title: Confucius Institute

text: The CI's soft power goals are seen as an attempt by the PRC to modernize away from Soviet-influenced propaganda of the Maoist era. Other initiatives include Chinese contemporary art exhibitions, television programs, concerts by popular singers, translations of Chinese literature, and the expansion of state-run news channels such as Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television.


title: Confucius Institute

text: The Hanban website stated that Chinese language instructors should be "aged between 22 to 60, physical and mental healthy, no record of participation in Falun Gong and other illegal organizations, and no criminal record."


title: Confucius Institute

text: Human rights lawyer Clive Ansley has argued that the part of the hiring policy that discriminates against Falun Gong believers is in contravention of anti-discrimination laws and human rights codes. Marci Hamilton, Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at Yeshiva University, called this policy "unethical and illegal in the free world."


title: Confucius Institute

text: In 2013, McMaster University in Canada closed its Confucius Institute due to hiring issues over Falun Gong.


title: Omaha hold 'em

text: Omaha hold 'em (also known as Omaha holdem or simply Omaha) is a community card poker game similar to Texas hold 'em, where each player is dealt four cards and must make their best hand using exactly two of them, plus exactly three of the five community cards. The exact origin of the game is unknown, but casino executive Robert Turner first brought Omaha into a casino setting when he introduced the game to Bill Boyd, who offered it as a game at the Las Vegas Golden Nugget Casino (calling it "Nugget Hold'em"). Omaha uses a 52-card French deck. Omaha hold 'em 8-or-better is the "O" game featured in H.O.R.S.E.


title: Omaha hold 'em

text: "Hold'em" refers to a game using community cards that are shared by all players. This is opposed to draw games, where each player's hand is composed only of concealed cards, and stud games, where each player's unique hand contains a mix of cards visible to the other players and concealed hole cards.


title: Omaha hold 'em

text: In the original Omaha poker game, players were only dealt two hole cards and had to use both to make a hand combined with community cards. This version of Omaha is defined in the glossary of "Super/System" (under Omaha) as being interchangeable with "Tight hold 'em". Across all the variations of the game, the requirement of using exactly two hole cards is the only consistent rule. The "Omaha" part of the name represents this aspect of the game.


title: Omaha hold 'em

text: In North American casinos, the term "Omaha" can refer to several poker games. The original game is also commonly known as "Omaha high". A high-low split version called "Omaha Hi-Lo", or sometimes "Omaha eight-or-better" or "Omaha/8", is also played. In Europe, "Omaha" still typically refers to the high version of the game, usually played pot-limit. Pot-limit Omaha is often abbreviated as "PLO." Pot-limit and no-limit Omaha eight-or-better can be found in some casinos and online, though no-limit is rarer.


title: Omaha hold 'em

text: It is often said that Omaha is a game of "the nuts", i.e. the best possible high or low hand, because it frequently takes "the nuts" to win a showdown. It is also a game where between the cards in their hand and the community cards a player may have drawing possibilities to multiple different types of holdings. For example, a player may have both a draw to a flush and a full house using different combinations of cards. At times, even seasoned players may need additional time to figure what draws are possible for their hand.


title: Omaha hold 'em

text: The basic differences between Omaha and Texas hold 'em are these: first, each player is dealt four hole cards instead of two. The betting rounds and layout of community cards are identical. At showdown, each player's hand is the best five-card hand made from "exactly three" of the five cards on the board, plus "exactly two" of the player's own cards. Unlike Texas hold 'em, a player cannot play four or five of the cards on the board with fewer than two of their own.


title: Omaha hold 'em

text: A maximum of eleven players can be dealt a hand in Omaha, regardless of whether or not burn cards are used, however Omaha is most commonly played six handed or nine handed.


title: Omaha hold 'em

text: In Omaha hi-low split-8 or better (simply Omaha/8), each player makes a separate five-card high hand and five-card ace-to-five low hand (eight-high or lower to qualify), and the pot is split between the high and low (which may be the same player). To qualify for low, a player must be able to play an 8-7-6-5-4 or lower (this is why it is called "eight or better"). A few casinos play with a 9-low qualifier instead, but this is rare. Each player can play any two of their four hole cards to make their high hand, and any two of their four hole cards to make their low hand. If there is no qualifying low hand, the high hand wins ("scoops") the whole pot. This game is usually played in the fixed limit version, although pot limit Omaha/8 is becoming more popular. A few low-stakes online tournaments feature no limit Omaha/8.


title: Omaha hold 'em

text: The brief explanation above belies the complexity of the game, so a number of examples will be useful here to clarify it. The table below shows a five-card board of community cards at the end of play, and then lists for each player the initial private four-card hand dealt to him or her, and the best five-card high hand and low hand each player can play on showdown:


title: Omaha hold 'em

text: In the deal above, Chris wins the high-hand half of the pot with their J-high straight, and Bryan and Eve split the low half (getting a quarter of the pot each) with 7-5-3-2-A.


title: Omaha hold 'em

text: Pot-limit Omaha ( frequently shortened to PLO) is popular in Europe, online, and in high-stakes "mixed games" played in some American casinos. This variant is more often played high only, but can also be played high-low. To a still greater degree than in Limit Omaha Hi-Lo, PLO is a game of drawing, when drawing, to the nut hand. Second best flushes and straights can be, and frequently become, losing hands, especially when a player is willing to commit their entire stack to the pot. Furthermore, because of the exponential growth of the pot size in pot-limit play, seeing one of these hands to the end can be very expensive and carry immense reverse implied odds.


title: Omaha hold 'em

text: In poker, an out is any unseen card in the deck that will give a player the best hand. A wrap is a straight draw with nine or more outs. This is called a wrap because the player’s hole cards are said to wrap-around the board cards. In hold-em, where players have two hole cards, the greatest number of straight outs possible is eight; however, in Omaha, there are four hole cards, which can result in straight draws which can have up to 20 outs. An example of a twenty-out wrap is on a flop of . To hit a straight, any of the following cards is needed: .


title: Omaha hold 'em

text: A desirable hand to have in PLO is the current best hand with a redraw. For example, if the board is , and the player has , then not only do they have the current best hand possible (their ace-king makes the ace-high straight), but they also have a redraw with the two queens in their hand because if the board pairs, they will make a full house, or four queens. would be an even better hand because it has flush and royal flush redraws as well. In fact, with the board, is approximately an 80-20 money favorite over a random hand containing ace-king (see freerolling). Even a pair of queens with any two spades is better than 55-45 against a random ace-king hand.


title: Omaha hold 'em

text: The most common variations of Pot Limit Omaha high are Five-card Omaha, commonly referred as "Big O" very popular in Southeastern United States as a home game and Six-card Omaha or 6-O which can be found in many casinos across the UK. Some online poker rooms support Five-card Omaha, Six-card Omaha and Courchevel.


title: Omaha hold 'em

text: "Big O" (occasionally called Five-card Omaha or 5-O) began appearing in Southern California in 2008 and had spread to most of the card rooms in the area by the end of the year.


title: Omaha hold 'em

text: Sometimes the high-low split game is played with a 9 or a 7-high qualifier instead of 8-high. It can also be played with five cards dealt to each player instead of four. In that case, the same rules for making a hand apply: exactly two from the player's hand, and exactly three from the board.


title: Omaha hold 'em

text: Courchevel is named after the high-end ski resort in the French Alps, near the Italian border. According to the urban legend, bored tourists wanted to play a version of poker no-one has ever played before, so they came up with this game. The place where Courchevel was most commonly played was the Aviation Club de France in Paris. That casino is now closed.


title: Omaha hold 'em

text: In the game of Courchevel, players are dealt five hole cards rather than four. Simultaneously, the first community card is dealt. Following an opening round of betting, two additional community cards are dealt, creating a 3-card flop, where the structure of the game is then identical to standard Omaha. Still, exactly two of the five hole cards must be used. Courchevel is popular in France but its popularity has expanded in other parts of Europe, particularly the United Kingdom. Courchevel is also available in a hi-low 8 or better variety, and while Courchevel is rarely offered on any of the major online poker sites, as of 2019, hi-low sit-and-go games at the micro stakes level can be found taking place several times a day on Pokerstars, which had the game since 2013.


title: Neoproterozoic

text: It is the last era of the Precambrian Supereon and the Proterozoic Eon; it is subdivided into the Tonian, Cryogenian, and Ediacaran periods. It is preceded by the Mesoproterozoic Era and succeeded by the Paleozoic Era of the Phanerozoic Eon.


title: Neoproterozoic

text: The most severe glaciation known in the geologic record occurred during the Cryogenian, when ice sheets may have reached the equator and formed a "Snowball Earth".


title: Neoproterozoic

text: The earliest fossils of complex multicellular life are found in the Ediacaran Period. These organisms make up the Ediacaran biota, including the oldest definitive animals in the fossil record.


title: Neoproterozoic

text: According to Rino and co-workers, the sum of the continental crust formed in the Pan-African orogeny and the Grenville orogeny makes the Neoproterozoic the period of Earth's history that has produced most continental crust.


title: Neoproterozoic

text: At the onset of the Neoproterozoic the supercontinent Rodinia, which had assembled during the late Mesoproterozoic, straddled the equator. During the Tonian, rifting commenced which broke Rodinia into a number of individual land masses.


title: Neoproterozoic

text: Possibly as a consequence of the low-latitude position of most continents, several large-scale glacial events occurred during the Neoproterozoic Era including the Sturtian and Marinoan glaciations of the Cryogenian Period.


title: Neoproterozoic

text: These glaciations are believed to have been so severe that there were ice sheets at the equator—a state known as the "Snowball Earth".


title: Neoproterozoic

text: Neoproterozoic time is subdivided into the Tonian (1000–720 Ma), Cryogenian (720–635 Ma) and Ediacaran (635–538.8 Ma) periods.


