title: Northwest Airlines Flight 188

text: Just as the fighter jets were about to scramble, air traffic control at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport reestablished radio contact with the plane at 8:14 p.m. CDT, by which time the flight was over Eau Claire, Wisconsin, roughly east of Minneapolis. Captain Timothy Cheney and first officer Richard Cole said that they were not aware of their location until a flight attendant asked them what time they were due to land. The overshoot concerned air traffic controllers enough that they had the pilots perform a series of maneuvers to confirm the pilots were in control of the plane, as well as to verify that the transponder target they were receiving on their radar was indeed Flight 188. The aircraft finally landed, over an hour late, at 9:04 p.m. CDT.


title: Northwest Airlines Flight 188

text: During the investigation, Cheney and Cole told National Transportation Safety Board investigators that they were going over schedules using their laptop computers—a serious breach of piloting fundamentals, as well as a violation of Delta Air Lines policy (Delta had recently merged with Northwest). The pilots denied suggestions from some aviation safety experts that they had fallen asleep.


title: Northwest Airlines Flight 188

text: The pilots claimed that, despite not hearing any radio calls nor seeing any visual notifications, they had not been asleep. In the United States, the FAA prohibits pilots from taking short naps, but airlines from other countries allow short naps while outside of U.S. airspace. These airlines include British Airways, Qantas, and Air France. The cockpit voice recorder was checked by investigators, but there was only 30 minutes' worth of information. Over an hour's worth of information would have been needed for all of the information of the portion of the flight past Minneapolis to be available.


title: Northwest Airlines Flight 188

text: On October 27, 2009, the FAA grounded the pilots. The FAA found that Cheney and Cole were out of radio contact with air traffic controllers for more than an hour and a half "while you were on a frolic of your own." It cited the pilots for acting in "total dereliction and disregard" for their duties, and were "disengaged and impervious" to the danger their actions posed to themselves, the passengers and the crew. Among other things, the FAA found that the pilots failed to comply with air traffic control instructions and clearances and failed to monitor the plane's radios. The FAA found that the pilots operated the plane in a careless and reckless manner, and thus showed that they lacked "the degree of care, skill, judgment and responsibility" to hold a pilot's license. The incident and subsequent investigation have led to some changes in the rules for cockpit crew and air traffic controllers.


title: Northwest Airlines Flight 188

text: Another issue of concern was the over an hour long delay from the time air traffic controllers realized the plane was out radio contact until an alert on the Domestic Events Network (DEN) was created and NORAD was informed of the situation. The commander of NORAD, General Gene Renuart Jr., said in an interview that ideally an alert is created within 10 minutes of losing contact and if they had been alerted in time, fighter jets would have been scrambled to intercept. By the time fighters were ready to take off, the flight crew were back in contact with ground controllers. An updated FAA notice effective November 10, 2010 called for an alert to be made within five minutes of last recorded radio contact.


title: Teen Patti (film)

text: Teen Patti () is a 2010 Indian Hindi-language thriller film directed by Leena Yadav. It stars Amitabh Bachchan, Ben Kingsley, R. Madhavan, Raima Sen and debutant Shraddha Kapoor. The film is produced by Ambika Hinduja under the banners of Hinduja Ventures and Serendipity Films. The film follows a mathematics professor, played by Bachchan, who is trying to write a thesis on probability and relates it to the Indian card game of Teen Patti.


title: Teen Patti (film)

text: The story begins with Venkat Subramaniam (Amitabh Bachchan), an Indian professor of mathematics, software engineering, and a genius, teaching mathematics in his village to kids when a postman comes with a letter. The letter is from British mathematician Perci Trachtenberg (Ben Kingsley), widely regarded as the world's greatest living mathematician, who invites Venkat to a high rolling casino in London. Venkat tells Perci about an equation that could not only change the dialogue on mathematics forever, but one that has already left an indelible impression of guilt — for many painful reasons — on Venkat's life. It is shown in the past that the reclusive genius Venkat has cracked a theory that could redefine the principles of probability and randomness. Venkat tries to use this experiment in a game called Teen Patti (a poker game), which he plays on the Internet. According to this experiment if a person playing Teen Patti knows the three cards with one of the players (except him) he/she can guess the other cards with the rest of the players and therefore can guess who is going to win with the theory of probability.


title: Teen Patti (film)

text: Venkat succeeds on his theory and submits his report to the institute where he teaches, but they reject his report. Venkat is sure about his theory and wants to try out in reality with live players. So he talks with younger professor Shantanu Biswas (R. Madhavan) about his theory and tells him to get three students to try out this experiment. Shantanu arranges three students — Sid (Siddharth Kher), the college rockstar; Aparna or Apu (Shraddha Kapoor), the studious geek, who has a crush on Sid' and Vikram or Vikku (Dhruv Ganesh), the boy next door. They come together and start playing the game. Venkat's theory, like the last time, proves to be successful. Venkat says that after a few more games he'll be sure to crack his equation and even be able to study it better. Shantanu tells him that he should try using his theory in the real world, where there are people who actually gamble and play Teen Patti, i.e. in underground dens or "addas".


title: Teen Patti (film)

text: Although Venkat has no interest in the money that could come from practicing his equation to crack Teen Patti, he eventually succumbs to Shantanu's charismatic persuasion. Soon, with the help of his new students, they explore the addas of wild Bombay. Later another student from the institute, Abbas (Vaibhav Talwar), the rich spoiled brat joins the gang and arranges for them parties in casinos, private clubs, etc. But what starts out as an experiment between a charismatic young professor and an eccentric older one soon descends into a game neither of them can control. The money they earn gets stolen; someone is blackmailing them; they get greedy about money and, in the course of time, they change into different people and even start betraying each other.


title: Teen Patti (film)

text: Music of the film is composed by Salim–Sulaiman and the lyrics are penned by Ajinkya Iyer and Irfan Siddiqui. Most of the tracks have a western feel associated to them. The songs are remixed by Abhijit Vaghani. Sunidhi Chauhan's rendition of the song "Neeyat Kharab Hai" was widely acclaimed.


title: Teen Patti (film)

text: The film was shot in India and England. Production designer Ayesha Punvani created gambling dens in places like abandoned train yards, dockyards, abandoned factories, mills that have been shut down and an ice factory.


title: Teen Patti (film)

text: "Teen Patti" is inspired by the English film "21" (without any mention). The end of the film when Amitabh Bachchan refuses to accept Isaac Newton Award for Applied Mathematics is inspired by the refusal of the Fields Medal by the Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman.


title: Timothy Castagne

text: Timothy Castagne (born 5 December 1995) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a full-back for Premier League club Leicester City and the Belgium national team. Castagne began his senior career with Genk after graduating from the club's youth academy and moved to Leicester City in 2020.


title: Timothy Castagne

text: Born in Arlon, Belgian Luxembourg, Castagne began playing football for local clubs US Waltzing and Lorrain Arlon before moving to the youth academy of Virton, the largest club in the province. He practised with the youth teams of Standard Liège after going to a boarding school in the area, but continued to play matches at Virton during the weekend.


title: Timothy Castagne

text: In 2011, Castagne moved to Genk, after Standard decided not to recruit him permanently. In June 2013, he signed a professional contract for three years at Genk. In January 2014, then Genk coach Mario Been included him in training camp with the first team after leaving a good impression, which meant that he was definitively included in the first team in the second half of the season. He made his Belgian Pro League debut under new head coach Alex McLeish on 14 September 2014 as a starter against Club Brugge. On 2 May 2015, Castagne scored his first senior goal in a 7–1 home win.


title: Timothy Castagne

text: In July 2017, he joined Serie A club Atalanta in a €6 million deal, after Andrea Conti had left Atalanta for Milan. He scored his first goal for the Bergamo team on 2 January 2018, in Coppa Italia win over Napoli.


title: Timothy Castagne

text: After a first season of adaptation, his play improved in the first half of the second season, and on 27 August 2018, he scored his first goal in the Serie A in a 3–3 draw against Roma. Alternating with Hans Hateboer on the right wing-back, he scored 4 goals in the league overall; the others came in the second leg against Roma, and in two important end-of-season victories against Lazio (1–3), and Genoa (2–1).


title: Timothy Castagne

text: The following year he continued to alternate with Hateboer, scoring two goals in all competitions: on 22 September 2019, he scored the equalising goal in the 95th minute against Fiorentina in a 2–2 draw, and the other in the UEFA Champions League in which he scored the first goal in a 0–3 win against Shakhtar Donetsk which allowed the "Nerazzurri" to advance to the round of 16.


title: Timothy Castagne

text: During three years at Atalanta, Castagne made 96 appearances and scored 8 goals in all competitions. His farewell was motivated by a difficult relationship with the coach Gian Piero Gasperini.


title: Timothy Castagne

text: On 3 September 2020, Castagne completed a move to Premier League club Leicester City on a 5-year deal. On 13 September 2020, he scored his first goal for Leicester City in a 3–0 win over West Bromwich Albion; hence, he became the fifth Belgian player to score on his Premier League debut, after Luc Nilis, Thomas Vermaelen, Christian Benteke and Leandro Trossard.


title: Timothy Castagne

text: Castagne made his Belgium national football team debut on 7 September 2018 in a friendly against Scotland, as a starter.


title: Timothy Castagne

text: On 22 March 2019, he provided an assist for his now Leicester team mate Youri Tielemans in a 3–1 win against Russia in the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifiers.


title: Timothy Castagne

text: On 12 June 2021, in the 25th minute of Belgium's opening game of the UEFA Euro 2020 against Russia, he collided head-to-head with Daler Kuzyayev. Both had to be substituted. Castagne suffered a double eye-socket fracture and had to leave the tournament.


title: My Holo Love

text: My Holo Love () is a 2020 South Korean television series starring Yoon Hyun-min and Ko Sung-hee. It was released on Netflix on February 7, 2020.


