title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: A planned Dutch attack on the English anchorage at Harwich led by De Ruyter had to be abandoned after the battle of Landguard Fort, at the close of the war. The Peace of Breda brought the war to an end.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: Between 1667 and 1671, de Ruyter was forbidden by de Witt to sail, so as not to endanger his life. In 1669, a failed attempt on his life was made by a Tromp supporter, who tried to stab him with a bread knife in the entrance hall of his house.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: The Treaty of Breda which ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War in July 1667 failed to remove the root causes of the long-standing Anglo-Dutch rivalry, which included colonial quarrels, including the exclusion of the English traders from Dutch colonies and the English occupation of the former Dutch New Netherland colony, and English enforcement of the Navigation Act. Although tensions between the two nations lessened between 1668 and 1670, the desire of Louis XIV to acquire all or a substantial part of the Spanish Netherlands and neutralise the Dutch Republic, led to his subsidising Charles II and to an unprovoked and unsuccessful English attack on the Dutch Smyrna fleet in March 1672. An English declaration of war against the Netherlands in the same month began the Third Anglo-Dutch War, and this was followed by a French declaration of war against the Dutch in May 1672.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: Shortly thereafter, a combined Anglo-French fleet was formed, commanded by James, Duke of York the Lord High Admiral of England with 62 major warships and Jean, Comte d'Estrées with 30 major warships forming the van squadron.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: The Dutch were surprised by these events but eventually managed to prepare a strong fleet of 75 ships under De Ruyter. However, because delays in his fleet mustering, he was unable to realise his plan of preventing the junction of the English and French fleets to create a force superior to his, so he used three different strategies to meet changing situations in the following two years. Firstly, he aimed to inflict sufficient damage on the English ships to require their lengthy repairs in the congested English dockyards, as in his attack at Solebay. Allied to this, when de Ruyter detected the French fleet's reluctance to become involved in close-quarters fighting, he detached small squadrons in each major sea battle to keep the French out of the main action, concentrating his attack on the English fleet with only slightly inferior numbers. Thirdly, he used the shelter of the shoals, which the larger of the allied ships had to avoid, as a safe haven, keeping the Dutch fleet intact until he could attack the allied fleet at a time and under conditions of his own choosing. In this way, he prevented the English and French fleets from creating the conditions needed to land an invasion force.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: After initially withdrawing into shoal waters near the Netherlands coast until the combined Anglo-French fleet retired to replenish its water, de Ruyter attacked its 92 ships on 7 June 1672 at the Battle of Solebay. The Dutch fleet concentrated on the English rear squadron, while the French van of 30 ships steered away from the main action, engaging only in long-range fire with the 10 major and five small Dutch ships of Adriaen Banckert's squadron from the Admiralty of Zeeland. Although the battle was tactically indecisive, it disrupted Anglo-French plans to blockade Dutch ports and land soldiers on the Dutch coast, and also created dissention between the allies, so was a strategic victory for De Ruyter. D'Estrées was condemned, both by the English fleet and some of his own officers for steering away from the Dutch and failing to engage them closely.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: The war on land went badly for the Dutch in 1672, which they called the Rampjaar or "disaster year", and this led to the resignation and then murder of Johan de Witt in August 1672 and the replacement of republicans by Orangists. De Ruyter was saddened by the killings of his friends, De Witt and his brother, but agreed to continue serving as commander of the fleet. He made an attempt to blockade the English fleet in the Thames with 30 ships in May 1673 but it had already put to sea, so he decided to rendezvous with the rest of the Dutch fleet in the coastal waters of the Schooneveld, where by late May he had assembled a fleet of 50 large ships together with frigates and fireships, 64 in total. These restricted waters neutralised the numerical advantages of the allied fleet, which had 81 ships of the line and several frigates, in the two Battles of the Schooneveld of 1673, he manoeuvered skillfully to damage the allied fleets sufficiently to force them to end their blockade of Dutch ports. Finally, at the Battle of Texel in August that year, De Ruyter's smaller fleet prevented the larger allied fleet landing troops on the Dutch coast and forced it to retreat. After the Battle of Texel, d'Estrées was accused by Prince Rupert of the Rhine, commanding the English fleet, of betraying it by fighting at long range against no more than ten Dutch ships. D'Estrées admitted later that Louis XIV had ordered him to protect the French fleet, in case England should make peace with the Dutch.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: The new rank of lieutenant-admiral general was created especially for de Ruyter in February 1673, when the new stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland, William III of Orange, became admiral-general. Although successive Princes of Orange, when stadtholder, generally commanded the Dutch army in person as its captain-general, they never took command of the Dutch fleet as admiral-general.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: By the end of 1673, English popular opposition to the war and to the French alliance, the changes in government policy and the likelihood that parliament would not continue to provide war funding inclined Charles II towards peace with Holland and ending his alliance with France. After relatively brief negotiations, the Treaty of Westminster ending the war was ratified in March 1674.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: The English withdrawal did not end naval engagements in the Franco-Dutch War. As Louis XIV did not wish to send his main fleet against the more powerful Dutch, de Ruyter was first instructed to use his fleet in support in a 'descent' on the French Channel and Biscay coasts, in which the appearance of the fleet would create a threat of landings or an invasion, aiming to divert French forces from the Spanish Netherlands and the Rhine.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: In a further attempt to relieve pressure on the Netherlands, he was next ordered to take the fight against the French to the Caribbean. He arrived off Fort Royal, Martinique aboard his flagship on 19 July 1674, leading a substantial force of eighteen warships, nine storeships, and fifteen troop transports bearing 3,400 soldiers. However, although his destination was supposed to be secret, news had leaked out and had been sent to the French governor, which allowed the greatly outnumbered French defenders time to prepare a strong defensive position. When the Dutch troops went ashore the next day to attempt an assault on Fort Royal, they suffered significant casualties in their attempt to reach the French fortifications, including the loss of most of their senior officers, and they returned to the fleet with 143 killed and 318 wounded, compared to only 15 French defenders lost. With the element of surprise lost, and with disease spreading aboard his ships, de Ruyter decided against further attacks and returned to Europe.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: In July 1674, the Messina revolt broke against Spanish rule and the people of Messina asked for French protection. A small French squadron sent there in September 1674, but it withdrew before the year end in the face of a more numerous Spanish force. A stronger French force and supply convoy managed to break through the Spanish blockade and defeat the more numerous Spanish fleet in a battle off the Lipari Islands on 11 February 1675, ending the Spanish blockade of Messina, so the Spanish then asked for Dutch assistance. De Ruyter was sent to the Mediterranean later in 1675 with eighteen larger warships and a number of smaller vessels, although these vessels were not fully manned. De Ruyter thought the force that had been provided was insufficient for the task, and the shortage of money to repair damaged ships or build new ones or to recruit and pay sufficient sailors as the war continued was now a major problem for the Dutch fleet.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: After a delay of two months on the Spanish coast waiting for the supplies and a supporting squadron promised by the Spanish authorities, De Ruyter sailed for Sicily at the year end with only one Spanish ship added to his fleet of 18 Dutch warships. When he arrived in Sicily in early January 1676, most of the larger French warships were absent from Messina with Duquesne, who was escorting a reprovisioning convoy to Sicily, and only some smaller French ships remained at Messina. However, de Ruyter was unable to attack the city because of contrary winds and, on 7 January 1676, while cruising near the Lipari Islands and accompanied by several Spanish galleys, he encountered the French fleet led by Duquesne the convoy. Although both fleets had similar numbers of ships, the French fleet was more powerful, with 1,500 guns against 1,200 for the Dutch and no fighting took place on 7 January, when De ruyter held the weather gauge. However, the wind strengthened overnight, forcing the Spanish galleys to seek shelter, and veered to a west-southwesterly direction that favoured the French. Duquesne therefore sent the convoy ahead and prepared to attack the Dutch.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: During the Battle of Stromboli on 8 January 1676, Duquesne's ships steered obliquely towards the Dutch fleet, which exposed them to Dutch broadside fire: De Ruyter's van and centre maintained their distance by gradually giving way, keeping their French opponents under heavy gunfire and causing significant damage and casualties. The French van squadron was disordered, and two of its ships had to pull out of line of battle, until Duquesne managed to restore order. He then tried several times to break the Dutch line, although De Ruyter's close linear formation and the weight of Dutch broadsides prevented this. After several hours fighting, the wind had become very light and the French ceased their attacks. De Ruyter disengaged and took his fleet into Milazzo with three badly damaged ships towed there by Spanish galleys. He had successfully defended his inferior fleet in a tactically disadvantageous leeward position and inflicted significant damage on the French fleet.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: During the night, the wind strengthened again, and Duquesne was joined by eight ships from Messina, but the next day the Spanish squadron was sighted and Duquesne did not wish to fight an action against superior numbers in the Straits of Messina, so he took his convoy right around Sicily, bringing it into Messina without further fighting. The combined Dutch-Spanish fleet sailed to Palermo for repairs, and there were no further fleet actions for several months.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: After the Battle of Stromboli, de Ruyter was joined by a Spanish squadron and relinquished command of the combined fleet to the Spanish admiral, Don Francisco de la Cerda. In order to attack Messina, the allies had to defeat the French fleet, and they decided to attack Augusta to force the French warships to leave Messina harbour. The attack on Augusta had the desired effect, and on 22 April 1676, the two fleets met north of Augusta. De Ruyter commanded the van squadron, the Spanish ships formed the centre, with another Dutch squadrons in the van rear. There were 29 French ships of the line and 13 Dutch warships, not all fit to fight in line. Jenkins mentions between ten and fourteen Spanish warships, besides frigates and fireships, supporting the Dutch, and the French fleet was superior in firepower as well as numbers.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: The battle largely consisted of a fierce fight between the two vans, as the Spanish centre remained at long range from its French counterpart, with some ships in the rear squadrons also engaging each other. The inactivity of the Spanish centre enabled the leading ships of Duquesne's centre to attack on de Ruyter's outnumbered van squadron although the Dutch withstood these attacks, and de Ruyter attacked Duquesne's ship with the intention of boarding it, but was prevented when two French ships went to their admiral's assistance. At the end of the battle, de Ruyter was able to extract his squadron by his own seamanship and the assistance of the Dutch rear squadron.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: During the course of the Dutch van squadron's disengagement from fighting, de Ruyter was fatally wounded when a cannonball struck him in the leg, and he died a week later at Syracuse. It is recorded that his French opponents honoured him by firing salutes as the ship carrying his embalmed body to the Netherlands passed the French fleet. On 18 March 1677, de Ruyter was given an elaborate state funeral. On that occasion, the Amsterdam professor Petrus Francius recited a Latin farewell poem of nearly a thousand hexameters. His body was buried in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam. The praal tomb completed in 1681, designed and created by the Flemish sculptor Rombout Verhulst, is on display in the Nieuwe Kerk. He was succeeded as supreme commander by Cornelis Tromp in 1679.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: De Ruyter was highly respected by his sailors and soldiers, who used the term of endearment "bestevaêr" ("grandfather") for him, both because of his disregard for hierarchy, as he was himself of humble origin, and his refusal to turn away from risky and bold undertakings, despite his usually cautious nature.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: He is honoured by a statue in his birthplace, Vlissingen, which stands looking over the sea. Multiple towns in the Netherlands have a street named after him. Respect also extended far beyond the borders of the republic. The town of Debrecen erected a statue of him for his role in persuading the Spanish viceroy of Naples to free 26 Protestant Hungarian ministers from slavery in the Spanish galleys during his service in Sicily.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: Six Royal Netherlands Navy ships have been named ; seven are named after his flagship, . De Ruyter was involved in the founding of the Netherlands Marine Corps, established on 10 December 1665. The intended new base for the marine corps, which was to be built in de Ruyter's birthplace of Vlissingen, completed by 2020 and to be named "Michiel de Ruyter Kazerne" was cancelled over financial concerns and fears that many marines would leave the service rather than transfer to Zeeland.