title: Neoproterozoic

text: In the regional timescale of Russia, the Tonian and Cryogenian correspond to the Late Riphean; the Ediacaran corresponds to the Early to middle Vendian. Russian geologists divide the Neoproterozoic of Siberia into the Mayanian (from 1000 to 850 Ma) followed by the Baikalian (from 850 to 650 Ma).


title: Neoproterozoic

text: The idea of the Neoproterozoic Era was introduced in the 1960s. Nineteenth-century paleontologists set the start of multicellular life at the first appearance of hard-shelled arthropods called trilobites and archeocyathid sponges at the beginning of the Cambrian Period. In the early 20th century, paleontologists started finding fossils of multicellular animals that predated the Cambrian. A complex fauna was found in South West Africa in the 1920s but was inaccurately dated. Another fauna was found in South Australia in the 1940s, but it was not thoroughly examined until the late 1950s. Other possible early animal fossils were found in Russia, England, Canada, and elsewhere (see Ediacaran biota). Some were determined to be pseudofossils, but others were revealed to be members of rather complex biotas that remain poorly understood. At least 25 regions worldwide have yielded metazoan fossils older than the classical Precambrian–Cambrian boundary (which is currently dated at ).


title: Neoproterozoic

text: A few of the early animals appear possibly to be ancestors of modern animals. Most fall into ambiguous groups of frond-like organisms; discoids that might be holdfasts for stalked organisms ("medusoids"); mattress-like forms; small calcareous tubes; and armored animals of unknown provenance.


title: Neoproterozoic

text: These were most commonly known as Vendian biota until the formal naming of the Period, and are currently known as Ediacaran Period biota. Most were soft bodied. The relationships, if any, to modern forms are obscure. Some paleontologists relate many or most of these forms to modern animals. Others acknowledge a few possible or even likely relationships but feel that most of the Ediacaran forms are representatives of unknown animal types.


title: Neoproterozoic

text: In addition to Ediacaran biota, two other types of biota were discovered in China. The Doushantuo Formation preserves fossils of microscopic marine organisms in great detail. The Hainan biota consists of small worm-shaped organisms.


title: Neoproterozoic

text: Molecular phylogeny suggests that animals may have emerged even earlier in the Proterozoic, but physical evidence for such animal life is lacking. Possible keratose sponge fossils have been reported in reefs dating back to 890 million years before the present, but remain unconfirmed.


title: Neoproterozoic

text: The nomenclature for the terminal period of the Neoproterozoic Era has been unstable. Russian and Nordic geologists referred to the last period of the Neoproterozoic as the Vendian, while Chinese geologists referred to it as the Sinian, and most Australians and North Americans used the name Ediacaran.


title: Neoproterozoic

text: However, in 2004, the International Union of Geological Sciences ratified the Ediacaran Period to be a geological age of the Neoproterozoic, ranging from to (at the time to 542) million years ago. The Ediacaran Period boundaries are the only Precambrian boundaries defined by biologic Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Points, rather than the absolute Global Standard Stratigraphic Ages.


title: Jungfraujoch

text: The Jungfraujoch (German: lit. "maiden saddle") is a saddle connecting two major 4000ers of the Bernese Alps: the Jungfrau and the Mönch. It lies at an elevation of above sea level and is directly overlooked by the rocky prominence of the Sphinx. The Jungfraujoch is a glacier saddle, on the upper snows of the Aletsch Glacier, and part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, situated on the boundary between the cantons of Bern and Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch.


title: Jungfraujoch

text: Since 1912, the Jungfraujoch has been accessible to tourists by the Jungfrau line, a railway from Interlaken and Kleine Scheidegg, running partly underground through a tunnel through the Eiger and Mönch. The Jungfraujoch railway station, at an elevation of is the highest in Europe. It lies east of the saddle, below the Sphinx station, and is connected to the Top of Europe building, which includes several panoramic restaurants, shops, exhibitions, and a post office. Several tunnels lead outside, where secured hiking trails on the crevassed glacier can be followed, in particular to the Mönchsjoch Hut. The normal route to the Jungfrau and Mönch starts from there.


title: Jungfraujoch

text: The Sphinx Observatory, one of the highest astronomical observatories in the world, provides an additional viewing platform at a height of , the second-highest in Switzerland. It can be reached by an elevator from the Jungfraujoch. The observatory houses one of the Global Atmosphere Watch's atmospheric research stations. The Jungfraujoch radio relay station, which is not accessible to the public, is installed west of the Jungfraujoch, on the Jungfrau ridge. It is Europe's highest radio relay station.


title: Jungfraujoch

text: Swiss and Austro-Bavarian German "Joch" (lit. 'yoke') is a term for 'ridge between two higher peaks' recorded in the 14th century (Grimm, "Deutsches Wörterbuch" "bereits im 14. jahrh. als ortsname: "des gotzhus zwing und ban vahet an Rotenhalden und denne die roten bachtalen uf unz an den grat, und den grat obnan hin ob Grüblen hin iemerme, unz an Joch. und ab Joch unz an Stoerben." weisth. 1, 4 (Zürich)").


title: Jungfraujoch

text: The name "Jungfrau" ('maiden, virgin'), which refers to the highest mountain overlooking the Jungfraujoch, is most likely derived from the name "Jungfrauenberg" given to Wengernalp, so named for the nuns of Interlaken Monastery, its historical owner. However, the "virgin" peak was heavily romanticized as a "goddess" or "priestess" only in late 18th- to 19th-century Romanticism. After the first ascent in 1811 by Swiss alpinist Johann Rudolf Meyer, the peak was jokingly referred to as "Mme Meyer" (Mrs. Meyer).


title: Jungfraujoch

text: The Jungfraujoch is a snow saddle located directly between the summits of Mathildespitze (west) and Sphinx (east). It is, however, most notably the lowest point between the Jungfrau and the Mönch, respectively third and fourth highest mountains in the Bernese Alps, and the key col of the former. The south side (canton of Valais), almost flat, is constituted by the Jungfraufirn, one of the branches of the Aletsch Glacier, the longest in the Alps. From the south, the Jungfraujoch can be relatively easily accessed by mountaineers in two days from the region of Fiesch, via the Konkordia Hut. The north side (canton of Bern) is almost vertical with a difference of height of nearly 3,000 metres from the bottom of the valley at Interlaken, with no easy natural access. For those reasons, the only easy and quick access to the Jungfraujoch is through the 7 kilometre-long tunnel of the Jungfrau Railway, accessed via Kleine Scheidegg on the north side, the railway pass between Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald.


title: Jungfraujoch

text: Administrativelly, the Jungfraujoch is split between the territories of the municipalities of Lauterbrunnen and Fieschertal. Nearly all built infrastructure, including the Jungfraujoch railway station, Top of Europe complex and the Sphinx Observatory, are on the Valais side of the border, therefore in the municipality of Fieschertal. The ridge between the Jungfrau and the Mönch is a major European watershed as well. The north side is drained by the Weisse Lütschine, the Aare and the Rhine. The south side is drained by the Massa and the Rhone.


title: Jungfraujoch

text: There is a tradition in the Bernese Oberland, supported by some documentary evidence, that a pass existed between Grindelwald and Fiesch in Valais in the late medieval period, later lost to the advancing glaciers. With the early development of tourism in Switzerland and the exploration of the High Alps in the 19th century, there were once again attempts to traverse the great ridge that encloses the head of the Aletsch Glacier, and connecting Fiesch with Grindelwald and Wengernalp.


title: Jungfraujoch

text: Four such routes were found, with the Jungfraujoch and the Eigerjoch being among the most difficult passes in the Alps, despite the former having a relatively easy southern approach on the Aletsch Glacier.


title: Jungfraujoch

text: The first ascent of the north side of the Jungfraujoch succeeded in July 1862, by a party of six English climbers and six Swiss guides: Leslie Stephen, F. J. Hardy, H. B. George, Living, Moore, and Morgan, with Christian Almer, Christian and Peter Michel, Ulrich Kauffmann, P. Baumann, and C. Bohren as guides. The time of ascent from Wengernalp was nine hours.


title: Jungfraujoch

text: The party turned back on the first day at a bergschrund, returning on the following day with a ladder in length, carried by Peter Rubi, a porter from Grindelwald. The way lay at first by the rocky buttress of the Mönch, separating the Eiger and Guggi glaciers.


title: Jungfraujoch

text: From the buttress the route descended a short distance in order to reach the Guggi Glacier, which could be ascended to a plateau. This halting place was reached in about three hours.


title: Jungfraujoch

text: Above the bergschrund was a second and smaller plateau which was situated immediately under the long slopes of broken neve that lay below the saddle. The final and very arduous stage in the ascent was a single patch of dark rocks jutted out from the snow in the ridge connecting the Jungfrau with the Mönch.


title: Jungfraujoch

text: After more than an hour of climbing, a great wall of ice, whose projecting cornice of snow was fringed by long icicles, had to be avoided bearing left in the direction of the Mönch, along the base of the wall by a slippery pathway of ice formed from the dripping from the icicles above.


title: Jungfraujoch

text: At a point where the pathway thinned out nearly to a point, and was cut across by a transverse crevasse, the wall became low enough to be scaled by the ladder. This was the last serious obstacle: a moderate slope of névé, unbroken by crevasses, then led up to the summit of the saddle.


title: Jungfraujoch

text: After reaching the first patch of rocks, a short way below the saddle on the south side, the party divided: George and Moore, with C. Almer and U. Kaufmann went down to the Eggishorn and Fiesch, therefore completing the first crossing of the Jungfraujoch, while the remainder of the party returned to Grindelwald by the Mönchsjoch.


