), according to a 2008 paper.


title: Thermal paste

text: Silver thermal compounds may have a conductivity of 3 to 8 W/(m·K) or more, and consist of micronized silver particles suspended in a silicone/ceramic medium. However, metal-based thermal paste can be electrically conductive and capacitive; if some flows onto the circuits, it can lead to malfunction and damage.


title: Thermal paste

text: The most effective (and most expensive) pastes consist almost entirely of liquid metal, usually a variation of the alloy galinstan, and have thermal conductivities in excess of 13 W/(m·K). These are difficult to apply evenly and have the greatest risk of causing malfunction due to spillage. These pastes contain gallium, which is highly corrosive to aluminium and cannot be used on aluminium heat sinks.


title: Thermal paste

text: The lifespan of thermal paste varies depending on the manufacturer and typically ranges from 3 to 5 years.


title: Thermal paste

text: Thermal paste is used to improve the heat coupling between different components. A common application is to drain away waste heat generated by electrical resistance in semiconductor devices including power transistors, CPUs, GPUs, and LED COBs. Cooling these devices is essential because excess heat rapidly degrades their performance and can cause a runaway to catastrophic failure of the device due to the negative temperature coefficient property of semiconductors.


title: Thermal paste

text: Factory PCs and laptops (though seldom tablets or smartphones) typically incorporate thermal paste between the top of the CPU case and a heat sink for cooling. Thermal paste is sometimes also used between the CPU die and its integrated heat spreader, though solder is sometimes used instead.


title: Thermal paste

text: When a CPU heat spreader is coupled to the die via thermal paste, performance enthusiasts such as overclockers are able to, in a process known as "delidding", pry the heat spreader, or CPU "lid", from the die. This allows them to replace the thermal paste, which is usually of low-quality, with a thermal paste having greater thermal conductivity. Generally, liquid metal thermal pastes are used in such instances.


title: Thermal paste

text: The consistency of thermal paste makes it susceptible to failure mechanisms distinct from some other thermal interface materials. A common one is pump-out, which is the loss of thermal paste from between the die and the heat sink due to their differing rates of thermal expansion and contraction. Over a large number of power cycles, thermal paste gets pumped out from between the die and the heat sink and eventually causes degradation of thermal performance.


title: Thermal paste

text: Another issue with some compounds is the separation of the polymer and filler matrix components occurs under high temperatures. The loss of polymeric material can result in poor wettability, leading to increased thermal resistance.


title: Rutan Long-EZ

text: The Rutan Model 61 Long-EZ is a tandem 2-seater homebuilt aircraft designed by Burt Rutan's Rutan Aircraft Factory. The Long-EZ has a canard layout, a swept wing with wingtip rudders, and a pusher engine and propeller. The tricycle landing gear has fixed main wheels with streamlined spats and a retractable nosewheel. Its predecessor was the VariEze, plans for which were first available to homebuilders in 1976. The prototype Long-EZ, N79RA, first flew on June 12, 1979.


title: Rutan Long-EZ

text: The Long-EZ was a scaled-up redesign of the VariEze predecessor, allowing for the use of readily available Lycoming aircraft engines instead of the Volkswagen-derived engines or hard-to-find small Continentals for which the VariEze was designed. Changes from the VariEze included a larger main wing with modified Eppler 1230 airfoil and less sweep, larger strakes containing more fuel and baggage storage, and a slightly wider cabin. The canard uses the same GU25-5(11)8 airfoil as the VariEze. Plans were offered from 1980 to 1985. There were about 700 FAA-registered Long-EZs in the United States in 2005, which had grown to 833 in 2021.


title: Rutan Long-EZ

text: In January 1985, it was announced that plans for a new canard were being offered, to eliminate "rain trim change" that had been experienced by Long-EZ pilots. This trim change is usually a nose-down trim change experienced when flying into rain requiring a small aft force on the stick to maintain altitude, which is easily trimmed out, using the bungee trim system. The new canard was designed with the Roncz R1145MS airfoil, which produces considerably more lift than the original GU25-5(11)8 airfoil. This enabled the new canard to be designed with less span, reducing wetted area and thus drag. The new canard has a negligible rain trim, and rain adds only 2 knots to the stall speed.


title: Rutan Long-EZ

text: Equipped with a rear-seat fuel tank, a Long-EZ flew for 4,800 miles (7,700 kilometers) in December 1979, still, the record for aircraft weighing less than 1000 kg.


title: Rutan Long-EZ

text: The pilot sits in a semi-reclined seat and controls the Long-EZ using a side-stick controller situated on the right-hand console. In addition to having an airbrake on the underside, the twin tail's wing-tip rudders can be deflected outwards to act as auxiliary airbrakes.


title: Rutan Long-EZ

text: In 1996 Burt Rutan awarded TERF Inc. the job of publishing the plans for the Long-EZ and other of his aircraft under The Rutan Aircraft Factory CD ROM Encyclopedia to further assist new builders and maintenance for existing builders. Some components for the design are supplied by Aircraft Spruce & Specialty.


title: Rutan Long-EZ

text: In 1997, Dick Rutan and Mike Melvill flew in convoy around the world in two Rutan Long-EZ aircraft that they had built. This "around the world in 80 nights" flight was called The Spirit of EAA Friendship World Tour, and some legs of it lasted for over 14 hours.


title: Pluto (manga)

text: Pluto (stylized as PLUTO) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoki Urasawa. It was serialized in Shogakukan's "Big Comic Original" magazine from 2003 to 2009, with the chapters collected into eight "tankōbon" volumes. The series is based on Osamu Tezuka's "Astro Boy", specifically story arc, and named after the arc's chief villain. Urasawa reinterprets the story as a suspenseful murder mystery starring Gesicht, a Europol robot detective trying to solve the case of a string of robot and human deaths. Takashi Nagasaki is credited as the series' co-author. Macoto Tezka, Osamu Tezuka's son, supervised the series, and Tezuka Productions is listed as having given cooperation.


title: Pluto (manga)

text: "Pluto" was a critical and commercial success, winning several awards, including the ninth Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize, and selling over 8.5 million copies. The series was licensed and released in English in North America by Viz Media under the name "Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka".


title: Pluto (manga)

text: "Pluto" follows the Europol robot detective Gesicht in his attempts to solve the case of a string of robot and human deaths around the world where all the victims have objects shoved into or positioned by their heads, imitating horns. The case becomes more puzzling when evidence suggests a robot is responsible for the murders, which would make it the first time a robot has killed a human in eight years. All seven of the great robots of the world, the most scientifically advanced which have the potential to become weapons of mass destruction, seem to be the killer's targets, and the murdered humans are connected to preserving the International Robot Laws which grant robots equal rights.


title: Pluto (manga)

text: Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki began "Pluto" after over a year of negotiating to get the rights to adapt Osamu Tezuka's "Astro Boy". With Astro/Atom's official birth date of April 7, 2003 approaching, Urasawa was initially going to do a limited or one-off manga in celebration. But due to the character's importance, he suggested a long-term "serious" take on "The Greatest Robot on Earth" arc, which is his favorite. After re-reading it, he felt that some scenes were missing or different than he remembered, before realizing that he had created his own version of the story in his head. Initially, Urasawa had pitched the idea as if someone else would create it. After many people, including Nagasaki, told him he should be the one to do it, Urasawa said the idea that resulted from story discussions seemed "too good to let anybody else do."


title: Pluto (manga)

text: Urasawa, Nagasaki, and an editor from Shogakukan approached Tezuka Productions with the idea. Tezuka's son Macoto Tezka was informed of the idea in winter 2002. But with a new anime adaptation and other events already in the works, he did not want it to feel as if they were capitalizing on the special occasion. He felt there would be plenty of opportunity to have other artists do it at a later date and politely turned Urasawa down. However, Urasawa persisted and asked for a meeting where he would show rough sketches and explain what kind of story he wanted to create. Macoto met with Urasawa, Nagasaki and others on March 28, 2003. Macoto made Urasawa promise not to imitate his father but make the story in his own style, and even asked him to rethink the character designs.


title: Pluto (manga)

text: Fusanosuke Natsume pointed out that in "Pluto" Urasawa included references not only to other "Astro Boy" arcs, but to other works by Tezuka as well, such as the characters Tawashi and Nakamura; the police car designed to look like a dog; Uran's encounter with animals; and an obsolete robot maid. He suspects the last is a reference to the "Future" volume of "Phoenix".


title: Pluto (manga)

text: Although people often call "Pluto" a dark take on a children's classic, Urasawa feels that the idea that Tezuka's work is lighthearted is a common misconception. He described "The Greatest Robot on Earth" arc as not being "about a righteous robot that took down bad robots, it was about the emptiness of war. When I read that when I was about 4, I felt like I had been told a very deep story, something meant for adults. I think everyone felt that way when they read it. It was never actually meant for kids." He additionally explained that through its anime and various adaptations it has been "reimagined as very wholesome and safe content, but if you really look at Tezuka's work on a deeper level, it's very dark. If you aim to properly adapt or remake any of Tezuka's work, you will naturally end up with a very dark story."


title: Pluto (manga)

text: When asked in 2019 what advice he would give to an artist who wanted to adapt one of his own works like he did "Astro Boy", Urasawa replied "Don't do it!" He explained that even though he understood the responsibility of the undertaking, the pressure and intense struggle was so much that he will never do it again and would advise a young artist to avoid it as well. Similarly, Nagasaki has also said he will not do it again.


title: Pluto (manga)

text: Written and illustrated by Naoki Urasawa, while also writing "20th Century Boys", "Pluto" was serialized in Shogakukan's "Big Comic Original" magazine from September 5, 2003, to April 4, 2009. The chapters were collected and published into eight "tankōbon" volumes, each of which had a deluxe edition that includes the color pages from the chapters' original magazine run released before the normal version; the first volume was published on September 30, 2004, and the last on June 19, 2009. Takashi Nagasaki, who would later go on to work with Urasawa on "Billy Bat" and "Master Keaton Remaster", is credited as the series' co-author. Macoto Tezka, Osamu Tezuka's son, supervised the series and Tezuka Productions is listed as having given cooperation.