title: My Holo Love

text: Because of her face blindness disorder, Han So-yeon decided to live a reclusive life. This changes when she starts using the AI program Holo whose appearance is the same as the developer, Go Nan-do. The latter slowly falls in love with So-yeon but his cold personality, which contrasts with Holo's, isn't in his favor.


title: My Holo Love

text: Ryu Yong-jae was inspired to write the story after seeing the computer program AlphaGo beat the former professional Go player Lee Sedol during the 2016 historic match.


title: South Indian International Movie Awards

text: South Indian International Movie Awards, also known as the SIIMA Awards, rewards the artistic and technical achievements of the South Indian film industry. It was launched in 2012 by Vishnu Vardhan Induri and Brinda Prasad Adusimilli to appreciate film makers from across the South Indian film industries: Tamil cinema, Telugu cinema, Kannada cinema, and Malayalam cinema, and provide a platform to promote South Indian films in international markets.


title: South Indian International Movie Awards

text: The ceremony was instituted in 2012 by Vishnu Vardhan Induri, the founder of Celebrity Cricket League. Adusumilli Brinda Prasad is the chairperson of SIIMA. The Awards are presented in separate parts on two different days. On the first day the most promising upcoming South Indian film artistes are honoured at the Generation Next Awards, while the second day is reserved for the main SIIMA Awards. The Award nominees are selected by a jury of senior artistes and professionals and voted for by public polling. The first SIIMA ceremony was held on 21 & 22 June 2012 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.


title: South Indian International Movie Awards

text: It is one of the most prominent entertainment award ceremonies in India. Unlike other South Indian film awards, SIIMA holds its ceremony abroad. However, in 2021, SIIMA was conducted in Hyderabad, India owing to the travel restrictions due to COVID-19 pandemic.


title: South Indian International Movie Awards

text: In 2017, Vibri Media Group have announced that it is going to add SIIMA Short Film Awards category to recognise makers and actors of short films. In September 2017, a twitter emoji was released on the platform.


title: Super 35

text: Super 35 (originally known as Superscope 235) is a motion picture film format that uses exactly the same film stock as standard 35 mm film, but puts a larger image frame on that stock by using the space normally reserved for the optical analog sound track.


title: Super 35

text: Super 35 was revived from a similar Superscope variant known as Superscope 235, which was originally developed by the Tushinsky Brothers (who founded Superscope Inc. in 1954) for RKO in 1954. The first film to be shot in Superscope was "Vera Cruz", a western film produced by Hecht-Lancaster Productions and distributed through United Artists.


title: Super 35

text: When cameraman Joe Dunton was preparing to shoot "Dance Craze" in 1982, he chose to revive the Superscope format by using a full silent-standard gate and slightly optically recentering the lens port (to adjust for the inclusion of the area of the optic soundtrack -the gray track on left side of the illustration). These two characteristics are central to the format.


title: Super 35

text: It was adopted by Hollywood starting with "" in 1984, under the format name Super Techniscope. It also received much early publicity for making the cockpit shots in "Top Gun" possible, since it was otherwise impossible to fit 35 mm cameras with large anamorphic lenses into the small free space in the cockpit. Later, as other camera rental houses and labs started to embrace the format, Super 35 became popular in the mid-1990s, and is now considered a ubiquitous production process, with usage on well over a thousand feature films. It is often the standard production format for television shows, music videos, and commercials. Since none of these require a release print, it is unnecessary to reserve space for an optical soundtrack.


title: Super 35

text: When composing for 2.39:1, it was often typical to employ either a "common center", which keeps the 2.39 extraction area at the center of the film that results in extra headroom if opened up to 4:3 or 16:9, or a "common top", which shifts the 2.39 extraction area upwards on the film so that it shared a common top line with a centered 1.85:1 frame. This allowed frame compositions with actors to remain relatively unaffected when producing a 4:3 or 16:9 full screen version with similar headrooms. The downside with common top extraction is that lens flares may not be aligned properly as light sources that are in the center of the full frame appear slightly lower than usual in 2.39 and corner fall-offs and other distortions are not optically centered properly. Also in wide shots, there is too much footroom and not enough headroom and extreme close ups of actors faces as well as their foreheads are still cut off but more picture is gained below the frame. As 16:9 televisions increased in popularity, it became more practical for productions to use the "common center" extraction, which frames across the center of the film, although a "common third" extraction is used if directors want similar headrooms between 2.39 & 16:9 versions.


title: Super 35

text: The Super 35 format has also gained attraction for use in large budget visual effects driven films as the unused frame areas outside 1.85/2.39 can be used by VFX artists to film different visual effects elements with spherical lenses and more freedom to move within the frame with 2D and 3D tracking.


title: Super 35

text: Super 35 is a production format. Theatres do not receive or project Super 35 prints. Rather, films are "shot" in a Super 35 format but are then – either through optical blowdown/matting or digital intermediate – converted into one of the standard formats to make release prints. Because of this, often productions also use Super 35's width in conjunction with a 3-perf negative pulldown to save costs on "wasted" frame area shot and accommodate camera magazines that could shoot 33% longer in time with the same length of film.


title: Super 35

text: If using 4-perf, the Super 35 camera aperture is 24.89 mm × 18.66 mm (0.980 in × 0.735 in), compared to the standard Academy 35 mm film size of 21.95 mm × 16.00 mm (0.864 in × 0.630 in) and thus provides 32% more image area than the standard 35-mm format. 4-perf Super 35 is simply the original frame size that was used in 35 mm silent films. That is, it is a return to the way the film stock was used before the frame size was cropped to allow room for a soundtrack.


title: Super 35

text: Super 35 competes with the use of the standard 35 mm format used with an anamorphic lens. In this comparison, advocates of Super 35 claim an advantage in production costs and flexibility; when used to make 1.85:1 or 2.39:1 theatrical prints and the ability to format the film for TV, detractors complain of a loss in quality, due to less negative area used and more lab intermediate steps (if done optically).


title: Super 35

text: Super 35 uses standard "spherical" camera lenses, which are faster, smaller, and cheaper to rent – a factor in low-budget production – and provide a wider range of lens choices to the cinematographer. The chief advantage of Super 35 for productions is its adaptability to different release formats. Super 35 negatives can be used to produce high-quality releases in any aspect ratio, as the final frame is extracted and converted from the larger full frame negative. This also means that a full-frame video release can actually use more of the frame than the theatrical release (Open matte), provided that the extra frame space is "protected for" during filming. Generally the aspect ratio(s) and extraction method (either from a common center or common topline) must be chosen by the director of photography ahead of time, so the correct ground glass can be created to let the camera operator see where the extracted frame is.


title: Super 35

text: 1.66:1 and 1.75:1 have been indicated in some Super 35 frame leader charts, although generally they have not been used for Super 35 productions due to both relative lack of usage since the rise of Super 35 and their greater use of negative frame space by virtue of their increased vertical dimension.


title: Super 35

text: Theoretically, 2.39:1 release prints made from Super 35 should have slightly lower technical quality than films produced directly in the anamorphic format. Because part of the Super 35 image is thrown away when printing to this format, films originated with anamorphic lenses use a larger negative area. Super 35 has continually been popular with television shows, due to the lack of a need for a final release print; with the advent of widescreen television sets, 3-perf Super 35 – with a native 1.78:1 (16:9) ratio – was widely used for widescreen television shows until the advent of digital shooting. 3-perf Super 35 was also used for some time for feature films in 1.85:1 & 2.39:1, and the digital intermediate process made it more attractive because it allowed the optical processing formerly required to be skipped entirely.


title: Super 35

text: Franchises that used the Super 35 format include "The Matrix", "The Fast and the Furious", "Harry Potter", "Bourne", the first three "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies, "National Treasure", the first two "The Chronicles of Narnia" movies, the first three live-action "Alvin and the Chipmunks" movies (Super 1.85), and "The Twilight Saga".


title: Second line (parades)

text: The second line is a tradition in parades organized by Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs (SAPCs) with brass band parades in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The "main line" or "first line" is the main section of the parade, or the members of the SAPC with the parading permit as well as the brass band. The second line consists of people who follow the band to enjoy the music, dance, and engage in community. The second line's style of traditional dance, in which participants dance and walk along with the SAPCs in a free-form style with parasols and handkerchiefs, is called "second-lining". It is one of the most foundationally Black American-retentive cultures in the United States. It has been called "the quintessential New Orleans art form – a jazz funeral without a body". Another significant difference from jazz funerals is that second line parades lack the slow hymns and dirges played at funerals (although some organizations may have the band play a solemn selection toward the start of the parade in memory of members who died since their last parade).


title: Second line (parades)

text: The second line has its origins in traditional West African circle or ring dances. The second line tradition was brought to New Orleans by enslaved Africans, where it became a ritual for African Americans, especially in various processions, including funerals. Some scholars believe that the West African ring featured children drumming with adults dancing that in turn, forced the ring to straighten into a line. Others note the similarity of the steps – exaggerated, stylistic strutting – to dances performed in Congo Square by the enslaved given the day off on Sundays. These dances were officially banned for a time because they were deemed threatening to the white inhabitants of the city, and their resurgence in the second line culture suggests a similar celebration of individual freedom.


title: Second line (parades)

text: African and African-American traditions continued throughout the "Code Noir" and Jim Crow eras in New Orleans. African-Americans formed Benevolent Societies and "Social, Aid & Pleasure Clubs" because white Insurance companies often refused to cover free people of color and/or the formerly enslaved. SAPCs assisted members through illness and supported families with burial costs for deceased members. This is a carry-over from African traditions that believed in celebrating the member's spirit leaving the body to return to the ancestors and God. This led to what became known as a "jazz funeral", with the SAPC members marching in a dirge with a brass band before the deceased body being "cut loose" and a celebratory parade begins. The same club exercised their social aspect with a colorful, annual, public second line parade through their home community.