title: Jungfraujoch

text: Adolf Guyer-Zeller first thought of the idea of a tunnel in 1893, and at that point, he had planned to have seven stations inside the tunnel before reaching the peak of the Sphinx. The building of the tunnel started on July 27, 1896 and took 16 years to complete. The construction phase was troubled by many problems including monetary shortages, inclement weather and mounting deaths due to construction accidents. The worst accident occurred in 1908, when 30 tons of dynamite accidentally exploded.


title: Jungfraujoch

text: When construction finally finished, the railway reached only to the height of the Jungfraujoch saddle, rather than the summit of the Sphinx, and had only two intermediate stations. However, even in its current state, the Jungfraubahn is a significant achievement in engineering and construction, still holding the title for highest railway in Europe.


title: Jungfraujoch

text: The train into the mountain leaves from Kleine Scheidegg, which can be reached by trains from Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen. The train enters the tunnel running eastward through the Eiger shortly after leaving Kleine Scheidegg.


title: Jungfraujoch

text: It runs close behind the Eiger's north face, stopping at Eigerwand, where there is a window about 8 m long and a metre high, halfway up the face. The windows have been placed in holes used to remove excavated rock from the tunnel during construction, and are also occasionally used as access points, by climbers, and also rescue parties. This window was used for one of the final scenes of a Clint Eastwood spy movie, "The Eiger Sanction". There one can get off the train to admire the view before the train continues five minutes later. The tunnel then turns west, heading towards the Jungfrau. There is a second stop at a window looking out on the Eismeer ("Sea of Ice") before the train continues to the Jungfraujoch. The tunnel was constructed between 1898 and 1912; it is about long, with gradients of up to 25%. The journey from Kleine Scheidegg to Jungfraujoch takes approximately 50 minutes including the stops at Eigerwand and Eismeer; the downhill return journey taking only 35 minutes.


title: Jungfraujoch

text: Located above the permanent snow line, the Jungfraujoch is officially the coldest place in Switzerland, although other higher locations with no weather station, for example the top of the nearby Jungfrau and Finsteraarhorn, probably experience a more extreme climate. According to Köppen climate classification, the Jungfraujoch has an alpine climate on the border between tundra climate (ET) and ice cap climate (EF) with long, cold winters lasting most of the year and a brief period during summer where the average daily highs rise above freezing.


title: Deprecation

text: In several fields, especially computing, deprecation is the discouragement of use of some terminology, feature, design, or practice, typically because it has been superseded or is no longer considered efficient or safe, without completely removing it or prohibiting its use. Typically, deprecated materials are not completely removed to ensure legacy compatibility or back up practice in case new methods are not functional in an odd scenario.


title: Deprecation

text: It can also imply that a feature, design, or practice will be removed or discontinued entirely in the future.


title: Deprecation

text: In general English usage, the infinitive "to deprecate" means "to express disapproval of (something)". It derives from the Latin verb "deprecari", meaning "to ward off (a disaster) by prayer". In current technical usage, for one to state that a feature is deprecated is merely a recommendation against using it. It is still possible to produce a program or product without heeding the deprecation.


title: Deprecation

text: While a deprecated software feature remains in the software, its use may raise warning messages recommending alternative practices. Deprecated status may also indicate the feature will be removed in the future. Features are deprecated, rather than immediately removed, to provide backward compatibility and to give programmers time to bring affected code into compliance with the new standard.


title: Deprecation

text: A building code example is the use of ungrounded ("2-prong") electrical receptacles. Over time, these older devices were widely deprecated in favor of safer grounded ("3-prong") receptacles. The older, ungrounded receptacles were still permitted in many places by "grandfathering" them in existing electrical wiring, while prohibiting them for new installations. Thus, though ungrounded receptacles may still be available for legal purchase in a location where they are obsolete, they would generally be intended only for repairs to existing older electrical installations.


title: Deprecation

text: In writing and editing, usage of a word may be deprecated because it is ambiguous, confusing, or offensive to some readers. For example, the words "sanction" and "inflammable" may be misinterpreted because they have auto-antonymic or self-contradictory meanings; writing style guides often recommend substituting other words that are clearly understood and unambiguous. Some word usages that have acquired different connotations over time, such as "gay" or "colored", may be deprecated as obsolete in formal writing.


title: Deprecation

text: In technical standards, use of a certain clause may be discouraged or superseded by new clauses. As an example, in the Ethernet standard IEEE 802.3-2012, Clause 5 (Layer Management) is "deprecated" by Clause 30 (Management), except for 5.2.4.


title: Deprecation

text: Deprecation may also occur when a technical term becomes obsolete, either through change or supersession. An example from paleontology is the previously deprecated term "Brontosaurus"; before being re-recognized as a unique genus, it was considered a popular, yet deprecated, name for the genus "Apatosaurus". Some examples of deprecated terms from medicine include "consumption" (tuberculosis), "grippe" (influenza), and "apoplexy" (stroke). In chemical nomenclature, the international standards organization IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) has deprecated the term "methyl ethyl ketone", and now recommends using the term "ethyl methyl ketone" instead.


title: Kimi Katkar

text: Kimi Katkar is a former actress and model, who worked in Hindi films. She was active throughout the 1980s and the early 1990s, and starred in over 50 films, including "Adventures of Tarzan" (1985) and "Hum" (1991).


title: Kimi Katkar

text: Kimi Katkar made her acting debut in the 1985 film "Patthar Dil" as a supporting actress. Later that year, she starred in "Adventures of Tarzan", where she played the lead opposite Hemant Birje. After the film, she continued to work throughout the late 1980s, followed by notable films such as "Mera Lahoo" (1987), "Dariya Dil" (1988), "Sone Pe Suhaaga" (1988), "Gair Kanooni" (1989), "Jaisi Karni Waisi Bharnii" (1989) and "Khoon Ka Karz" (1991).


title: Kimi Katkar

text: In the hit 1991 film "Hum" (1991), she played the lead actress opposite Amitabh Bachchan. In the film, she was cast as Jumma. The popular song "Jumma Chumma De" from this movie was picturized on her and was sung by playback singers Sudesh Bhonsle and Kavita Krishnamurthy. Thereafter, she started restricting herself to few movies.


title: Kimi Katkar

text: Her last film was "Humlaa" (1992). During the same time, she refused film offers for Yash Chopra's "Parampara". Later, Jackie replaced Amitabh Bachchan and Ramya Krishna were signed for the role which had been offered to Kimi. Katkar quit the Hindi film industry after her marriage to photographer and ad-filmmaker Shantanu Sheorey in 1992. She settled in Melbourne, Australia.


title: Kimi Katkar

text: She is associated with the book "Shantaram" which was written by Gregory David Roberts. Roberts was an Australian fugitive who escaped to India where he worked as an extra in films including "Paanch Paapi" (1989) which starred Katkar.


title: Kimi Katkar

text: Katkar married a commercial photographer and advertising film producer Shantanu Sheorey. She has one son, Siddhanth. She stays in Melbourne, Australia and has also been living in Aundh, a suburb in Pune, Maharashtra.


title: Nadji Jeter

text: Nadji Anthony Jeter (born October 18, 1996) is an American actor. He is best known for providing the voice and motion capture for Sam in the action-adventure video game "The Last of Us" (2013) and Miles Morales in several Marvel projects since 2017. He was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Performer in a Leading Role for his performance as Morales in the 2020 video game "".


title: Nadji Jeter

text: Nadji Anthony Jeter was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 18, 1996. At a young age, his parents noticed that he was talented in dancing, acting, and comedy. At age 9, he performed as a dancer at Usher's New Look Foundation Gala. He also performed as a dancing mascot for the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA. He moved to Los Angeles in 2007 to pursue his career.


title: Nadji Jeter

text: Alongside his most popular roles as the voice of Sam in the action-adventure video game "The Last of Us" (2013) and Miles Morales in the animated series "Spider-Man" (2017) and the video games "Spider-Man" (2018), "" (2019), and "" (2020), Jeter has live-action credits such as guest roles on episodes of the medical drama series "Grey's Anatomy" (2007) and the sitcom "Everybody Hates Chris" (2008). He appeared in the comedy films "Grown Ups" (2010) and "Grown Ups 2" (2013), as well as the sitcom "Reed Between the Lines" (2011–2015). He has also starred in various national commercials and was the face of Coca-Cola in 2011.


title: Nadji Jeter

text: Jeter is a Star Power Ambassador for the Starlight Children's Foundation. He has been involved in Usher's New Look Foundation since the age of six, receiving the 2013 Global Youth Leadership Award for his work with the foundation.