title: Pluto (manga)

text: It was licensed and released in English in North America by Viz Media, under the name "Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka".


title: Pluto (manga)

text: Universal Pictures and Illumination acquired the rights to "Pluto" in 2010 for a live-action/CGI film. No news has emerged since.


title: Pluto (manga)

text: A play adaptation of "Pluto" that incorporated 3D imagery via projection mapping opened at Tokyo's Bunkamura Theatre Cocoon on January 9, 2015. Directed and choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, it starred Mirai Moriyama as Atom, Yasufumi Terawaki as Gesicht, Hiromi Nagasaku as both Uran and Helena, Akira Emoto as both Professor Tenma and Blau 1589, Kazutoyo Yoshimi as both Professor Ochanomizu and Dr. Roosevelt, and Yutaka Matsushige as Abullah. A new production of the play was performed in Tokyo, England, the Netherlands, Belgium and Osaka between January 6 and March 14, 2018. New cast members included Tao Tsuchiya as both Uran and Helena, Shunsuke Daitō as Gesicht, and Mitsuru Fukikoshi as Abullah. A performance of the play was broadcast on WOWOW Prime on June 23, 2018.


title: Pluto (manga)

text: An anime adaptation by Studio M2 was announced to be in production at the 2017 Annecy International Animated Film Festival in June 2017. In May 2022, the adaptation was confirmed to still be in production by Studio M2 founder Masao Maruyama.


title: Pluto (manga)

text: "Pluto" has sold over 8.5 million volumes and has won and been nominated for numerous awards. It was awarded the ninth Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize and an Excellence Prize at the seventh Japan Media Arts Festival, both in 2005. Marking Urasawa's second and third time receiving those honors respectively. Also in 2005, "Pluto" topped the first "Kono Manga ga Sugoi!" list for male readers, which surveyed people in the manga and publishing industry. In 2010, the series was given the 41st Seiun Award for Best Comic and won Best Series at Italy's Lucca Comics Awards. In France, the manga won the 2010 Prix Asie-ACBD award at Japan Expo and the 2011 Intergenerational Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival.


title: Pluto (manga)

text: The American Young Adult Library Services Association named the first three volumes of "Pluto" some of their Top Ten Graphic Novels for Teens of 2009, likewise, the "School Library Journal" nominated the series as one of the Best Comics for Teens. At the 2010 Eisner Awards, Viz's English edition was nominated for Best Limited Series or Story Arc and Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia, additionally, Urasawa was nominated for the Best Writer/Artist award for both "Pluto" and "20th Century Boys". Viz's edition was also nominated for the Harvey Award in the Best American Edition of Foreign Material category.


title: Pluto (manga)

text: Joseph Luster of "Otaku USA" called "Pluto" "flat-out incredible" and felt it should be required reading, "not just for fans of comics, but for fans of solid, absorbing stories." He said that, as a reimagining of another work, it "goes above and beyond the call of duty, and there aren't many other series out there that can get me clamoring for the next set of chapters like this one does."


title: Pluto (manga)

text: In her review, Deb Aoki of About.com claimed "Pluto" "will suck you in with its masterful storytelling, and will break your heart with its uncommon emotional depth." and gave the first volume a five out of five rating. She also stated that the series conjures up "thought-provoking questions about robots and what it means to be human." Manga critic Jason Thompson pointed out the series' obvious allusions to the real-life Iraq War; the United States of Thracia (United States of America) invaded Persia (Iraq) after falsely claiming they had robots of mass destruction (weapons of mass destruction). Reviewing volume seven, "Anime News Network"'s Carlo Santos felt the story got a lot more enjoyable with all the loose ends tied up and said Urasawa does a fine job of integrating Tezuka's design with his own style. However, he wrote that "Urasawa continues to add pointless little flourishes to the story: references to Pinocchio, a creepy little children's song, a symbolic crack in a wall ... it probably all has some kind of thematic unity in his head, but it sure doesn't do much to advance the story." Santos strongly praised the final volume, saying it works on every level; with philosophical points of war and humanity and artificial intelligence, and feelings of love, hate, hope, and despair that tug at the heart.


title: Pluto (manga)

text: "The Guardian" theater critic Michael Billington called the set and visuals of the stage adaptation of "Pluto" "spectacular" and gave the 2018 London performance 3 out of 5 stars. He finished by writing "The show may appeal to manga devotees and is clearly on the side of good in its plea for a world free from hate. But, for all its technical skill, it never engages us emotionally and never explains how we create a world in which humans and robots usefully coexist. This is comic-book theatre executed with great panache but to little real purpose."


title: RuBisCO

text: Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase, commonly known by the abbreviations RuBisCo, rubisco, RuBPCase, or RuBPco, is an enzyme () involved in the first major step of carbon fixation, a process by which atmospheric carbon dioxide is converted by plants and other photosynthetic organisms to energy-rich molecules such as glucose. In chemical terms, it catalyzes the carboxylation of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate (also known as RuBP). It is probably the most abundant enzyme on Earth.


title: RuBisCO

text: RuBisCO is important biologically because it catalyzes the primary chemical reaction by which inorganic carbon enters the biosphere. While many autotrophic bacteria and archaea fix carbon via the reductive acetyl CoA pathway, the 3-hydroxypropionate cycle, or the reverse Krebs cycle, these pathways are relatively small contributors to global carbon fixation compared to that catalyzed by RuBisCO. Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase, unlike RuBisCO, only temporarily fixes carbon. Reflecting its importance, RuBisCO is the most abundant protein in leaves, accounting for 50% of soluble leaf protein in plants (20–30% of total leaf nitrogen) and 30% of soluble leaf protein in plants (5–9% of total leaf nitrogen). Given its important role in the biosphere, the genetic engineering of RuBisCO in crops is of continuing interest (see below).


title: RuBisCO

text: In plants, algae, cyanobacteria, and phototrophic and chemoautotrophic Pseudomonadota (formerly proteobacteria), the enzyme usually consists of two types of protein subunit, called the large chain (L, about 55,000 Da) and the small chain (S, about 13,000 Da). The "large-chain" gene ("rbcL") is encoded by the chloroplast DNA in plants. There are typically several related "small-chain" genes in the nucleus of plant cells, and the small chains are imported to the stromal compartment of chloroplasts from the cytosol by crossing the outer chloroplast membrane. The enzymatically active substrate (ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate) binding sites are located in the large chains that form dimers in which amino acids from each large chain contribute to the binding sites. A total of eight large chains (= four dimers) and eight small chains assemble into a larger complex of about 540,000 Da. In some Pseudomonadota and dinoflagellates, enzymes consisting of only large subunits have been found.


title: RuBisCO

text: Magnesium ions () are needed for enzymatic activity. Correct positioning of in the active site of the enzyme involves addition of an "activating" carbon dioxide molecule () to a lysine in the active site (forming a carbamate). operates by driving deprotonation of the Lys210 residue, causing the Lys residue to rotate by 120 degrees to the "trans" conformer, decreasing the distance between the nitrogen of Lys and the carbon of . The close proximity allows for the formation of a covalent bond, resulting in the carbamate. is first enabled to bind to the active site by the rotation of His335 to an alternate conformation. is then coordinated by the His residues of the active site (His300, His302, His335), and is partially neutralized by the coordination of three water molecules and their conversion to OH. This coordination results in an unstable complex, but produces a favorable environment for the binding of . Formation of the carbamate is favored by an alkaline pH. The pH and the concentration of magnesium ions in the fluid compartment (in plants, the stroma of the chloroplast) increases in the light. The role of changing pH and magnesium ion levels in the regulation of RuBisCO enzyme activity is discussed below. Once the carbamate is formed, His335 finalizes the activation by returning to its initial position through thermal fluctuation.


title: RuBisCO

text: RuBisCO is one of many enzymes in the Calvin cycle. When Rubisco facilitates the attack of at the C2 carbon of RuBP and subsequent bond cleavage between the C3 and C2 carbon, 2 molecules of glycerate-3-phosphate are formed. The conversion involves these steps: enolisation, carboxylation, hydration, C-C bond cleavage, and protonation.


title: RuBisCO

text: Substrates for RuBisCO are ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate and carbon dioxide (distinct from the "activating" carbon dioxide). RuBisCO also catalyses a reaction of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate and molecular oxygen (O) instead of carbon dioxide ().


title: RuBisCO

text: Discriminating between the substrates and O is attributed to the differing interactions of the substrate's quadrupole moments and a high electrostatic field gradient. This gradient is established by the dimer form of the minimally active RuBisCO, which with its two components provides a combination of oppositely charged domains required for the enzyme's interaction with O and . These conditions help explain the low turnover rate found in RuBisCO: In order to increase the strength of the electric field necessary for sufficient interaction with the substrates’ quadrupole moments, the C- and N- terminal segments of the enzyme must be closed off, allowing the active site to be isolated from the solvent and lowering the dielectric constant. This isolation has a significant entropic cost, and results in the poor turnover rate.


title: RuBisCO

text: Carbamylation of the ε-amino group of Lys210 is stabilized by coordination with the . This reaction involves binding of the carboxylate termini of Asp203 and Glu204 to the ion. The substrate RuBP binds displacing two of the three aquo ligands.


title: RuBisCO

text: Enolisation of RuBP is the conversion of the keto tautomer of RuBP to an enediol(ate). Enolisation is initiated by deprotonation at C3. The enzyme base in this step has been debated, but the steric constraints observed in crystal structures have made Lys210 the most likely candidate. Specifically, the carbamate oxygen on Lys210 that is not coordinated with the Mg ion deprotonates the C3 carbon of RuBP to form a 2,3-enediolate.


title: RuBisCO

text: Carboxylation of the 2,3-enediolate results in the intermediate 3-keto-2′-carboxyarabinitol-1,5-bisphosphate and Lys334 is positioned to facilitate the addition of the substrate as it replaces the third -coordinated water molecule and add directly to the enediol. No Michaelis complex is formed in this process. Hydration of this ketone results in an additional hydroxy group on C3, forming a gem-diol intermediate. Carboxylation and hydration have been proposed as either a single concerted step or as two sequential steps. Concerted mechanism is supported by the proximity of the water molecule to C3 of RuBP in multiple crystal structures. Within the spinach structure, other residues are well placed to aid in the hydration step as they are within hydrogen bonding distance of the water molecule.