title: Michiel de Ruyter

text: The town of DeRuyter, New York, United States, and a village of the same name within the town are both named after the admiral.


title: Karakum Desert

text: The Karakum Desert, also spelled Kara-Kum and Gara-Gum (, ; ), is a desert in Central Asia. Its name in Turkic languages means "black sand": "" means sand; "" is a contraction of : "dark" or may pre-date that (be a derivation from a likely broader meaning which the word for black bore: ) in this language family. This refers to the shale-rich sand generally beneath the sand of much of the desert. It occupies about 70 percent, , of Turkmenistan.


title: Karakum Desert

text: The population is sparse, with an average of one person per . Rainfall is also rare, ranging from per year.


title: Karakum Desert

text: The desert covers roughly seventy percent of Turkmenistan, a long east–west swath. It sits east of the Caspian Sea which has a steep east bank. It adjoins, to the north, the long delta feeding the South Aral Sea further north, another endorheic lake, about higher than the Caspian Sea. The delta is that of the Amu Darya river to the northeast, demarcating the long border with the Kyzylkum Desert of Uzbekistan. The desert is divided into three regions, the eleveated northern Trans-Unguz Karakum, the low-lying Central Karakum, and the southeastern Karakum, home to a chain of salt marshes. Since the early 1980s, the relatively small desert extension, the Aralkum, has come to occupy most of the former seabed of the Aral Sea, about . The sea has fluctuated over millennia, but its majority loss during the Soviet Union's existence coincided with great irrigation projects. The North Aral Sea was partly restored, but the South Aral Sea ebbed to a small-size stasis at its river mouth, which itself dried up by 2014, leaving only fragments of the former sea behind, such as Barsakelmes Lake.


title: Karakum Desert

text: Within the north-west edge of the desert used to be a river. In the late Pleistocene, the Amu Darya used to flow beyond the Aral Basin to Sarykamysh Lake then to the Caspian Sea. Sedimentation and floods during a pluvial period led to overflow to the Zeravshan River valley to the east. The two flows merged and formed or expanded Horezm Lake, which had been formed by the earlier Khvalinian period, and as it overflowed northwards it carved its link with the Aral Sea along the Akcha Dar'ya population corridor of that low, gentle valley (a remote community of Western Uzbekistan and north-east Turkmenistan).


title: Karakum Desert

text: The sands of the Aral Karakum are made of finely-dispersed evaporites and remnants of alkaline mineral deposits, washed into the basin from irrigated fields.


title: Karakum Desert

text: Wildlife in this area is not very diverse and includes insects such as ants, termites, ticks, spiders, dung beetles, and darkling beetles. Lizards, turtles, and snakes also live in the Karakum. Bird species include "Alauda", desert sparrows, and other species, while rodents include jerboas and gophers. The tolai hare, goitered gazelle, and corsac fox are examples of mammal species in the Karakum Desert.


title: Karakum Desert

text: The Karakum Desert is home to the Darvaza gas crater. Also called the "Door to Hell" or the "Gates of Hell" by locals, it is a crater of natural gas that has been burning since 1971. The crater is a major tourist attraction, with hundreds of visitors arriving each year.


title: Karakum Desert

text: To the south the Murghab and Tejen rivers flow out of the Hindu Kush mountains, flow west, and empty into the desert, providing water for irrigation.


title: Karakum Desert

text: The desert is crossed by the second-largest irrigation canal in the world, the Karakum Canal, which brings water from the Amu Darya to southern regions of the desert. Construction on the canal was started in 1954 and completed in 1958. It is in length, and carries 13-20 km³ of water annually.


title: Karakum Desert

text: Within the Karakum are the Uly Balkan, a mountain range in which archaeologists have found human remains dating back to the Stone Age.


title: Stiletto heel

text: A stiletto heel, or just stiletto, is a shoe with a long, thin, high heel. It is named after the stiletto dagger.


title: Stiletto heel

text: Stiletto heels may vary in length from 2.5 centimetres (1 inch) to 25 cm (10 inches) or more if a platform sole is used, and are sometimes defined as having a diameter at the ground of less than 1 cm (slightly less than half an inch). Stiletto-style heels or shorter are called kitten heels.


title: Stiletto heel

text: High-heeled shoes were worn by men and women courtiers until the French Revolution. When high heels came back in style in the late 1800s, they were worn only by women. The stiletto heel came with the advent of technology using a supporting metal shaft or stem embedded into the heel, instead of wood or other, weaker materials that required a wide heel. Italian shoe designer Salvatore Ferragamo paved the way for stilettos by inventing the steel arch. Some historians also credit him with inventing the stiletto heel, while others credit French fashion designer Charles Jourdan. French designers such as Roger Vivier and André Perugia popularized the stiletto design in the 1950s, which quickly spread across Europe and the United States.


title: Stiletto heel

text: After an initial wave of popularity in the 1950s, the heels reached their most refined shape in the early 1960s, when the toes of the shoes which bore them became as slender and elongated as the stiletto heels themselves. As a result of the overall sharpness of outline, it was customary for women to refer to the whole shoe as a "stiletto", not just the heel, via synecdoche ("pars pro toto"). Although they faded from the scene after the Beatles era began, their popularity continued at street level, and women stubbornly refused to give them up even after they could no longer readily find them in the mainstream shops. A version of the stiletto heel was reintroduced in 1974 by Manolo Blahnik, who dubbed his "new" heel the "Needle". Similar heels were stocked at the big Biba store in London, by Russell & Bromley and by smaller boutiques. Old, unsold stocks of pointed-toe stilettos and contemporary efforts to replicate them (lacking the true stiletto heel because of changes in the way heels were by then being mass-produced) were sold in street fashion markets and became popular with punks and with other fashion "tribes" of the late 1970s until supplies of the inspirational original styles dwindled in the early 1980s. Subsequently, round-toe shoes with slightly thicker (sometimes cone-shaped) semi-stiletto heels, often very high in an attempt to convey slenderness were frequently worn at the office with wide-shouldered power suits. The style survived through much of the 1980s but almost completely disappeared during the 1990s when professional and college-age women took to wearing shoes with thick, block heels. The slender stiletto heel staged a major comeback after 2000 when young women adopted the style for dressing up office wear or adding a feminine touch to casual wear, like jeans.


title: Stiletto heel

text: Stilettos, like all similar high-heeled shoes, give the optical illusion of a longer, slimmer leg, a smaller foot, and overall greater height. They alter the wearer's posture and gait, flexing the calf muscles and making the bust and buttocks more prominent.


title: Stiletto heel

text: Stiletto heels are particularly associated with the image of the "femme fatale". They are often considered to be a seductive item of clothing, and are even fetishized as an erotic object by some.


title: Stiletto heel

text: All high heels counter the natural functionality of the foot, sometimes causing skeletal and muscular problems if users wear them excessively; such shoes are a common cause of venous complaints such as pain, fatigue, and heavy-feeling legs, and have been found to provoke venous hypertension in the lower limbs. Despite their impracticality and fluctuating demand, they persist as a fashion option.


title: Stiletto heel

text: Stiletto heels concentrate a large amount of force into a small area. The great pressure under such a heel, which is greater than that under the feet of an elephant, can cause damage to carpets and floors. The stiletto heel, unless equipped with a "heel stopper" to enlarge the floor contact area, can be impractical for outdoor wear on soft ground (such as grass, sand or mud), or in environments where floor damage is unacceptable.


title: Mosfilm

text: Mosfilm (, "Mosfil’m" ) is a film studio which is among the largest and oldest in the Russian Federation and in Europe. Founded in 1924 in the USSR as a production unit of that nation's film monopoly, its output includes most of the more widely acclaimed Soviet-era films, ranging from works by Andrei Tarkovsky and Sergei Eisenstein, to Red Westerns, to the Akira Kurosawa co-production "Dersu Uzala" () and the epic "War and Peace" ().


title: Mosfilm

text: The Moscow film production company with studio facilities was established in November 1920 by the motion picture mogul Aleksandr Khanzhonkov ("first film factory") and I. Ermolev ("third film factory") as a unit of Goskino, the USSR's film monopoly. The first movie filmed by Mosfilm was "On the Wings Skyward" (directed by Boris Mikhin).


title: Mosfilm

text: In 1927, the construction of a new film studio complex began on Potylikha Street (renamed to Mosfilmovskaya Street in 1939) in Sparrow Hills of Moscow. This film studio was named after the "Moscow amalgamated factory Soyuzkino "Tenth Anniversary of October Revolution"". In 1934, the film studio was renamed to "Moskinokombinat", and in 1936 was relaunched under the "Mosfilm" name, the name it carries till today. During World War II the film studio personnel were evacuated to Alma-Ata (August 1941) and merged with other Soviet production units into the "Central United Film Studio" ("TsOKS"). The Mosfilm personnel returned to Moscow at the end of 1943.