title: Nadji Jeter

text: In January 2015, Jeter was arrested at the age of 18 for allegedly driving under the influence of marijuana in Burbank, California. According to reports, he spent a night in jail before being released.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: Kannur International Airport is an airport serving the North Malabar region of Kerala, Kodagu and Mysore districts of Karnataka and Mahé district of Puducherry in India. It is located east of Kannur, and east of Thalassery, near the municipality of Mattannur in Thalassery taluka of Kannur district. It is owned and operated by Kannur International Airport Limited (KIAL), a public–private consortium. The airport opened for commercial operations on 9 December 2018.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: The airport served one million passengers in just nine months since commercial operations began. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the airport could maintain stable growth, and it achieved the milestone of two million passengers in the twenty-third month of operations in November 2020.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: The first aircraft to land was an Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft that touched down at the airport on 29 February 2016. The first trial passenger flight operation conducted on 20 September 2018, using a Boeing 737-800 aircraft from Air India Express. On the inaugural day, 9 December 2018, an Air India Express flight IX 715 (Boeing 737-800) took off to Abu Dhabi at 10:13 (IST), becoming the first commercial passenger aircraft to depart from Kannur International Airport. The airport was inaugurated by then Minister of Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu and Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: Kannur had an airstrip used for commercial aviation as early as 1935 when TATA airlines operated weekly flights between Bombay and Trivandrum – stopping at Goa and Cannanore. This airstrip was located within the Kannur Cantonment area at Fort Maidan. The operator started service to Kerala on 29 October 1935 and service did not last long.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: The long-standing demand for a full-fledged airport was only conceptualized in 1997, when C. M. Ibrahim the then union minister of civil aviation, backed the proposal for an airport in the district. The vast extent of land at Moorkhanparamba near Mattannur was identified for the project a few months later following a hectic search for land for developing the proposed airport. The then Chief Minister of Kerala V. S. Achuthanandan laid the foundation stone for the airport at the project site marking the formal commencement of construction activities on 17 December 2010 at a function attended by the then Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel. Though the State government accorded sanction for the Kannur International Airport project in January 1998 and appointed Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (KINFRA) as the nodal agency for its implementation, it had to wait for a decade until it was finally approved by the Central government in January 2008. During the period, a private agency appointed by Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (KINFRA) to study techno-economic feasibility report submitted its report. The earlier site proposed at Madayipara was dropped owing to ecological concerns. Two vast plateaus near Mattannur were identified for the airport, namely Moorkhanparamb and Velliyamparamb, with about 1300 acres and 800 acres of land to be acquired from each respectively.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: After a prolonged wait, the airport received in-principle approval from the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Union cabinet in January 2008. Land acquisition began in December 2008 after issuing notifications and fixing compensation. The public company Kannur International Airport Limited (KIAL), under the PPP model, was registered in October 2009. The foundation stone for the airport was laid on 17 December 2010 by then-Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: On 26 November 2013, KIAL and Larsen & Toubro Ltd are scheduled to sign a contract on construction work at the airport. In January 2014, The Kerala State Government Minister for Excise and Ports announced the Kerala State Government and AAI plan to sign an MoU on the equity structure of Kannur International Airport Limited.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: Construction work of the airport was inaugurated by Defence Minister and senior Congress leader A. K. Antony on 2 February 2014. On 29 February 2016, The first trial flight was landed and Chief Minister Oommen Chandy Flag off for the inauguration of Runway.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: Kannur International Airport commenced operations on 9 December 2018. The first commercial aircraft to operate out of the airport was Air India Express IX 715 (Boeing 737-800) to Abu Dhabi, which took off at 10:13 (IST) on the same day. The flight was jointly flagged off by the Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan and Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: Aircraft of several foreign airlines touched down for the first time at Kannur international airport in June 2020 as part of the repatriation flights arranged owing to the COVID-19.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: Widebody aircraft also landed for the first time in June. Airbus A330-200 of Kuwait Airways, was the first foreign airline and also the first widebody aircraft that landed at Kannur. The aircraft of Kuwait Airways,Fly Dubai,Jazeera Airways,Salam Air,Gulf Air,Air Arabia, Etihad Airways,Saudia, and Oman Air operated to and from Kannur during June–August 2020 as repatriation/chartered flights.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: Though several international airlines have reportedly shown interest in operating from Kannur, they are unable to operate regularly scheduled flights from Kannur airport as the airport lacks ‘point of call’ status.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: By August 2010, acquisition of about 1200 acres of land was completed in two phases, and acquisition of another 780 acres was in progress for the third phase.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: In July 2011, the Oommen Chandy government decided to make Airports Authority of India a consultant tasked with preparing a revised techno-economic feasibility report and a new master plan and design. As the Airports Authority of India failed to submit the report in time, the consultancy was canceled and Cochin International Airport (CIAL) was entrusted to prepare the detailed project report, but the floating of tenders for construction was further delayed as experts found several technical flaws in the design prepared by CIAL.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: Land acquired by the government under KINFRA was transferred to KIAL earlier in February 2012. In August 2012, Mumbai based company STUP Consultants Pvt Ltd. was made consultant to review the revised report by CIAL and to assist KIAL in other aspects of the project, but the agreement was canceled within two weeks as it was found that the company had been blacklisted in other states. Fresh bids were solicited and Hong Kong-based AECOM Asia was awarded the consultancy. The project office was inaugurated at Mattannur in December 2012.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: It was decided to build the airport in two stages of engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC). The first stage, EPC-I included complete earthwork, runway, taxiway, apron, ground lighting and associated infrastructure such as perimeter and operational walls.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: The second stage, EPC-II, involved the integrated terminal building, air traffic control tower, administrative and technical blocks, and facilities in the buildings such as aerobridges, escalators, elevators and counters. Infrastructure and engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro (L&T) was awarded work for EPC-I on 27 November 2013, after inviting bids. Airport work was flagged off by the then Defense Minister A.K. Antony at a public function in Mattannur on 2 February 2014. L&T also won the tender for EPC-II works including the construction of the passenger terminal building (PTB) on 25 June 2014. A huge amount of earthwork was carried out at the site including the cutting and filling of a total of land at a maximum rate of per day. About 50% of the land works and foundation and piling work for constructing the PTB and air traffic control tower were completed by March 2015. By August 2015 about 60% of the runway was completed. Steps were initiated to procure lifts, a baggage handling system, passenger boarding bridges, and the four Airfield Crash Fire Tenders. About 70% of the work on the runway, apron and associated work, and 52% of the PTB and allied work was completed by December 2015. Works for a fuel farm also began the same month. The then Kerala Airports Minister K. Babu ruled out the popular demand to extend the runway to . Meanwhile, the third phase of land acquisition involving about 785 acres on Velliyamparmb, which began in 2011, had been progressing at a very slow pace and only 612 acres were acquired in five years. The late decision to acquire more land for a runway extension from to on the western side, in the finishing stages of the project, triggered protests from residents.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: A trial landing was conducted on a completed runway by a 14-seater code B aircraft on 29 February 2016. The air traffic control tower was not involved as it was still under construction. Technical assistance of the Aviation Control of the Calicut airport was sought for the landing. No runway calibration, or testing of flight parameters, was done during the landing. The trial landing was organized as a major event by the authorities and involved extensive public participation. The Oommen Chandy government faced fierce criticism for organizing such an event when the whole airport project was not complete. The opposition termed it an "election stunt" as Kerala was going to the polls in the coming months. Around were spent on the event.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: By May 2016, the runway was completed with work on the grading side strip on both ends progressing. 68% of the PTB, 75% of the ATC tower and much of the work for the fuel farm was completed. Work on the ancillary buildings – fire rescue station, power house, the area for the India Meteorological Department (IMD), sewage treatment plant, service block, and the airfield ground lighting substation were progressing.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: The newly elected Pinaryi government decided to begin land acquisition to extend the runway to in August 2016.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: The Phase I expansion period is from 2016–17 to 2025–26. It includes a runway extension, a full-length taxiway, commissioning of a fuel farm, an aviation academy etc. and developing city side facilities. Works for the Phase-I expansion are already progressing. A cargo terminal and cargo complex which was initially in Phase-II has been shifted to Phase I and is under construction. The Phase II expansion will happen from 2026–27 to 2045–46. It includes another runway and a dedicated domestic terminal at Veliamparamba, and a long flyover to link it with Moorkhanparamba.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: Kannur International Airport is the second greenfield airport to be built on a public private partnership (PPP) platform in Kerala. The airport is managed by Kannur International Airport Ltd.(KIAL), a public company. Venu V, IAS, is the current managing director of KIAL. Chief minister of Kerala holds the post of chairman. The principle investor in KIAL, the Government of Kerala, owns 32.86% of the company's shares. Other shareholders are: 22.54% by State and Central Public Sector Undertakings, 9.39% by Airports Authority of India, 35.21% by others, including QIBs, Individuals, Companies, Cooperative, Banks/Societies, and other legal entities as approved by the Board of Directors from time to time.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: The airport has an integrated passenger terminal for both international and domestic travellers with a floor area of for arrival and departure separately. It is able to handle up to 2,000 passengers during peak hours with its unique swing facility. It features six aerobridges with 48 check-in counters, 32 emigration counters, 16 customs counters, four conveyor belts and access control inside the terminal. The passenger terminal will use the swing facility. The international gates are used for domestic operations when there are no international flights. The passenger terminal building has a double skin aluminium roofing system and efficient LED lighting adopting the green building concept.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: Kannur Airport has one runway, 07/25 which is . Runway 07/25 orientation permits an obstacle-free approach. Runway 25's end will have Category I approach lighting and the 07 end will have simple approach lighting. The runway will be extended to after the airport is commissioned. Land acquisition of about 260 acres is underway for this purpose. The runway will have a full-length parallel taxiway and its apron will allow 20 wide-bodied aircraft to park simultaneously.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: The airport's air navigation services and air traffic control will be handled by the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The ATC tower will be equipped with Doppler variable omni range and distance measuring equipment, air traffic system automation, instrument landing system, voice recorder, and a GPS clock system. It will have VHF communication facilities and equipment for obtaining radar signals from the Cochin International Airport. The tower is high and has a floor area of .


title: Kannur International Airport

text: Various weather monitoring, weather forecasting and alert systems are being installed at the airport by the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS) for weather observations, is supplemented by climatological data, weather forecasting and aerodrome warning from IMD. The IMD will send minute-by-minute weather updates in the form of audio messages directly to pilots, instead of passing the information manually to the ATC and through them to the pilot. The information could include wind speed, gusts and direction, temperature and dew point, visibility, density, altitude, thunderstorm, lightning etc. ensuring smooth aircraft operation.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: The airport will have a -long, -wide runway end safety area (RESA) on both ends of the runway. This reduces the risk of casualties and damage to aircraft in the event of an undershoot, overshoot or excursion from the runway. The RESA is protected with a reinforced earth wall. The airport will have an isolation bay towards the 07 side. An isolation bay, with a diameter of is a special parking space created for an aircraft facing an exigency like hijack or bomb threat.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: Various ground support equipment (GSE) will be available to service the aircraft between flights. These include dollies, chocks, aircraft service stairs, aircraft refuelers, transporters, catering vehicles, and belt loaders. Ground handling in the airport will be managed by Air India Air Transport Services Ltd. (AI-ATSL).