title: RuBisCO

text: The gem-diol intermediate cleaves at the C2-C3 bond to form one molecule of glycerate-3-phosphate and a negatively charge carboxylate. Stereo specific protonation of C2 of this carbanion results in another molecule of glycerate-3-phosphate. This step is thought to be facilitated by Lys175 or potentially the carbamylated Lys210.


title: RuBisCO

text: When carbon dioxide is the substrate, the product of the carboxylase reaction is an unstable six-carbon phosphorylated intermediate known as 3-keto-2-carboxyarabinitol-1,5-bisphosphate, which decays rapidly into two molecules of glycerate-3-phosphate. The 3-phosphoglycerate can be used to produce larger molecules such as glucose.


title: RuBisCO

text: When molecular oxygen is the substrate, the products of the oxygenase reaction are phosphoglycolate and 3-phosphoglycerate. Phosphoglycolate is recycled through a sequence of reactions called photorespiration, which involves enzymes and cytochromes located in the mitochondria and peroxisomes (this is a case of metabolite repair). In this process, two molecules of phosphoglycolate are converted to one molecule of carbon dioxide and one molecule of 3-phosphoglycerate, which can reenter the Calvin cycle. Some of the phosphoglycolate entering this pathway can be retained by plants to produce other molecules such as glycine. At ambient levels of carbon dioxide and oxygen, the ratio of the reactions is about 4 to 1, which results in a net carbon dioxide fixation of only 3.5. Thus, the inability of the enzyme to prevent the reaction with oxygen greatly reduces the photosynthetic capacity of many plants. Some plants, many algae, and photosynthetic bacteria have overcome this limitation by devising means to increase the concentration of carbon dioxide around the enzyme, including carbon fixation, crassulacean acid metabolism, and the use of pyrenoid.


title: RuBisCO

text: Rubisco side activities can lead to useless or inhibitory by-products. Important inhibitory by-products include xylulose 1,5-bisphosphate and glycero-2,3-pentodiulose 1,5-bisphosphate, both caused by "misfires" halfway in the enolisation-carboxylation reaction. In higher plants, this process causes RuBisCO self-inhibition, which can be triggered by saturating and RuBP concentrations and solved by Rubisco activase.


title: RuBisCO

text: Some enzymes can carry out thousands of chemical reactions each second. However, RuBisCO is slow, fixing only 3-10 carbon dioxide molecules each second per molecule of enzyme. The reaction catalyzed by RuBisCO is, thus, the primary rate-limiting factor of the Calvin cycle during the day. Nevertheless, under most conditions, and when light is not otherwise limiting photosynthesis, the speed of RuBisCO responds positively to increasing carbon dioxide concentration.


title: RuBisCO

text: RuBisCO is usually only active during the day, as ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate is not regenerated in the dark. This is due to the regulation of several other enzymes in the Calvin cycle. In addition, the activity of RuBisCO is coordinated with that of the other enzymes of the Calvin cycle in several other ways:


title: RuBisCO

text: Upon illumination of the chloroplasts, the pH of the stroma rises from 7.0 to 8.0 because of the proton (hydrogen ion, ) gradient created across the thylakoid membrane. The movement of protons into thylakoids is driven by light and is fundamental to ATP synthesis in chloroplasts "(Further reading: Photosynthetic reaction centre; Light-dependent reactions)". To balance ion potential across the membrane, magnesium ions () move out of the thylakoids in response, increasing the concentration of magnesium in the stroma of the chloroplasts. RuBisCO has a high optimal pH (can be >9.0, depending on the magnesium ion concentration) and, thus, becomes "activated" by the introduction of carbon dioxide and magnesium to the active sites as described above.


title: RuBisCO

text: In plants and some algae, another enzyme, RuBisCO activase (Rca, , ), is required to allow the rapid formation of the critical carbamate in the active site of RuBisCO. This is required because ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate (RuBP) binds more strongly to the active sites of RuBisCO when excess carbamate is present, preventing processes form moving forward. In the light, RuBisCO activase promotes the release of the inhibitory (or — in some views — storage) RuBP from the catalytic sites of RuBisCO. Activase is also required in some plants (e.g., tobacco and many beans) because, in darkness, RuBisCO is inhibited (or protected from hydrolysis) by a competitive inhibitor synthesized by these plants, a substrate analog 2-Carboxy-D-arabitinol 1-phosphate (CA1P). CA1P binds tightly to the active site of carbamylated RuBisCO and inhibits catalytic activity to an even greater extent. CA1P has also been shown to keep RuBisCO in a conformation that is protected from proteolysis. In the light, RuBisCO activase also promotes the release of CA1P from the catalytic sites. After the CA1P is released from RuBisCO, it is rapidly converted to a non-inhibitory form by a light-activated CA1P-phosphatase. Even without these strong inhibitors, once every several hundred reactions, the normal reactions with carbon dioxide or oxygen are not completed; other inhibitory substrate analogs are still formed in the active site. Once again, RuBisCO activase can promote the release of these analogs from the catalytic sites and maintain the enzyme in a catalytically active form. However, at high temperatures, RuBisCO activase aggregates and can no longer activate RuBisCO. This contributes to the decreased carboxylating capacity observed during heat stress.


title: RuBisCO

text: The removal of the inhibitory RuBP, CA1P, and the other inhibitory substrate analogs by activase requires the consumption of ATP. This reaction is inhibited by the presence of ADP, and, thus, activase activity depends on the ratio of these compounds in the chloroplast stroma. Furthermore, in most plants, the sensitivity of activase to the ratio of ATP/ADP is modified by the stromal reduction/oxidation (redox) state through another small regulatory protein, thioredoxin. In this manner, the activity of activase and the activation state of RuBisCO can be modulated in response to light intensity and, thus, the rate of formation of the ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate substrate.


title: RuBisCO

text: In cyanobacteria, inorganic phosphate (P) also participates in the co-ordinated regulation of photosynthesis: P binds to the RuBisCO active site and to another site on the large chain where it can influence transitions between activated and less active conformations of the enzyme. In this way, activation of bacterial RuBisCO might be particularly sensitive to P levels, which might cause it to act in a similar way to how RuBisCO activase functions in higher plants.


title: RuBisCO

text: Since carbon dioxide and oxygen compete at the active site of RuBisCO, carbon fixation by RuBisCO can be enhanced by increasing the carbon dioxide level in the compartment containing RuBisCO (chloroplast stroma). Several times during the evolution of plants, mechanisms have evolved for increasing the level of carbon dioxide in the stroma (see carbon fixation). The use of oxygen as a substrate appears to be a puzzling process, since it seems to throw away captured energy. However, it may be a mechanism for preventing carbohydrate overload during periods of high light flux. This weakness in the enzyme is the cause of photorespiration, such that healthy leaves in bright light may have zero net carbon fixation when the ratio of O to available to RuBisCO shifts too far towards oxygen. This phenomenon is primarily temperature-dependent: High temperatures can decrease the concentration of dissolved in the moisture of leaf tissues. This phenomenon is also related to water stress: Since plant leaves are evaporatively cooled, limited water causes high leaf temperatures. plants use the enzyme PEP carboxylase initially, which has a higher affinity for . The process first makes a 4-carbon intermediate compound, which is shuttled into a site of photosynthesis then de-carboxylated, releasing to boost the concentration of , hence the name plants.


title: RuBisCO

text: Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) plants keep their stomata closed during the day, which conserves water but prevents the light-independent reactions (a.k.a. the Calvin Cycle) from taking place, since these reactions require to pass by gas exchange through these openings. Evaporation through the upper side of a leaf is prevented by a layer of wax.


title: RuBisCO

text: Since RuBisCO is often rate-limiting for photosynthesis in plants, it may be possible to improve photosynthetic efficiency by modifying RuBisCO genes in plants to increase catalytic activity and/or decrease oxygenation rates. This could improve biosequestration of and be both an important climate change strategy and a strategy to increase crop yields. Approaches under investigation include transferring RuBisCO genes from one organism into another organism, engineering Rubisco activase from thermophilic cyanobacteria into temperature sensitive plants, increasing the level of expression of RuBisCO subunits, expressing RuBisCO small chains from the chloroplast DNA, and altering RuBisCO genes to increase specificity for carbon dioxide or otherwise increase the rate of carbon fixation.


title: RuBisCO

text: In general, site-directed mutagenesis of RuBisCO has been mostly unsuccessful, though mutated forms of the protein have been achieved in tobacco plants with subunit C species, and a RuBisCO with more C-like kinetic characteristics have been attained in rice via nuclear transformation. Robust and reliable engineering for yield of RuBisCO and other enzymes in the C cycle was shown to be possible, and it was first achieved in 2019 through a synthetic biology approach.


title: RuBisCO

text: One avenue is to introduce RuBisCO variants with naturally high specificity values such as the ones from the red alga "Galdieria partita" into plants. This may improve the photosynthetic efficiency of crop plants, although possible negative impacts have yet to be studied. Advances in this area include the replacement of the tobacco enzyme with that of the purple photosynthetic bacterium "Rhodospirillum rubrum". In 2014, two transplastomic tobacco lines with functional RuBisCO from the cyanobacterium "Synechococcus elongatus" PCC7942 (Se7942) were created by replacing the RuBisCO with the large and small subunit genes of the Se7942 enzyme, in combination with either the corresponding Se7942 assembly chaperone, RbcX, or an internal carboxysomal protein, CcmM35. Both mutants had increased fixation rates when measured as carbon molecules per RuBisCO. However, the mutant plants grew more slowly than wild-type.


title: RuBisCO

text: A recent theory explores the trade-off between the relative specificity (i.e., ability to favour fixation over O incorporation, which leads to the energy-wasteful process of photorespiration) and the rate at which product is formed. The authors conclude that RuBisCO may actually have evolved to reach a point of 'near-perfection' in many plants (with widely varying substrate availabilities and environmental conditions), reaching a compromise between specificity and reaction rate. It has been also suggested that the oxygenase reaction of RuBisCO prevents depletion near its active sites and provides the maintenance of the chloroplast redox state.