title: Second line (parades)

text: A second line snare drummer commonly follows the brass band, playing off the marching beat with improvised polyrhythmic figures that can inspire second line dancers or, if the band is improvising, the band itself. Second line drumming styles became a feature of early jazz drumming and the New Orleans Rhythm and Blues of the 1950s. The Rebirth Brass Band and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band feature traditional second line drumming styles. Drummers such as Billy Higgins and Idris Muhammad adapted second line drum figures to modern jazz.


title: Second line (parades)

text: The locally best known second line parades are held by clubs and benevolent organizations. Some have long histories; the oldest such organization still holding regular parades is the Young Men Olympian Junior Benevolent Association, founded in 1884. During the "second line season", lasting most of the year with breaks for holidays (including Mardi Gras) and the hottest part of summer, there are second line parades most Sundays. Longer parades often make stops, commonly at bars, where refreshments have been arranged for members and those following the parade for fun can purchase something. There are often vendors selling soft drinks, beer, and street food, including barbecue and yaka mein.


title: Second line (parades)

text: Additional second lines, large or small, may be held for any event which people think merits hiring a parading band for such a style of celebration, including weddings and opening of businesses.


title: Second line (parades)

text: The historic predominantly African-American neighborhoods of Tremé and Central City are most strongly associated with the traditions, though second lines can often be seen in the Seventh Ward, Uptown, Marigny, Ninth Ward, Mid-City, and at least on occasion in most of the older neighborhoods of the city. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival holds second lines at the Fair Grounds each day of the festival to give visitors a taste of this New Orleans tradition.


title: Second line (parades)

text: A second line parade was featured in the 1973 James Bond film "Live and Let Die". In 2010, the opening scene in the pilot episode, as well as the season one finale of the HBO series "Tremé" featured a second line parade and journalists championed second line culture. The second line culture has maintained a dedicated, organized schedule throughout the history of SAPCs in New Orleans with clubs enjoying annual parades on their selected dates with those events contributing to the local economy. The clubs never lost their African-based traditions and mores and immediately restored their scheduled parades as soon as New Orleans reopened to its citizens after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The Black Men of Labor held the first SAPC second line parade in October 2005. New residents of New Orleans embraced the second line tradition and parade routes were publicized online inviting outsiders to participate.


title: Second line (parades)

text: Second Line parades have been taking place since the late 1800s and with innumerable SAPC events and "jazz funerals", the sheer number of events with thousands of people since that time have been lively, fun and memorable - taking place without incident. Violence has marred some parades in recent years, including the May 12, 2013 Mother's Day Parade shooting where 19 were wounded and one was trampled.


title: Second line (parades)

text: This African-culture-based/New Orleans phenomenon, has been captured and presented in other parts of the country; the HONK! Festival in Somerville, Massachusetts was started by the second line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band. Asheville, North Carolina has the Asheville second line Band, which marches at parades and other local events. Oakland, California has a growing Mardi Gras celebration including parades organized by the Oakland second line Project and the Brass Boppers. In Duluth, Minnesota The Magic Smelt Puppet Troupe hosts their annual "Run, Smelt, Run!" second line parade every spring to celebrate the smelt run.


title: Second line (parades)

text: "The second line" – the magazine of the New Orleans jazz club, started in 1950 – took its name from the second lining tradition, which by that time included fans of jazz music, both black and white.


title: Lactone

text: Lactones are cyclic carboxylic esters, containing a 1-oxacycloalkan-2-one structure (), or analogues having unsaturation or heteroatoms replacing one or more carbon atoms of the ring.


title: Lactone

text: Lactones are formed by intramolecular esterification of the corresponding hydroxycarboxylic acids, which takes place spontaneously when the ring that is formed is five- or six-membered. Lactones with three- or four-membered rings (α-lactones and β-lactones) are very reactive, making their isolation difficult. Special methods are normally required for the laboratory synthesis of small-ring lactones as well as those that contain rings larger than six-membered.


title: Lactone

text: Lactones are usually named according to the precursor acid molecule ("aceto" = 2 carbon atoms, "propio" = 3, "butyro" = 4, "valero" = 5, "capro" = 6, etc.), with a "-lactone" suffix and a Greek letter prefix that specifies the number of carbon atoms in the heterocycle — that is, the distance between the relevant -OH and the -COOH groups along said backbone. The first carbon atom after the carbon in the -COOH group on the parent compound is labelled α, the second will be labeled β, and so forth. Therefore, the prefixes also indicate the size of the lactone ring: α-lactone = 3-membered ring, β-lactone = 4-membered, γ-lactone = 5-membered, etc. Macrocyclic lactones are known as macrolactones.


title: Lactone

text: The other suffix used to denote a lactone is "-olide", used in substance class names like "butenolide", "macrolide", "cardenolide" or "bufadienolide".


title: Lactone

text: To obtain the preferred IUPAC names, lactones are named as heterocyclic pseudoketones by adding the suffix ‘one’, ‘dione’, ‘thione’, etc. and the appropriate multiplicative prefixes to the name of the heterocyclic parent hydride.


title: Lactone

text: The name "lactone" derives from the ring compound called lactide, which is formed from the dehydration of 2-hydroxypropanoic acid (lactic acid) CH-CH(OH)-COOH. Lactic acid, in turn, derives its name from its original isolation from soured milk (Latin: lac, lactis). The name was coined in 1844 by the French chemist Théophile-Jules Pelouze, who first obtained it as a derivative of lactic acid. An internal dehydration reaction within the same molecule of lactic acid would have produced alpha-propiolactone, a lactone with a 3-membered ring.


title: Lactone

text: In 1880 the German chemist Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig extended the name "lactone" to all intramolecular carboxylic esters.


title: Lactone

text: Naturally occurring lactones are mainly saturated and unsaturated γ- and δ-lactones, and to a lesser extent macrocyclic lactones. The γ- and δ-lactones are intramolecular esters of the corresponding hydroxy fatty acids. They contribute to the aroma of fruits, butter, cheese, and other foods. Cyclopentadecanolide is responsible for the musklike odor of angelica root oil. Of the naturally occurring bicyclic lactones, phthalides are responsible for the odors of celery and lovage oils, and coumarin for woodruff. Lactones are present in oak wood, and they contribute to the flavour profile of Barrel-aged beers.


title: Lactone

text: Lactone rings occur widely as building blocks in nature, such as in ascorbic acid, kavain, nepetalactone, gluconolactone, hormones (spironolactone, mevalonolactone), enzymes (lactonase), neurotransmitters (butyrolactone, avermectins), antibiotics (macrolides like erythromycin; amphotericin B), anticancer drugs (vernolepin, epothilones), phytoestrogens (resorcylic acid lactones, cardiac glycosides).


title: Lactone

text: Many methods in ester synthesis can also be applied to that of lactones. In one industrial synthesis of oxandrolone the key lactone-forming step is an organic reaction - esterification.


title: Lactone

text: In halolactonization, an alkene is attacked by a halogen via electrophilic addition with the cationic intermediate captured intramolecularly by an adjacent carboxylic acid (See also iodolactamization).


title: Lactone

text: Specific methods include Yamaguchi esterification, Shiina macrolactonization, Corey-Nicolaou macrolactonization, Baeyer–Villiger oxidation and nucleophilic abstraction.


title: Lactone

text: The γ-lactones γ-octalactone, γ-nonalactone, γ-decalactone, γ-undecalactone can be prepared in good yield in a one-step process by radical addition of primary fatty alcohols to acrylic acid, using di-tert-butyl peroxide as a catalyst.


title: Lactone

text: The most stable structure for lactones are the 5-membered γ-lactones and 6-membered δ-lactones because, as in all organic cycles, 5 and 6 membered rings minimize the strain of bond angles. γ-lactones are so stable that, in the presence of dilute acids at room temperature, 4-hydroxy acids (R-CH(OH)-(CH)-COOH) immediately undergo spontaneous esterification and cyclisation to the lactone. β-lactones do exist, but can only be made by special methods. α-lactones can be detected as transient species in mass spectrometry experiments.


title: Lactone

text: The reactions of lactones are similar to those of esters, as exemplified by gamma-lactone in the following sections:


title: Lactone

text: Heating a lactone with a base (sodium hydroxide) will hydrolyse the lactone to its parent compound, the straight chained bifunctional compound. Like straight-chained esters, the hydrolysis-condensation reaction of lactones is a reversible reaction, with an equilibrium. However, the equilibrium constant of the hydrolysis reaction of the lactone is lower than that of the straight-chained ester i.e. the products (hydroxyacids) are less favored in the case of the lactones. This is because although the enthalpies of the hydrolysis of esters and lactones are about the same, the entropy of the hydrolysis of lactones is less than the entropy of straight-chained esters. Straight-chained esters give two products upon hydrolysis, making the entropy change more favorable than in the case of lactones which gives only a single product.


title: Lactone

text: Lactones can be reduced to diols using lithium aluminium hydride in dry ether. The reduction reaction will first break the ester bond of the lactone, and then reduce the aldehyde group (-CHO) to the alcohol group (-OH). For instance, gamma-lactones will be reduced to butane-1,4-diol, (CH(OH)-(CH)-CH(OH).


title: Lactone

text: Lactones also react with ethanolic ammonia, which will first break the ester bond and then react with the acidic -COOH group, because of the basic properties of ammonia, to form a difunctional group, i.e. alcohol and amide. Gamma-lactones will react to yield CH(OH)-(CH)-CO-NH.