title: Mosfilm

text: The Mosfilm intro, representing the monument "Worker and Kolkhoz Woman" by Vera Mukhina and Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin, was introduced in 1947 in the musical comedy "Springtime" directed by Grigori Aleksandrov and starring Lyubov Orlova and Nikolai Cherkasov.


title: Mosfilm

text: By the time the Soviet Union was no more, Mosfilm had produced more than 3,000 films. Some of these motion pictures were granted international awards at international film festivals.


title: Mosfilm

text: After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Mosfilm continued operations as a quasi-private production company, led by film director Karen Shakhnazarov. As of 2005, the company embraced ten independent studios, located within 13 sound stages occupying an area of 13,000 sq. meters. Tours through this "Russian Hollywood" included a view of Mosfilm's enormous depot with 170 tanks and 50 vintage cars. The biggest sound stage is leased annually to hold the Golden Eagle Awards.


title: Immunofluorescence

text: Immunofluorescence is a technique used for light microscopy with a fluorescence microscope and is used primarily on microbiological samples. This technique uses the specificity of antibodies to their antigen to target fluorescent dyes to specific biomolecule targets within a cell, and therefore allows visualization of the distribution of the target molecule through the sample. The specific region an antibody recognizes on an antigen is called an epitope. There have been efforts in epitope mapping since many antibodies can bind the same epitope and levels of binding between antibodies that recognize the same epitope can vary. Additionally, the binding of the fluorophore to the antibody itself cannot interfere with the immunological specificity of the antibody or the binding capacity of its antigen. Immunofluorescence is a widely used example of immunostaining (using antibodies to stain proteins) and is a specific example of immunohistochemistry (the use of the antibody-antigen relationship in tissues). This technique primarily makes use of fluorophores to visualise the location of the antibodies.


title: Immunofluorescence

text: Immunofluorescence can be used on tissue sections, cultured cell lines, or individual cells, and may be used to analyze the distribution of proteins, glycans, and small biological and non-biological molecules. This technique can even be used to visualize structures such as intermediate-sized filaments. If the topology of a cell membrane has yet to be determined, epitope insertion into proteins can be used in conjunction with immunofluorescence to determine structures. Immunofluorescence can also be used as a "semi-quantitative" method to gain insight into the levels and localization patterns of DNA methylation since it is a more time-consuming method than true quantitative methods and there is some subjectivity in the analysis of the levels of methylation. Immunofluorescence can be used in combination with other, non-antibody methods of fluorescent staining, for example, use of DAPI to label DNA. Several microscope designs can be used for analysis of immunofluorescence samples; the simplest is the epifluorescence microscope, and the confocal microscope is also widely used. Various super-resolution microscope designs that are capable of much higher resolution can also be used.


title: Immunofluorescence

text: To make fluorochrome-labeled antibodies, a fluorochrome must be conjugated ("tagged") to the antibody. Likewise, an antigen can also be conjugated to the antibody with a fluorescent probe in a technique called fluorescent antigen technique. Staining procedures can apply to both fixed antigen in the cytoplasm or to cell surface antigens on living cells, called "membrane immunofluorescence". It is also possible to label the complement of the antibody-antigen complex with a fluorescent probe. In addition to the element to which fluorescence probes are attached, there are two general classes of immunofluorescence techniques: primary and secondary. The following descriptions will focus primarily on these classes in terms of conjugated antibodies.


title: Immunofluorescence

text: There are two classes of immunofluorescence techniques, primary (or direct) and secondary (or indirect).


title: Immunofluorescence

text: Primary (direct) immunofluorescence uses a single, primary antibody, chemically linked to a fluorophore. The primary antibody recognizes the target molecule (antigen) and binds to a specific region called the epitope. This is accomplished by a process which manipulates the immune response of organism with adaptive immunity. The attached fluorophore can be detected via fluorescent microscopy, which, depending on the messenger used, will emit a specific wavelength of light once excited. Direct immunofluorescence, although somewhat less common, has notable advantages over the secondary (indirect) procedure. The direct attachment of the messenger to the antibody reduces the number of steps in the procedure, saving time and reducing non-specific background signal. This also limits the possibility of antibody cross-reactivity and possible mistakes throughout the process. However, some disadvantages do exist in this method. Since the number of fluorescent molecules that can be bound to the primary antibody is limited, direct immunofluorescence is substantially less sensitive than indirect immunofluorescence and may result in false negatives. Direct immunofluorescence also requires the use of much more primary antibody, which is extremely expensive, sometimes running up to $400.00/mL.


title: Immunofluorescence

text: Secondary (indirect) immunofluorescence uses two antibodies; the unlabeled first (primary) antibody specifically binds the target molecule, and the secondary antibody, which carries the fluorophore, recognizes the primary antibody and binds to it. Multiple secondary antibodies can bind a single primary antibody. This provides signal amplification by increasing the number of fluorophore molecules per antigen. This protocol is more complex and time-consuming than the primary (or direct) protocol above, but allows more flexibility because a variety of different secondary antibodies and detection techniques can be used for a given primary antibody.


title: Immunofluorescence

text: This protocol is possible because an antibody consists of two parts, a variable region (which recognizes the antigen) and constant region (which makes up the structure of the antibody molecule). It is important to realize that this division is artificial and in reality the antibody molecule is four polypeptide chains: two heavy chains and two light chains. A researcher can generate several primary antibodies that recognize various antigens (have different variable regions), but all share the same constant region. All these antibodies may therefore be recognized by a single secondary antibody. This saves the cost of modifying the primary antibodies to directly carry a fluorophore.


title: Immunofluorescence

text: Different primary antibodies with different constant regions are typically generated by raising the antibody in different species. For example, a researcher might create primary antibodies in a goat that recognize several antigens, and then employ dye-coupled rabbit secondary antibodies that recognize the goat antibody constant region ("rabbit anti-goat" antibodies). The researcher may then create a second set of primary antibodies in a mouse that could be recognized by a separate "donkey anti-mouse" secondary antibody. This allows re-use of the difficult-to-make dye-coupled antibodies in multiple experiments.


title: Immunofluorescence

text: As with most fluorescence techniques, a significant problem with immunofluorescence is photobleaching. Loss of activity caused by photobleaching can be controlled by reducing or limiting the intensity or time-span of light exposure, by increasing the concentration of fluorophores, or by employing more robust fluorophores that are less prone to bleaching (e.g., Alexa Fluors, Seta Fluors, or DyLight Fluors). Some problems that may arise from this technique include autofluorescence, extraneous undesired specific fluorescence, and nonspecific fluorescence. Autofluorescence includes fluorescence emitted from the sample tissue or cell itself. Extraneous undesired specific fluorescence occurs when a targeted antigen is impure and contains antigenic contaminants. Nonspecific fluorescence involves the loss of a probe's specificity due to fluorophore, from improper fixation, or from a dried out specimen.


title: Immunofluorescence

text: Immunofluorescence is only limited to fixed (i.e., dead) cells when structures within the cell are to be visualized because antibodies do not penetrate the cell membrane when reacting with fluorescent labels. Antigenic material must be fixed firmly on the site of its natural localization inside the cell. Intact antibodies can also be too large to dye cancer cells "in vivo". Their size results in slow tumor penetration and long circulating half-life. Research has been done investigating the use of diabodies to get around this limitation. Proteins in the supernatant or on the outside of the cell membrane can be bound by the antibodies; this allows for living cells to be stained. Depending on the fixative that is being used, proteins of interest might become cross-linked and this could result in either false positive or false negative signals due to non-specific binding.


title: Immunofluorescence

text: An alternative approach is using recombinant proteins containing fluorescent protein domains, e.g., green fluorescent protein (GFP). Use of such "tagged" proteins allows determination of their localization in live cells. Even though this seems to be an elegant alternative to immunofluorescence, the cells have to be transfected or transduced with the GFP-tag, and as a consequence they become at least S1 or above organisms that require stricter security standards in a laboratory. This technique involves altering the genetic information of cells.


title: Immunofluorescence

text: Many improvements to this method lie in the improvement of fluorescent microscopes and fluorophores. Super-resolution methods generally refer to a microscope's ability to produce resolution below the Abbe limit (a limit placed on light due to its wavelength). This diffraction limit is about 200-300 nm in the lateral direction and 500-700 nm in the axial direction. This limit is comparable or larger than some structures in the cell, and consequently, this limit prevented scientists from determining details in their structure. Super-resolution in fluorescence, more specifically, refers to the ability of a microscope to prevent the simultaneous fluorescence of adjacent spectrally identical fluorophores. This process effectively sharpens the point-spread function of the microscope. Examples of recently developed super-resolution fluorescent microscope methods include stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy, saturated structured-illumination microscopy (SSIM), fluorescence photoactivation localization microscopy (FPALM), and stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM).


title: ESP Guitars

text: In 1975, Hisatake Shibuya opened a shop called Electric Sound Products (ESP) in Tokyo, Japan, which provided custom replacement parts for guitars. At this time, ESP also began making guitars under the ESP and Navigator brand in the Japanese market.


title: ESP Guitars

text: ESP replacement parts were first introduced into the US in 1983 and began crafting custom instruments for local New York artists between 1984 and 1985. Among these artists were Page Hamilton (Helmet), Vernon Reid (Living Colour), Vinnie Vincent and Bruce Kulick (KISS), Sid McGinnis of "Late Night with David Letterman" and Ronnie Wood (The Rolling Stones). At this time, ESP also introduced the 400 Series as the first production line to be distributed in the US.


title: ESP Guitars

text: During this same period, ESP began making the bodies and necks for Kramer Guitars and other manufacturers were using ESP as an OEM such as Robin Guitars, Schecter Guitar Research and DiMarzio. Many traits of the Kramer line are still visible including neck construction and body bevels. ESP tooled up for Tom Anderson's shaved bolt on neck heel on the Schecter bodies and this has since become a feature of their house brand.


title: ESP Guitars

text: In 1985, George Lynch discovered ESP while on tour in Tokyo. Lynch walked into an ESP shop looking for a replacement neck and learned that ESP also built custom guitars. As a result, his famous ESP Kamikaze was made and ESP released George Lynch's Kamikaze as its first signature model. ESP soon introduced the M1 Standard, MI Custom, Horizon Custom, and the Surveyor bass.