title: RuBisCO

text: Since photosynthesis is the single most effective natural regulator of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere, a biochemical model of RuBisCO reaction is used as the core module of climate change models. Thus, a correct model of this reaction is essential to the basic understanding of the relations and interactions of environmental models.


title: RuBisCO

text: There currently are very few effective methods for expressing functional plant Rubisco in bacterial hosts for genetic manipulation studies. This is largely due to Rubisco's requirement of complex cellular machinery for its biogenesis and metabolic maintenance including the nuclear-encoded RbcS subunits, which are typically imported into chloroplasts as unfolded proteins. Furthermore, sufficient expression and interaction with Rubisco activase are major challenges as well. One successful method for expression of Rubisco in E. coli involves the co-expression of multiple chloroplast chaperones, though this has only been shown for "Arabidopsis thaliana" Rubisco.


title: RuBisCO

text: Due to its high abundance in plants (generally 40% of the total protein content), RuBisCO often impedes analysis of important signaling proteins such as transcription factors, kinases, and regulatory proteins found in lower abundance (10-100 molecules per cell) within plants. For example, using mass spectrometry on plant protein mixtures would result in multiple intense RuBisCO subunit peaks that interfere and hide those of other proteins.


title: RuBisCO

text: Recently, one efficient method for precipitating out RuBisCO involves the usage of protamine sulfate solution. Other existing methods for depleting RuBisCO and studying lower abundance proteins include fractionation techniques with calcium and phytate, gel electrophoresis with polyethylene glycol, affinity chromatography, and aggregation using DTT, though these methods are more time-consuming and less efficient when compared to protamine sulfate precipitation.


title: RuBisCO

text: The chloroplast gene "rbcL", which codes for the large subunit of RuBisCO has been widely used as an appropriate locus for analysis of phylogenetics in plant taxonomy.


title: RuBisCO

text: Non-carbon-fixing proteins similar to RuBisCO, termed RuBisCO-like proteins (RLPs), are also found in the wild in organisms as common as "Bacillus subtilis". This bacterium has a rbcL-like protein with a 2,3-diketo-5-methylthiopentyl-1-phosphate enolase function, part of the methionine salvage pathway. Later identifications found functionally divergent examples dispersed all over bacteria and archaea, as well as transitionary enzymes performing both RLP-type enolase and RuBisCO functions. It is now believed that the current RuBisCO evolved from a dimeric RLP ancestor, acquiring its carboxylase function first before further oligomerizing and then recruiting the small subunit to form the familiar modern enzyme. The small subunit probably first evolved in anaerobic and thermophilic organisms, where it enabled RuBisCO to catalyze its reaction at higher temperatures. In addition to its effect on stabilizing catalysis, it enabled the evolution of higher specificities for over O by modulating the effect that substitutions within RuBisCO have on enzymatic function. Substitutions that do not have an effect without the small subunit suddenly become beneficial when it is bound. Furthermore, the small subunit enabled the accumulation of substitutions that are only tolerated in its presence. Accumulation of such substitutions leads to a strict dependence on the small subunit, which is observed in extant Rubiscos that bind a small subunit.


title: RuBisCO

text: With the mass convergent evolution of the C-fixation pathway in a diversity of plant lineages, ancestral C-type RuBisCO evolved to have faster turnover of in exchange for lower specificity as a result of the greater localization of from the mesophyll cells into the bundle sheath cells. This was achieved through enhancement of conformational flexibility of the “open-closed” transition in the Calvin Cycle. Laboratory-based phylogenetic studies have shown that this evolution was constrained by the trade-off between stability and activity brought about by the series of necessary mutations for C RuBisCO. Moreover, in order to sustain the destabilizing mutations, the evolution to C RuBisCO was preceded by a period in which mutations granted the enzyme increased stability, establishing a buffer to sustain and maintain the mutations required for C RuBisCO. To assist with this buffering process, the newly-evolved enzyme was found to have further developed a series of stabilizing mutations. While RuBisCO has always been accumulating new mutations, most of these mutations that have survived have not had significant effects on protein stability. The destabilizing C mutations on RuBisCO has been sustained by environmental pressures such as low concentrations, requiring a sacrifice of stability for new adaptive functions.


title: RuBisCO

text: The term "RuBisCO" was coined humorously in 1979, by David Eisenberg at a seminar honouring the retirement of the early, prominent RuBisCO researcher, Sam Wildman, and also alluded to the snack food trade name "Nabisco" in reference to Wildman's attempts to create an edible protein supplement from tobacco leaves.


title: RuBisCO

text: The capitalization of the name has been long debated. It can be capitalized for each letter of the full name (Ribulose-1,5 bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase), but it has also been argued that is should all be in lower case (rubisco), similar to other terms like scuba or laser.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 () was a Soviet fighter-interceptor used during World War II. It was a development of the MiG-1 by the OKO (opytno-konstruktorskij otdel — Experimental Design Department) of Zavod (Factory) No. 1 in Moscow to remedy problems found during the MiG-1's development and operations. It replaced the MiG-1 on the production line at Factory No. 1 on 20 December 1940 and was built in large numbers during 1941 before Factory No. 1 was converted to build the Ilyushin Il-2.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: On 22 June 1941, at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, some 981 were in service with the Soviet Air Forces (VVS), the Soviet Air Defence Forces (PVO) and Soviet Naval Aviation. The MiG-3 was difficult to fly in peacetime and much more so in combat. Originally designed as a high-altitude fighter-interceptor, combat over the Eastern Front was generally at lower altitudes, where it was inferior to the German Messerschmitt Bf 109 as well as most of its Soviet contemporaries. It was also pressed into service as a fighter-bomber during the autumn of 1941 but it was equally unsuited for this. The losses suffered in combat were very high, in percentage the highest among all the VVS fighters, with 1,432 shot down. The survivors were concentrated in the PVO, where its disadvantages mattered less, the last being withdrawn from service before the end of the war.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: The large number of defects noted during flight testing of the MiG-1 forced Mikoyan and Gurevich to make a number of modifications to the design. Testing was done on a full-size aircraft in the T-1 wind tunnel belonging to the Central Aero and Hydrodynamics Institute (TsAGI) to evaluate the problems and their proposed solutions. The first aircraft to see all of these changes applied was the fourth prototype of the I-200. It first flew on 29 October 1940 and was approved for production after passing its State acceptance trials. The first MiG-3, as the improved aircraft was named on 9 December, was completed on 20 December 1940 and another 20 were delivered by the end of the year.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: State acceptance testing of two production aircraft was conducted between 27 January and 26 February 1941. They were found to be over heavier than the MiG-1, which reduced maneuverability and field performance. Time to decreased by over a minute and the service ceiling proved to be less. The MiG-3 was faster at sea level and at altitude. While the ranges reached by both aircraft were farther than that of the older aircraft, they were still less than the required. Mikoyan and Gurevich protested against the range results as their calculations showed that the MiG-3 could reach based on a specific fuel consumption (SFC) of 0.46 kg/km (1.64 lb/mile). During the State acceptance trials the SFC was 0.48 kg/km (1.71 lb/mile) but the operational trials conducted earlier showed a SFC of 0.38 kg/km (1.35 lb/mile). They blamed the deficiency on a failure to use an altitude correction and that the engines had not been properly adjusted. They went as far as arranging for two more flights between Leningrad and Moscow to prove that the MiG-3 could fly 1,000 km (621 mi). Two production aircraft were flown on ranges of and , flying at 90% of maximum speed and at an altitude of , contradicting the report of the NII VVS ("Naoochno-Issledovatel'skiy Institoot Voyenno-Vozdooshnykh Seel"—Air Force Scientific Test Institute).