title: Lactone

text: Lactones readily form polyesters according to the formula, and have been shown to oligomerize without catalyst as well:


title: Lactone

text: Lactones contribute significantly to the flavor of fruit, and of unfermented and fermented dairy products, and are therefore used as flavors and fragrances. Some examples are γ-decalactone (4-decanolide), which has a characteristic peach flavor; δ-decalactone (5-decanolide), which has a creamy coconut/peach flavour; γ-dodecalactone (4-dodecanolide), which also has a coconut/fruity flavor, a description which also fits γ-octalactone (4-octanolide), although it also has a herbaceous character; γ-nonalactone, which has an intense coconut flavor of this series, despite not occurring in coconut, and γ-undecalactone.


title: Lactone

text: Macrocyclic lactones (cyclopentadecanolide, 15-pentadec-11/12-enolide) have odors similar to macrocyclic ketones of animal origin (muscone, civetone), but they can be prepared more easily, for example, by depolymerization of the corresponding linear polyesters. Replacement of a methylene unit by oxygen barely affects the odor of these compounds, and oxalactones with 15 – 17-membered rings are produced in addition to cyclopentadecanolide (e. g., 12-oxa-16-hexadecanolide).


title: Lactone

text: Prebiotically plausible lactones, such as ε-caprolactone and δ-valerolactone, have been shown to oligomerize without the usage of catalysts forming oligomers that may have been relevant during the origin of life.


title: Adam Dutkiewicz

text: Adam Jonathan Dutkiewicz (born April 4, 1977) is an American musician, recording engineer, songwriter, and music producer, best known as the lead guitarist and backup vocalist from Massachusetts metalcore bands Killswitch Engage, Aftershock, and Times of Grace, as well as the guitarist and co-lead vocalist for the melodic death metal supergroup Serpentine Dominion.


title: Adam Dutkiewicz

text: Dutkiewicz, of Polish, Austrian, Scottish, and English descent, was born and grew up in Westhampton, Massachusetts. Dutkiewicz attended Hampshire Regional High School. Dutkiewicz also later attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, studying production, audio engineering, and bass guitar. While at college, he began playing in the band Aftershock with friend Joel Stroetzel. Stroetzel would later join Dutkiewicz, Mike D'Antonio, and Jesse Leach in forming Killswitch Engage. Dutkiewicz was the drummer of Killswitch Engage, until the release of its second album, "Alive or Just Breathing", when he moved to guitars, and Tom Gomes became the band's drummer.


title: Adam Dutkiewicz

text: He has assumed the role of producer on all of Killswitch Engage's records, except on their second self-titled album Killswitch Engage, which was released June 30, 2009. For this album he took on the job of co-producer alongside Brendan O'Brien (known for his work with AC/DC, The Offspring, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, Incubus, Mastodon, and Stone Temple Pilots). Adam has also produced for the bands As I Lay Dying, Underøath, The Devil Wears Prada, The Acacia Strain, Unearth, All That Remains, From Autumn to Ashes, Johnny Truant, Parkway Drive, The Agony Scene, Every Time I Die and others. He has been compared to Ross Robinson, producer of many nu metal albums, because of his influence on modern metal and shaping the sound of melodic metalcore. He is also an engineer for Zing Recording Studios, which has produced for numerous artists, including several from Tooth & Nail Records and its heavy metal sub-label Solid State Records.


title: Adam Dutkiewicz

text: In 2016, Adam formed Serpentine Dominion also consisting George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher and Shannon Lucas.


title: Adam Dutkiewicz

text: Dutkiewicz has been a longtime player of Caparison Guitars mostly using the Caparison PLM-3, a discontinued model, with EMG pickups (EMG 85 in the bridge, and two EMG SA single coils in the middle and neck positions) and DR Tite-Fit .012-.052 strings. He also uses the Caparison Dellinger, Horus, TAT, and Angelus models. He is quoted as saying that he likes the guitars because they have a very "strat-like neck." Ever since 2007, he has been seen using various models and brands, but still uses Caparison for tracking in the studio.


title: Adam Dutkiewicz

text: In 2008 shows, Dutkiewicz used a black Parker Fly with an EMG 81/EMG 85 set for pickups. Atop this, he used a custom Caparison, modeled after the Dellinger model. He previously used Parker Guitars for their light weight so as to avoid worsening his back problems, but ended his endorsement due to quality issues after getting his signature model. Sometime in 2008, he switched to using a stock PRS Guitars Custom 22, which he used for a few years. In the video for "In Due Time", Dutkiewicz can be seen using an EVH Wolfgang Hardtail. He has since then switched to EVH Wolfgangs full-time. The modifications done to the Wolfgangs involve removing the neck pickup, pickup selector switch, and tone knob, replacing the Schaller fine-tuning stop-tail piece with a standard stop-tail piece, replacing the locking nut with a standard nut, and installing locking tuners.


title: Adam Dutkiewicz

text: In 2015, Dutkiewicz officially re-joined Caparison Guitars. He now also uses Fishman Fluence Modern pickups. He uses his signature model, the Caparison Metal Machine. It is based on the TAT Special FX with Fishman Fluence Killswitch Engage Signature pickup in the bridge position. He left out the neck pickup for more wood mass in the guitar.


title: Adam Dutkiewicz

text: Dutkiewicz has used a wide variety of amps throughout his career, including the Mesa Boogie Roadster and Triple Rectifier heads, a Marshall JCM900, a modified Soldano SLO-100, and a Hughes and Kettner TriAmp MKII, which he did not like for metal because he said it "didn't hold together well." He has also used the Framus Cobra and Dragon, the Peavey 5150, the Splawn Nitro, the Diezel VH4, and the Fuchs Viper for distorted tones, and the Fender Twin '65 Reverb and Vox AC30 for clean tones. He is currently endorsed by Laney Amplification, used their Ironheart series of amplifiers and currently using Tony Iommi’s signature amplifier TI-100.


title: Adam Dutkiewicz

text: In his current live amp rig, he uses both Laney amps, making use of a Laney Iommi head with a Celestion Vintage 30-loaded Laney Iommi 4x12 cabinet for his distorted tones, and a Laney Lionheart 1x12 combo for clean tones.


title: Adam Dutkiewicz

text: For his current live effects rig, he makes use of a Maxon OD808 Overdrive, Maxon AD-9 delay, Maxon CP-9 Pro+ compressor, Boss Corporation NS-2 Noise Suppressor, Boss ABY switcher, Jet City JetDirect DI box, and a Korg DTR2000 tuner. For wireless, he uses an Audio-Technica 5000 Series.


title: Adam Dutkiewicz

text: Joel Stroetzel stated about Adam Dutkiewicz's stage personality saying: "Adam likes to take the piss out of things. Just wants to have a good time—kind of act like an asshole, but in a funny way. He likes to get people going, egg the crowd on. He gets up there and calls the crowd ‘pussies’ and all this stuff. But coming from a guy wearing short shorts and a cape, you gotta take things like that in stride."


title: Adam Dutkiewicz

text: Jesse Leach has stated about Dutkiewicz's stage attire: "That's his sort of middle finger to everybody, to all the people who act very tough and think metal has to be doom and gloom and trying to be a cool or tough guy, that's his punk rock way."


title: Adam Dutkiewicz

text: On February 10, 2015, Dutkiewicz was a contestant on the CBS game show "The Price Is Right" where he won $51,832 in prizes including a 2015 Honda Fit, a 2015 Nissan Frontier, a small trailer, and a trip to Borrego Springs.


title: Faure Gnassingbé

text: Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé Eyadéma (; born 6 June 1966) is a Togolese politician who has been the president of Togo since 2005. Before assuming the presidency, he was appointed by his father, President Gnassingbé Eyadéma, as Minister of Equipment, Mines, Posts, and Telecommunications, serving from 2003 to 2005.


title: Faure Gnassingbé

text: Following President Eyadéma's death in 2005, Gnassingbé was immediately installed as president with support from the army. Doubts regarding the constitutional legitimacy of the succession led to heavy regional pressure being placed on Gnassingbé, and he subsequently resigned on 25 February. He then won a controversial presidential election on 24 April 2005, and was sworn in as president. Gnassingbé was re-elected for a second term in 2010.


title: Faure Gnassingbé

text: In the April 2015 presidential election, Gnassingbé won a third term, defeating his main challenger, Jean-Pierre Fabre, by a margin of about 59% to 35%, according to official results. In the February 2020 presidential elections, Gnassingbé won his fourth presidential term in office as the president of Togo. According to the official result, he won with a margin of around 72% of the vote share. This enabled him to defeat his closest challenger, the former prime minister Agbeyome Kodjo who had 18%. The legitimacy of elections in Togo is widely disputed.


title: Faure Gnassingbé

text: Born in Afagnan in Lacs Prefecture, Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé is of Kabye descent and is one of Gnassingbé Eyadéma's many children; his mother is Séna Sabine Mensah. Gnassingbé received his secondary education in Lomé before studying in Paris at the Université Paris-Dauphine, where he received a degree in financial business management; he subsequently obtained a Master of Business Administration degree from The George Washington University in the United States. He was elected to the National Assembly of Togo in the October 2002 parliamentary election as a Deputy for Blitta, and in the National Assembly he was coordinator of the commission in charge of privatization. On July 29, 2003, he was appointed as Minister of Equipment, Mines, Posts, and Telecommunications, serving in that position until becoming president in February 2005.


title: Faure Gnassingbé

text: Some in the opposition claimed that the amendment of the Constitution in December 2002, lowering the minimum age for the president from 45 years to 35 years, was intended to benefit Gnassingbé. His appointment to the government in July 2003 came after he had already been appearing with his father at official functions and contributed to speculation that he was intended as his father's successor.