title: ESP Guitars

text: At this time, ESP based its headquarters in a loft in downtown New York City on 19th Street. In 1989, the headquarters were moved to 48th Street near other music stores.


title: ESP Guitars

text: Between 1990 and 1992, ESP expanded its Signature Series as well as its standard product line. The US replacement parts business was discontinued in order to focus solely on their guitar and bass line, as well as the Custom Shop series. There are about 41 signature series guitars.


title: ESP Guitars

text: In 1993, ESP moved its headquarters again but this time to Los Angeles, on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood. In 1995, the LTD series was created to produce ESP's high-quality products at a more affordable price. Soon after the introduction of the Korean and Indonesian-made LTD lines, ESP stopped selling the majority of its Japanese-made flagship guitars in the United States, due to the high prices involved in exporting to the Americas. The lone exception was ESP's artist signature series, which remained ESP (rather than LTD) models. In the early 2000s (decade), ESP resumed exporting the standard Japanese-made lines to the United States (where they are popular among heavy metal and hard rock players), though at greatly increased prices compared to the early 1990s.


title: ESP Guitars

text: Similarly to Ibanez, ESP's chief competitor in Japan, ESP was initially known for making high-quality and customized replicas of famous American guitars, including hot rodded Strats and Teles, as well as Gibson Explorers. The Explorer model, (known as the EXP/MX), shot to fame when avid ESP user James Hetfield's band Metallica rose to popularity in the late 80s/early 90s. Models similar to Hetfield's black ESP even today sell for thousands of dollars beyond the original retail price. However, just like with Ibanez, when the Gibson company realized the extent to which ESP was denting into sales of its own guitars, it filed a suit to prevent sales of these guitars in the Americas. ESP redesigned its lines to be less similar to the American models.


title: ESP Guitars

text: In 2002, ESP was ranked among the music industry's fastest-growing companies. This is largely due to the Fender buyout of Jackson Guitars, who ESP had struggled to compete with throughout the 1980s and 1990s. After the buyout, many Jackson endorsers switched over to ESP (this has ignited a feud between players, with Jackson players pointing out that ESP became known for copying popular instruments, including Jackson's Soloist and Gibson's Explorer models famously used by Jeff Hanneman and James Hetfield respectively, while ESP players cite the Fender buyout as casting a shadow on Jackson's metal image and hail ESP as the new king). Some of these artists who left Jackson for ESP included Dave Mustaine (Megadeth, now using Dean Guitars, who at one point had expressed interest in buying out Jackson), as well as Adam Darski (Behemoth), Alexi Laiho and Roope Latvala (Children of Bodom), Jeff Hanneman (Slayer), Galder and Silenoz (Dimmu Borgir).


title: ESP Guitars

text: ESP introduced its Xtone line, beginning with the semi-hollow Paramount Series. In 2005, ESP celebrated its 30th Anniversary and released James Hetfield's "Truckster" into its Signature Series. In 2006, ESP showcased 22 of its newest Signature Series and Standard Series models at Winter NAMM 2006. The Standard Series included models such as the ESP LTD EC-500 and the ESP LTD B-500. Among the signature artists showcasing their newest ESP models and signing autographs at the ESP booth were Dave Mustaine, George Lynch, Stephen Carpenter (Deftones), Michael Wilton and Page Hamilton.


title: ESP Guitars

text: Original series and Custom Shop ESPs are handcrafted in Japan while the Standard Series ESPs are factory-made in Japan.


title: ESP Guitars

text: In 1996, ESP started its "LTD" series. These guitars are similar to lower-end ESP guitars, but are more affordable and cater mainly for markets outside Japan. The 1000 series LTDs are made on an assembly line in Korea whereas the 401 series and below are made in Indonesia.


title: ESP Guitars

text: LTD basses are instruments mainly aimed at beginners. Over the years manufacturing has moved between various locations, including Vietnam, China and Indonesia. Intermediate models were manufactured in Korea in the early 2000s (decade). The quality from these has led to continued demand for the LTD series.


title: ESP Guitars

text: Additionally, ESP has two separate Japan-only lines of guitars, the Grassroots (lower end) and Edwards (Mid-range). The Grassroots line is manufactured in Korea and are the equivalent or better than the Sub-400 series LTDs and can be considered a budget line. The Edwards guitars, on the other hand, are made in Japan and boast similar hardware as their higher-end ESP counterparts but are not handcrafted. In terms of quality, in contrast to the USA lines (i.e. ESP Standard & LTD), the Edwards line generally lies in between the more upmarket LTDs and ESP Standards.


title: ESP Guitars

text: ESP guitars cater to a wide range of players. There are a variety of models including Superstrat-styled guitars, Les Paul-styled guitars, Flying V-styled, Star-shaped and others. ESP technically has two lines, one for USA and Japan, but there are slight differences. The ESP USA line doesn't include the Strat-like Snapper, the Forest GT, as well as some of the Japanese rock artist models but their custom line has been known to produce some of the most unusual designs such as a "Gundam" Beam-rifle replica guitar, as well as the "ESP Machinegun" used by the Japanese band Alfee.


title: ESP Guitars

text: ESP not only make guitars, they also produce various hardware parts themselves, like bass bridges or the ESP Flicker tremolo, ESP Labs Pickups, as well as sustainers, equalizers, etc. Usually these parts are only available for OEM use and not to the ordinary customer.


title: ESP Guitars

text: ESP found fame by making and endorsing guitars for guitarists who went on to become leading exponents of thrash metal in the 1980s, along with other guitar manufacturers Jackson and Dean, with bands Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth. As a result of these endorsements, ESP has become one of the most popular suppliers of guitars for heavy metal. ESP instruments are endorsed by musicians numbering in the hundreds. A complete list of them can be found on the Artists section of ESP Guitars' website.


title: ESP Guitars

text: The bass signatures by J, founder of Luna Sea, are one of the most influential models manufactured by ESP, with over 50,000 copies sold. From the same band, Sugizo also contributed significantly to the brand with his design ideas.


title: ESP Guitars

text: Dependent on the target market (i.e. Asia, US, Europe) and brand (ESP, LTD or Xtone), various models are organized in marketing series.


title: ESP Guitars

text: The ESP Original series has three other lines of guitars, the Edwards, Grassroots and Navigator series and are largely based on these models as well as some ESP Standard series Models. ESP Edwards Series produces mid-to-high range guitars, at a quality near the ESP Standard series, whilst ESP Grass Roots Series cater towards a more value-oriented segment of the market and are more akin to the 400 series of LTDs, however these can vary. The ESP Navigator Series on the other hand is a line which produces mainly replicas of Gibson and Fender guitars and basses, to a very high standard.


title: ESP Guitars

text: ESP USA features the ESP Standard line (which was replaced in 2014 by E-II), as well as the lower end LTD and Xtone series. ESP USA's standard series generally caters more towards to metal players, with characteristics such as active pickups.


title: ESP Guitars

text: Another line of guitars, called LTD Elite, was introduced in 2013 for overseas markets, as the ESP Standard line was slowly being phased out. LTD Elite guitars are made in Japan, and initially offered alongside the ESP standard replacement brand E-II in the export market in 2013 while a limited range of ESP Standards were sold in the US to be phased out for E-II in 2014. The ESP Standard line had been completely discontinued by this time. E-II guitars initially resembled several Edwards designs, however in 2015 many new models and finishes not available to Edwards were released. In 2016, E-II receives many new and first-time models, including Eclipse guitars with a sculpted neck joint similar to Gibson's Axcess heel to improve playability. According to ESP, E-II is the direct successor to ESP Standard with no difference between the two except the name.


title: ESP Guitars

text: ESP also builds custom guitars and basses, made to the specifications of the customer and the quality of such custom guitars exceed that of the Original series. These can be ordered from ESP USA but they are made in Japan. Generally speaking custom guitars cost as much, or even more than Navigators depending on the choices of the consumer and are considered to cater for the top-end of the market. There is flexibility with the orders, as the guitars produced, do not have to be based on existing lines of guitars and basses.


title: ESP Guitars

text: The ESP Artist, or Signature series guitars are mass-produced versions of artist's personal guitars and basses. The quality of the ESP Artist/Signature models lie between Navigator/Custom Shop and the ESP Original series.