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: Despite the teething problems with the MiG-3, in 1941, one of the aircraft's designers—Mikhail Gurevich—was awarded the State Stalin Prize for his contribution to Soviet aviation.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: A number of reports had been received about poor quality aircraft received by the regiments which pointed directly at the NII VVS as it was responsible for monitoring the quality of the aircraft delivered to the VVS. On 31 May 1941 the People's Commissariat of Defense decreed that the NII VVS had been negligent. A number of senior managers were demoted and the head of the Institute, Major General A. I. Filin was summarily executed.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: A number of MiG-3s were found to have unacceptable performance at high altitudes despite having been designed as a high-altitude interceptor. The oxygen supply was often insufficient and the stall and spin characteristics were very dangerous, especially to inexperienced pilots. This was demonstrated on 10 April 1941 when three pilots of the 31st Fighter Regiment of the Air Defenses (IAP PVO) attempted to intercept a German high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft over Kaunas, Lithuania flying at . All three aircraft entered irrecoverable spins and the pilots were forced to bail out, one being killed. The NII VVS sent an engineer to investigate and he found that the pilots had flown very few hours on the MiG-3 and that that was their first high-altitude sortie. Other problems included insufficient fuel and oil pressure at altitude due to problems with the pumps.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: The MiG-3's top speed of at was faster than the of the German Messerschmitt Bf 109F-2 in service at the beginning of 1941 and the British Supermarine Spitfire V's . At lower altitudes the MiG's speed advantage disappeared as its maximum speed at sea level was only while the Bf 109F-2 could do . Unfortunately for the MiG-3 and its pilots, aerial combat over the Eastern Front generally took place at low and medium altitudes where it had no speed advantage.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: The MiG's loaded weight of was greater than the Bf 109F-2's and it was less maneuverable in the horizontal plane than the Bf 109 due to its higher wing loading. This lack of maneuverability was exacerbated by the MiG-3's poor climb performance, its instability at high speeds (which can make aerial gunnery difficult due to the point of aim "wandering" and requiring constant pilot input to remain on target), and its underpowered armament.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: The MiG-3's standard armament was one UBS machine gun and two ShKAS machine guns, all mounted in the engine cowling and synchronized to fire through the propeller arc. In contrast, most versions of the German Messerschmitt Bf 109 that it encountered had one cannon and two machine guns (although the Bf 109F used during Operation Barbarossa had a 15 mm MG 151/15, meaning that it was armed little better than the MiG). To remedy this problem, 821 aircraft were built with one 12.7 mm UBK machine gun in a pod under each wing in mid-1941. This lowered its speed by about at all altitudes, which was unpopular with the pilots, some of whom removed the pods. One hundred aircraft were equipped with a pair of UBS machine guns in lieu of the ShKAS weapons. Another 215 aircraft also had just the UBS machine guns but were fitted to carry six RS-82 rockets. A total of 72 aircraft mounted a pair of 20 mm ShVAK cannon. A wide variety of armaments were experimented with by various units at the requests of their pilots or to make up shortages.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: The NKAP ("Narodnyy komissariat aviatsionnoy promyshlennosti"—People's Commission of the Aircraft Industry) announced its 1941 production plan on 9 December 1940. Zavod Nr. 1 in Moscow-Chodinka would be required to build a total of 3,500 in 1941. Zavod Nr. 43 in Kiev would begin construction of the MiG-3 and complete one hundred aircraft by the end of the year and Zavod Nr. 21 in Gor'kiy would start to plan construction of an upgraded version of the MiG-3, although this last program was canceled shortly afterwards. 140 were delivered in January 1941 and Zavod Nr. 1 was on pace to exceed its quota with 496 delivered in July, 562 in August and 450 in September. In October the German advance on Moscow forced the Zavod Nr. 1, and its OKO, to evacuate to Kuybyshev where production resumed under unsuitable conditions. However, shortly afterwards, Stalin sent a telegram to the directors of the plants building the Ilyushin Il-2 and the MiG-3 demanding more Il-2 production, resulting in MiG-3 production being terminated in favor of the Il-2, with a final thirty aircraft built in 1942 from spares. An additional factor in cancellation of the MiG-3 was that its Mikulin AM-35A engine was closely related to the Il-2's AM-38 allowing production to be quickly switched from one to the other.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: MiG-3 production at Zavod Nr. 1 had already been planned to be reduced from a NKAP order of 27 August that required the factory to produce 420 fighters in September, declining to 100 in December with Il-2 production ramping up to 250 in December while the former aircraft repair plant at Khodynka Aerodrome was to be transferred to the NKAP, redesignated as Zavod Nr. 165, and begin production of MiG-3s. The German advance disrupted these plans for Zavod 165 and it never produced a single MiG-3.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: MiG-3s were delivered to frontline fighter regiments beginning in the spring of 1941 and were a handful for pilots accustomed to the lower-performance and docile Polikarpov I-152 and I-153 biplanes and the Polikarpov I-16 monoplane. It remained tricky and demanding to fly even after the extensive improvements made over the MiG-1. Many fighter regiments had not kept pace in training pilots to handle the MiG and the rapid pace of deliveries resulted in many units having more MiGs than trained pilots during the German invasion. By 1 June 1941, 1,029 MIG-3s were on strength, but there were only 494 trained pilots.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: In contrast to the untrained pilots of the 31st Fighter Regiment, those of the 4th Fighter Regiment were able to claim three German high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft shot down before war broke out in June 1941. However high-altitude combat of this sort was to prove to be uncommon on the Eastern Front where most air-to-air engagements were at altitudes well below . At these altitudes the MiG-3 was outclassed by the Bf 109 in all respects, and even by other new Soviet fighters such as the Yakovlev Yak-1. Furthermore, the shortage of ground-attack aircraft in 1941 forced it into that role as well, for which it was totally unsuited.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: Pilot Alexander E. Shvarev recalled: "The Mig was perfect at altitudes of 4,000 m and above. But at lower altitudes it was, as they say, 'a cow'. That was the first weakness. The second was its armament: weapons failure dogged this aircraft. The third weakness was its gunsights, which were inaccurate: that's why we closed in as much as we could and fired point blank."


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: On 22 June 1941, most MiG-3s and MiG-1s were in the border military districts of the Soviet Union. The Leningrad Military District had 164, 135 were in the Baltic Military District, 233 in the Western Special Military District, 190 in the Kiev Military District and 195 in the Odessa Military District for a total of 917 on hand, of which only 81 were non-operational. An additional 64 MiGs were assigned to Naval Aviation, 38 in the Air Force of the Baltic Fleet and 26 in the Air Force of the Black Sea Fleet.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: The 4th and 55th Fighter Regiments had most of the MiG-3s assigned to the Odessa Military District and their experiences on the first day of the war may be taken as typical. The 4th, an experienced unit, shot down a Romanian Bristol Blenheim reconnaissance bomber, confirmed by postwar research, and lost one aircraft which crashed into an obstacle on takeoff. The 55th was much less experienced with the MiG-3 and claimed three aircraft shot down, although recent research confirms only one German Henschel Hs 126 was 40% damaged, and suffered three pilots killed and nine aircraft lost. The most unusual case was the pair of MiG-3s dispatched from the 55th on a reconnaissance mission to Ploieşti that failed to properly calculate their fuel consumption and both were forced to land when they ran out of fuel.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: Most of the MiG-3s assigned to the interior military districts were transferred to the PVO where their lack of performance at low altitudes was not so important. On 10 July 299 were assigned to the PVO, the bulk of them belonging to the 6th PVO Corps at Moscow, while only 293 remained with the VVS, and 60 with the Naval Air Forces, a total of only 652 despite deliveries of several hundred aircraft. By 1 October, on the eve of the German offensive towards Moscow codenamed Operation Typhoon, only 257 were assigned to VVS units, 209 to the PVO, and 46 to the Navy, a total of only 512, a decrease of 140 fighters since 10 July, despite deliveries of over a thousand aircraft in the intervening period. By 5 December, the start of the Soviet counter-offensive that drove the Germans back from the gates of Moscow, the Navy had 33 MiGs on hand, the VVS 210, and the PVO 309. This was a total of 552, an increase of only 40 aircraft from 1 October.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: Over the winter of 1941–42 the Soviets transferred all of the remaining MiG-3s to the Navy and PVO so that on 1 May 1942 none were left on strength with the VVS. By 1 May 1942, Naval Aviation had 37 MiGs on strength, while the PVO had 323 on hand on 10 May. By 1 June 1944, the Navy had transferred all its aircraft to the PVO, which reported only 17 on its own strength, and all of those were gone by 1 January 1945. Undoubtedly more remained in training units and the like, but none were assigned to combat units by then.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: Even with the MiG-3's limitations, Aleksandr Pokryshkin, the third-leading Soviet, and Allied, ace of the war, with 53 official air victories (plus six shared), recorded a number of those victories while flying a MiG-3 at the beginning of the war. He later recalled:


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: “Its designers rarely succeeded in matching both the fighter's flight characteristics with its firepower… the operational advantage of the MiG-3 seemed to be obscured by its certain defects. However, these advantages could undoubtedly be exploited by a pilot able to discover them”.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: There were several attempts to re-engine the aircraft with the engine it was originally designed for, the Mikulin AM-37. This was designated the MiG-7, and one MiG-3 was converted to evaluate the engine in May 1941. It proved to have poor longitudinal stability and the powerplant itself still had a number of problems. The German invasion the following month caused the cancellation of the development of the AM-37 as Mikulin's resources were required for the AM-35 and AM-38 engines already in production.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: To improve the low-level performance of the MiG-3, one aircraft was tested with the AM-38 engine used by the Il-2 in July 1941. It proved to be faster than the normal MiG-3 at sea level and was more maneuverable as well. It was recommended for production after passing its State acceptance trials in September, provided that a cure for the engine's tendency to overheat in ambient temperatures above was found. However the sole prototype was shot down on 5 October during flight tests and it was decided not to proceed with the idea as all AM-38 production was allocated to the Il-2. Ironically, later in the war, about 80 MiG-3s were reengined with AM-38s to make them airworthy again. Many of these were rearmed with two 20 mm ShVAK cannon as well.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: On 13 May 1941 the NKAP ordered the OKO to convert a MiG-3 to use the Shvetsov ASh-82A radial engine then entering production. The resulting aircraft had a variety of names, including I-210, MiG-3-82, Samolyot IKh or Izdeliye 65. The design was a failure, but was promising enough to continue the program as the I-211.


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: A variety of other tests and other projects were conducted using MiG-3s. Leading edge slats were evaluated in 1941 although they were not fitted on production aircraft, but were used by the I-210. A six-bladed propeller was fitted on one aircraft to increase thrust at high altitude to enable the fighter to catch the high-flying Junkers Ju 86P aircraft then overflying Moscow. A new propeller hub was made that mounted six standard VISh-61 blades, but nothing more is known of the project. Four aircraft were converted to carry AFA-I cameras for evaluation and a fifth was then converted to evaluate all the improvements learned from the first four. It was approved for use after trials at the NII VVS. To improve their service ceiling two aircraft were lightened down to a weight of , but no further details are known other than one reached a height of .