title: Faure Gnassingbé

text: Eyadéma died suddenly on February 5, 2005. According to the Togolese Constitution, after the president's death, the president of the National Assembly should become acting president. At the time of Eyadéma's death, National Assembly President Fambaré Ouattara Natchaba was out of the country, and Gnassingbé was sworn in as acting president to "ensure stability". Many believe that Natchaba did not want to come back to Togo due to fears of assassination by the Gnassingbé clan. The army wanted him to resign his position and allow Gnassingbé to legally take over. The African Union denounced Gnassingbé's assumption of power as a military coup.


title: Faure Gnassingbé

text: A day after his father's death, the National Assembly received clear instructions to dismiss Natchaba and elect Gnassingbé in his place, which would legalize his succession, which took place on 6 February 2005. Gnassingbé's election was unanimously approved by the deputies (98% of them were members of the ruling party) who were present in the National Assembly at the time; the opposition was not represented in the National Assembly due to its boycott of the 2002 parliamentary election. The members of Gnassingbé's party did not want to challenge the army's choice. The parliament also eliminated a constitutional requirement that elections be held within 60 days of the president's death, enabling the younger Gnassingbé to rule until the expiration of his father's term in 2008.


title: Faure Gnassingbé

text: Under pressure from others in the region, and particularly Nigeria, later in February 2005 Gnassingbé announced that new elections would be held within 60 days, but said that he would remain in office in the meantime. However, on February 21, the National Assembly reversed some of the constitutional changes that it had made so as to allow Gnassingbé to assume power, although it did not instruct him to resign. This was construed as a way of pressuring him to stand down with dignity. To change the constitution during a period of transition was itself an unconstitutional act, but this did not deter Gnassingbé's allies.


title: Faure Gnassingbé

text: On February 25, Gnassingbé was nominated by delegates of the ruling party, the Rally for the Togolese People, as the party's presidential candidate. He was also chosen as head of the party. Shortly afterwards, he announced that he would step down as president during the interim period. Bonfoh Abass was appointed by the National Assembly to replace him until the election on April 24, 2005. Bonfoh was considered by some to be a puppet of the military elite and the Gnassingbé family. Gnassingbé competed with the main opposition candidate, Emmanuel Bob-Akitani, a retired engineer of the state-owned mining company and the second most important person in the opposition coalition after Gilchrist Olympio. Olympio could not take part in the election, since the constitution required that any candidate must have lived for at least 12 months in Togo, and Olympio had been in self-imposed exile for fear that he would be murdered by the Eyadema clan like his father.


title: Faure Gnassingbé

text: In the election, Gnassingbé received slightly more than 60% of the votes, according to official results. The RPT refused to allow oversight during the counting of the ballots. The EU and the Carter Center deemed the elections to be fraudulent. Mass protests by the coalition of opposition parties led to the killing of over 1,000 citizens by security forces. 40,000 refugees fled to neighboring Benin and Ghana.


title: Faure Gnassingbé

text: The phosphates sector – accounting for 40% of export revenues – is managed at the office of the president, and it is alleged that contracts and permits to manage the sector are sold to profit the president.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: The Aztec sun stone () is a late post-classic Mexica sculpture housed in the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City, and is perhaps the most famous work of Mexica sculpture. It measures in diameter and thick, and weighs . Shortly after the Spanish conquest, the monolithic sculpture was buried in the Zócalo, the main square of Mexico City. It was rediscovered on 17 December 1790 during repairs on the Mexico City Cathedral. Following its rediscovery, the sun stone was mounted on an exterior wall of the cathedral, where it remained until 1885. Early scholars initially thought that the stone was carved in the 1470s, though modern research suggests that it was carved some time between 1502 and 1521.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: The monolith was carved by the Mexica at the end of the Mesoamerican Postclassic Period. Although the exact date of its creation is unknown, the name glyph of the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II in the central disc dates the monument to his reign between 1502 and 1520. There are no clear indications about the authorship or purpose of the monolith, although there are certain references to the construction of a huge block of stone by the Mexicas in their last stage of splendor. According to Diego Durán, the emperor Axayácatl "was also busy in carving the famous and large stone, very carved where the figures of the months and years, days and weeks were sculpted". Juan de Torquemada described in his "Monarquía indiana" how Moctezuma Xocoyotzin ordered to bring a large rock from Tenanitla, today San Ángel, to Tenochtitlan, but on the way it fell on the bridge of the Xoloco neighborhood.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: The parent rock from which it was extracted comes from the Xitle volcano, and could have been obtained from San Ángel or Xochimilco. The geologist Ezequiel Ordóñez in 1893 determined such an origin and ruled it as olivine basalt. It was probably dragged by thousands of people from a maximum of 22 kilometers to the center of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: After the conquest, it was transferred to the exterior of the "Templo Mayor", to the west of the then Palacio Virreinal and the Acequia Real, where it remained uncovered, with the relief upwards for many years. According to Durán, Alonso de Montúfar, Archbishop of Mexico from 1551 to 1572, ordered the burial of the Sun Stone so that "the memory of the ancient sacrifice that was made there would be lost".


title: Aztec sun stone

text: Towards the end of the 18th century, the viceroy Juan Vicente de Güemes initiated a series of urban reforms in the capital of New Spain. One of them was the construction of new streets and the improvement of parts of the city, through the introduction of drains and sidewalks. In the case of the then so-called Plaza Mayor, sewers were built, the floor was leveled and areas were remodeled. It was José Damián Ortiz de Castro, the architect overseeing public works, who reported the finding of the sun stone on 17 December 1790. The monolith was found half a yard (about 40 centimeters) under the ground surface and 60 meters to the west of the second door of the viceregal palace, and removed from the earth with a "real rigging with double pulley". Antonio de León y Gama came to the discovery site to observe and determine the origin and meaning of the monument found. According to Alfredo Chavero, it was Antonio who gave it the name of Aztec Calendar, believing it to be an object of public consultation. León y Gama said the following:


title: Aztec sun stone

text: León y Gama himself interceded before the canon of the cathedral, José Uribe, in order that the monolith found would not be buried again due to its perceived pagan origin (for which it had been buried almost two centuries before). León y Gama argued that in countries like Italy there was much that was invested in rescuing and publicly showcasing monuments of the past. It is noteworthy that, for the spirit of the time, efforts were made to exhibit the monolith in a public place and also to promote its study. León y Gama defended in his writings the artistic character of the stone, in competition with arguments of authors like Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, who gave lesser value to those born in the American continent, including their artistic talent.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: The monolith was placed on one side of the west tower of the Metropolitan Cathedral on 2 July 1791. There it was observed by, among others, Alexander von Humboldt, who made several studies on its iconography. Mexican sources alleged that during the Mexican–American War, soldiers of the United States Army who occupied the plaza used it for target shooting, though there is no evidence of such damage to the sculpture. Victorious General Winfield Scott contemplated taking it back to Washington D.C. as a war trophy, if the Mexicans did not make peace.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: In August 1885, the stone was transferred to the Monolith Gallery of the Archaeological Museum on Moneda Street, on the initiative of Jesús Sánchez, director of the same. Through documents from the time, it is known that popular animosity resulted from the "confinement" of a public city icon.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: In 1964 the stone was transferred to the National Museum of Anthropology, where the stone presides over the Mexica Hall of the museum and is inscribed in various Mexican coins.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: Before the discovery of the monolith of Tlaltecuhtli, deity of the earth, with measurements being 4 by 3.57 meters high, it was thought that the sun stone was the largest Mexica monolith in dimensions.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: The sculpted motifs that cover the surface of the stone refer to central components of the Mexica cosmogony. The state-sponsored monument linked aspects of Aztec ideology such as the importance of violence and warfare, the cosmic cycles, and the nature of the relationship between gods and man. The Aztec elite used this relationship with the cosmos and the bloodshed often associated with it to maintain control over the population, and the sun stone was a tool in which the ideology was visually manifested.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: In the center of the monolith is often believed to be the face of the solar deity, Tonatiuh, which appears inside the glyph for "movement" (Nahuatl: "Ōllin"), the name of the current era. Some scholars have argued that the identity of the central face is of the earth monster, Tlaltecuhtli, or of a hybrid deity known as "Yohualtecuhtli" who is referred to as the "Lord of the Night". This debate on the identity of the central figure is based on representations of the deities in other works as well as the role of the sun stone in sacrificial context, which involved the actions of deities and humans to preserve the cycles of time. The central figure is shown holding a human heart in each of his clawed hands, and his tongue is represented by a stone sacrificial knife ("Tecpatl").


title: Aztec sun stone

text: The four squares that surround the central deity represent the four previous suns or eras, which preceded the present era, "Four Movement" (Nahuatl: "Nahui Ōllin"). The Aztecs changed the order of the suns and introduced a fifth sun named "Four Movement" after they seized power over the central highlands. Each era ended with the destruction of the world and humanity, which were then recreated in the next era.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: The duration of the ages is expressed in years, although they must be observed through the prism of Aztec time. In fact the common thread of figures 676, 364 and 312 is that they are multiples of 52, and 52 years is the duration of one Aztec "century", and that is how they can express a certain amount of Aztec centuries. Thus, 676 years are 13 Aztec centuries; 364 years are 7, and 312 years are 6 Aztec centuries.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: Placed among these four squares are three additional dates, "One Flint" ("Tecpatl"), "One Rain" ("Atl"), and "Seven Monkey" ("Ozomahtli"), and a "Xiuhuitzolli", or ruler's turquoise diadem, glyph. It has been suggested that these dates may have had both historical and cosmic significance, and that the diadem may form part of the name of the Mexica ruler, Moctezuma II.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: The first concentric zone or ring contains the signs corresponding to the 20 days of the 18 months and five "nemontemi" of the Aztec solar calendar (Nahuatl: "xiuhpohualli"). The monument is not a functioning calendar, but instead uses the calendrical glyphs to reference the cyclical concepts of time and its relationship to the cosmic conflicts within the Aztec ideology. Beginning at the symbol just left of the large point in the previous zone, these symbols are read counterclockwise. The order is as follows: 1. cipactli – crocodile, 2. ehécatl – wind, 3. calli – house, 4. cuetzpallin – lizard, 5. cóatl – serpent, 6. miquiztli – skull/death, 7. mázatl – deer, 8. tochtli – rabbit, 9. atl – water, 10. itzcuintli – dog, 11. ozomatli – monkey, 12. malinalli – herb, 13. ácatl – cane, 14. océlotl – jaguar, 15. cuauhtli – eagle, 16. cozcacuauhtli – vulture, 17. ollín – movement, 18. técpatl – flint, 19. quiahuitl – rain, 20. xóchitl – flower