title: ESP Guitars

text: The Edwards, Grassroots and LTD artist models are in the higher-end segments of the respective lines of guitars and basses.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: Abul Kasem Fazlul Huq (, ; 26October 1873 — 27 April 1962), popularly known as Sher-e-Bangla ("Lion of Bengal"), was a British Indian and Pakistani lawyer and writer who presented the Lahore Resolution which had the objective of creating an independent Pakistan. He also served as the first and longest Prime Minister of Bengal during the British Raj.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: Born on 1873 in a Bengali Muslim family in British Bengal, Huq held important political offices in the subcontinent, including President of the All India Muslim League (1916-1921), General Secretary of the Indian National Congress (1916-1918), Education Minister of Bengal (1924), Mayor of Calcutta (1935), Prime Minister of Bengal (1937-1943), Advocate General of East Bengal (1947-1952), Chief Minister of East Bengal (1954), Home Minister of Pakistan (1955-1956) and Governor of East Pakistan (1956-1958). Huq was first elected to the Bengal Legislative Council from Dhaka in 1913; and served on the council for 21 years until 1934. Huq was a key figure in the Indian independence movement and then the Pakistan movement. In 1919, he had the unique distinction of concurrently serving as President of the All India Muslim League and General Secretary of the Indian National Congress. He was also a member of the Congress Party's committee enquiring into the Amritsar massacre. Huq was a member of the Central Legislative Assembly from 1934 to 1936. Between 1937 and 1947, he was an elected member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly, where he was Prime Minister and Leader of the House for six years. After partition, he was elected to the East Bengal Legislative Assembly, where he was Chief Minister for 2 months; and to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, where he was Home Minister for one year during the 1950s.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: Huq boycotted titles and a knighthood granted by the British government. He was notable for his English oratory during speeches to the Bengali legislature. Huq courted the votes of the Bengali middle classes and rural communities. He pushed for land reform and curbing the influence of zamindars. As Prime Minister, Huq used legal and administrative measures to reduce the debt of millions of farmers subjected to tenancy under the Permanent Settlement. Huq was considered a leftist and social democrat on the political spectrum. His ministries were marked by intense factional infighting.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: In 1940, Huq had one of his most notable political achievements when he presented the Lahore Resolution which called for the creation of a sovereign state in the Muslim-majority eastern and northwestern parts of British India. During the Second World War, Huq joined the Viceroy of India's Defence Council and supported Allied war efforts. Under pressure from the Governor of Bengal during the Quit India movement and after the withdrawal of the Hindu Mahasabha from his cabinet, Huq resigned from the post of premier in March 1943. In the Dominion of Pakistan, Huq worked for five years as East Bengal's Attorney-General and participated in the Bengali Language Movement. He was elected as Chief Minister, served as a federal minister and was a provincial governor in the 1950s.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: Huq died in Dacca, East Pakistan on 27 April 1962. He is buried in the Mausoleum of Three Leaders. Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, where the National Parliament is located, is named in honour of Huq. His son A. K. Faezul Huq was a Bangladeshi politician.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: Huq was born on 26 October 1873, in his maternal home, the Mia Bari of Saturia in Jhalokati, then under the Backergunge District of the Bengal Presidency. He belonged to a middle-class Bengali Muslim family of Qadis hailing from Bilbilash in Bauphal, Patuakhali. His ancestors had settled in Bilbilash in the eighteenth century, having arrived from Bhagalpur in Bihar. His father, Qazi Muhammad Wajid, was a well-regarded lawyer of the Barisal Bar and his grandfather, Qazi Akram Ali, also worked in the Barisal Court and was a Mukhtar as well as a scholar of the Arabic and Persian languages. His mother, Begum Sayedunnesa, was a descendant of Shaykh Ahmad Sajenda, a disciple of Khan Jahan Ali.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: Initially home schooled, Huq later attended the Barisal District School, where he passed the FA Examination in 1890. Huq was so brilliant that upon turning the page of a book he could memorise the whole page which astonished his father. Huq moved to Calcutta for his higher education. He sat for his bachelor's degree exam in 1894, in which he achieved a triple honours in chemistry, mathematics and physics from the Presidency College (now Presidency University). He then obtained a master's degree in mathematics from the University of Calcutta in 1896. He obtained his Bachelor in Law from the University Law College in Calcutta in 1897.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: From 1908 to 1912, Huq was the Assistant Registrar of Co-operatives. He resigned from public service and opted for public life and law. Being advised by Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, he joined the bar council of the Calcutta High Court and started legal practice. He practised in the Calcutta High Court for 40 years.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: Huq became secretary of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League in 1913. After the First Partition of Bengal, Huq attended the All India Muhammadan Educational Conference hosted by Sir Khwaja Salimullah in Dacca, the capital of Eastern Bengal and Assam. The conference led to the formation of the All India Muslim League. The annulment of the partition led to the formation of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League, in which Huq became secretary. With the patronage of Sir Salimullah and Syed Nawab Ali Chowdhury, he was elected to the Bengal Legislative Council from the Dacca Division in 1913.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: In 1916, Huq was elected president of the All India Muslim League. Huq was one of those who was instrumental behind formulating the Lucknow Pact of 1916 between the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League. In 1917 Huq was a Joint Secretary of the Indian National Congress and from 1918 to 1919 he served as the organisation's General Secretary. He was the only person to concurrently hold the presidency of the League and the General Secretary's position in the Congress. In 1918, Huq presided over the Delhi Session of the All India Muslim League.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: In 1919, Huq was chosen as a member of the Punjab Enquiry Committee along with Motilal Nehru, Chittaranjan Das and other prominent leaders which was set up by the Indian National Congress to investigate the Amritsar massacre. Huq was the president of the Midnapore Session of the Bengal Provincial Conference in 1920.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: During the Khilafat movement, Huq led the pro-British faction within the Bengal Provincial Muslim League, while his rival Maniruzzaman Islamabadi led the pro-Ottoman faction. Huq also differed with the Congress leadership during its non-cooperation movement. Huq favoured working within the constitutional framework rather than boycotting legislatures and colleges. He later resigned from the Congress.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: In 1929, he founded the All Bengal Tenants Association, which evolved into a political platform, including as a part of the post-partition United Front.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: The dyarchy was replaced by provincial autonomy in 1935, with the first general elections held in 1937. Huq transformed the All Bengal Tenants Association into the Krishak Praja Party. During the election campaign period, Huq emerged as a major populist figure in Bengal. His party won 35 seats in the Bengal Legislative Assembly during the 1937 Indian provincial elections. It was the third largest party after the Bengal Congress and Bengal Provincial Muslim League. Huq formed a coalition with the Bengal Provincial Muslim League and independent legislators. He was elected as the Leader of the House and the first Prime Minister of Bengal.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: Huq's cabinet included Nalini Ranjan Sarkar (finance), Bijoy Prasad Singh Roy (revenue), Maharaja Srish Chandra Nandy (communications and public works), Prasanna Deb Raikut (forest and excise), Mukunda Behari Mallick (cooperative credit and rural indebtedness), Sir Khwaja Nazimuddin (home), Nawab Khwaja Habibullah (agriculture and industry), Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy (commerce and labour), Nawab Musharraf Hussain (judicial and legislative), and Syed Nausher Ali (public health and local self-government).


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: Under Huq, the Bengal government used administrative and legal measures to relieve the debt of millions of tenant farmers under the "zamindari" system of the Permanent Settlement. Huq hailed from a middle class zamindar family. Many of his colleagues were also from the zamindar class. But Huq represented a new generation of Bengali middle-class political consciousness which won support among both Bengali Muslims and Bengali Hindus. The Krishak Praja Party promoted land reform. Huq's tenure saw the enactment of the Bengal Agricultural Debtors' Act (1938), the Money Lenders' Act (1938) and the Bengal Tenancy (Amendment) Act (1938). Debt Settlement Boards were created in all districts. The Land Revenue Commission, appointed by the Government of Bengal on 5 November 1938 with Sir Francis Floud as chairman, submitted its final report on 21 March 1940. This was a valuable document relating to the land system of the country. The Tenancy Act of 1885 was amended by suspending rent provisions for ten years. Huq abolished informal taxes imposed traditionally by the zamindars on tenants. The tenants obtained the right to transfer their tenancy without paying any transfer-fee to zamindars. The law reduced the interest rate for arrears of rent from 12.50% to 6.25%. The tenants also obtained the right to get possession of the (land lost through river erosion which then reappeared) by payment of four years' rent within twenty years of the erosion. These measures resulted in debt relief for millions of Bengali peasants. But Huq failed to fully implement his Rice and Lentils program which he campaigned for during the 1937 election.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: A seminal moment in Huq's political career was the adoption of the Lahore Resolution. The resolution was passed by the All India Muslim League at its annual session in Lahore on 23 March 1940. When Huq arrived at the Lahore meeting, Muhammad Ali Jinnah remarked "When the tiger (Huq) arrives, the lamb (Jinnah) must give away". Huq formally proposed the resolution at the annual session. The resolution called for Muslim-majority provinces in British India to be grouped into "Independent States in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign". The initial wording of the resolution suggested that the Muslim League wanted multiple states instead of a single state. Huq later accused Jinnah of not working hard enough to ensure an undivided Bengal with Calcutta included. There have been varying interpretations of the Lahore Resolution ever since. One interpretation is that the plural spelling of 'states' indicated that Huq wanted a separate Muslim-majority state covering Bengal and parts of Assam as early as the 1940s.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: Huq held the education portfolio in his cabinet. He introduced the Primary Education Bill in the Bengal Legislative Assembly, which was passed into law and made primary education free and compulsory. But there was a storm of protests from the opposition members and the press when Fazlul Huq introduced the Secondary Education Bill in the assembly as it incorporated 'principles of communal division in the field of education' at the secondary stage. Huq was a supporter of affirmative action for Bengali Muslims. Huq was associated with the foundation of many educational institutions in Bengal, including Calcutta's Islamia College and Lady Brabourne College, Wajid Memorial Girls' High School and Chakhar College.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: In 1941, Huq joined the Viceroy's Defence Council, which was formed to oversee the war effort of British India during World War II. Huq was joined by Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, the Prime Minister of the Punjab. The growing influence of provincial Muslim League leaders like Huq and Khan was resented by Jinnah. The Muslim League leadership, led by Jinnah and his allies, demanded that both the Bengal and Punjab PMs withdraw from the Defence Council. Khan eventually complied but Huq refused. The breakdown in relations between Huq and Jinnah led to Huq's ouster from the Muslim League. Jinnah's allies in Bengal thereafter worked to bring down Huq's government. Jinnah felt the Defence Council was tilted towards the Congress.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: The second Huq coalition government was formed on 12 December 1941. The coalition was supported by most members in the Bengal Legislative Assembly, except for the Muslim League. Supporters included the secular faction of the Krishak Praja Party led by Shamsuddin Ahmed, the Forward Bloc founded by Subhash Chandra Bose, pro-Bose members of the Bengal Congress and the Hindu Mahasabha led by Syama Prasad Mukherjee.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: The cabinet included Nawab Bahadur Khwaja Habibullah, Khan Bahadur Abdul Karim, Khan Bahadur Hashem Ali Khan, Shamsuddin Ahmed, Syama Prasad Mukherjee, Santosh Kumar Bose and Upendranath Barman.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: Despite Huq enjoying the confidence of most of the assembly, he had tense relations with the Governor of Bengal, John Herbert. The governor favoured the provincial Muslim League leaders and patrons, including Sir Khawaja Nazimuddin, the Leader of the Opposition; and the "Calcutta Trio" in the assembly (Mirza Ahmad Ispahani, Khwaja Nooruddin and A. R. Siddiqui). The focal point of the League's campaign against Huq was that he was growing closer to Syama Prasad Mukherjee of the Hindu Mahasabha, who was alleged to be working against the political and religious interests of the Muslims. The League appealed to the governor to dismiss the Huq ministry.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: The fear of a Japanese invasion during the Burma Campaign and the implementation by the military of a 'denial policy' implemented in 1942 caused considerable hardship to the delta region. A devastating cyclone and tidal waves whipped the coastal region on 26 October but relief efforts were hindered due to bureaucratic interference. On 3 August, a number of prisoners were shot in Dhaka jail but no inquiry could be held due to bureaucratic intervention. Another severe strain on the administration was caused when the Congress launched the Quit India movement on 9 August, which was followed by British political repression. The entire province reverberated with protest. The situation was further complicated when Mukherjee resigned, bitterly complaining about the interference of the governor in the work of the ministry. Huq also called for the resurrection of the Bengal Army.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: On 15 March 1943, the Prime Minister disclosed on the floor of the Assembly that on several occasions, under the guise of discretionary authority, the governor disregarded the advice tendered by the ministry and listed those occasions. The governor did not take those allegations kindly, and, largely due to his initiative, no-confidence motions were voted in the assembly on 24 March and 27 March. On both occasions the motions were defeated, although by narrow margins. To enforce his writ, the governor asked Huq to sign a prepared letter of resignation on 28 March 1943 and assigned himself the responsibility of administering the province under the provision of Section 92 of the constitution. A month later a League dominated ministry was commissioned with Nazimuddin as the Prime Minister. Huq bitterly criticised John Herbert for forcing his resignation and imposing Governor's rule, calling it "an outrage on the Constitution". Huq also criticised the colonial bureaucracy's role against his government, stating that "the steel frame of the Imperial Service" made a mockery of the authority of the elected government of Bengal. Huq accused John Herbert of being an ignorant administrator, stating "After all, even busy Governors absent themselves from town on private business". Huq paraphrased the ancient Greek philosopher Plutarch, stating "The mills of God grind slowly but they grind exceeding small; and sooner perhaps than Sir John Herbert or the supporters of the Ministers may think, Nemesis will overtake those who [Nazimuddin] had rushed to office not to serve the people but to enjoy the sweets of power emoluments".


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: Huq's party won significantly fewer seats during the 1946 Indian provincial elections in which the Muslim League led by Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy triumphed.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: After the partition of British India, Huq settled in Dhaka and became the attorney general of the Government of East Bengal. He served in this position between 1947 and 1952. Huq was active in the civil society and social life of Dhaka. On 31 December 1948, while delivering a presidential address at a literary conference, Huq proposed a language academy for the Bengali language. He supported the Bengali Language Movement in 1952. Huq was injured during police action against demonstrators demanding that Bengali be made a state language of Pakistan. Huq emerged as one of the principal opposition leaders against the Pakistan Muslim League. East Bengal became the epicentre of Pakistan's political opposition. The Bengalis of East Bengal were the demographic majority of the Dominion of Pakistan. Huq was one of the founding statesmen of Pakistan due to his role in presenting the Lahore Resolution in 1940.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: The East Bengali legislative election, 1954 was the first major democratic election in Pakistan's history. Huq was the leader of the opposition United Front alliance, which included his Krishak Sramik Party, the Awami League, the Ganatantri Dal and the Nizam-e-Islam Party. Huq toured the districts of East Bengal extensively during the election campaign. He was joined by Awami League leader Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Suhrawardy's protege Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Maulana Bhashani also supported Huq. Suhrawardy and Huq jointly campaigned in several districts, including Faridpur.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: The United Front won a landslide victory during the 1954 election. The Muslim League was routed and reduced to only a few seats in the East Bengal Legislative Assembly. Huq himself defeated his arch rival Sir Khawaja Nazimuddin in the constituency of Patuakhali in Barisal.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: Huq served as Chief Minister for two months. During his short lived government, he took measures to establish the Bangla Academy. King Saud of Saudi Arabia sent a plane to Dhaka to bring Huq for a meeting with the monarch in Karachi. Governor General's rule was imposed which ended Huq's leadership of the provincial government. Pakistan's political parties continued to squabble, particularly over power sharing between the provinces. In August 1955, a coalition between the Krishak Sramik Party in East Pakistan and the Muslim League in West Pakistan allowed Chaudhry Mohammad Ali to become Prime Minister and A. K. Fazlul Huq to become Home Minister. The first constitution of Pakistan was enacted under this coalition in March 1956. The coalition was later dismissed by President Iskander Mirza, who in turn allowed a coalition of the Awami League and Republican Party to form government. Huq's former ally Suhrawardy became Prime Minister. As a result, the Krishak Sramik Party and the Muslim League formed the main opposition. Huq and Surhawardy were once again on opposite ends. Huq was appointed Governor of East Pakistan in 1956. He served in the position for two years until the 1958 Pakistani coup d'état. The coup ended the dominance of Huq, Suhrawardy and Nazimuddin in Bengali politics.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: A.K. Fazlul Huq wrote a book "Bengal Today" which was translated into Bengali. He was one of three owner-cum-directors of the well regarded evening daily "Nabajug" which came often under British-Indian government's proscription because of its anti-imperialist premise. The paper is no longer published.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: Huq married three times. His first wife was Khurshid Talat Begum, the granddaughter of Nawab Abdul Latif, with whom he had two daughters. Khurshid left him and obtained a maintenance allowance in court. His second wife was Musammat Jannatunissa Begum, daughter of Ibn Ahmad of Hooghly, but she died without having any children. In 1943, he married Khadija Begum of Meerut, located in the United Provinces. They had one son together, A. K. Faezul Huq, who played an active role in Bangladeshi politics.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: Huq founded several educational and technical institutions for Bengali Muslims, including Islamia College in Calcutta, Baker Hostel and Carmichael hostel residence halls for Muslim students of the University of Calcutta, Lady Brabourne College, Adina Fazlul Huq College in Rajshahi, Eliot hostel, Tyler Hostel, Medical College hostel, Engineering College hostel, Muslim Institute Building, Dhaka Eden Girls' College Building, Fazlul Huq College at Chakhar, Fazlul Huq Muslim Hall (Dhaka University), Fazlul Huq Hall (Bangladesh Agricultural University, then East Pakistan Agricultural University), Sher-e-Bangla Hall (Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology) Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University (SAU) Dhaka-1207, Bulbul Music Academy and Central Women's College. Huq made a significant contribution in founding the leading university of Bangladesh: Dhaka University. During his premiership Bangla Academy was founded and Bengali New Year's Day (Pohela Boishakh) was declared a public holiday.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: In Bangladesh, he is revered as one of the most important Bengali statesmen of the 20th century and for his role as a leading voice of Bengali Muslims in British India. Throughout Bangladesh, educational institutions (e.g., Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College), roads, neighbourhoods (Sher-e-Bangla Nagor), and stadiums (Sher-e-Bangla Mirpur Stadium) have been named after him.


title: A. K. Fazlul Huq

text: In Pakistan, he is remembered as one of the country's founding statesmen. One of the main roads in Islamabad, Pakistan A.K. Fazal-ul-Huq Road is named after him.


title: Dhalsim

text: In his Arcade Mode ending in "Street Fighter II", Dhalsim wins the tournament and returns home on his elephant Kodal. Three years later, Dhalsim's son, Datta, discovers a photograph of his father from the tournament. From the original "Street Fighter II" and up until "Super Street Fighter II", this ending graphic was drawn in a comical style. In "Super Street Fighter II Turbo", it was changed to a more realistic style, with Dhalsim's wife Sally (named Sari in the UDON comic book series) added alongside Datta.


title: Dhalsim

text: Dhalsim would later appear in the "Street Fighter Alpha" sub-series in "Street Fighter Alpha 2" and "Street Fighter Alpha 3". In his storyline in the "Alpha" games (which are set prior to the events of "Street Fighter II"), Dhalsim attempts to hunt down an "evil spirit" (M. Bison) that is threatening the world. Dhalsim also appears in the "Street Fighter EX" sub-series, beginning with the console-exclusive version, "Street Fighter EX Plus α", followed by "Street Fighter EX2" and "Street Fighter EX3". His characterization and motivation are the same as they are in the previous "Street Fighter" game. Dhalsim later appears in "Street Fighter IV", and has also appeared as a playable character in several crossover fighting games, which include: "X-Men vs. Street Fighter", "Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter", "Marvel vs. Capcom 2", "", "Capcom vs. SNK 2", "" and "Street Fighter X Tekken". He makes a special appearance in "Street Fighter X Mega Man".


title: Dhalsim

text: The origin of Dhalsim's name was taken from an Indian restaurant in Osaka near Capcom's office ("Dhal" is lentils, "shim" is Hyacinth beans).


title: Dhalsim

text: Before the official release of Street Fighter II, the early original design for Dhalsim was a turban-wearing fighter who had one of his abilities to double-jump in mid-air, and his name was "Great Tiger" (グレート・タイガー Hepburn: Gurēto Taigā?) who was most likely a copy of a fighter of the same name from the "Punch-Out!!" series since 1984. One of Dhalsim's other early designs bore a striking resemblance to Ganesha, a Hindu god with four arms and the head of an elephant. A picture of Ganesha can be seen in the background of his Street Fighter II stage, and his fifth alternate costume in Ultra Street Fighter IV resembles him.


title: Dhalsim

text: Lead designer of Street Fighter II, Akira Nishitani, stated in an interview that the concept of Dhalsim's ability to stretch his limbs comes from the "Zoom Punch" technique featured in the manga series "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure". This is reconfirmed in the comment section of Dhalism's bio in the Street Fighter X Tekken Artworks artbook. Fans would also point out that Dhalsim's stretching abilities were inspired by Wong Wing-song's role "Yogi Tro Le Soung the Indian Fighter" from the 1976 Taiwanese-Chinese "wuxia" film "Master of the Flying Guillotine" which was also a hit sequel.


title: Dhalsim

text: Dhalsim is often depicted as having pupil-less eyes. His build is that of a normal man who exercises and weight trains regularly, except for the fact that his abdomen and waist appear out of proportion and emaciated. He wears torn saffron shorts as his only attire, along with matching wrist and ankle bands and a necklace of shrunken human skulls. He has three colored stripes adorning his head, and in the "Street Fighter Alpha" series, he wears a turban that he removes before battle. In "Street Fighter V", Dhalsim appears much older, having grown a full beard, and now retains the turban on his head during battle.


title: Dhalsim

text: His fighting style is a Yoga-based style, in which Dhalsim can stretch his arms, legs, abdomen and even his neck to great lengths making him a decent long-range hand-to-hand fighter. He also uses many fire-based attacks such as "Yoga Fire", "Yoga Flame" and "Yoga Blast", the latter being an anti-air technique. His super move in the "Street Fighter EX", Cross Over and later Alpha Series was the "Yoga Inferno", which was a multi-hitting flamethrower-style attack that could be directed manually. Dhalsim also uses a teleportation technique known as the "Yoga Teleport". In "Street Fighter EX3", he gains a tag-team super move when paired with Blanka. In "Street Fighter IV" he uses the ultra combo move "Yoga Catastrophe", as a large fireball which slowly moves toward and deals multi-damage on impact on any opponent, before using a super "Yoga Inferno".


title: Dhalsim

text: In "Street Fighter II V", the UDON comic book series, and "", Dhalsim is a wise and powerful mystic who has mastered the inner mysteries of Yoga. In the comic, he helps prepare Sagat for his bout with Ryu and helps Ryu himself discover the darkness within his soul. Later on he is given an invitation to M. Bison's "Street Fighter II" global fighting tournament, wherein he defeats Adon in the preliminaries with ease.


title: Dhalsim

text: In the anime series "Street Fighter II V", Dhalsim is a monk who lives in a remote village in India. Sagat had earlier instructed Ryu to seek Dhalsim for advice about the Ways of Hadou. Sagat had been turned down years before when he sought Dhalsim's wisdom but figured that Ryu might be found more worthy. Dhalsim is a practitioner of yoga and has some psychic abilities, and although he knows much about Hadou, he was unable to train Ryu to use the Hadouken, which was inadvertently triggered in Ryu's body during a lesson. Dhalsim is voiced by Shōzō Iizuka in the Japanese version and Steve Blum in the English dub by Animaze/Manga Entertainment.


title: Dhalsim

text: Dhalsim has a brief appearance in "", where he fights E. Honda in India. Though he gains the upper hand with his telekinetic abilities, he is distracted when he senses another nearby power, long enough for Honda to overpower him. He subsequently withdraws from the fight, giving Honda the victory, and apparently later points Ryu out to Honda, enabling him to give Ryu half the winnings out of gratitude.


title: Dhalsim

text: Dhalsim also appears briefly in "" as one of several fighters accompanying Ryu, Ken and Chun-Li to Professor Sadler's base to rescue Ryu's alleged younger brother, Shun. As the fighters demonstrate their skills to Sadler, Dhalsim fights Guy, avoiding Guy's attack by teleporting himself away to presumably strike Guy from behind. When Sadler's true intentions are revealed, Dhalsim and the other fighters are freed by Ken and Chun-Li.


title: Dhalsim

text: Dhalsim is portrayed by British actor Roshan Seth in 1994's live action film "Street Fighter". The film depicts Dhalsim as an Indian scientist and doctor whose science was originally supposed to promote peace, only for Bison to capture him and force him to aid him in his evil ambitions, one of which is the "supersoldier" experiment meant to turn Carlos Blanka into a mutated beast. During the process, Dhalsim alters Blanka's cerebral programming to keep him gentle and is found out by the lab guard. A fight ensues, in which Dhalsim is branded with the mutagen and almost killed, but Blanka is released and saves Dhalsim by killing the guard. When Guile arrives at the base, Dhalsim directs him to confront Bison. After Bison is defeated, Dhalsim decides to remain in Bison's base along with Blanka to await its destruction, choosing to atone for his part in mutating Blanka, telling Guile that "if good men do nothing, that is evil enough." In his final scenes, Dhalsim appears bald (having had a full head of hair earlier) with three rivulets of blood running down from the top of his head, as a nod to his appearance in the games.


title: Dhalsim

text: Dhalsim is later featured in the "Street Fighter" animated series as part of Guile's team. From the original roster of "Street Fighter II" characters featured in the film, Dhalsim and T. Hawk are the only ones who do not appear as playable characters in the video game based on the film, "Street Fighter". The opposite situation occurs with Akuma, who is a secret character in the game but does not appear in the film.


title: Dhalsim

text: In the 1993 anime Ghost Sweeper Mikami, Episode 37 there is a background character that resembles Dhalsim and does the trademark "Yoga Fire" move.


title: Dhalsim

text: In 1992, Dhalsim ranked at number five in the list of Best Characters of 1991 by the "Gamest" magazine in Japan. IGN ranked Dhalsim at number eight in their list of top "Street Fighter" characters, noting his unique gameplay and role as a "popular oddball". "The Guardian" ranked him as the 15th-top "Street Fighter" character in 2010, with writer Ryan Hart saying his ability to extend his limbs "changed the way you see fighting game characters". He additionally placed number fourteen on GameDaily's list of top "Street Fighter" characters of all time. He was also included in a list of the top 25 "baldies" by the same publication. In 2013, "Complex" placed Dhalsim third in a list of "12 Old School Video Game Characters Who Were Style Icons".


title: Dhalsim

text: Topless Robot named him one of the "most ridiculously stereotyped" fighting game characters, calling him the most outlandish of "Street Fighter II"s cast and drew comparisons to the Indian assassin in the film "Master of the Flying Guillotine". The satirical book "A Practical Guide to Racism", implicitly criticizes his portrayal as a sum of negative stereotypes of South Asians, where Hindus are portrayed as "nonviolent, magical, fastidious, stretchy, and pugnacious".


title: Dhalsim

text: The book "Game Design Perspectives" notes Dhalsim as an example of a "nemesis character" in video games, one difficult to master proper usage of but widely considered one of the strongest characters in the game.


title: Pip the Troll

text: He made his live-action debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film "Eternals" (2021), voiced by Patton Oswalt.


title: Pip the Troll

text: Pip the Troll was introduced by Jim Starlin in "Strange Tales" vol 2 #179 (February 1975) to be a comic foil to the story's protagonist, Adam Warlock. Pip returned in "Strange Tales" vol 2 #180-181 (March–April 1975) and "Warlock" vol 1 #9-12 (October 1975-Jan 1976) before his death in "Avengers Annual" #7 (March 1977).


title: Pip the Troll

text: Starlin revived the character years later in "Silver Surfer" vol 3 #46 (December 1990). Pip played a role in the 1991 "Infinity Gauntlet" crossover before joining the titular team of "Warlock and the Infinity Watch" in issue two (March 1992). He appeared in the title until its cancellation in 1995 with issue 42. During its run, the character was also featured in the "Infinity War", "Infinity Crusade", and "Blood and Thunder" crossovers.


title: Pip the Troll

text: After a brief appearance in a back up feature in "Cosmic Powers Unlimited" #4 (1996), the character was not seen again until 2002 when Starlin used him in "Infinity Abyss" #1-6. He returned in "" #5-6 (2003) and "Thanos" #3-4 (2004), "She-Hulk" #12-13 (2005), and "X-Factor" #207-213 (2010–2011).


title: Pip the Troll

text: Pip was once Prince Gofern of the planet Laxidazia, in the Dolenz System, in the Milky Way galaxy. He was originally an alien of the Laxidazian race who enjoyed painting pictures of the night sky. Pip became physically and psychologically mutated into a morally degenerate, stunted, satyr-like form known as a "troll" during a bout of drunkenness brought on by a mutagenic hallucinogenic ale. Like all Laxidazian trolls, Pip has four digits (including opposable thumb) on each hand, hooflike feet, and large pointed ears; apparently, normal Laxidazians are nearly identical to Earth humans. After his transformation, his people, also sick of his lewd, lecherous, and hedonistic behavior, strip him of his office and rank. He stows away on a spaceship and continues his life of debauchery. Pip began his habit of dressing in a pair of maroon, ripped pants and nothing else.


title: Pip the Troll

text: Missionaries from the Universal Church of Truth visit Pip's home planet and discover the trolls are resistant to the church's conversion process. As a result, all trolls are ordered to be killed. Pip himself is caught after making trouble on dozens of planets, many controlled by the church. He ends up on a ship full of men and women who were to be executed. There he meets Adam Warlock, whose alternate future self the Magus would become the leader of the Church of Truth. Pip teamed up with Warlock to escape and go on adventures. Pip then meets Gamora. Pip meets Thanos, and alongside Warlock, Gamora, and Thanos, he battles the Magus and the Universal Church. Pip revealed how he was transformed into a troll. He encounters Starfox and Heater Delight, and battles Pro-Boscis the Procurer. Eventually the threat of the Magus was neutralized and Pip parted company with Adam on the world of Sirus X.


title: Pip the Troll

text: After getting into much more trouble, Pip decided to look for Adam again. Pip explored one of Thanos' old hideouts and discovered not Adam, but Thanos himself. Thanos destroyed Pip's mind, but Adam was able to absorb Pip's soul into the Soul Gem (killing his mindless body, but restoring full mental function to his soul), reuniting him with the spirits of Gamora and eventually Adam Warlock in Soulworld within the Soul Gem.


title: Pip the Troll

text: Pip resided in Soulworld for some time. While there, he accompanied the Silver Surfer and Captain Autolycus in search of Warlock. He witnessed a battle between Warlock and Drax the Destroyer.


title: Pip the Troll

text: Pip, Gamora, and Warlock return to the corporeal world during the Infinity Gauntlet incident by taking over bodies of three crash victims. Pip, in possession of the body of Ralph Bunker, and Gamora were both shown to have significantly increased physical strength in their new bodies. However, soon after returning to life, Gamora disappeared. Alongside Warlock, Pip conferred with Doctor Strange, Rintrah, Doctor Doom, and the Silver Surfer regarding Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet. Alongside Doctor Strange, Clea, and Rintrah, Pip battled Silver Dagger. Alongside Rintrah, Pip time-traveled to Earth's Jurassic era to rescue Firelord and Drax the Destroyer. Alongside Warlock and Gamora, Pip visited Thanos after his defeat. With Gamora, Pip summoned Doctor Strange to deal with the seemingly power-mad Warlock, but was reconciled with Warlock.


title: Pip the Troll

text: Afterwards, Pip was given the Space Gem by Warlock, keeping it between his toes for safekeeping. Pip joined Warlock's Infinity Watch. With the Infinity Watch, Pip was captured by the Man Beast, but rescued by Warlock. Pip and his friends end up setting shop on Monster Island. Pip takes too much as usual and abusing the hospitality of Mole Man. In a dispute over the sovereignty of the island, forces of the United Nations invade. Pip and the others hang back as Gamora cleans house, killing no one. The group makes bets on the fight.