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: There was also a proposal in 1941 to use the MiG-3 as part of a Zveno combination with a Petlyakov Pe-8 mother ship. The four-engined bomber would carry two MiG-3SPB ("Skorostnoy Pikeeruyushchiy Bombardirovshchik"—Fast Dive Bomber) fighters, modified to carry a FAB-250 bomb under each wing, close to the target and would then release them to conduct the attack after which they would fly back to the nearest friendly airbase. Some preliminary work was done before the Germans invaded, but it was abandoned afterwards due to the pressure of other work. The combination was estimated to have a maximum speed of and a range of .


title: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

text: The Russian company Aviarestoration has rebuilt three MiG-3s. They all use Allison V-12 engines. One is in the US in the Military Aviation Museum of Pungo, Virginia and another, rebuilt from a MiG-3 shot down in 1942, first flew again around the start of 2010. It will remain in Russia.


title: 2019–20 FC Bayern Munich season

text: The 2019–20 FC Bayern Munich season was the 121st season in the football club's history and 55th consecutive and overall season in the top flight of German football, the Bundesliga, having been promoted from the Regionalliga in 1965. Bayern Munich also participated in this season's edition of the domestic cup, the DFB-Pokal, and the premier continental cup competition, the UEFA Champions League. As a result of winning the prior season's Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal, they also participated in this season's German super cup, the DFL-Supercup.


title: 2019–20 FC Bayern Munich season

text: This was the 15th season for Bayern in the Allianz Arena, located in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Bayern Munich became only the second European club to win the continental treble twice and ended the season undefeated in 30 consecutive matches in all competitions with 29 wins (including a record-breaking 8–2 Champions League victory against Barcelona) and one draw.


title: 2019–20 FC Bayern Munich season

text: As a result of winning this season's Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal, they qualified for next season's DFL-Supercup, which they went on to win. Additionally, as a result of winning this season's UEFA Champions League, they qualified for both the UEFA Super Cup as well as the FIFA Club World Cup for next season and went on to win both of those competitions as well. Collectively, winning all six competitions available in the 2020 calendar year, namely the 2019-2020 season's Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal, and UEFA Champions League followed by the 2020-2021 season's DFL-Supercup, UEFA Super Cup, and FIFA Club World Cup was a feat known as the "sextuple" and this was one of only two times the feat had been accomplished in the history of European football.


title: 2019–20 FC Bayern Munich season

text: The season was the first since 2006–07 without Franck Ribéry, who departed for Fiorentina in the summer, and the first since 2008–09 without Dutchman Arjen Robben, who initially retired after the 2018–19 season.


title: Sinner's prayer

text: The Sinner's prayer (also called the Consecration prayer and Salvation prayer) is an evangelical Christian term referring to any prayer of repentance, prayed by individuals who feel convinced of the presence of sin in their lives and have the desire to form or renew a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It is a popular prayer in evangelical circles. It is not intended as liturgical like a creed or a confiteor said or chanted within the Catholic Mass, but rather, is intended to be an act of "initial" conversion to Christianity; at the same time, it is roughly analogous to the Catholic Act of Contrition, though the theology behind each is markedly different, due to the intrinsically different views of salvation between Catholicism and Protestantism. While some Christians see reciting the sinner's prayer as the moment defining one's salvation, others see it as a beginning step of one's lifelong faith journey.


title: Sinner's prayer

text: It also may be prayed as an act of "re-commitment" for those who are already believers in the faith. Often, at the end of a worship service, in what is known as an altar call, a minister or other worship leader will invite those desiring to receive Christ (thus becoming born again) to repeat with him or her the words of some form of a sinner's prayer. It also is frequently found on printed gospel tracts, urging people to "repeat these words from the bottom of your heart".


title: Sinner's prayer

text: The Sinner's prayer takes various forms, all of which have the same general thrust. Since it is considered a matter of one's personal will, it can be prayed silently, aloud, read from a suggested model, or repeated after someone modeling the prayer role. There is no formula of specific words considered essential, although it usually contains an admission of sin and a petition asking that Jesus enter into the person's heart (that is to say, the center of their life). The use of the sinner's prayer is common within some Protestant denominations, such as Baptist Churches and Methodist Churches, as well as in movements that span several denominations, including evangelical, fundamentalist, and charismatic Christianity. It has also been used, though not as widely, by some Anglicans, Lutherans, and Roman Catholics. It is sometimes uttered by Christians seeking redemption or reaffirming their faith in Christ during a crisis or disaster, when death may be imminent.


title: Sinner's prayer

text: Because no such prayer or conversion is found in the Bible, some biblical scholars have critiqued the sinner's prayer, calling it a "cataract of nonsense" and an "apostasy". David Platt has raised questions over the authenticity of the conversions of people using the Sinner's prayer based on research by George Barna.


title: Sinner's prayer

text: The Sinner's prayer, as popularly known today, has roots in Protestant Christianity. Some affirm that it evolved, in some form or another, during the early days of the Protestant Reformation, as a reaction against the notion of justification by means of meritorious works. Others believe it originated as late as the 18th century revival movement. However, Paul Harrison Chitwood, in his doctoral dissertation on the history of the Sinner's prayer, provides strong evidence that the Sinner's prayer originated in the early 20th century.


title: Sinner's prayer

text: Evangelists such as Billy Graham and evangelistic organizations such as Campus Crusade for Christ brought the concept to prominence in the 20th century. Televangelists often ask viewers to pray a Sinner's prayer with them, one phrase at a time, to become a Christian. Quite commonly, such a prayer appears at the conclusion of a tract and is recited in a religious service or other public service as an invitation for congregants to affirm their faith, sometimes as part of an altar call. It is said to happen many times every day around the world—in one-to-one conversations between friends, relatives, and even strangers; in pastors' offices; via email; in online chat rooms; in addition to both small and large worship services.


title: Sinner's prayer

text: An early version of what some would consider the Sinner's prayer is found in "Pilgrim's Progress" by John Bunyan, published in 1678, Ninth Stage, Chapter 18:


title: Sinner's prayer

text: The Peace with God organization, and other evangelistic organizations and preachers, messengers (delegates) to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) 2012 annual meeting reaffirmed the Sinner's prayer after some debate:


title: Sinner's prayer

text: The absence of any specific examples of people praying the Sinner's prayer in the Bible is also used by some to argue against it. There are also no examples of conversions in the Bible with people praying such a prayer. Though a more prominent concern is voiced by these authors mentioned below who say it creates within the sinner a false sense of security.


title: Sinner's prayer

text: David Platt, a prominent Southern Baptist pastor in Birmingham, Alabama, has said that "Many assume they are saved simply because of a prayer they prayed. It's not that praying a prayer in and of itself is bad—but the question in John 2-3 is what kind of faith are we calling people to?" Speaking at "The Verge Church" leaders' conference said the emphasis on the Sinner's prayer is "unbiblical and damning." He continued,


title: Sinner's prayer

text: Platt says he is concerned that some people "say they believe in Jesus, …say they have accepted Jesus, …say that they have received Jesus, but they are not saved and will not enter the kingdom of heaven". While he affirmed that people calling out to God with repentant faith is fundamental to attaining eternal life (salvation), he said his comments about the "sinner's prayer" have been deeply motivated "by a concern for authentic conversions".


title: Sinner's prayer

text: Francis Chan, a well-known evangelical Christian, has been making statements that contradict the Sinner's prayer and emphasizing baptism and the Holy Spirit


title: Sinner's prayer

text: A second and related criticism is that many believers fail to mature as Christians after their supposed conversion using the Sinner's prayer. An article in "Christianity Today" claims that "mediocrity and hypocrisy characterize the lives of many avowed Christians".


title: Sinner's prayer

text: The writer encourages believers to go beyond a Sinner's prayer and "embark on a life fully devoted to the love of God, the love of neighbor, the moral practice of God's will, and radical, costly discipleship". "Love of God" and "Love of neighbor" are the Great Commandments (see also Disciple (Christianity)).


title: Sinner's prayer

text: Another criticism of the Sinner's prayer is that passages used to support it actually are not about the lost repeating a prayer in order to become Christians. The Sinner's prayer is often employed in conjunction with Revelation 3:20 and Romans 10:9-10, 13. Revelation 3:20 is employed to teach that Christ is knocking at the door of one's heart, and when a lost person asks him to come inside, Jesus comes into the sinner's heart. Romans 10:9-10, 13 are employed to affirm that one must confess with his mouth, that is, say the Sinner's prayer, in order to become a Christian. However, the Baptist Greek professor Thomas Ross argues that Revelation 3:20 is about members of a church turning to the Lord, not about Christ entering into the heart of the lost. He provides 14 reasons that Revelation 3:20 is not about the lost asking Jesus into their hearts to become saved. He similarly argues that Romans 10:9-14 refers to Christians confessing Christ publicly before men and manifesting a life of prayer, rather than to the lost becoming saved by a one-time repetition of the Sinner's prayer.


title: Sinner's prayer

text: Another form of this criticism of the Sinner's prayer states that simply praying the Sinner's prayer does not actually grant salvation to the one praying. One essay on the topic from the "Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry" asserts that "The 'Sinner's Prayer' is, today, an effective tool of Satan to dupe people into believing they are saved when they are not".


title: Sinner's prayer

text: Other opponents of the Sinner's prayer point out that no classic Christian confession of faith from any evangelical denomination in Christendom affirms that one must say the Sinner's prayer to be saved; on the contrary, Baptist, Presbyterian and other Reformed, and other evangelical groups unanimously teach justification by faith alone. They argue that the Sinner's prayer is a modern deviation from orthodox evangelicalism and a deviation from classic evangelical methods of evangelism. The Sinner's prayer was not practiced before the 1700s. Therefore, to say that it is the way to be saved is to say that prior to the 1700s no-one was saved.


title: Sinner's prayer

text: Baptismal regenerationalists—those Christians who believe that when one is baptized in water is the actual moment that an individual receives salvation—include Roman Catholics, Lutherans, some Anglicans, the Churches of Christ, International Churches of Christ, Christian churches and churches of Christ, and the United Pentecostal Church International. This is based on passages in the New Testament that some interpret to require water baptism for salvation. Examples of these may be found in , , , , .


title: Sinner's prayer

text: In what is termed the Great Commission of Jesus just prior to his Ascension in , he instructed his followers to go, make disciples, teach them, and baptize them. Jesus was baptized in water by John the Baptist. His disciples baptized converts, and Jesus personally baptized people, according to John 3:22 which says that "Jesus...spent some time with [the disciples], and baptized." This is not in opposition to John 4:1 which says that "Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples" did. Throughout the gospels we see Jesus teaching and training the disciples to be powerful and effective at converting people. He showed them how in John 3, and by John 4 they were able to baptize on their own. Opponents of baptismal regeneration understand baptism to be a means of identifying with Christ, and that when performed by immersion it is symbolic of his death, burial and resurrection. Some dispensationalists believe the baptism that saves a person is the Baptism with the Holy Spirit that Jesus gives, and not water baptism, (1 Peter 3:21). Many other evangelicals and fundamentalists recognize that texts such as Mark 16:16, John 3:5, and Acts 2:38 refer to baptism in water, but argue that such verses, interpreted in their context, provide no support whatsoever for baptismal regeneration. Historic or Landmark Baptists affirm that the baptism with the Holy Spirit was a completed event that took place in the first century and is not for today, arguing that texts employed to support baptismal regeneration are actually totally consistent with justification by faith alone,(James 2:18-26).