title: Aztec sun stone

text: The second concentric zone or ring contains several square sections, with each section containing five points. Directly above these square sections are small arches are said to be feather ornaments. Directly above these are spurs or peaked arches that appear in groups of four. There are also eight angles that divide the stone into eight parts, which likely represent the sun's rays placed in the direction of the cardinal points.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: Two fire serpents, "Xiuhcoatl", take up almost this entire zone. They are characterized by the flames emerging from their bodies, the square shaped segments that make up their bodies, the points that form their tails, and their unusual heads and mouths. At the very bottom of the surface of the stone, are human heads emerging from the mouths of these serpents. Scholars have tried to identify these profiles of human heads as deities, but have not come to a consensus. One possible interpretation of the two serpents is that they represent two rival deities who were involved in the creation story of the fifth and current "sun", Queztalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca. The tongues of the serpents are touching, referencing the continuity of time and the continuous power struggle between the deities over the earthly and terrestrial worlds.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: In the upper part of this zone, a square carved between the tails of the serpents represents the date "Matlactli Omey-Ácatl" ("13-reed"). This is said to correspond to 1479, the year in which the Fifth Sun emerged in Teotihuacan during the reign of Axayácatl, and at the same time, indicating the year in which this monolithic sun stone was carved.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: The edge of the stone measures approximately 20 cm (8 inches) and contains a band of a series of dots as well as what have been said to be flint knives. This area has been interpreted as representing a starry night sky.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: From the moment the Sun Stone was discovered in 1790, many scholars have worked at making sense of the stone's complexity. This provides a long history of over 200 years of archaeologists, scholars, and historians adding to the interpretation of the stone. Modern research continues to shed light or cast doubt on existing interpretations as discoveries such as further evidence of the stone's pigmentation. As Eduardo Matos Moctezuma stated in 2004:


title: Aztec sun stone

text: The earliest interpretations of the stone relate to what early scholars believed was its use for astrology, chronology, or as a sundial. In 1792, two years after the stone's unearthing, Mexican scholar Antonio de León y Gama wrote one of the first treatises on Mexican archaeology on the Aztec calendar and Coatlicue. He correctly identified that some of the glyphs on the stone are the glyphs for the days of the month. Alexander von Humboldt also wanted to pass on his interpretation in 1803, after reading Leon y Gama's work. He disagreed about the material of the stone but generally agreed with Leon y Gama's interpretation. Both of these men incorrectly believed the stone to have been vertically positioned, but it was not until 1875 that Alfredo Chavero correctly wrote that the proper position for the stone was horizontal. Roberto Sieck Flandes in 1939 published a monumental study entitled "How Was the Stone Known as the Aztec Calendar Painted?" which gave evidence that the stone was indeed pigmented with bright blue, red, green, and yellow colors, just as many other Aztec sculptures have been found to have been as well. This work was later to be expanded by Felipe Solís and other scholars who would re-examine the idea of coloring and create updated digitized images for a better understanding of what the stone might have looked like. It was generally established that the four symbols included in the Ollin glyph represent the four past suns that the Mexica believed the earth had passed through.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: Another aspect of the stone is its religious significance. One theory is that the face at the center of the stone represents Tonatiuh, the Aztec deity of the sun. It is for this reason that the stone became known as the "Sun Stone." Richard Townsend proposed a different theory, claiming that the figure at the center of the stone represents Tlaltecuhtli, the Mexica earth deity who features in Mexica creation myths. Modern archaeologists, such as those at the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City, believe it is more likely to have been used primarily as a ceremonial basin or ritual altar for gladiatorial sacrifices, than as an astrological or astronomical reference.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: Yet another characteristic of the stone is its possible geographic significance. The four points may relate to the four corners of the earth or the cardinal points. The inner circles may express space as well as time.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: Lastly, there is the political aspect of the stone. It may have been intended to show Tenochtitlan as the center of the world and therefore, as the center of authority. Townsend argues for this idea, claiming that the small glyphs of additional dates amongst the four previous suns—1 Flint ("Tecpatl"), 1 Rain ("Atl"), and 7 Monkey ("Ozomahtli")—represent matters of historical importance to the Mexica state. He posits, for example, that 7 Monkey represents the significant day for the cult of a community within Tenochtitlan. His claim is further supported by the presence of Mexica ruler Moctezuma II's name on the work. These elements ground the Stone's iconography in history rather than myth and the legitimacy of the state in the cosmos.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: The methods of Aztec rule were influenced by the story of their Mexica ancestry, who were migrants to the Mexican territory. The lived history was marked by violence and the conquering of native groups, and their mythic history was used to legitimize their conquests and the establishment of the capital Tenochtitlan. As the Aztecs grew in power, the state needed to find ways to maintain order and control over the conquered peoples, and they used religion and violence to accomplish the task.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: The state religion included a vast canon of deities that were involved in the constant cycles of death and rebirth. When the gods made the sun and the earth, they sacrificed themselves in order for the cycles of the sun to continue, and therefore for life to continue. Because the gods sacrificed themselves for humanity, humans had an understanding that they should sacrifice themselves to the gods in return. The Sun Stone's discovery near the Templo Mayor in the capital connects it to sacred rituals such as the New Fire ceremony, which was conducted to ensure the earth's survival for another 52-year cycle, and human heart sacrifice played an important role in preserving these cosmic cycles. Human sacrifice was not only used in religious context; additionally, sacrifice was used as a military tactic to frighten Aztec enemies and remind those already under their control what might happen if they opposed the Empire. The state was then exploiting the sacredness of the practice to serve its own ideological intentions. The Sun Stone served as a visual reminder of the Empire's strength as a monumental object in the heart of the city and as a ritualistic object used in relation to the cosmic cycles and terrestrial power struggles.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: The sun stone image is displayed on the obverse the Mexican 20 Peso gold coin, which has a gold content of and was minted from 1917 to 1921 and restruck with the date 1959 from the mid-1940s to the late 1970s. Different parts of the sun stone are represented on the current Mexican coins, with each denomination having a different section.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: Currently, the image is present in the 10 Peso coin as part of the New Peso coin family started in 1992 having .925 silver centers and aluminum bronze rings changing in 1996 where new coins were introduced with base metal replacing the silver center.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: The sun stone image also has been adopted by modern Mexican and Mexican American/Chicano culture figures, and is used in folk art and as a symbol of cultural identity.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: In 1996, the Mexico national football team employed a depiction of the sun stone image on its home, away and third match kits, with each individual shirt being assigned the green (home), white (away) and red (third) colors of the Mexican flag respectively. The kit was featured until the 1998 World Cup in which the Mexican side impressed the world with satisfying results.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: After the conquest of the Aztec Empire by the Spanish in 1521 and the subsequent colonization of the territory, the prominence of the Mesoamerican empire was placed under harsh scrutiny by the Spanish. The rationale behind the bloodshed and sacrifice conducted by the Aztec was supported by religious and militant purposes, but the Spanish were horrified by what they saw, and the published accounts twisted the perception of the Aztecs into bloodthirsty, barbaric, and inferior people. The words and actions of the Spanish, such as the destruction, removal, or burial of Aztec objects like the Sun Stone supported this message of inferiority, which still has an impact today. The Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan was covered by the construction of Mexico City, and the monument was lost for centuries until it was unearthed in 1790. The reemergence of the Sun Stone sparked a renewed interest in Aztec culture, but since the Western culture now had hundreds of years of influence over the Mexican landscape, the public display of the monument next to the city's main cathedral sparked controversy. Although the object was being publicly honored, placing it in the shadow of a Catholic institution for nearly a century sent a message to some people that the Spanish would continue to dominate over the remnants of Aztec culture.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: Another debate sparked by the influence of the Western perspective over non-Western cultures surrounds the study and presentation of cultural objects as art objects. Carolyn Dean, a scholar of pre-Hispanic and Spanish colonial culture discusses the concept of “art by appropriation,” which displays and discusses cultural objects within the Western understanding of art. Claiming something as art often elevates the object in the viewer's mind, but then the object is only valued for its aesthetic purposes, and its historical and cultural importance is depleted. The Sun Stone was not made as an art object; it was a tool of the Aztec Empire used in ritual practices and as a political tool. By referring to it as a "sculpture" and by displaying it vertically on the wall instead of placed horizontally how it was originally used, the monument is defined within the Western perspective and therefore loses its cultural significance. The current display and discussion surrounding the Sun Stone is part of a greater debate on how to decolonize non-Western material culture.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: There are several other known monuments and sculptures that bear similar inscriptions. Most of them were found underneath the center of Mexico City, while others are of unknown origin. Many fall under a category known as temalacatl, large stones built for ritual combat and sacrifice. Matos Moctezuma has proposed that the Aztec Sun Stone might also be one of these.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: The Stone of Tizoc's upward-facing side contains a calendrical depiction similar to that of the subject of this page. Many of the formal elements are the same, although the five glyphs at the corners and center are not present. The tips of the compass here extend to the edge of the sculpture. The Stone of Tizoc is currently located in the National Anthropology Museum in the same gallery as the Aztec Sun Stone.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: The Stone of Motecuhzoma I is a massive object approximately 12 feet in diameter and 3 feet high with the 8 pointed compass iconography. The center depicts the sun deity Tonatiuh with the tongue sticking out.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: The Philadelphia Museum of Art has another. This one is much smaller, but still bears the calendar iconography and is listed in their catalog as "Calendar Stone". The side surface is split into two bands, the lower of which represents Venus with knives for eyes; the upper band has two rows of "citlallo" star icons.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: A similar object is on display at the Yale University Art Gallery, on loan from the Peabody Museum of Natural History. The sculpture, officially known as Aztec Calendar Stone in the museum catalog but called "Altar of the Five Cosmogonic Eras", bears similar hieroglyphic inscriptions around the central compass motif but is distinct in that it is a rectangular prism instead of cylindrical shape, allowing the artists to add the symbols of the four previous suns at the corners. It bears some similarities to the Coronation Stone of Moctezuma II, listed in the next section.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: The "Coronation Stone of Moctezuma II" (also known as the "Stone of the Five Suns") is a sculpture measuring 55.9 x 66 x 22.9 cm (22 x 26 x 9 in), currently in the possession of the Art Institute of Chicago. It bears similar hieroglyphic inscriptions to the Aztec Sun Stone, with 4-Movement at the center surrounded by 4-Jaguar, 4-Wind, 4-Rain, and 4-Water, all of which represent one of the five suns, or "cosmic eras". The year sign 11-Reed in the lower middle places the creation of this sculpture in 1503, the year of Motecuhzoma II's coronation, while 1-Crocodile, the day in the upper middle, may indicate the day of the ceremony. The date glyph 1-Rabbit on the back of the sculpture (not visible in the image to the right) orients Motecuhzoma II in the cosmic cycle because that date represents "the beginning of things in the distant mythological past."


title: Aztec sun stone

text: The "Throne of Montezuma" uses the same cardinal point iconography as part of a larger whole. The monument is on display at the National Museum of Anthropology alongside the Aztec Sun Stone and the Stone of Tizoc. The monument was discovered in 1831 underneath the National Palace in Mexico City and is approximately 1 meter square at the base and 1.23 meters tall. It is carved in a temple shape, and the year at the top, 2-House, refers to the traditional founding of Tenochtitlan in 1325 CE.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: The compass motif with "Ollin" can be found in stone altars built for the New Fire ceremony. Another object, the Ceremonial Seat of Fire which belongs to the Eusebio Davalos Hurtado Museum of Mexica Sculpture, is visually similar but omits the central "Ollin" image in favor of the Sun.


title: Aztec sun stone

text: The British Museum possesses a cuauhxicalli which may depict the tension between two opposites, the power of the sun (represented by the solar face) and the power of the moon (represented with lunar iconography on the rear of the object). This would be a parallel to the Templo Mayor with its depictions of Huitzilopochtli (as one of the two deities of the temple) and the large monument to Coyolxauhqui.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: In psychology and cognitive neuroscience, pattern recognition describes a cognitive process that matches information from a stimulus with information retrieved from memory.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: Pattern recognition occurs when information from the environment is received and entered into short-term memory, causing automatic activation of a specific content of long-term memory. An early example of this is learning the alphabet in order. When a carer repeats ‘A, B, C’ multiple times to a child, utilizing the pattern recognition, the child says ‘C’ after they hear ‘A, B’ in order. Recognizing patterns allows us to predict and expect what is coming. The process of pattern recognition involves matching the information received with the information already stored in the brain. Making the connection between memories and information perceived is a step of pattern recognition called identification. Pattern recognition requires repetition of experience. Semantic memory, which is used implicitly and subconsciously is the main type of memory involved with recognition.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: Pattern recognition is not only crucial to humans, but to other animals as well. Even koalas, who possess less-developed thinking abilities, use pattern recognition to find and consume eucalyptus leaves. The human brain has developed more, but holds similarities to the brains of birds and lower mammals. The development of neural networks in the outer layer of the brain in humans has allowed for better processing of visual and auditory patterns. Spatial positioning in the environment, remembering findings, and detecting hazards and resources to increase chances of survival are examples of the application of pattern recognition for humans and animals.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: There are six main theories of pattern recognition: template matching, prototype-matching, feature analysis, recognition-by-components theory, bottom-up and top-down processing, and Fourier analysis. The application of these theories in everyday life is not mutually exclusive. Pattern recognition allows us to read words, understand language, recognize friends, and even appreciate music. Each of the theories applies to various activities and domains where pattern recognition is observed. Facial, music and language recognition, and seriation are a few of such domains. Facial recognition and seriation occur through encoding visual patterns, while music and language recognition use the encoding of auditory patterns.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: Template matching theory describes the most basic approach to human pattern recognition. It is a theory that assumes every perceived object is stored as a "template" into long-term memory. Incoming information is compared to these templates to find an exact match. In other words, all sensory input is compared to multiple representations of an object to form one single conceptual understanding. The theory defines perception as a fundamentally recognition-based process. It assumes that everything we see, we understand only through past exposure, which then informs our future perception of the external world. For example, A, A, and "A" are all recognized as the letter A, but not B. This viewpoint is limited, however, in explaining how new experiences can be understood without being compared to an internal memory template.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: Unlike the exact, one-to-one, template matching theory, prototype matching instead compares incoming sensory input to one average prototype. This theory proposes that exposure to a series of related stimuli leads to the creation of a "typical" prototype based on their shared features. It reduces the number of stored templates by standardizing them into a single representation. The prototype supports perceptual flexibility, because unlike in template matching, it allows for variability in the recognition of novel stimuli. For instance, if a child had never seen a lawn chair before, they would still be able to recognize it as a chair because of their understanding of its essential characteristics as having four legs and a seat. This idea, however, limits the conceptualization of objects that cannot necessarily be "averaged" into one, like types of canines, for instance. Even though dogs, wolves, and foxes are all typically furry, four-legged, moderately sized animals with ears and a tail, they are not all the same, and thus cannot be strictly perceived with respect to the prototype matching theory.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: Multiple theories try to explain how humans are able to recognize patterns in their environment. Feature detection theory proposes that the nervous system sorts and filters incoming stimuli to allow the human (or animal) to make sense of the information. In the organism, this system is made up of feature detectors, which are individual neurons, or groups of neurons, that encode specific perceptual features. The theory proposes an increasing complexity in the relationship between detectors and the perceptual feature. The most basic feature detectors respond to simple properties of the stimuli. Further along the perceptual pathway, higher organized feature detectors are able to respond to more complex and specific stimuli properties. When features repeat or occur in a meaningful sequence, we are able to identify these patterns because of our feature detection system.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: Template and feature analysis approaches to recognition of objects (and situations) have been merged / reconciled / overtaken by multiple discrimination theory. This states that the amounts in a test stimulus of each salient feature of a template are recognized in any perceptual judgment as being at a distance in the universal unit of 50% discrimination (the objective performance 'JND') from the amount of that feature in the template.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: Similar to feature detection theory, recognition by components (RBC) focuses on the bottom-up features of the stimuli being processed. First proposed by Irving Biederman (1987), this theory states that humans recognize objects by breaking them down into their basic 3D geometric shapes called geons (i.e. cylinders, cubes, cones, etc.). An example is how we break down a common item like a coffee cup: we recognize the hollow cylinder that holds the liquid and a curved handle off the side that allows us to hold it. Even though not every coffee cup is exactly the same, these basic components helps us to recognize the consistency across examples (or pattern). RBC suggests that there are fewer than 36 unique geons that when combined can form a virtually unlimited number of objects. To parse and dissect an object, RBC proposes we attend to two specific features: edges and concavities. Edges enable the observer to maintain a consistent representation of the object regardless of the viewing angle and lighting conditions. Concavities are where two edges meet and enable the observer to perceive where one geon ends and another begins.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: The RBC principles of visual object recognition can be applied to auditory language recognition as well. In place of geons, language researchers propose that spoken language can be broken down into basic components called phonemes. For example, there are 44 phonemes in the English language.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: Top-down processing refers to the use of background information in pattern recognition. It always begins with a person’s previous knowledge, and makes predictions due to this already acquired knowledge. Psychologist Richard Gregory estimated that about 90% of the information is lost between the time it takes to go from the eye to the brain, which is why the brain must guess what the person sees based on past experiences. In other words, we construct our perception of reality, and these perceptions are hypotheses or propositions based on past experiences and stored information. The formation of incorrect propositions will lead to errors of perception such as visual illusions. Given a paragraph written with difficult handwriting, it is easier to understand what the writer wants to convey if one reads the whole paragraph rather than reading the words in separate terms. The brain may be able to perceive and understand the gist of the paragraph due to the context supplied by the surrounding words.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: Bottom-up processing is also known as data-driven processing, because it originates with the stimulation of the sensory receptors. Psychologist James Gibson opposed the top-down model and argued that perception is direct, and not subject to hypothesis testing as Gregory proposed. He stated that sensation is perception and there is no need for extra interpretation, as there is enough information in our environment to make sense of the world in a direct way. His theory is sometimes known as the "ecological theory" because of the claim that perception can be explained solely in terms of the environment. An example of bottom up-processing involves presenting a flower at the center of a person's field. The sight of the flower and all the information about the stimulus are carried from the retina to the visual cortex in the brain. The signal travels in one direction.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: In psychologist Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, the third stage is called the Concrete Operational State. It is during this stage that the abstract principle of thinking called "seriation" is naturally developed in a child. Seriation is the ability to arrange items in a logical order along a quantitative dimension such as length, weight, age, etc. It is a general cognitive skill which is not fully mastered until after the nursery years . To seriate means to understand that objects can be ordered along a dimension, and to effectively do so, the child needs to be able to answer the question "What comes next?" Seriation skills also help to develop problem-solving skills, which are useful in recognizing and completing patterning tasks.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: Piaget studied the development of seriation along with Szeminska in an experiment where they used rods of varying lengths to test children's skills. They found that there were three distinct stages of development of the skill. In the first stage, children around the age of 4 could not arrange the first ten rods in order. They could make smaller groups of 2–4, but could not put all the elements together. In the second stage where the children were 5–6 years of age, they could succeed in the seriation task with the first ten rods through the process of trial and error. They could insert the other set of rods into order through trial and error. In the third stage, the 7-8-year-old children could arrange all the rods in order without much trial and error. The children used the systematic method of first looking for the smallest rod first and the smallest among the rest.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: To develop the skill of seriation, which then helps advance problem-solving skills, children should be provided with opportunities to arrange things in order using the appropriate language, such as "big" and "bigger" when working with size relationships. They should also be given the chance to arrange objects in order based on the texture, sound, flavor and color. Along with specific tasks of seriation, children should be given the chance to compare the different materials and toys they use during play. Through activities like these, the true understanding of characteristics of objects will develop. To aid them at a young age, the differences between the objects should be obvious. Lastly, a more complicated task of arranging two different sets of objects and seeing the relationship between the two different sets should also be provided. A common example of this is having children attempt to fit saucepan lids to saucepans of different sizes, or fitting together different sizes of nuts and bolts.