title: Pip the Troll

text: Around this time, the events known as the Infinity War happen. When Warlock had control of the Infinity Gauntlet, he had forced out the good and evil sides of himself. The evil side returns as Warlock's long-term adversary, the Magus. Pip is drawn into the fight when Thanos recruits the Watch. As most of Earth's heroes do not trust Thanos, Pip and his friends were forced to battle them as well. Eventually both sides work together to take down the Magus.


title: Pip the Troll

text: Pip became deeply involved in the Infinity Crusade. He manages to be a capable 'leader' of the remnants of the Infinity Watch when various events took most of them away. Moondragon, for example, is brainwashed and taken by the Goddess, the 'good' side of Adam Warlock. She is using a Cosmic Egg, the merging of several Cosmic Cubes, to implement her plans, which involve brainwashing dozens of superheroes. Left on Monster Island with Maxam and Drax the Destroyer, the three argue over who should lead. Pip decides to go outside the group for help and kidnaps Mister Fantastic. The leader of the Fantastic Four soon realizes what is going on and pitches in to help. This, and the kidnapping of other superheroes, brings everyone together, Pip included, at Avengers Mansion and actually spurs on the heroic efforts of the rest of the super-powered community. Pip is spurred to create a new, 'super-heroic' costume, but he fails to wash himself while changing. His body odor is so offensive the Hulk forcibly bathes him.


title: Pip the Troll

text: Professor X proceeds to make telepathic contact with one of the Goddess' thralls, Pip's former ally, Moondragon. Pip secretly touches Xavier and his powers make contact through the link, allowing him to know the location of the Goddess because Moondragon knows it.


title: Pip the Troll

text: Pip teleports to it, in the center of the Goddess' planet, a new form of Counter-Earth. By touching the Cosmic Egg, Pip gains access to its near-infinite powers. He turns the Goddess into salt. He manifests a throne and sits upon it, musing as to what to do with his newfound powers. He reflects on many plans for Earth, such as making super-powered beings wash his car and changing all the females, including the overweight and elderly, into shapely, twenty-something women. One of his goals is to gain revenge on the Hulk for forcibly bathing him; however, he realizes none of this will make him truly happy, and therefore decides on something that will: a simple birthday party thrown for him by his friends. Before he can implement this, he is subdued by the brainwashed guardian of the Egg, the female New Warriors member Silhouette. She had been hiding in a nearby container, for just this sort of situation.


title: Pip the Troll

text: Pip also appears in "" #5–6 and "She-Hulk" (2005 series) #12–13. Pip assisted Thanos in his first quest after his experience in "Marvel: The End" in "Thanos" #1–6.


title: Pip the Troll

text: Pip is next seen when Hela, Norse goddess of death, appears in disguise and hires X-Factor Investigations to find a missing pendant of Thor's hammer. When Jamie Madrox and Banshee track it down and take it off of the neck of a drunken bar patron, he reverts to Pip the Troll. Without the pendant hiding him, Hela is able to track down Pip, whom she captures. This angers X-Factor leader Madrox, who feels responsible, and the team travels to Las Vegas and saves the troll with the help of Thor. Pip follows X-Factor back to New York and joins the team, serving as receptionist, out of gratitude for their actions; however, a mysterious phone call Pip receives reveals that Pip has other, as-yet-unknown reasons for joining the group.


title: Pip the Troll

text: It appeared Pip was killed by a woman he previously helped. The woman shoots him in the head after claiming that "X-Factor will fall". The injury was not fatal due to his non-human physique: Laxidazians's brains are in their chest, next to the heart, as he explains later.


title: Pip the Troll

text: When in possession of the Space Gem, Pip could theoretically access virtually incalculable powers, but chose to use it merely for transportation and teleportation. The gem gave him the ability to teleport to places he knows of. This he often used for his own ends, stealing the Fantasticar and other objects. When forced into battle, he tends to appear directly above his adversary's head, intending to deliver a powerful blow. He has since lost the Space Gem, but his long-term exposure to it has given him the innate ability to teleport.


title: Reflective practice

text: Reflective practice is the ability to reflect on one's actions so as to take a critical stance or attitude towards one's own practice and that of one's peers, engaging in a process of continuous adaptation and learning. According to one definition it involves "paying critical attention to the practical values and theories which inform everyday actions, by examining practice reflectively and reflexively. This leads to developmental insight". A key rationale for reflective practice is that experience alone does not necessarily lead to learning; deliberate reflection on experience is essential.


title: Reflective practice

text: Reflective practice can be an important tool in practice-based professional learning settings where people learn from their own professional experiences, rather than from formal learning or knowledge transfer. It may be the most important source of personal professional development and improvement. It is also an important way to bring together theory and practice; through reflection a person is able to see and label forms of thought and theory within the context of his or her work. A person who reflects throughout his or her practice is not just looking back on past actions and events, but is taking a conscious look at emotions, experiences, actions, and responses, and using that information to add to his or her existing knowledge base and reach a higher level of understanding.


title: Reflective practice

text: Donald Schön's 1983 book "The Reflective Practitioner" introduced concepts such as "reflection-on-action" and "reflection-in-action" which explain how professionals meet the challenges of their work with a kind of improvisation that is improved through practice. However, the concepts underlying reflective practice are much older. Earlier in the 20th century, John Dewey was among the first to write about reflective practice with his exploration of experience, interaction and reflection. Soon thereafter, other researchers such as Kurt Lewin and Jean Piaget were developing relevant theories of human learning and development. Some scholars have claimed to find precursors of reflective practice in ancient texts such as Buddhist teachings and the "Meditations" of Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius.


title: Reflective practice

text: Central to the development of reflective theory was interest in the integration of theory and practice, the cyclic pattern of experience and the conscious application of lessons learned from experience. Since the 1970s, there has been a growing literature and focus around experiential learning and the development and application of reflective practice.


title: Reflective practice

text: As adult education professor David Boud and his colleagues explained: "Reflection is an important human activity in which people recapture their experience, think about it, mull it over and evaluate it. It is this working with experience that is important in learning." When a person is experiencing something, he or she may be implicitly learning; however, it can be difficult to put emotions, events, and thoughts into a coherent sequence of events. When a person rethinks or retells events, it is possible to categorize events, emotions, ideas, etc., and to compare the intended purpose of a past action with the results of the action. Stepping back from the action permits critical reflection on a sequence of events.


title: Reflective practice

text: The emergence in more recent years of blogging has been seen as another form of reflection on experience in a technological age.


title: Reflective practice

text: Many models of reflective practice have been created to guide reasoning about action. However, they are not without their criticisms, and need to be understood within the context within which they were written.


title: Reflective practice

text: Terry Borton's 1970 book "Reach, Touch, and Teach" popularized a simple learning cycle inspired by Gestalt therapy composed of three questions which ask the practitioner: "What", "So what", and "Now what"? Through this analysis, a description of a situation is given which then leads into the scrutiny of the situation and the construction of knowledge that has been learnt through the experience. Subsequently, practitioners reflect on ways in which they can personally improve and the consequences of their response to the experience. Borton's model was later adapted by practitioners outside the field of education, such as the field of nursing and the helping professions.


title: Reflective practice

text: Learning theorist David A. Kolb was highly influenced by the earlier research conducted by John Dewey and Jean Piaget. Kolb's reflective model, which also draws from the works of Kurt Lewin, highlights the concept of experiential learning and is centered on the transformation of information into knowledge. This takes place after a situation has occurred, and entails a practitioner reflecting on the experience, gaining a general understanding of the concepts encountered during the experience, and then testing these general understandings in a new situation. In this way, the knowledge that is formed from a situation is continuously applied and reapplied, building on a practitioner's prior experiences and knowledge.


title: Reflective practice

text: Management researchers Chris Argyris and Donald Schön introduced the "theory of action", which emerged out of their previous research on relationship between people and organizations. This theory defines learning as detection and correction of error. It included the distinction between "single-loop learning" and "double-loop learning" in 1978. Single-loop learning is when a practitioner or organisation, even after an error has occurred and a correction is made, continues to rely on current strategies, techniques or policies when a situation again comes to light. Double-loop learning involves the modification of objectives, strategies or policies so that when a similar situation arises a new framing system is employed.


title: Reflective practice

text: Schön claimed to derive the notions of "reflection-on-action, reflection-in-action, responding to problematic situations, problem framing, problem solving, and the priority of practical knowledge over abstract theory" from the writings of John Dewey, although education professor Harvey Shapiro has argued that Dewey's writings offer "more expansive, more integrated notions of professional growth" than do Schön's.


title: Reflective practice

text: Schön advocated two types of reflective practice. Firstly, reflection-on-action, which involves reflecting on an experience that you have already had, or an action that you have already taken, and considering what could have been done differently, as well as looking at the positives from that interaction. The other type of reflection Schön notes is reflection-in-action, or reflecting on your actions as you are doing them, and considering issues like best practice throughout the process.


title: Reflective practice

text: For Schön, professional growth really begins when a person starts to view things with a critical lens, by doubting his or her actions. Doubt brings about a way of thinking that questions and frames situations as "problems". Through careful planning and systematic elimination of other possible problems, doubt is settled, and people are able to affirm their knowledge of the situation. Then people are able to think about possible situations and their outcomes, and deliberate about whether they carried out the right actions.


title: Reflective practice

text: Learning researcher Graham Gibbs discussed the use of structured debriefing to facilitate the reflection involved in Kolb's experiential learning cycle. Gibbs presents the stages of a full structured debriefing as follows:


title: Reflective practice

text: Gibbs' suggestions are often cited as "Gibbs' reflective cycle" or "Gibbs' model of reflection", and simplified into the following six distinct stages to assist in structuring reflection on learning experiences:


title: Reflective practice

text: Professor of nursing Christopher Johns designed a structured mode of reflection that provides a practitioner with a guide to gain greater understanding of his or her practice. It is designed to be carried out through the act of sharing with a colleague or mentor, which enables the experience to become learnt knowledge at a faster rate than reflection alone.


title: Reflective practice

text: Johns highlights the importance of experienced knowledge and the ability of a practitioner to access, understand and put into practice information that has been acquired through empirical means. Reflection occurs though "looking in" on one's thoughts and emotions and "looking out" at the situation experienced. Johns draws on the work of Barbara Carper to expand on the notion of "looking out" at a situation. Five patterns of knowing are incorporated into the guided reflection: the aesthetic, personal, ethical, empirical and reflexive aspects of the situation. Johns' model is comprehensive and allows for reflection that touches on many important elements.