title: Kannur International Airport

text: The airport has a fuel farm constructed and operated as a joint venture company floated by KIAL and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL) — the BPCL-KIAL Fuel Farm Private Ltd. The Rs. 17-crore fuel farm has underground tanks for aviation fuel storage and will provide fuel for aircraft operating from the airport. BPCL has a Rs. 170-crore stake in KIAL.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: Kannur Airport will have an aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul unit- MRO facility. A large maintenance terminal is dedicated for this. The facility is expected to cater to both narrow and wide-bodied aircraft. The MRO will undertake maintenance work on aircraft and their components, such as jet engines, landing gear, air frames and components and will involve line maintenance and hangars.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: The airport will have an Indian Navy air enclave on convert ten acres of land. The location is a priority for the Navy since the Ezhimala Naval Academy, the only naval academy in India, and the largest in Asia, is just away from the airport. Ezhimala is also a strategic defense location. The original demands for transfer of the ten acres of airport land to the Navy included having a representative from Southern Naval Command on KIAL's board of directors, to set up the enclave. This was dropped by the Navy. The land was transferred to the Navy on a long-term lease against token rent for establishing the enclave.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: The Indian Air Force will have a presence at the airport with a separate enclave set up on ten acres of land. Defense officials had approved the enclave in view of the airport's strategic location. Kannur Cantonment, the only Army Cantonment in Kerala is away from the airport. The land provided on a long-term lease, against a token rent, is located beside the operational apron of the airport. Work on the enclave's hangars and administrative buildings is underway.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: An enclave will be set up by Indian Coast Guard (ICG) at the Kannur airport to augment air surveillance along the coast. India's first Coast Guard Academy is located at Azhikkal, from the airport. Considering this, the strategic location and the proximity to the coast of the airport the ICG had sought 20 acres of airport land. The KIAL board authorized the airport's managing director to provide 10 acres on a long-term lease against token rent to establish the enclave.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: An aviation academy will be set up in the airport by the Rajiv Gandhi Aviation Academy and Technology on two acres of land allotted for it. The institute will offer students courses in aeronautics and provide flight training.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) had sought airport land from KIAL to have a manufacturing base for helicopters. 80 acres of land had been allotted by the board to HAL in 2014. The HAL complex will include helicopter manufacturing for exporting, helicopter maintenance and repair, and a helicopter pilot training centre.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: Mattanur International Airport comes under the jurisdiction of Mattanur Airport Police station under Kannur City Police established on 12.08.2018. The Jurisdictional area coming inside the airport compound wall in Morkanparamaba in Keezhallur Panchayat and area of Kallerikkara ward of Mattanur Municipality coming inside the Airport compound wall. The whole area of the station is owned by KIAL. The Magisterial jurisdiction of the station is Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Mattannur.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: Pre-paid taxi service is available at the airport round the clock. KSRTC provides service to various destinations in Kannur, Kasaragod, Kozhikode and Malappuram districts from the airport. The nearest town is at Mattannur situated away from the airport which has bus connectivity to various parts of Kannur district, Kodagu district and Mysore. Autorickshaw service is available at the airport to Mattannur. The closest railway stations are at Thalassery () and Kannur () from the airport. Till date, there is no Uber or Ola Cabs service facility from the airport.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: The proposed Kannur-Mysore National Highway under Bharatmala project, passes through Airport provides easy access to the important cities and towns in Kerala and Karnataka states.


title: Kannur International Airport

text: Kerala government has given node for developing Mattanur-Kootupuzha road, Thalassery-Anjarakandy-Mattanur road, Kuttiady-Panoor-Mattanur road, Mananthavady-Mattanur road, Kannur-Airport roads for better connectivity.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: Royal Air Force Mildenhall or RAF Mildenhall is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located near Mildenhall in Suffolk, England. Despite its status as a Royal Air Force station, it primarily supports United States Air Force (USAF) operations, and is currently the home of the 100th Air Refueling Wing (100 ARW).


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: During the Second World War, RAF Bomber Command used the station for operational combat missions until 1945. Placed on standby status after the war, it was reopened by the Royal Air Force and became a USAF-RAF joint operation base on 11 July 1950. It was assigned to Strategic Air Command (SAC) it became a B-50 Superfortress base in 1951, and a KC-97 Stratofreighter base from 1953 until 1958. The Military Air Transport Service transferred its main United Kingdom terminal to Mildenhall in 1958. In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird operations took place from the base. On 8 January 2015, the United States Department of Defense announced that operations at RAF Mildenhall would end and be relocated to Germany (Spangdahlem Air Base) and elsewhere within the UK. After a period of uncertainty it was confirmed in July 2020 that the relocation of operations would no longer take place. RAF Mildenhall, together with its sister base RAF Lakenheath, have the largest United States Air Force presence in the United Kingdom.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: In order to meet a perceived 'continental threat', the British military developed the idea to site a Royal Air Force bomber base at Mildenhall in the late 1920s. Shortly thereafter, the government purchased the land in 1929, followed by the completion of the first buildings in 1931. Three years later, RAF Mildenhall opened on 16 October 1934, as one of the RAF's largest bomber stations. On the same day, Wing Commander Francis Linnell, assumed his position as the first station commander.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: RAF Mildenhall's premature inauguration was due in large part with its selection to host the Royal Aero Club's prestigious MacRobertson Air Race on 20 October 1934. At the time, the air race stood as the longest race ever devised, and attracted over 70,000 spectators to the airfield. Even more telling of the race's significance in the world's sporting spotlight, on short notice King George V and Queen Mary visited RAF Mildenhall the day before the race. In the end, pilots Tom Campbell Black and C. W. A. Scott flying the de Havilland Comet "Grosvenor House", crossed the finish line first at Melbourne, Australia, less than 72 hours after starting the race.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: Following this favourable beginning, RAF Mildenhall received its first squadron and aircraft with the arrival of No. 99B Squadron, equipped with Handley Page Heyford bombers. King George V reviewed 350 aircraft at Mildenhall in 1935 on the occasion of his Silver Jubilee. This historical event is commemorated by a memorial tablet located in front of the Building 562, the current 100th Air Refueling Wing headquarters.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: The threat the RAF had envisioned in the late 1920s materialised during the Munich Crisis. Between 26 September 1938 and 4 October 1939, the airfield completed its installation of its defence systems. After a brief reprieve from war, the airfield prepared for war, bringing station defences and squadrons to full combat readiness. On 3 September 1939, three days after Germany invaded Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany. Later that same day, three Vickers Wellington aircraft from No. 149 Squadron at Mildenhall were dispatched to bomb the German naval fleet at Wilhelmshaven.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: Throughout Second World War, RAF Mildenhall remained active as in addition to its own airfield, the base had responsibility for RAF Newmarket, RAF Tuddenham, and RAF Lakenheath. During the course of the war, the base witnessed the transition from the two-engine Wellington, to the four-engine Short Stirling, and finally to the Avro Lancaster.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: By the end of the war, aircraft from Mildenhall and its satellite airfields had dropped over 23,000 tons of explosives, laid 2,000 mines and flew over 8,000 sorties. The airfield also saw the loss of over 200; Wellington, Stirling, and Lancaster bombers with the loss of over 2,000 aircrew. One of those killed, was Pilot Officer Rawdon Hume Middleton, an Australian who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross and is buried at St. Johns Church cemetery in Beck Row after his body was washed ashore.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: During the last two weeks of March and the first two weeks of April 1941, Mildenhall was used for the making of the film "Target for Tonight". So as not to give away important information to the enemy, Mildenhall took the fictitious name of Millerton Aerodrome and several other aspects involving the day-to-day operations were altered. The film, produced by the Crown Film Unit, focused on the planning and execution of an air raid on Germany, as seen by the crew of Vickers Wellington OJ-F 'F for Freddie'. Wellingtons and their crews from the resident No. 149 Squadron, coded OJ, were used for the filming. The exception to this was Percy Pickard who was at that time Squadron Leader with No. 311 (Czechoslovak) Squadron. Pickard played the part of Squadron Leader Dickson, the captain of 'F for Freddie'. Pickard would go on to lead daring raids such Operation Biting and the later Operation Jericho on Amiens Prison, in which he was killed.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: After the war, aircraft from Mildenhall flew home repatriated prisoners of war in Operation Exodus, and participated in Operation Manna, dropping relief supplies to the Dutch people stranded by the flooding caused by the retreating German . By the end of 1945, Mildenhall's operational activity experienced a drastic decrease and despite a brief flurry of flying activity in the late 1940s, the RAF reduced the base to 'care and maintenance' status. The only remaining RAF unit of significance was Headquarters No. 3 Group, part of Bomber Command, which remained on station until 1967.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: The initial Strategic Air Command unit to use Mildenhall was the 7511th Air Base Group (later redesignated 3910th Air Base Group), being activated on 11 July 1950, to prepare the facility for operational use by SAC aircraft. On 1 May 1951, SAC took control of the station rotated bomb wings in and out of Mildenhall on temporary duty assignments. The first operational strategic unit to use the airfield was the Boeing B-50D Superfortress equipped 2nd Bomb Wing, arriving on Temporary Duty (TDY) from Hunter AFB in Georgia on 4 May 1951.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: In 1953, Mildenhall's mission was changed from a B-50 bomber airfield to a KC-97 Stratofreighter aerial tanker dispersal base. The role was to support Boeing B-47 Stratojet aircraft based at RAF Fairford. The base became the home for the United Kingdom Passenger Terminal managed by Military Air Transport Service (MATS) in 1958.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: SAC departed Mildenhall in 1959, as its runway requirements no longer met the requirements for its newer aircraft. On 17 July 1959, SAC and USAFE reached an agreement facilitating and substantially increasing Third Air Force's role in making operational decisions regarding the USAF units in the UK. On 1 September, the 7513th Tactical Group took over host unit responsibilities.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: On 15 November 1965 Mildenhall welcomed the arrival of the Silk Purse Control Group and the 7120th Airborne Command and Control Squadron (7120 ACCS) previously stationed at Chateauroux Air Station, France. Upon its arrival at Mildenhall, the 7120th ACCS converted from the Douglas C-118 to the Boeing EC-135 which were used as airborne command posts for the Commander, US European Command under the code name Operation Silk Purse.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: On 1 July 1966, the 513th Troop Carrier Wing arrived at Mildenhall from Evreux-Fauville Air Base in France. With its activation on Mildenhall, the 513th TCW assumed operational control of two rotational (7441st, 7742nd) Troop Carrier Squadrons of twenty C-130 Hercules as well as the 7120th ACCS / Silk Purse Control Group and the five Boeing EC-135H.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: For the next few years, Mildenhall witnessed little change: however, in June 1972, the base added to the list of its tenants with the arrival of Headquarters Third Air Force, which relocated from South Ruislip.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: In May 1969, mechanic Sergeant Paul Meyer, homesick for his wife in Virginia, stole a Hercules C-130E transporter and flew south, eventually ditching in the English Channel. In April 2018 an underwater search of the aircraft, using sonar, was announced by the Deeper Dorset group.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: The next significant event in Mildenhall's history came with the arrival of Detachment 4, 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing (9th SRW) in 1976, which controlled rotational U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird operations from the base. From their arrival, until the departure of the last SR-71 on 18 January 1990, the 306th Strategic Wing's SR-71 and U-2 aircraft came to symbolise RAF Mildenhall in the local public's eye.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: On 1 July 1978, the 306th Strategic Wing of SAC was transferred to Mildenhall from Ramstein Air Base, West Germany with a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker air refuelling and a Boeing RC-135 reconnaissance mission. The 306th SW also functioned as the focal point for all SAC operations in Europe, and became the host unit at Mildenhall.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: The 306th Strategic Wing operated at RAF Mildenhall until 1 February 1992, when the 100th Air Refueling Wing of USAFE, assumed the 306th SW responsibilities, and became host unit at Mildenhall, along with becoming Headquarters European Tanker Task Force with its KC-135 Stratotankers.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: In May 1993, as part of the drawdown of forces in Europe, it was announced that the majority of the USAF-operated base at RAF Alconbury was to be returned to the British Ministry of Defence. As a part of this return, the 352nd Special Operations Group and its associated aircraft, the MC-130E Combat Talon, HC-130P/N Combat King and MH-53 Pave Low, transferred to RAF Mildenhall in March 1995.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the 491st Air Expeditionary Group (491st AEG) operated from the base, with the 491st Air Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron and the 744th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, flying the Lockheed C-141C Starlifter. Also attached to the 491st AEG was the 791st Expeditionary Aeromedical Airlift Squadron, now located at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: The 501st Combat Support Wing was activated at RAF Mildenhall on 21 May 2005. It was a non-flying unit that provides administration and operation of units at RAF Croughton (422nd Air Base Group), RAF Alconbury (423rd Air Base Group) and RAF Fairford (420th Air Base Group). The wing moved to RAF Alconbury on 1 May 2007.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: In June 2021 President of the United States Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden flew to RAF Mildenhall on Air Force One for the 47th G7 summit and their first meeting with Queen Elizabeth II. President Biden addressed troops on base shortly after landing.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: Units marked GSU are Geographically Separate Units, which although based at Mildhenhall, are subordinate to a parent unit based at another location.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: On 8 January 2015, the United States Department of Defense announced that as part of their European Infrastructure Consolidation (EIC) programme, they would be withdrawing from RAF Mildenhall to help save $500 million a year across Europe. In January 2016, as a result of the proposed US withdrawal, the UK government announced the site was one of twelve that would be sold as part of their strategy for the Ministry of Defence estate, although no date for the sale was given. It was planned to relocate units based at Mildenhall to Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: A change in political administration in the United States, heightened security concerns on the part of the United States, the UK and NATO pertaining to Europe and the Middle East, and a variety of other issues prompted a reassessment on Mildenhall's closure. By 2017, the closure process had been put on indefinite hold and in February 2020, it was reported it had been extended to at least 2027. In July 2020, the Department of Defense announced that the US military would in fact be withdrawing from Spangdahlem and that the 100th Air Refueling Wing and 352nd Special Operations Wing would remain at Mildenhall, thereby keeping the base open for the foreseeable future.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: Since the beginning of its use by the USAF, Mildenhall has been the site of many anti-war protests by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and other peace groups. In January 2003, students cut a hole in the perimeter fence and accessed the base. Later, in April 2003, protestors with Stop the War Coalition broke into the base to unfurl a banner with the words: “Stop Killing Each Other”.


title: RAF Mildenhall

text: Notable protesters include MP and former Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and former CND chair Kate Hudson.


title: Until the End of the World

text: Until the End of the World (; ) is a 1991 science fiction adventure drama film directed by German filmmaker Wim Wenders. Set at the turn of the millennium in the shadow of a world-changing catastrophe, the film follows a man and woman, played by William Hurt and Solveig Dommartin, as they are pursued across the globe, in a plot involving a device that can record visual experiences and visualize dreams. An initial draft of the screenplay was written by American filmmaker Michael Almereyda, but the final screenplay is credited to Wenders and Peter Carey, from a story by Wenders and Dommartin. Wenders, whose career had been distinguished by his exploration of the road movie, intended this as the ultimate example of the genre.


title: Until the End of the World

text: In 1999, panic ensues when an orbiting Indian nuclear satellite begins to spiral toward Earth. Claire Tourneur, who has been traveling around Europe trying, unsuccessfully, to distract herself after discovering that her boyfriend slept with her best friend, is unconcerned by the impending nuclear disaster, though her sleep has been troubled by a recurring nightmare. When she gets stuck in a traffic jam in the south of France after it is projected as a possible impact site, she decides to take a side road. She gets into an accident with a pair of surprisingly friendly bank robbers, who enlist her to carry their stolen cash to Paris, in exchange for a cut of the loot. Along the way, she meets a man who introduces himself as Trevor McPhee. He is being followed by an armed man named Burt, so Claire agrees to let Trevor travel to Paris with her. After reaching the house of her estranged lover, Eugene, Claire discovers that Trevor stole some of the stolen money while she slept.


title: Until the End of the World

text: Claire crosses paths with Burt and finds out that he is going to Berlin. She makes the trip as well and hires missing-persons detective Phillip Winter to help her locate Trevor. Using his computer, he learns that Trevor has a bounty on his head for stealing opal from a mining syndicate in Australia, and access to Trevor's passport and financial information allows him to determine the man has just boarded a flight to Lisbon. When Claire and Winter catch up with Trevor, Winter handcuffs Trevor to Claire, but she voluntarily goes along with Trevor when he runs away. They go to a hotel, where Winter finds them having sex, though Trevor is able to handcuff both Winter and Claire to the bed and escape with more of Claire's money.


title: Until the End of the World

text: Still after the bounty, Winter takes Claire with him to Moscow, where they meet up with Eugene, who Claire has asked to bring her more money. A local bounty hunter with a more advanced computer than Winter has helps them discover that Trevor is actually Sam Farber, who is wanted by the U.S. government for industrial espionage and has a significantly larger bounty on his head than Trevor McPhee does. Winter says he is quitting the job and going home, and Eugene buys a tracking computer to help Claire, who sees Burt again and learns that Sam is wanted for stealing a camera he had helped develop at a lab in Palo Alto.


title: Until the End of the World

text: When Sam buys a ticket to Beijing on the Trans-Siberian Railway, the computer alerts Claire and she leaves Eugene while she thinks he is sleeping. Sam evades Claire, and she ends up traveling through China alone for months. She finally calls Eugene, who tells her to go to Tokyo and meets her there. They go to the capsule hotel where Sam is supposed to be staying, only to find a tied-up Winter and get shot at by various bounty hunters and international government agents who have been tipped off by the bounty hunter they consulted in Moscow. Claire is able to escape and happens upon Sam, who is rapidly losing his eyesight, at a pachinko parlor. She buys them train tickets to a random mountain inn, where the kindly innkeepers provide herbs that heal Sam's eyes. Sam reveals to Claire that the prototype camera he stole was invented by his father, Henry, and is a device that, by recording brain impulses of the photographer for later transfer, takes pictures blind people can see. Though the recording process is hard on his eyes, he has been traveling around the world making recordings of places and people that are important to his mother, Edith, who is blind, so she can see them.


title: Until the End of the World

text: The next stop on Sam's itinerary is San Francisco. He and Claire get robbed by a used car salesman shortly after arriving, so Claire calls Chico, one of the French bank robbers, for help, and he brings more money. Sam cannot get the camera to work when he is trying to make a recording of his sister and niece, so Claire takes over. The final recording done, Sam, Claire, and Chico board a small boat to Australia, where Sam's parents are.


title: Until the End of the World

text: Eugene and Winter, who teamed up and went to Coober Pedy, Australia, to wait for Claire and Sam after losing track of them in Tokyo, pick up the trail when Claire uses her credit card to place a video call nearby. When Eugene sees Sam in town, he punches Sam and they have a brief fight before they are arrested. While Winter tries to bail them out, Burt arrives looking for Sam and the camera, but Chico is able to subdue him. The next day, Sam only takes Claire with him when he takes off to fly to the compound where his parents are hiding and his father has built a secret lab, but the others are able to follow thanks to a secret tracking device that is still on the bag Chico gave to Claire when she first transported the money to Paris.


title: Until the End of the World

text: While Claire and Sam are in the air, the satellite is shot down by the U.S. government, and the resulting NEMP effect wipes the memories of and interferes with the functioning of unshielded electronics. The engine of his plane stops, so Sam has to execute an emergency landing. He and Claire walk across the desert until they are found by Sam's friend David, who has Eugene, Winter, and Chico in the bed of his hand-cranked diesel-powered truck. David takes everyone to Sam's father's lab, which is sheltered in a massive cave. Burt eventually arrives and everyone settles in to wait and see whether communications with the outside world will be restored. Eugene, who was writing a novel about Claire and her adventures before it was erased from his computer by the NEMP, begins rewriting it on an antique typewriter.


title: Until the End of the World

text: The process Henry developed requires the person who recorded the images to watch them while being monitored in the lab before they can be transmitted to someone else's brain. Sam, who has a strained relationship with his father, attempts to do this immediately after arriving, but he fails because he is too tired, which leads to an argument with Henry. Claire tries the experiment with her recording of Sam's sister with phenomenal success, and Sam later succeeds with his recordings. Although Edith is at first exhilarated to be able to "see" again, the ugly, pixellated images she receives contribute to her growing despondency. On New Year's Eve, the same evening the group have intercepted a mundane radio broadcast that indicates human civilization has not ended, she "just let[s] go" and passes away quietly.


title: Until the End of the World

text: After Edith's burial, Winter, Chico, and Burt leave the compound to go home. Henry, hoping to win a Nobel Prize, begins working on how to use his technology to record human dreams, but the Aborigines who have been assisting him disagree with this and abandon him. He continues by experimenting on himself, Sam, and Claire, who eventually become addicted to viewing their dreams on portable video screens. Eugene finds a catatonic Claire and takes her away from the lab, driving her into painful withdrawal when he refuses to replace the batteries for her screen. He finishes his novel, in which he writes her as being healthy and happy, and gives it to her, using the "truth of the words" to cure her of the "disease of images". Meanwhile, Sam wanders away from the lab and is ultimately cured by David and an Aboriginal ritual, and Henry is taken by the CIA while lying in the lab's dream-recording chair.


title: Until the End of the World

text: Eugene and Claire break up for good, but remain friends. Henry later dies in 2001, with Sam visiting his grave. While in San Francisco, Sam sees his wife (who has since remarried) and son from a distance, realizing that he has lost them forever. On Claire's 30th birthday, Eugene's book comes out and he, Winter, and the French bank robbers call Claire, who is in the middle of a six-month stint as an ecological observer on a space station, to sing her "Happy Birthday".


title: Until the End of the World

text: Wenders began working on the film as early as late 1977, when, during his first visit to Australia, it struck him that his surroundings would be the perfect setting for a science fiction film. In addition to fleshing out the complex plot, preproduction also involved extensive still photography. It was not until Wenders found commercial success with "Paris, Texas" and "Wings of Desire", however, that he was able to secure funding for the project.


title: Until the End of the World

text: With a budget of around $22 million ($3.7 million of which came from he Australian Film Finance Corporation), which was more than he had spent on all of his previous films combined, Wenders set off on an ambitious production. Principal photography lasted 22 weeks and spanned 11 countries. Wenders, who had a long-standing fascination with the Australian Outback, shot a substantial amount of the film in and around Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.


title: Until the End of the World

text: The imagery in the dream sequences were achieved with early high-definition video. Wenders and technicians at NHK (the only facility which could play back HD video at the time) worked for six weeks on these sequences, intentionally distorting the imagery to create strange visual effects. They often recorded a fast-forwarded version of the image, then played it back at normal speed.


title: Until the End of the World

text: Graeme Revell composed the theme and other music for the film. For additional music, Wenders commissioned original songs from a number of his favorite recording artists, asking them to anticipate the kind of music they would be making a decade later, when the film was set. His desire to use all of the pieces he received contributed to his decision to make the film as long as it turned out to be.


title: Until the End of the World

text: The truncated version of "Until the End of the World" that received a theatrical release was poorly received, being both a critical and commercial failure. In the United States, the film was released by Warner Bros. in December 1991 on 4 screens. The total U.S. box office gross was just under $830,000.


title: Until the End of the World

text: In January 1992, reviewing the theatrical version of the film, Roger Ebert gave the film 2 stars out of 4, describing it as lacking the "narrative urgency" required to sustain interest in the story, and wrote that it "plays like a film that was photographed before it was written, and edited before it was completed". He went on to say that a documentary about the globe-trekking production would likely have been more interesting than the film itself.


title: Until the End of the World

text: Later critics – some responding to Wenders' director's cut – were more favorable toward it. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an 88% approval rating based on 17 reviews.


title: Until the End of the World

text: The initial cut of the film was, reportedly, 20 hours long. Several shortened versions of the film have been commercially distributed or publicly screened. Wenders was contractually obligated by his backers to deliver a standard feature-length film, so he edited it down to the 158- and 179-minute American and European cuts, which he refers to as the ""Reader's Digest"" versions of the film. Meanwhile, he and his editor Peter Przygodda secretly made a complete copy of the film negatives for themselves at their own expense, and over the next year they worked on a 5-hour version of the film, which they then screened at events over the next decade. A version similar to the one shown at these screenings was released at one point as a 280-minute trilogy of films.


title: Until the End of the World

text: There is also a 239-minute letter-boxed and subtitled laserdisc release from Japan, and there are several unauthorized fan edits that combine portions of the aforementioned releases.


title: Until the End of the World

text: A 4K digital restoration from the original Super 35mm camera negative of the 287-minute director's cut was commissioned by the Wim Wenders Foundation in 2014. The restoration, which was supervised by the director and his wife Donata, was undertaken by ARRI Film & TV Services Berlin, with the support of the CNC. This version was screened for the first time in the U.S. at several art house theaters in the fall of 2015 as part of a retrospective tour of Wenders' filmography by Janus Films. It was in two parts, with an intermission at 2 hours, 11 minutes, and debuted on television in the U.S. on Turner Classic Movies in July 2017.


title: Until the End of the World

text: In September 2019, The Criterion Collection announced a special-edition Blu-ray and DVD of the 4K restoration of the 287-minute director's cut of the film, which was released on 10 December 2019.


title: Until the End of the World

text: "Until The End of the World: Music From the Motion Picture Soundtrack" was released on 10 December 1991, and includes the following tracks:


title: Until the End of the World

text: The German film director Uli M Schueppel made a documentary film about the recording of "(I'll Love You) Till The End of the World" by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. The film was released in 1990 as "The Song" and re-released in 2004 under a new arrangement.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC), also known as polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells, are a type of fuel cell being developed mainly for transport applications, as well as for stationary fuel-cell applications and portable fuel-cell applications. Their distinguishing features include lower temperature/pressure ranges (50 to 100 °C) and a special proton-conducting polymer electrolyte membrane. PEMFCs generate electricity and operate on the opposite principle to PEM electrolysis, which consumes electricity. They are a leading candidate to replace the aging alkaline fuel-cell technology, which was used in the Space Shuttle.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: PEMFCs are built out of membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) which include the electrodes, electrolyte, catalyst, and gas diffusion layers. An ink of catalyst, carbon, and electrode are sprayed or painted onto the solid electrolyte and carbon paper is hot pressed on either side to protect the inside of the cell and also act as electrodes. The pivotal part of the cell is the triple phase boundary (TPB) where the electrolyte, catalyst, and reactants mix and thus where the cell reactions actually occur. Importantly, the membrane must not be electrically conductive so the half reactions do not mix. Operating temperatures above 100 °C are desired so the water byproduct becomes steam and water management becomes less critical in cell design.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: A proton exchange membrane fuel cell transforms the chemical energy liberated during the electrochemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen to electrical energy, as opposed to the direct combustion of hydrogen and oxygen gases to produce thermal energy.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: A stream of hydrogen is delivered to the anode side of the MEA. At the anode side it is catalytically split into protons and electrons. This oxidation half-cell reaction or hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) is represented by:


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: The newly formed protons permeate through the polymer electrolyte membrane to the cathode side. The electrons travel along an external load circuit to the cathode side of the MEA, thus creating the current output of the fuel cell.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: Meanwhile, a stream of oxygen is delivered to the cathode side of the MEA. At the cathode side oxygen molecules react with the protons permeating through the polymer electrolyte membrane and the electrons arriving through the external circuit to form water molecules. This reduction half-cell reaction or oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is represented by:


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: The reversible reaction is expressed in the equation and shows the reincorporation of the hydrogen protons and electrons together with the oxygen molecule and the formation of one water molecule. The potentials in each case are given with respect to the standard hydrogen electrode.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: To function, the membrane must conduct hydrogen ions (protons) but not electrons as this would in effect "short circuit" the fuel cell. The membrane must also not allow either gas to pass to the other side of the cell, a problem known as gas crossover. Finally, the membrane must be resistant to the reducing environment at the cathode as well as the harsh oxidative environment at the anode.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: Splitting of the hydrogen molecule is relatively easy by using a platinum catalyst. Unfortunately however, splitting the oxygen molecule is more difficult, and this causes significant electric losses. An appropriate catalyst material for this process has not been discovered, and platinum is the best option.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: PEMFCs have a thin, polymeric membrane as the electrolyte. This membrane is located in between the anode and cathode catalysts and allows the passage of protons to pass to the cathode while restricting the passage of electrons. Compared to liquid electrolytes, a polymeric membrane has a much lower chance of leakage [2]. The proton-exchange membrane is commonly made of materials such as perfluorosulfonic acid (PSFA) or Nafion, which minimize gas crossover and short circuiting of the fuel cell.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: Under extreme sub-freezing conditions, the water produced by fuel cells can freeze in porous layers and flow channels. This freezing water can block gas and fuel transport as well as cover catalyst reaction sites, resulting in a loss of output power and a start-up failure of the fuel cell.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: However, the low operating temperature of a PEM fuel cell allows it to reach a suitable temperature with less heating compared to other types of fuel cells. With this approach, PEM fuel cells have been shown to be capable of cold start processes from −20°C.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: PEM fuel cells have been shown to be capable of high energy densities up to 39.7 kW/kg, compared to 2.5 kW/kg for solid oxide fuel cells. Due to this high power density, much research is being done on potential applications in transportation as well as wearable technology.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: Water management is crucial to performance: if water is evaporated too slowly, it will flood the membrane and the accumulation of water inside of field flow plate will impede the flow of oxygen into the fuel cell, but if water evaporates too fast, the membrane will dry and the resistance across it increases. Both cases will cause damage to stability and power output. Water management is a very difficult subject in PEM systems, primarily because water in the membrane is attracted toward the cathode of the cell through polarization.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: A wide variety of solutions for managing the water exist including integration of an electroosmotic pump.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: Another innovative method to resolve the water recirculation problem is the 3D fine mesh flow field design used in the Toyota Mirai, 2014. Conventional design of FC stack recirculates water from the air outlet to the air inlet through a humidifier with a straight channel and porous metal flow fields.The flow field is a structure made up of a rib and channels. However, the rib partially covers the gas diffusion layer (GDL) and the resultant gas-transport distance is longer than the inter-channel distance. Furthermore, the contact pressure between the GDL and the rib also compresses the GDL, making its thickness non-uniform across the rib and channel. The large width and non-uniform thickness of the rib will increase potential for water vapor to accumulate and the oxygen will be compromised. As a result, oxygen will be impeded to diffuse into catalyst layer, leading to nonuniform power generation in the FC.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: This new design enabled the first FC stack functions without a humidifying system meanwhile overcoming water recirculation issues and achieving high power output stability. The 3D micro lattice allows more pathways for gas flow; therefore, it promotes airflow toward membrane electrode and gas diffusion layer assembly (MEGA) and promotes O2 diffusion to the catalyst layer. Unlike conventional flow fields, the 3D micro-lattices in the complex field, which act as baffles and induce frequent micro-scale interfacial flux between the GDL and flow-fields. Due to this repeating micro-scale convective flow, oxygen transport to catalyst layer (CL) and liquid water removal from GDL is significantly enhanced. The generated water is quickly drawn out through the flow field, preventing accumulation within the pores. As a result, the power generation from this flow field is uniform across the cross-section and self-humidification is enabled.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: The platinum catalyst on the membrane is easily poisoned by carbon monoxide, which is often present in product gases formed by methane reforming (no more than one part per million is usually acceptable). This generally necessitates the use of the water gas shift reaction to eliminate CO from product gases and form more hydrogen. Additionally, the membrane is sensitive to the presences of metal ions, which may impair proton conduction mechanisms and can be introduced by corrosion of metallic bipolar plates, metallic components in the fuel cell system or from contaminants in the fuel/oxidant.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: PEM systems that use reformed methanol were proposed, as in Daimler Chrysler Necar 5; reforming methanol, i.e. making it react to obtain hydrogen, is however a very complicated process, that also requires purification from the carbon monoxide the reaction produces. A platinum-ruthenium catalyst is necessary as some carbon monoxide will unavoidably reach the membrane. The level should not exceed 10 parts per million. Furthermore, the start-up times of such a reformer reactor are of about half an hour. Alternatively, methanol, and some other biofuels can be fed to a PEM fuel cell directly without being reformed, thus making a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). These devices operate with limited success.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: The most commonly used membrane is Nafion by Chemours, which relies on liquid water humidification of the membrane to transport protons. This implies that it is not feasible to use temperatures above 80 to 90 °C, since the membrane would dry. Other, more recent membrane types, based on polybenzimidazole (PBI) or phosphoric acid, can reach up to 220 °C without using any water management (see also High Temperature Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cell, HT-PEMFC): higher temperature allow for better efficiencies, power densities, ease of cooling (because of larger allowable temperature differences), reduced sensitivity to carbon monoxide poisoning and better controllability (because of absence of water management issues in the membrane); however, these recent types are not as common. PBI can be doped with phosphoric or sulfuric acid and the conductivity scales with amount of doping and temperature. At high temperatures, it is difficult to keep Nafion hydrated, but this acid doped material does not use water as a medium for proton conduction. It also exhibits better mechanical properties, higher strength, than Nafion and is cheaper. However, acid leaching is a considerable issue and processing, mixing with catalyst to form ink, has proved tricky. Aromatic polymers, such as PEEK, are far cheaper than Teflon (PTFE and backbone of Nafion) and their polar character leads to hydration that is less temperature dependent than Nafion. However, PEEK is far less ionically conductive than Nafion and thus is a less favorable electrolyte choice. Recently, protic ionic liquids and protic organic ionic plastic crystals have been shown as promising alternative electrolyte materials for high temperature (100–200 °C) PEMFCs.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: An electrode typically consists of carbon support, Pt particles, Nafion ionomer, and/or Teflon binder. The carbon support functions as an electrical conductor; the Pt particles are reaction sites; the ionomer provides paths for proton conduction, and the Teflon binder increases the hydrophobicity of the electrode to minimize potential flooding. In order to enable the electrochemical reactions at the electrodes, protons, electrons and the reactant gases (hydrogen or oxygen) must gain access to the surface of the catalyst in the electrodes, while the product water, which can be in either liquid or gaseous phase, or both phases, must be able to permeate from the catalyst to the gas outlet. These properties are typically realized by porous composites of polymer electrolyte binder (ionomer) and catalyst nanoparticles supported on carbon particles. Typically platinum is used as the catalyst for the electrochemical reactions at the anode and cathode, while nanoparticles realize high surface to weight ratios (as further described below) reducing the amount of the costly platinum. The polymer electrolyte binder provides the ionic conductivity, while the carbon support of the catalyst improves the electric conductivity and enables low platinum metal loading. The electric conductivity in the composite electrodes is typically more than 40 times higher as the proton conductivity.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: The GDL electrically connects the catalyst and current collector. It must be porous, electrically conductive, and thin. The reactants must be able to reach the catalyst, but conductivity and porosity can act as opposing forces. Optimally, the GDL should be composed of about one third Nafion or 15% PTFE. The carbon particles used in the GDL can be larger than those employed in the catalyst because surface area is not the most important variable in this layer. GDL should be around 15–35 µm thick to balance needed porosity with mechanical strength. Often, an intermediate porous layer is added between the GDL and catalyst layer to ease the transitions between the large pores in the GDL and small porosity in the catalyst layer. Since a primary function of the GDL is to help remove water, a product, flooding can occur when water effectively blocks the GDL. This limits the reactants ability to access the catalyst and significantly decreases performance. Teflon can be coated onto the GDL to limit the possibility of flooding. Several microscopic variables are analyzed in the GDLS such as: porosity, tortuosity and permeability. These variables have incidence over the behavior of the fuel cells.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: The maximal theoretical efficiency applying the Gibbs free energy equation ΔG = −237.13 kJ/mol and using the heating value of Hydrogen (ΔH = −285.84 kJ/mol) is 83% at 298 K.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: The external electrodes, often referred to as bipolar plates or backplates, serve to distribute fuel and oxygen uniformly to the catalysts, to remove water, to collect and transmit electrical current. Thus, they need to be in close contact with the catalyst. Because the plates are in contact with both PEM and catalyst layers, the backplate needs to be structurally tough and leakage-resistant in case of structural failure due to fuel cell vibration and temperature cycling. As fuel cells operate in wide ranges of temperatures and in highly reductive/oxidative environments, plates must have high surface tolerances over wide ranges of temperatures and should be chemically stable. Since the backplate accounts for more than ¾ of the fuel cell mass, the material must also be lightweight to maximize the energy density.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: Materials that fulfill all of these requirements are often very expensive. Gold has been shown to fulfill these criteria well, but is only used for small production volumes due to its high cost. Titanium nitride (TiN) is a cheaper material that is used in fuel cell backplates due to its high chemical stability, electrical conductivity, and corrosion resistance. However, defects in the TiN coating can easily lead to corrosion of the underlying material, most commonly steel.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: To perform their main function of distributing gas and fuel, these plates often have straight, parallel channels across its surface. However, this simple approach has led to issues such as uneven pressure distribution, water droplets blocking gas flow, and output power oscillations. Innovative approaches, such as nature-inspired fractal models and computer simulations are being explored to optimize the function of these bipolar plates.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a relatively new class of porous, highly crystalline materials that consist of metal nodes connected by organic linkers. Due to the simplicity of manipulating or substituting the metal centers and ligands, there are a virtually limitless number of possible combinations, which is attractive from a design standpoint. MOFs exhibit many unique properties due to their tunable pore sizes, thermal stability, high volume capacities, large surface areas, and desirable electrochemical characteristics. Among their many diverse uses, MOFs are promising candidates for clean energy applications such as hydrogen storage, gas separations, supercapacitors, Li-ion batteries, solar cells, and fuel cells. Within the field of fuel cell research, MOFs are being studied as potential electrolyte materials and electrode catalysts that could someday replace traditional polymer membranes and Pt catalysts, respectively.


title: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

text: As electrolyte materials, the inclusion of MOFs seems at first counter-intuitive. Fuel cell membranes generally have low porosity to prevent fuel crossover and loss of voltage between the anode and cathode. Additionally, membranes tend to have low crystallinity because the transport of ions is more favorable in disordered materials. On the other hand, pores can be filled with additional ion carriers that ultimately enhance the ionic conductivity of the system and high crystallinity makes the design process less complex.