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: To help build up math skills in children, teachers and parents can help them learn seriation and patterning. Young children who understand seriation can put numbers in order from lowest to highest. Eventually, they will come to understand that 6 is higher than 5, and 20 is higher than 10. Similarly, having children copy patterns or create patterns of their own, like ABAB patterns, is a great way to help them recognize order and prepare for later math skills, such as multiplication. Child care providers can begin exposing children to patterns at a very young age by having them make groups and count the total number of objects.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: Recognizing faces is one of the most common forms of pattern recognition. Humans are extremely effective at remembering faces, but this ease and automaticity belies a very challenging problem. All faces are physically similar. Faces have two eyes, one mouth, and one nose all in predictable locations, yet humans can recognize a face from several different angles and in various lighting conditions.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: Neuroscientists posit that recognizing faces takes place in three phases. The first phase starts with visually focusing on the physical features. The facial recognition system then needs to reconstruct the identity of the person from previous experiences. This provides us with the signal that this might be a person we know. The final phase of recognition completes when the face elicits the name of the person.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: Although humans are great at recognizing faces under normal viewing angles, upside-down faces are tremendously difficult to recognize. This demonstrates not only the challenges of facial recognition but also how humans have specialized procedures and capacities for recognizing faces under normal upright viewing conditions.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: Scientists agree that there is a certain area in the brain specifically devoted to processing faces. This structure is called the fusiform gyrus, and brain imaging studies have shown that it becomes highly active when a subject is viewing a face.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: Several case studies have reported that patients with lesions or tissue damage localized to this area have tremendous difficulty recognizing faces, even their own. Although most of this research is circumstantial, a study at Stanford University provided conclusive evidence for the fusiform gyrus' role in facial recognition. In a unique case study, researchers were able to send direct signals to a patient's fusiform gyrus. The patient reported that the faces of the doctors and nurses changed and morphed in front of him during this electrical stimulation. Researchers agree this demonstrates a convincing causal link between this neural structure and the human ability to recognize faces.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: Although in adults, facial recognition is fast and automatic, children do not reach adult levels of performance (in laboratory tasks) until adolescence. Two general theories have been put forth to explain how facial recognition normally develops. The first, general cognitive development theory, proposes that the perceptual ability to encode faces is fully developed early in childhood, and that the continued improvement of facial recognition into adulthood is attributed to other general factors. These general factors include improved attentional focus, deliberate task strategies, and metacognition. Research supports the argument that these other general factors improve dramatically into adulthood. Face-specific perceptual development theory argues that the improved facial recognition between children and adults is due to a precise development of facial perception. The cause for this continuing development is proposed to be an ongoing experience with faces.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: Several developmental issues manifest as a decreased capacity for facial recognition. Using what is known about the role of the fusiform gyrus, research has shown that impaired social development along the autism spectrum is accompanied by a behavioral marker where these individuals tend to look away from faces, and a neurological marker characterized by decreased neural activity in the fusiform gyrus. Similarly, those with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) struggle with facial recognition to the extent they are often unable to identify even their own faces. Many studies report that around 2% of the world’s population have developmental prosopagnosia, and that individuals with DP have a family history of the trait. Individuals with DP are behaviorally indistinguishable from those with physical damage or lesions on the fusiform gyrus, again implicating its importance to facial recognition. Despite those with DP or neurological damage, there remains a large variability in facial recognition ability in the total population. It is unknown what accounts for the differences in facial recognition ability, whether it is a biological or environmental disposition. Recent research analyzing identical and fraternal twins showed that facial recognition was significantly higher correlated in identical twins, suggesting a strong genetic component to individual differences in facial recognition ability.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: Recent research reveals that infant language acquisition is linked to cognitive pattern recognition. Unlike classical nativist and behavioral theories of language development, scientists now believe that language is a learned skill. Studies at the Hebrew University and the University of Sydney both show a strong correlation between the ability to identify visual patterns and to learn a new language. Children with high shape recognition showed better grammar knowledge, even when controlling for the effects of intelligence and memory capacity. This is supported by the theory that language learning is based on statistical learning, the process by which infants perceive common combinations of sounds and words in language and use them to inform future speech production.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: The first step in infant language acquisition is to decipher between the most basic sound units of their native language. This includes every consonant, every short and long vowel sound, and any additional letter combinations like "th" and "ph" in English. These units, called phonemes, are detected through exposure and pattern recognition. Infants use their "innate feature detector" capabilities to distinguish between the sounds of words. They split them into phonemes through a mechanism of categorical perception. Then they extract statistical information by recognizing which combinations of sounds are most likely to occur together, like "qu" or "h" plus a vowel. In this way, their ability to learn words is based directly on the accuracy of their earlier phonetic patterning.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: The transition from phonemic differentiation into higher-order word production is only the first step in the hierarchical acquisition of language. Pattern recognition is furthermore utilized in the detection of prosody cues, the stress and intonation patterns among words. Then it is applied to sentence structure and the understanding of typical clause boundaries. This entire process is reflected in reading as well. First, a child recognizes patterns of individual letters, then words, then groups of words together, then paragraphs, and finally entire chapters in books. Learning to read and learning to speak a language are based on the "stepwise refinement of patterns" in perceptual pattern recognition.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: Music provides deep and emotional experiences for the listener. These experiences become contents in long-term memory, and every time we hear the same tunes, those contents are activated. Recognizing the content by the pattern of the music affects our emotion. The mechanism that forms the pattern recognition of music and the experience has been studied by multiple researchers. The sensation felt when listening to our favorite music is evident by the dilation of the pupils, the increase in pulse and blood pressure, the streaming of blood to the leg muscles, and the activation of the cerebellum, the brain region associated with physical movement.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: While retrieving the memory of a tune demonstrates general recognition of musical pattern, pattern recognition also occurs while listening to a tune for the first time. The recurring nature of the metre allows the listener to follow a tune, recognize the metre, expect its upcoming occurrence, and figure the rhythm. The excitement of following a familiar music pattern happens when the pattern breaks and becomes unpredictable. This following and breaking of a pattern creates a problem-solving opportunity for the mind that form the experience. Psychologist Daniel Levitin argues that the repetitions, melodic nature and organization of this music create meaning for the brain. The brain stores information in an arrangement of neurons which retrieve the same information when activated by the environment. By constantly referencing information and additional stimulation from the environment, the brain constructs musical features into a perceptual whole.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: The medial prefrontal cortex – one of the last areas affected by Alzheimer’s disease – is the region activated by music.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: To understand music pattern recognition, we need to understand the underlying cognitive systems that each handle a part of this process. Various activities are at work in this recognition of a piece of music and its patterns. Researchers have begun to unveil the reasons behind the stimulated reactions to music. Montreal-based researchers asked ten volunteers who got "chills" listening to music to listen to their favorite songs while their brain activity was being monitored. The results show the significant role of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) region – involved with cognitive processes such as motivation, reward, addiction, etc. – creating the neural arrangements that make up the experience. A sense of reward prediction is created by anticipation before the climax of the tune, which comes to a sense of resolution when the climax is reached. The longer the listener is denied the expected pattern, the greater the emotional arousal when the pattern returns. Musicologist Leonard Meyer used fifty measures of Beethoven’s 5th movement of the String Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131 to examine this notion. The stronger this experience is, the more vivid memory it will create and store. This strength affects the speed and accuracy of retrieval and recognition of the musical pattern. The brain not only recognizes specific tunes, it distinguishes standard acoustic features, speech and music.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: MIT researchers conducted a study to examine this notion. The results showed six neural clusters in the auditory cortex responding to the sounds. Four were triggered when hearing standard acoustic features, one specifically responded to speech, and the last exclusively responded to music. Researchers who studied the correlation between temporal evolution of timbral, tonal and rhythmic features of music, came to the conclusion that music engages the brain regions connected to motor actions, emotions and creativity. The research indicates that the whole brain "lights up" when listening to music. This amount of activity boosts memory preservation, hence pattern recognition.


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: Recognizing patterns of music is different for a musician and a listener. Although a musician may play the same notes every time, the details of the frequency will always be different. The listener will recognize the musical pattern and their types despite the variations. These musical types are conceptual and learned, meaning they might vary culturally. While listeners are involved with recognizing (implicit) musical material, musicians are involved with recalling them (explicit).


title: Pattern recognition (psychology)

text: A UCLA study found that when watching or hearing music being played, neurons associated with the muscles needed for playing the instrument fire. Mirror neurons light up when musicians and non-musicians listen to a piece.