title: Sinner's prayer

text: Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Orthodox churches also teach that forgiveness is received in baptism (although they practice this in the "Christening" with water of infants or adult converts). A leading Roman Catholic authority defines "baptism" in the following fashion:


title: Sinner's prayer

text: Evidence presented to advocate baptism being necessary for salvation includes the conversion of Saul of Tarsus (the Apostle Paul). After Christ had told Saul to enter Damascus where Saul would be told what he "must" do, Saul was blind for three days and was praying during this time. Ananias arrived, cured Paul of his blindness and baptized Saul.


title: Sinner's prayer

text: Others see it as an example of apparently instantaneous salvation coming through repentance without water baptism or any kind of work, citing the assurance Jesus gave to the penitent thief on a cross next to him during the crucifixion.


title: Sinner's prayer

text: An opposing position here is that the penitent thief was dying under the older Mosaic law which did not require baptism (cf. Mikveh) and that before Christ's death He had authority and did forgive many without any of the salvation requirements found after His Death, Burial and Resurrection found in the rest of the New Testament. Additionally, it is unknown whether the thief had been baptized at a stage in life before being crucified. John the Baptist and Jesus' disciples already had baptized many individuals.


title: Sinner's prayer

text: Baptismal regenerationists refer to water baptism as the "washing of regeneration", (1 Cor 6:11/John 3:5) believing it to be part of the "born again" conversion experience in the Bible. The passage states, "And now why tarriest thou? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord". Opponents of baptismal regeneration argue that vast numbers of texts in John's Gospel, the only specifically evangelistic book of the New Testament (John 20:31), promise eternal life to every single believer (John 1:12; 3:16, 18, 36; 5:24; 6:47, etc.) and so demonstrate that eternal life is received by faith alone before baptism. Similarly, while texts affirm that those who do not repent and believe are damned (Luke 13:3; Jn 3:18, 36), The Bible also shows in Biblical text that the unbaptized are damned, (Mark 16:16/Revelation 22:14 ESV). So baptismal regeneration is Bible-based. Advocates of the Sinner's Prayer also believe verses such as Romans 10:13 show that people are saved before baptism when they pray and ask to be saved, while evangelical and fundamentalist opponents of the Sinner's Prayer believe that a defense of the Sinner's Prayer plays into the hands of opponents of justification by faith alone by enshrining a human tradition over the Biblical mandate to repent and believe to receive eternal life (Mr 1:15). Moreover, opponents of the Sinner's Prayer reference Romans 6:3-5 to assert that the audience of the book of Romans was already baptized, and, therefore, were being instructed to call on the name of the Lord after they had heard and believed the message being preached (Acts 10:14-17). Other verses such as Acts 22:16 suggest that baptism and "calling on His name" are complementary actions required for forgiveness of sins.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: Prajñāpāramitā () means "the Perfection of Wisdom" or "Transcendental Knowledge" in Mahāyāna and Theravāda Buddhism. Prajñāpāramitā refers to a perfected way of seeing the nature of reality, as well as to a particular body of Mahāyāna scriptures (sūtras) which discusses this wisdom. It also refers to the female deity Prajñāpāramitā Devi, a personification of wisdom also known as the "Great Mother" (Tibetan: "Yum Chenmo").


title: Prajnaparamita

text: The word "Prajñāpāramitā" combines the Sanskrit words "prajñā" "wisdom" (or "knowledge") with "pāramitā" "perfection" or "transcendent". Prajñāpāramitā is a central concept in Mahāyāna Buddhism and is generally associated with ideas such as emptiness ("śūnyatā"), 'lack of svabhāva' (essence), the illusory ("māyā") nature of things, how all phenomena are characterized by "non-arising" ("anutpāda", i.e. unborn) and the madhyamaka thought of Nāgārjuna. Its practice and understanding are taken to be indispensable elements of the Bodhisattva path.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: According to Edward Conze, the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras are "a collection of about forty texts ... composed somewhere on the Indian subcontinent between approximately 100 BC and AD 600." Some Prajnāpāramitā sūtras are thought to be among the earliest Mahāyāna sūtras.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: Western scholars have traditionally considered the earliest sūtra in the Prajñāpāramitā class to be the "Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra" or "Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines", which was probably put in writing in the 1st century BCE. This chronology is based on the views of Edward Conze, who largely considered dates of translation into other languages. This text also has a corresponding version in verse format, called the "", which some believe to be slightly older because it is not written in standard literary Sanskrit. However, these findings rely on late-dating Indian texts, in which verses and mantras are often kept in more archaic forms.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: According to Edward Conze, the PP literature developed in nine stages: (1) An urtext similar to the first two chapters of the Sanskrit "Ratnagunasaṃcaya Gāthā;" (2) Chapters 3 to 28 of the "Ratnagunasaṃcaya" are composed, along with the prose of the "Aṣṭasāhasrikā". This base text was further expanded with (3) material from the "Abhidharma", and (4) concessions to the "Buddhism of Faith" (referring to Pure Land references in the sūtra). This process led to (5) further expansion into larger PP sūtras as well as (6) contraction into the shorter sūtras (i.e. Diamond Sūtra, Heart Sūtra, down to the "Prajñāpāramitā in One Letter"). This expanded corpus formed the basis for the (7) Indian PP Commentaries, (8) Tantric PP works and (9) Chinese Chan texts. Jan Nattier also defends the view that the "Aṣṭasāhasrikā" developed as various layers were added over time. However, Matthew Orsborn has recently argued, based on the chiastic structures of the text that the entire "sūtra" may have been composed as a single whole (with a few additions added on the core chapters).


title: Prajnaparamita

text: A number of scholars have proposed that the Mahāyāna Prajñāpāramitā teachings were first developed by the Caitika subsect of the Mahāsāṃghikas. They believe that the "Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra" originated amongst the southern Mahāsāṃghika schools of the Āndhra region, along the Kṛṣṇa River. These Mahāsāṃghikas had two famous monasteries near Amarāvati Stupa and Dhānyakataka, which gave their names to the Pūrvaśaila and Aparaśaila schools. Each of these schools had a copy of the "Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra" in Prakrit. Guang Xing also assesses the view of the Buddha given in the "Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra" as being that of the Mahāsāṃghikas. Edward Conze estimates that this sūtra originated around 100 BCE.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: In 2012, Harry Falk and Seishi Karashima published a damaged and partial Kharoṣṭhī manuscript of the "Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā". It is radiocarbon dated to ca. 75 CE, making it one of the oldest Buddhist texts in existence. It is very similar to the first Chinese translation of the "Aṣṭasāhasrikā" by Lokakṣema (ca. 179 CE) whose source text is assumed to be in the Gāndhārī language; Lokakṣema's translation is also the first extant translation of the Prajñāpāramitā genre into a non-Indic language. Comparison with the standard Sanskrit text shows that it is also likely to be a translation from Gāndhāri as it expands on many phrases and provides glosses for words that are not present in the Gāndhārī. This points to the text being composed in Gāndhārī, the language of Gandhara (the region now called the Northwest Frontier of Pakistan, including Peshawar, Taxila and Swat Valley). The "Split" manuscript is evidently a copy of an earlier text, confirming that the text may date before the 1st century CE.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: In contrast to western scholarship, Japanese scholars have traditionally considered the "Diamond Sūtra" ("Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra") to be from a very early date in the development of Prajñāpāramitā literature. The usual reason for this relative chronology which places the "Vajracchedikā" earlier is not its date of translation, but rather a comparison of the contents and themes. Some western scholars also believe that the "Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra" was adapted from the earlier "Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra".


title: Prajnaparamita

text: Examining the language and phrases used in both the "Aṣṭasāhasrikā" and the "Vajracchedikā", Gregory Schopen also sees the "Vajracchedikā" as being earlier than the "Aṣṭasāhasrikā". This view is taken in part by examining parallels between the two works, in which the "Aṣṭasāhasrikā" seems to represent the later or more developed position. According to Schopen, these works also show a shift in emphasis from an oral tradition ("Vajracchedikā") to a written tradition ("Aṣṭasāhasrikā").


title: Prajnaparamita

text: The "Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā prajñāpāramitā" "Sūtra" (T. "Shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag nyi shu lnga pa"; C. "Mohe bore boluomi jing", 摩訶般若波羅蜜經) is one of the largest PP sutras, comprising three volumes of the Tibetan Kangyur (26-28). It was also one of the most important and popular PP sutras in India, seeing as how there are numerous Indian commentaries on this text, including commentaries by Vimuktisena, Haribhadra, Smṛtijñānakīrti, and Ratnakarashanti. The sutra also survives in the original Sanskrit, which was found in Gilgit. It also exists in four Chinese translations.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: According to Nattier, the "Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā" is basically the "Aṣṭasāhasrikā" base text which has been "sliced" up and filled with other material, increasing the length of the text considerably. This process of expansion continued, culminating in the massive "Śatasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra" (100,000 lines), the largest of the PP sutras.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: According to Joseph Walser, there is evidence that the "Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra" (25,000 lines) and the "Śatasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra" (100,000 lines) have a connection with the Dharmaguptaka sect, while the "Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra" (8,000 lines) does not.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: Other PP texts were also composed which were much shorter and had a more independent structure from the "Aṣṭasāhasrikā." Regarding the shorter PP texts, Conze writes, "two of these, the "Diamond Sūtra" and the "Heart Sūtra" are in a class by themselves and deservedly renowned throughout the world of Northern Buddhism. Both have been translated into many languages and have often been commented upon.". Jan Nattier argues the Heart Sutra to be an apocryphal text composed in China from extracts of the "Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā" and other texts c. 7th century. Red Pine, however, does not support Nattiers argument and believes the Heart Sutra to be of Indian origin.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: After the rise of Vajrayana Buddhism, Tāntric Prajñāpāramitā texts were produced from the year 500 CE on and include sutras such as the Adhyardhaśatikā Prajñāpāramitā (150 lines). Additionally, Prajñāpāramitā terma teachings are held by some Tibetan Buddhists to have been conferred upon Nāgārjuna by the Nāgarāja "King of the Nāgas", who had been guarding them at the bottom of the sea.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: By the middle of the 3rd century CE, it appears that some Prajñāpāramitā texts were known in Central Asia, as reported by the Chinese monk Zhu Shixing, who brought back a manuscript of the "Prajñāpāramitā" of 25,000 lines:


title: Prajnaparamita

text: In China, there was extensive translation of many Prajñāpāramitā texts beginning in the second century CE. The main translators include: Lokakṣema (支婁迦讖), Zhī Qīan (支謙), Dharmarakṣa (竺法護), Mokṣala (無叉羅), Kumārajīva (鳩摩羅什, 408 CE), Xuánzàng (玄奘), Făxián (法賢) and Dānapāla (施護). These translations were very influential in the development of East Asian Mādhyamaka and on Chinese Buddhism.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: Xuanzang (fl. c. 602–664) was a Chinese scholar who traveled to India and returned to China with three copies of the "Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra" which he had secured from his extensive travels. Xuanzang, with a team of disciple translators, commenced translating the voluminous work in 660 CE using the three versions to ensure the integrity of the source documentation. Xuanzang was being encouraged by a number of the disciple translators to render an abridged version. After a suite of dreams quickened his decision, Xuanzang determined to render an unabridged, complete volume, faithful to the original of 600 fascicles.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: An important PP text in East Asian Buddhism is the "Dazhidulun" (大智度論, T no. 1509), a massive commentary on the "Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā" translated by Kumārajīva (344–413 CE). There are also later commentaries from Zen Buddhists on the Heart and Diamond sutra and Kūkai's commentary (9th century) is the first-known Tantric commentary.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: The PP sutras were first brought to Tibet in the reign of Trisong Detsen (742-796) by scholars Jinamitra and Silendrabodhi and the translator Ye shes sDe. Tibetan Buddhist scholasticism generally studies the PP sutras through the "Abhisamayālaṅkāra" and its numerous commentaries. The focus on the "Abhisamayālaṅkāra" is particularly pronounced in the Gelug school, who according to Georges Dreyfus "take the "Ornament" as the central text for the study of the path" and "treat it as a kind of Buddhist encyclopedia, read in the light of commentaries by Je Dzong-ka-ba, Gyel-tsap Je, and the authors of manuals [monastic textbooks]."


title: Prajnaparamita

text: An Indian commentary on the "Mahāyānasaṃgraha", entitled "Vivṛtaguhyārthapiṇḍavyākhyā" ("A Condensed Explanation of the Revealed Secred Meaning," Derge No. 4052), lists eight Prajñāpāramitā sūtras which were "taught to bodhisattvas" and are seen as superior (from the Sravakayana sutras) because they are superior "in eliminating conceptually imaged forms".


title: Prajnaparamita

text: The Chinese scholar and translator Xuánzăng (玄奘, 602-664) is known for his translation of a massive Sanskrit collection of Prajñāpāramitā sutras called "the Xuánzàng Prajñāpāramitā Library" or "The Great Prajñāpāramitāsūtra" (般若 波羅蜜 多 經, pinyin: "bōrě bōluómì duō jīng"). Xuánzăng returned to China with three copies of this Sanskrit work which he obtained in South India and his translation is said to have been based on these three sources. In total it includes 600 scrolls, with 5 million Chinese characters.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the "Abhisamayālaṅkāra" is traditionally said to be a commentary to seventeen Prajñāpāramitā (PP) source texts. These are seen as the most important PP sutras and they collectively known as the "Seventeen Mothers and Sons" (Wyl. "yum sras bcu bdun").


title: Prajnaparamita

text: In the Prajñāpāramitā section of the Kangyur, there are also other Prajñāpāramitā sutras besides the seventeen Mothers and Sons:


title: Prajnaparamita

text: There are various Indian and later Chinese commentaries on the Prajñāpāramitā sutras, some of the most influential commentaries include:


title: Prajnaparamita

text: A key theme of the Prajñāpāramitā sutras is the figure of the Bodhisattva (literally: awakening-being) which is defined in the 8,000-line Prajñāpāramitā sutra as:


title: Prajnaparamita

text: A Bodhisattva is then a being that experiences everything "without attachment" ("asakti") and sees reality or suchness ("Tathātā") as it is. The Bodhisattva is the main ideal in Mahayana (Great Vehicle), which sees the goal of the Buddhist path as becoming a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings, not just yourself:


title: Prajnaparamita

text: A central quality of the Bodhisattva is their practice of Prajñāpāramitā, a most deep ("gambhīra") state of knowledge which is an understanding of reality arising from analysis as well as meditative insight. It is non-conceptual and non-dual ("advaya") as well as transcendental. Literally, the term could be translated as "knowledge gone to the other (shore)", or transcendental knowledge. The Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra says:


title: Prajnaparamita

text: A further passage in the 8,000-line Prajñāpāramitā sutra states that Prajñāpāramitā means that a Bodhisattva stands in emptiness (shunyata) by not standing ("√sthā") or supporting themselves on any dharma (phenomena), whether conditioned or unconditioned. The dharmas that a Bodhisattva does "not stand" on include standard listings such as: the five aggregates, the sense fields (ayatana), nirvana, Buddhahood, etc. This is explained by stating that Bodhisattvas "wander without a home" ("aniketacārī"); "home" or "abode" meaning signs ("nimitta", meaning a subjective mental impression) of sensory objects and the afflictions that arise dependent on them. This includes the absence, the "not taking up" ("aparigṛhīta") of even "correct" mental signs and perceptions such as "form is not self", "I practice Prajñāpāramitā", etc. To be freed of all constructions and signs, to be signless ("animitta") is to be empty of them and this is to stand in Prajñāpāramitā. The Prajñāpāramitā sutras state that all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the past have practiced Prajñāpāramitā. Prajñāpāramitā is also associated with "Sarvajñata" (all-knowledge) in the Prajñāpāramitā sutras, a quality of the mind of a Buddha which knows the nature of all dharmas.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: According to Karl Brunnholzl, Prajñāpāramitā means that "all phenomena from form up through omniscience being utterly devoid of any intrinsic characteristics or nature of their own." Furthermore, "such omniscient wisdom is always nonconceptual and free from reference points since it is the constant and panoramic awareness of the nature of all phenomena and does not involve any shift between meditative equipoise and subsequent attainment."


title: Prajnaparamita

text: The Prajñāpāramitā sutras also teach of the importance of the other pāramitās (perfections) for the Bodhisattva such as Ksanti (patience): "Without resort to this patience (kṣānti) they [bodhisattvas] cannot reach their respective goals".


title: Prajnaparamita

text: Another quality of the Bodhisattva is their freedom from fear ("na √tras") in the face of the seemingly shocking doctrine of the emptiness of all dharmas which includes their own existence. A good friend ("kalyanamitra") is useful in the path to fearlessness. Bodhisattvas also have no pride or self-conception ("na manyeta") of their own stature as Bodhisattvas. These are important features of the mind of a bodhisattva, called bodhicitta. The Prajñāpāramitā sutras also mention that bodhicitta is a middle way, it is neither apprehended as existent ("astitā") or non-existent ("nāstitā") and it is "immutable" ("avikāra") and "free from conceptualization" ("avikalpa").


title: Prajnaparamita

text: The Bodhisattva is said to generate "great compassion" ("maha-karuṇā") for all beings on their path to liberation and yet also maintain a sense of equanimity (upekṣā) and distance from them through their understanding of emptiness, due to which, the Bodhisattva knows that even after bringing countless beings to nirvana, "no living being whatsoever has been brought to nirvana." Bodhisattvas and Mahāsattvas are also willing to give up all of their meritorious deeds for sentient beings and develop skillful means (upaya) in order to help abandon false views and teach them the Dharma. The practice of Prajñāpāramitā allows a Bodhisattva to become:


title: Prajnaparamita

text: "a saviour of the helpless, a defender of the defenceless, a refuge to those without refuge, a place to rest to those without resting place, the final relief of those who are without it, an island to those without one, a light to the blind, a guide to the guideless, a resort to those without one and...guide to the path those who have lost it, and you shall become a support to those who are without support."


title: Prajnaparamita

text: "Tathātā" (Suchness or Thusness) and the related term "Dharmatā" (the nature of Dharma), and Tathāgata are also important terms of the Prajñāpāramitā texts. To practice Prajñāpāramitā means to practice in accord with 'the nature of Dharma' and to see the Tathāgata (i.e. the Buddha). As the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra states, these terms are generally used equivalently: "As the suchness ("tathatā") of dharmas is immovable ("acalitā"), and the suchness ("tathatā") of dharmas is the "Tathāgata"." The Tathāgata is said in the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra to "neither come nor go". Furthermore, the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra includes a list of synonyms associated with Tathāgata as also being "beyond coming and going", these include: 1. Suchness ("tathatā"); 2. Unarisen ("anutpāda"); 3. Reality limit ("bhūtakoṭi"); 4. Emptiness ("Śūnyatā"); 5. Division ("yathāvatta"); 6. Detachment ("virāga"); 7. Cessation ("nirodha"); 8. Space element ("ākāśadhātu"). The sutra then states:


title: Prajnaparamita

text: Apart from these dharmas, there is no Tathāgata. The suchness of these dharmas, and the suchness of the Tathāgatas, is all one single suchness ("ekaivaiṣā tathatā"), not two, not divided ("dvaidhīkāraḥ"). ... beyond all classification ("gaṇanāvyativṛttā"), due to non-existence ("asattvāt").


title: Prajnaparamita

text: Suchness then does not come or go because like the other terms, it is not a real entity ("bhūta", "svabhāva"), but merely appears conceptually through dependent origination, like a dream or an illusion.


title: Prajnaparamita

text: Edward Conze lists six ways in which the ontological status of dharmas is considered by the Prajñāpāramitā: