title: Expo 2015

abstract: Expo 2015 was a World Expo hosted by Milan, Italy. It opened on May 1 at 10:00 CEST and closed on October 31. Milan hosted an exposition for the second time; the first was the 1906 Milan International. The Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) general assembly in Paris decided in favour of Milan on March 31, 2008. On November 23, 2010, the event was announced by the BIE. Expo 2015's theme was "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life".

text:
# Expo 2015

**Expo 2015** was a World Expo hosted by Milan, Italy. It opened on May 1 at 10:00 CEST and closed on October 31. Milan hosted an exposition for the second time; the first was the 1906 Milan International.

The Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) general assembly in Paris decided in favour of Milan on March 31, 2008. On November 23, 2010, the event was announced by the BIE. Expo 2015's theme was "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life".

## Themes

Expo 2015's theme was "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life", encompassing technology, innovation, culture, traditions and creativity and how they relate to food and diet. The exposition developed themes introduced in earlier expos (such as water at Expo 2008 in Zaragoza) in light of new global scenarios and emerging issues, focusing on the right to healthy, secure and sufficient food for the world's inhabitants. Futuristic concerns about food security are compounded by forecasts of increasing uncertainty about the quantity of food which will be available globally. The exposition had seven sub-themes:

* Science for food safety, security and quality
* Innovation in the agro-food supply chain
* Technology for agriculture and biodiversity
* Dietary education
* Solidarity and cooperation on food
* Food for better lifestyles
* Food in the world's cultures and ethnic groups

## Site

The Expo 2015 site is about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) northwest of Milan, in the municipalities of Rho and Pero, and covers an area of 1.1 km2 (0.42 sq mi). It is adjacent to the Fiera Milano fairgrounds, designed by Massimiliano Fuksas, which may be considered the cornerstone of the area's urban redevelopment. It had long been an industrial zone before its conversion to logistical and municipal services and agriculture. The fairgrounds and the Expo site were connected by a pedestrian bridge adjacent to the Rho-Pero high-speed rail station. Originally-planned bicycle paths were never constructed, and several motorways were built (or expanded) to allow access to the site.

The area is oblong in shape with an overall length of nearly 3 km (1.9 mi), suggesting a boulevard along which the pavilions would be located. The design of pools and waterways in and around the Expo area was an element of primary importance.

### Initial plan

The initial plan had the following elements:

* 50 per cent of the area occupied by pavilions, 35 per cent dedicated to space around each pavilion and the remaining 15 per cent a green perimeter around the site
* Piazza Italia and Piazza Expo at either end of the main boulevard, the former dominated by the 7,000-square-metre (1.7-acre) Italy pavilion and flanked by a second square (Piazza delle Regioni)
* A large, artificial lake surrounded by the 20 pavilions representing the Italian regions
* A 12,000-seat amphitheatre covering 9,000 m2 (2.2 acres) and a 6,000-seat, 6,000-square-metre (1.5-acre) auditorium
* Country pavilions in three sizes, depending on the financial resources of the participating country
* Three pavilions dedicated to geographic areas: Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean

A 100-hectare (250-acre) service area was planned near the main Expo site with hotels, parking facilities, stores, a convention centre, green areas, a business centre available to Expo participants and a 12-hectare (30-acre) Expo Village to house staff, volunteers and security and administrative personnel.

The following thematic pavilions were also planned:

* *What the World Eats*: At the base of the Expo tower and in the pedestrian bridge connecting the Rho-Pero fairgrounds to the expo site
* *Science and Conscience*
* *Tales of Land, Air and Water*
* *The Food Spiral*
* *The Right to Eat Well*
* *In the Realm of the Senses*, in Piazza Italia
* *Equilibrium*
* *The Art of Food*

### Concept

Expo 2015's concept was presented on September 8, 2009. It was designed by a committee of four architects: Stefano Boeri, Richard Burdett, Mark Rylander and Jacques Herzog.

The main idea was to trace two avenues (a main and a secondary avenue), representing the ancient Roman layout of a *cardo* and a *decumanus*. The initial idea of a "classical" site composed of avenues and pavilions was replaced by the idea of a "light" Expo composed of exhibition areas arranged across the main boulevard. The exhibition areas, identical for each country, recreated the typical food cycle of each nation from production to consumption. The centre of the avenue was occupied by a table in front of the country pavilions extending the length of the site, where visitors could sample foods produced in each country's pavilion. The area would be covered by large, tent-like structures to convey the idea of a global marketplace.

A second idea was to build large greenhouses on the site to reproduce the earth's principal biomes. These would be thematic pavilions for the cultivation and production of basic foodstuffs used in the individual country pavilions. Each country would have a dedicated greenhouse in its exhibition area. In this version of the site, water remained an important element but was shifted toward the exterior as a large, navigable canal surrounding the site. A large lake was also included in the design. Additional elements included a large, excavated amphitheatre and a hill, one at each end of the boulevard; expo village facilities across the encircling canal from the site, and redevelopment of the post-office building as a centre for sustainable development.

### Master plan

The master plan for Expo 2015, coordinated by Stefano Boeri, was delivered to the BIE during its April 30, 2010 registration ceremony in Paris. Changes included:

* Each exhibiting country could rent areas ranging from 400 to 6,000 m2 (4,300 to 64,600 sq ft).
* Buildable areas were reduced to 30 per cent of the area assigned to each exhibitor.
* The large, but not navigable, canal around the area is maintained;
* The tent roofing remained only along the axes of the *cardo* and the *decumanus*.
* Greenhouses would be in a 50,000 m2 (12-acre) zone.
* The circular canal became a theatre on the water, with a central stage.
* The green hill opposite the amphitheatre would be built of earth from the amphitheatre excavation.
* An auditorium was included.

## Participants

Expo participants included 145 countries, three international organizations and several civil society organizations, corporations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Participants were hosted in individual or grouped pavilions.

### Countries

Each participating country was hosted in a self-constructed pavilion and included on the Expo website. Some countries, such as Belarus, Belgium, Israel and Germany, created external websites. As part of a reciprocity protocol with Expo 2010 in Shanghai, on December 8, 2008, China was the first country to formalise its participation in Expo 2015. The first country outside the reciprocity protocol to confirm its participation was Switzerland, on February 3, 2011. As in other years, during the Expo visitors could purchase a passport which could be stamped.

Two major countries which did not participate were Australia and Canada, who withdrew despite participating in the previous Expo in Shanghai, citing budgetary restrictions.

The following countries participated:

## Agreements

In preparation for Expo 2015, the City of Milan signed coordination agreements with other cities in Italy and Europe focusing on tourism, culture and infrastructure. Agreements were also signed with other countries for the development of projects associated with food and education.

## Partners

## Controversy

Expo 2015's opening on May 1 was met with protests by a black bloc of anti-austerity activists, with police using tear gas. Although Vatican City invested €3 million in its pavilion before Pope Francis' election, he said that it was good for the church to be involved in causes which fight hunger and promote clean energy but too much money was wasted on the Expo by the Vatican.

## Food

Several unusual (or unique) food choices were offered during the exposition, some normally not permitted in Italy. At Zimbabwe's pavilion, visitors could try burgers made from crocodile, zebra or python (named "crocoburger", "zebraburger" and "savanaburger" by their creator, consul Georges El Badaoui). The pavilion's food was some of the expo's most innovative and extravagant. At the Japanese pavilion during the expo, European regulations were relaxed and it was possible to taste sashimi from pufferfish (fugu). In the Future Food District were packs of canned insects, common in Southeast Asia but prohibited in the European Union. Italian chef Massimo Bottura and international colleagues created the Refettorio Ambrosiano, a gourmet soup kitchen using waste food from the fair.

## Verybello.it

**verybello.it** was the Italian website for the Expo 2015. The website was launched in January 2015. Its early version has attracted criticism for omitting Sicily from the map of Italy, and for having only the Italian language version present. Website design and name have also been criticized.

The website, as accessed in late March 2015, had an English version, and an expanded map including Sicily.

## Sport

World Cup Expo, a football tournament of mixed teams composed of workers from individual pavilions (or clusters), was held during the event.

## Mascot

The mascot was Foody, a salad-like character, inspired by the work of Giuseppe Arcimboldo and is composed of eleven different foods, each of which forms a separate mascot, including Chicca the pomegranate. It was designed by Disney Italia.

## Pavilions

## InfoBox

| 2015 Milan | |
| --- | --- |
| Logo | |
| Overview | |
| BIE-class | Universal exposition |
| Category | International Registered Exhibition |
| Name | Expo Milano 2015 |
| Motto | Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life |
| Area | 200 hectares (490 acres) |
| Visitors | 22,200,000 |
| Mascot | Foody |
| Participant(s) | |
| Countries | 145 |
| Organizations | 17 |
| Business | 21 |
| Location | |
| Country | Italy |
| City | Milan |
| Venue | Fiera Milano, Rho |
| Coordinates | 45°31′7″N 9°6′24″E / 45.51861°N 9.10667°E / 45.51861; 9.10667 |
| Timeline | |
| Awarded | March 31, 2008 (2008-03-31) |
| Opening | May 1, 2015 (2015-05-01) |
| Closure | October 31, 2015 (2015-10-31) |
| Universal expositions | |
| Previous | Expo 2010 in Shanghai |
| Next | Expo 2020 in Dubai |
| Specialized expositions | |
| Previous | Expo 2012 in Yeosu |
| Next | Expo 2017 in Astana |
| Horticultural expositions | |
| Previous | Floriade 2012 in Venlo |
| Next | Expo 2016 in Antalya |
| Internet | |
| Website | expo2015.org |


title: Expo 2008

abstract: Expo 2008 was an international exposition held from Saturday 14 June to Sunday 14 September 2008 in Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain with the theme of "Water and Sustainable Development". The exposition was placed in a meander of the river Ebro. It was coordinated by the Bureau International des Expositions, the organization responsible for sanctioning World's Fairs. Zaragoza, host city for the international exposition, is the administrative and financial capital of the autonomous community of Aragon and Spain's fifth most populous city. Zaragoza was elected the host city of Expo 2008 on 16 December 2004 by the BIE, beating Thessaloniki (Greece) and Trieste (Italy). The exhibition's most emblematic buildings were the Water Tower, an 80-metre-high transparent building designed by Enrique de Teresa to evoke a drop of water, Zaha Hadid's Bridge Pavilion, and the river aquarium. The exposition site also hosted several events, including a daily parade by Cirque du Soleil called The Awakening of the Serpent. Aside from the countries, non-government organizations and private companies took part in Expo 2008, always with the idea of water and sustainable development. Prior to the event, the Expo 2008 host committee estimated that the exposition could generate 135 million euros in receipts for admission to the exhibition center.

text:
# Expo 2008

**Expo 2008** was an international exposition held from Saturday 14 June to Sunday 14 September 2008 in Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain with the theme of "Water and Sustainable Development". The exposition was placed in a meander of the river Ebro. It was coordinated by the Bureau International des Expositions, the organization responsible for sanctioning World's Fairs.

Zaragoza, host city for the international exposition, is the administrative and financial capital of the autonomous community of Aragon and Spain's fifth most populous city. Zaragoza was elected the host city of Expo 2008 on 16 December 2004 by the BIE, beating Thessaloniki (Greece) and Trieste (Italy).

The exhibition's most emblematic buildings were the Water Tower, an 80-metre-high transparent building designed by Enrique de Teresa to evoke a drop of water, Zaha Hadid's Bridge Pavilion, and the river aquarium. The exposition site also hosted several events, including a daily parade by Cirque du Soleil called *The Awakening of the Serpent*.

Aside from the countries, non-government organizations and private companies took part in Expo 2008, always with the idea of water and sustainable development. Prior to the event, the Expo 2008 host committee estimated that the exposition could generate 135 million euros in receipts for admission to the exhibition center.

## Spaces and exhibitions

### Thematic pavilions

#### Bridge pavilion

The Bridge Pavilion was one of the most emblematic buildings of Expo 2008. Designed by Zaha Hadid, it was built in two levels with the shape of a gladiolus opening and closing. It joins the neighborhood of La Almozara and the Expo site with a central island in the river Ebro.

The Bridge Pavilion hosted the exposition *Water – a unique resource*, designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates, which tried to present water as a universal human right, to inform visitors how water is a unique resource and to explain water management procedures and encourage citizen participation.

#### Water tower

The Water Tower was another emblematic building of Expo 2008 and its vertical icon. Designed by Enrique de Teresa, it is 76 metres high with 10,400 accessible square metres. On the top floor, there is a 720-square-metre panoramic bar with fantastic views over Zaragoza. Inside the tower there is a 23-metre-high sculpture called *Splash*, which represents a splash of water, "the arrival of life on our planet". The Splash sculpture, based on dynamic simulation systems, was designed by Mona Kim, Todd Palmer, Olga Subirós and Simon Taylor from Program Collective.

The Water Tower hosted the exposition *Water for life* where "audiovisual media and lighting play a key role in the way the contents are communicated".

#### Aquarium

This thematic pavilion, which remained in operation after the expo, is the biggest freshwater aquarium in Europe, with 300 species of fauna from rivers around the world in 60 tanks or terrariums. Rivers represented are:

* The Nile: It contains species of the great African lakes. It also has crocodiles and an exhibition on the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
* The Mekong: In this river visitors will find species of the Himalayas, gardens from the river's lower course, the Pacific Ocean and coral reefs.
* The Amazon River: It is divided into three different areas. The first of them is the Amazon jungle with its coconut trees and mangroves. The second area is about the Amazon forest while the third area is the mangrove swamp with an exhibition on the Atlantic Ocean.
* The Murray-Darling river: This exhibition begins in the flooded regions and goes through desert areas. It finishes with a video exhibition about birds.
* The Ebro: It is also represented in two areas. The first area is a mountain cave and the second is the course of the river. There will also be an exhibition on the Mediterranean Sea.
* The "World River": It represents the past, when "all the continents were united as a single island surrounded by ocean".

### Thematic squares

#### Thirst

This thematic square employed mirrors, audiovisual projections and combinations of light and sound to create optical illusions. It was 46.7 metres in diameter, covering a total area of 1,640 square metres (820 of them were the exposition area).

#### Igloo of salt

Designed by Cloud 9 / Enric Ruiz-Geli, this plaza's architecture was that of an enigmatic building. It was an inflatable structure covered with salt that reflected the sun's rays and lit up at night as if it had stored all of the necessary energy to continue to function.

This themed plaza was designed according to Expo Zaragoza 2008's sustainability criteria: the use of PVC was avoided in electrical wiring, as well as tropical wood, synthetic varnish or solvent-based paints; taps made use of water-saving systems. Additionally, the frame was hired out to avoid having to demolish it once the expo was complete.

The use of EFTE in the building's three-layered roof made air conditioning unnecessary. One of the EFTE layers was silver-plated to refract light and prevent outside heat from penetrating the building; air in the inflatable components and a Brine system irrigating them cooled the interior. All of this created a temperate building, meaning that the climate control system only needed to work against body heat produced by visitors and heat given off by equipment used in the exhibition. This way the organisers could make use of a system that was much more sustainable and inexpensive than conventional air conditioning.

#### Cities of water

This square had no walls, so its contents were visible from outside. The exhibit was about water as an "urban resource" and a "natural element in the process of improving quality of life in cities".

#### Extreme water

This square symbolised the moment when a wave breaks on the beach. It was divided into two areas: the first was the sensorial area with 120 mobile seats where audiovisuals were projected; the second was the ideas area with interactive platforms, images and texts about water and its risks.

#### Oikos, water and energy

This exhibit was about getting energy from water.

#### Shared water

This thematic square showed visitors how political divisions affect the management of water.

#### Aquatic inspirations

This square hosted the show *El hombre vertiente*, created by the Argentine Pichón Baldinu, six times a day.

### Participants pavilion

#### Country pavilions

More than one hundred countries, plus dozens of companies and NGOs, participated in Expo 2008. The confirmed list had these 104 countries (arranged in alphabetical order):

| Participants | | | |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Algeria | Andorra | Angola | Antigua and Barbuda |
| Argentina | Austria | Bahamas | Barbados |
| Belgium | Belize | Bolivia | Brazil |
| Bulgaria | Cameroon | Cape Verde | China |
| Colombia | Costa Rica | Croatia | Cuba |
| Cyprus | Denmark | East Timor | Dominica |
| Dominican Republic | Ecuador | Equatorial Guinea | Egypt |
| El Salvador | Ethiopia | France | Germany |
| Greece | Grenada | Guatemala | Guyana |
| Haiti | Honduras | Hungary | India |
| Indonesia | Italy | Jamaica | Japan |
| Jordan | Kazakhstan | Kenya | South Korea |
| Kuwait | Libya | Lithuania | Malaysia |
| Mali | Malta | Mauritania | Mexico |
| Monaco | Mongolia | Morocco | Mozambique |
| Namibia | Nepal | Netherlands | Nicaragua |
| Niger | Nigeria | North Macedonia | Oman |
| Pakistan | Panama | Paraguay | Peru |
| Philippines | Poland | Portugal | Qatar |
| Romania | Russia | Saint Kitts and Nevis | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines |
| Saint Lucia | Saudi Arabia | Senegal | Slovakia |
| Solomon Islands | South Africa | Spain | Sudan |
| Suriname | Sweden | Switzerland | Tanzania |
| Thailand | Trinidad and Tobago | Tunisia | Turkey |
| Uganda | United Arab Emirates | Uruguay | Vanuatu |
| Vatican City | Venezuela | Vietnam | Yemen |

The 17 autonomous communities of Spain and two autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla also participated, as did as the United Nations and the European Union.

The pavilions for official participants were divided into eight large buildings and into five differentiated eco-geographical areas within the Expo 2008 Exposition site. Those areas were:

* Islands and Coasts
* Oasis
* Ice and snow
* Temperate Forests
* Tropical Rainforests
* Mountains and High Plains
* Grasslands, Steppes and Savannahs
* Rivers and Flat plains

The joint pavilions corresponding to the eco-geographic areas of Grasslands, Steppes and Savannahs, Tropical Rainforests and Islands and Coasts, were built by the organisers to house the pavilions of countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), respectively. The total surface area of the participating countries pavilions was 61,667 m2.

Spain and the region of Aragon, as hosts, had their own separate pavilions. The Spain Pavilion was designed by Patxi Mangado, and the Aragon Pavilion, which resembled local basketweaving, by Daniel Olano.

#### Citizen's initiative pavilion

This pavilion had the shape of a beacon, "a symbol of hope for the future of water in our world". It expressed the vitality of ordinary people and non-governmental organisations. The *Beacon* was situated by the Bridge Pavilion entrance.

### Gold Prize award

The Philippines, on 19 September 2008 won the "Gold Prize", the Expo's highest award for a participating country. The award noted the quality of the Philippine pavilion's internal and external décor, consisting of 1,000 crystal-like bubble sand, as well as its functionality, which had supreme relevance to the exposition's theme of "Water and Sustainable Development". Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano said "this recognition is truly well-deserved as our country’s wealthy aquatic life has been captured by the equally rich imagination of our fellowmen. While other countries utilized ultra modern technology, we chose to highlight more community-involved practices as well as natural land irrigation, aquatic recreation and marine resources preservation". The Philippine pavilion's attractions included the meeting of the two mascots, Fluvi and Filippo, and "Filipinas Te Espera Nights", a series of marketing events.

## Shows

Expo 2008 had a 93-day-long show programme with more than 3,400 acts from more than 350 companies and artists.

On the expo site, there were three shows called ***major events***. They were:

### Iceberg

This show was intended to be the artistic part of the Opening Ceremony, although the flood of the river Ebro in the previous days forced plans to change, as the set was situated in the middle of the river. Nevertheless, the show was presented each night starting on 20 June. The Spanish director Calixto Bieito and the scenographer Alfons Flores were responsible for the set design while the music was by José Luis Romeo. The show had a huge iceberg with a minute human figure designed by the Catalan company FOCUS.

### El hombre vertiente

This show, created by the Argentine Pichón Baldinu, was the artistic part of the Opening Ceremony on 13 June 2008, in replacement of "Iceberg". It repeated six times throughout the day at the thematic square *Water Inspirations*.

### The Awakening of the Serpent

This water-themed parade took place every day at the Expo site as "The Awakening of the Serpent" wandered around the site. The parade's creative director was Jean François Brouchard and its artistic director Julien Gabriel. Canada's Cirque du Soleil participated with acrobats, actors, gymnasts, singers and musicians.

### Bob Dylan and additional American artists

Expo 2008 officially opened with a concert by Bob Dylan, the Official Artist of Expo 2008.

Additional American artists scheduled to perform on the evening entertainment stage included Patti Smith, Robert Cray, Keb Mo, Ruben Blades, Canadian Diana Krall, The Stray Cats, Los Lobos and Gloria Estefan. A performance by Philip Glass closed Expo 2008.

## Mascot

The Expo 2008 mascot was Fluvi, a little male drop of water.

With his best friend Ica, the smallest drop of water, and Nico and Laurita, he fought against the pollution made by Sec and Raspa, the evil Negas.

Qatar issued a postage stamp miniature sheet commemorating Expo Zaragoza 2008, which pictured Fluvi.

## After the Expo

The exposition site and its facilities were planned thinking of their usage as a new extension of the city when the Expo finished in September 2008. The expectation was that some the buildings would be rented or transferred to several institutions. The Aragon Pavilion was to be converted into the head office of a regional ministry, while the landmark buildings of the Expo, the Water Tower and the Bridge Pavilion, were expected to be purchased by local financial institutions. The Spanish Pavilion was expected to be used by the University of Zaragoza to set up a new school of architecture.

The international pavilions were to be remodelled and converted into offices so that the site would become the main business park in Zaragoza. This space was also to have recreational establishments and restaurants.

Other expectations were that a great part of the site would be used for shopping establishments and for the construction of a science park for businesses.

The Aquarium, as the largest freshwater aquarium in Europe, has continued operation till the present day.

## InfoBox

| 2008  Zaragoza | |
| --- | --- |
| Expo 2008 official logo | |
| Overview | |
| BIE-class | Specialized exposition |
| Category | International Recognized Exhibition |
| Name | Expo 2008 |
| Area | 25 hectares (62 acres) |
| Visitors | 5,650,941 |
| Mascot | Fluvi |
| Participant(s) | |
| Countries | 104 |
| Organizations | 21 |
| Location | |
| Country | Spain |
| City | Zaragoza |
| Coordinates | 41°40′8.58″N 0°54′10.27″W / 41.6690500°N 0.9028528°W / 41.6690500; -0.9028528 |
| Timeline | |
| Bidding | June 2003 |
| Awarded | 16 December 2004 (2004-12-16) |
| Opening | 14 June 2008 (2008-06-14) |
| Closure | 14 September 2008 (2008-09-14) |
| Specialized expositions | |
| Previous | Expo '98 in Lisbon |
| Next | Expo 2012 in Yeosu |
| Universal expositions | |
| Previous | Expo 2005 in Aichi |
| Next | Expo 2010 in Shanghai |
| Horticultural expositions | |
| Previous | Expo 2006 in Chiang Mai |
| Next | Expo 2012 in Venlo |


title: Extraterritorial abduction

abstract: Extraterritorial abduction, also known as international abduction, is the practice of one country abducting someone from another country's territory outside the legal process of extradition. Extraordinary rendition is a form of extraterritorial abduction involving transfer to a third country. Extraterritorial abduction with the purpose of bringing the person to trial in the abducting country is contrary to international law.

text:
# Extraterritorial abduction

**Extraterritorial abduction**, also known as **international abduction**, is the practice of one country abducting someone from another country's territory outside the legal process of extradition. Extraordinary rendition is a form of extraterritorial abduction involving transfer to a third country. Extraterritorial abduction with the purpose of bringing the person to trial in the abducting country is contrary to international law.

## By country

### China

China abducts its citizens from e.g. Hong Kong or Australia, within its program of repatriating more than 3,000 people "who had escaped overseas".

### Czechoslovakia

During the first years of the Cold War until the 1960s, Czechoslovakia's secret service, the StB, abducted defectors overseas. One victim was the Social Democratic politician Bohumil Lausman, abducted from Austria in 1953 by Czechoslovak agents abusing diplomatic immunity.

### Iran

In October 2020, having lived in exile in Sweden for 14 years, Iranian-Swedish political activist Habib Chaab visited Turkey where he was abducted and smuggled to Iran. Turkish security sources say Iranian intelligence was behind Chaab's kidnapping.

### Israel

Israel abducted nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu from Italy in 1986 and Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann from Argentina in 1960.

### Saudi Arabia

Prince Sultan bin Turki bin Abdulaziz, Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi, and many other critics of the Saudi authorities have been abducted and then murdered or rendered against their will to Saudi Arabia since 1979.

### Turkey

Kosovo, Gabon, Sudan, the Republic of Moldova, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Malaysia, Switzerland and Mongolia: Turkish nationals connected with the opposition Gülen movement have been abducted and forcibly returned to Turkey without extradition proceedings.

In March 2018, six Turkish nationals from Kosovo had been captured by Turkish intelligence and brought to Turkey over alleged links to schools financed by the Gulen movement. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a speaking to supporters and party members in Istanbul: “Our National Intelligence Agency captured six of the highest ranking members (of Gulen’s network) in the Balkans in the operation it conducted in Kosovo,”

### United States

The first well-known American rendition case involved the *Achille Lauro* hijackers in 1985. After they were given a plane and were en route in international air space, they were forced by United States Navy fighter planes to land at the Naval Air Station Sigonella, an Italian military base in Sicily used by the US Navy and NATO. The intent was to bring the hijackers within judicial reach of United States government representatives for transport to and trial in the United States.

In September 1987, during the Reagan administration, the United States executed a rendition, code-named "Goldenrod," in a joint FBI-CIA operation. Agents lured Fawaz Yunis, wanted for his role in the hijacking of a Jordanian airliner that had American citizens on board, onto a boat off the coast of Cyprus and taken to international waters, where he was arrested.

> The Reagan administration did not undertake this kidnapping lightly. Then-FBI Director William H. Webster had opposed an earlier bid to snatch Yunis, arguing that the United States should not adopt the tactics of Israel, which had abducted Adolf Eichmann on a residential street in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1960 ... In 1984 and 1986, during a wave of terrorist attacks, Congress passed laws making air piracy and attacks on Americans abroad federal crimes. Ronald Reagan added teeth to these laws by signing a secret covert-action directive in 1986 that authorized the CIA to kidnap, anywhere abroad, foreigners wanted for terrorism. A new word entered the dictionary of U.S. foreign relations: rendition.

### Vietnam

In July 2017, the former Vietnamese politician and businessman Trịnh Xuân Thanh was secretly abducted and kidnapped in Berlin by a group of unnamed Vietnamese personnel believed to be Vietnamese agents in Germany. Germany expelled two Vietnamese diplomats in response.


title: FCGR2A

abstract: Low affinity immunoglobulin gamma Fc region receptor II-a is a protein that in humans is encoded by the FCGR2A gene.

text:
# FCGR2A

**Low affinity immunoglobulin gamma Fc region receptor II-a** is a protein that in humans is encoded by the *FCGR2A* gene.

## Interactions

FCGR2A has been shown to interact with PIK3R1 and Syk.

## Further reading

*This article incorporates text from the United States National Library of Medicine, which is in the public domain.*

## InfoBox

| FCGR2A | | | |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  | | | |
| Available structures  PDB Ortholog search: PDBe RCSB | | | |
| Identifiers | | | |
| Aliases | FCGR2A, CD32, CD32A, CDw32, FCG2, FCGR2, FCGR2A1, FcGR, IGFR2, Fc fragment of IgG receptor IIa, FcgammaRIIa, Fc gamma receptor IIa | | |
| External IDs | OMIM: 146790; MGI: 95500; HomoloGene: 47936; GeneCards: FCGR2A; OMA:FCGR2A - orthologs | | |
|  | | | |
|  | | | |
|  | | | |
|  | | | |
| Orthologs  Species **Human** **Mouse**  Entrez   Ensembl   UniProt   RefSeq (mRNA)     NM\_001136219
NM\_021642
NM\_001375296
NM\_001375297   NM\_010188
NM\_001356511   RefSeq (protein)     NP\_001129691
NP\_067674
NP\_001362225
NP\_001362226   n/a   Location (UCSC) Chr 1: 161.51 – 161.52 Mb Chr 1: 170.88 – 170.89 Mb  PubMed search | | | |
| Wikidata | | | |
| View/Edit Human View/Edit Mouse | | | |


title: FAST TCP

abstract: FAST TCP is a TCP congestion avoidance algorithm especially targeted at long-distance, high latency links, developed at the Netlab, California Institute of Technology and now being commercialized by FastSoft. FastSoft was acquired by Akamai Technologies in 2012. FastTCP is compatible with existing TCP algorithms, requiring modification only to the computer which is sending data.

text:
# FAST TCP

**FAST TCP** (also written **FastTCP**) is a TCP congestion avoidance algorithm especially targeted at long-distance, high latency links, developed at the Netlab, California Institute of Technology and now being commercialized by FastSoft. FastSoft was acquired by Akamai Technologies in 2012.

FastTCP is compatible with existing TCP algorithms, requiring modification only to the computer which is sending data.

## Name

The name **FAST** is a recursive acronym for **F**AST **A**QM **S**calable **T**CP, where **AQM** stands for **A**ctive **Q**ueue **M**anagement, and **TCP** stands for **T**ransmission **C**ontrol **P**rotocol.

## Principles of operation

The role of congestion control is to moderate the rate at which data is transmitted, "congestion", according to the capacity of the network and the rate at which other users are transmitting. Like TCP Vegas, FAST TCP uses queueing delay instead of loss probability as a congestion signal.

Most current congestion control algorithms detect congestion and slow down when they discover that packets are being dropped, so that the average sending rate depends on the loss probability. This has two drawbacks. First, low loss probabilities are required to sustain high data rates; in the case of TCP Reno, very low loss probabilities are required, but even new congestion avoidance algorithms such as H-TCP, BIC TCP and HSTCP require loss rates lower than those provided by most wireless wide area networks. Moreover, packet loss only provides a single bit of information about the congestion level, whereas delay is a continuous quantity and in principle provides more information about the network.

A FAST TCP flow seeks to maintain a constant number of packets in queues throughout the network. The number of packets in queues is estimated by measuring the difference between the observed round trip time (RTT) and the *base RTT*, defined as the round trip time when there is no queueing. The base RTT is estimated as the minimum observed RTT for the connection. If too few packets are queued, the sending rate is increased, while if too many are queued, the rate is decreased. In this respect, it is a direct descendant of TCP Vegas.

The difference between TCP Vegas and FAST TCP lies in the way in which the rate is adjusted when the number of packets stored is too small or large. TCP Vegas makes fixed size adjustments to the rate, independent of how far the current rate is from the target rate. FAST TCP makes larger steps when the system is further from equilibrium and smaller steps near equilibrium. This improves the speed of convergence and the stability.

## Strengths and weaknesses

Delay-based algorithms can, in principle, maintain a constant window size, avoiding the oscillations inherent in loss-based algorithms. However, they also detect congestion earlier than loss-based algorithms, since delay corresponds to partially filled buffers, while loss results from totally filled buffers. This can be either a strength or a weakness. If the only protocol used in a network is delay-based, then the inefficiency of loss can be avoided; however, if loss-based and delay-based protocols share the network, then delay-based algorithms tend to be less aggressive. This can be overcome by suitable choice of parameters, leading to complex interactions studied by Tang et al.

Delay measurements are also subject to jitter as a result of operating system scheduling, or bus contention.

Whether the strengths or weaknesses prevail is not clear, and depends in large part on the particular scenario.

Propagation delay is used in the FAST window control algorithm. In a clean network, the queueing delay maintained by existing FAST flows may be mistaken as part of the propagation delay by new flows that join later, as shown in ns-2 simulations in. The effect of this estimation error is equivalent to modifying the underlying utility functions to favor new flows over existing flows. Method to eliminate this error is suggested in.

## Generalized FAST TCP

FAST TCP has been shown to be promising in terms of system stability, throughput and fairness. However, it requires buffering which increases linearly with the number of flows bottlenecked at a link. The paper proposes a new TCP algorithm that extends FAST TCP to achieve (*α*, *n*)-proportional fairness in steady state, yielding buffer requirements which grow only as the nth power of the number of flows. The authors call the new algorithm Generalized FAST TCP. They prove stability for the case of a single bottleneck link with homogeneous sources in the absence of feedback delay. Simulation results verify that the new scheme is stable in the presence of feedback delay, and that its buffering requirements can be made to scale significantly better than standard FAST TCP.

## Intellectual property

Unlike most TCP congestion avoidance algorithms, FAST TCP is protected by several patents. Instead of seeking standardization by the IETF, the inventors of FAST, notably Steven H. Low and Cheng Jin, are seeking to commercialize it through the company FastSoft. Currently FastSoft sells a 1-Unit rack appliance which can be deployed at the sender-side with no other software or hardware modifications needed on either end.


title: FC Trelleborg

abstract: FC Trelleborg is a Swedish football club located in Trelleborg in Skåne County.

text:
# FC Trelleborg

**FC Trelleborg** is a Swedish football club located in Trelleborg in Skåne County.

## Background

**Stavsten/Ymor Fotbollklubb** was founded in 2006 and played in Division 3 Södra Götaland. At the end of the 2008 season it was decided to change the name of the club from Stavsten/Ymor FK to FC Trelleborg. This has been a most exciting initiative as the new name has strengthened the club's identity by providing a clearer connection with the city of Trelleborg.

Over the last couple of seasons youth development has continued to thrive which has been reflected by increased membership levels. However, training schedules have become increasingly hampered by the lack of a proper home venue and the club continues to conduct its operations across three locations, namely Ymorvallen, Vannhög and Söderslättshallen. Discussions are continuing to take place with the Recreation Committee of the Trelleborg Municipality to provide new investment to help resolve the issue.

Since their foundation FC Trelleborg has participated in the middle divisions of the Swedish football league system. The club currently plays in Division 3 Södra Götaland which is the fifth tier of Swedish football. They play their home matches at the Ymorvallen in Trelleborg.

FC Trelleborg are affiliated to Skånes Fotbollförbund. Local rivals IFK Trelleborg play in the same division.

In 2024, the U16 youth team of FC Trelleborg will participate in P16 Allsvenskan Södra, the first tier of youth football in Sweden. Their U17 youth team will also participate in a national league, P17 Div.1 - Region 1, the second tier of Swedish youth football.

## Season to season

| **Season** **Level** **Division** **Section** **Position** **Movements**  2006 Tier 5 **Division 3** Södra Götaland **3rd** Stavsten/Ymor FK  2007 Tier 5 **Division 3** Södra Götaland **8th** Stavsten/Ymor FK  2008 Tier 5 **Division 3** Södra Götaland **4th** Stavsten/Ymor FK  2009 Tier 5 **Division 3** Södra Götaland **2nd** Promotion Playoffs  2010 Tier 5 **Division 3** Södra Götaland **4th**   2011 Tier 5 **Division 3** Södra Götaland |
| --- |

## Attendances

In recent seasons FC Trelleborg have had the following average attendances:

| **Season** **Average Attendance** **Division / Section** **Level**  2006 91 Div 3 Södra Götaland Tier 5  2007 73 Div 3 Södra Götaland Tier 5  2008 101 Div 3 Södra Götaland Tier 5  2009 125 Div 3 Södra Götaland Tier 5  2010 122 Div 3 Södra Götaland Tier 5   ** Attendances are provided in the Publikliga sections of the Svenska Fotbollförbundet website.* |
| --- |

## Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

| No. Pos. Nation Player  1 GK  SWE Marko Lukic  2 DF  SWE Robin Persson  3 DF  SWE Christian Ahlström  4 DF  SWE André Hansson  5 DF  SWE Andreas Olsson  6 MF  SWE Sebastian Kristensson  7 MF  SWE Patrik Halili  8 FW  SWE Haris Berisha  9 FW  SWE Sebastian Lindhal  10 MF  SWE György Millinkhoffer  11 MF  SWE Mathias Roos | No. Pos. Nation Player  12 DF  SWE Linus Bladh  13 FW  SWE Oliwer Wilson  14 MF  SWE Dennis Ohlsson  15 FW  SWE Adam Weiszewski  16 DF  SWE Tobias Hansson  17 DF  SWE Robin Ohlsson  18 FW  SWE Andreas Lewitz  19 MF  SWE Jörgen Håkansson  20 FW  SWE Johan Palmström  21 MF  SWE Christoffer Nordgaard  23 GK  SWE Sebastian Grönberg |
| --- | --- |

## Footnotes

## InfoBox

FC Trelleborg
|  | |
| --- | --- |
| Full name | Football Club Trelleborg |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Ground | Ymorvallen
Trelleborg
Sweden |
| Chairman | Erik Arrhenius |
| Head Coach | Tommy Johnsen Olivius |
| Coach | Fredrik Hahne |
| League | Division 3 Södra Götaland |
| 2010 | Division 3 Södra Götaland, 4th |
|  | |
|  | |
|  | |


title: FC Ostrovets

abstract: FC Ostrovets is a Belarusian football club based in Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast.

text:
# FC Ostrovets

**FC Ostrovets** is a Belarusian football club based in Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast.

## History

*FC Ostrovets* founded in 2019 and joined Grodno Oblast league the same year. In 2020 FC Ostrovets joined Belarusian Second League.

In the 2021 season, FC Ostrovets won the Grodno Division, which is the preliminary stage of the Second League championship, with 23 wins in 24 matches. In October, the club won the final stage of the Belarusian championship in the Second League, defeating Maxline Rogachev in the final, and won the right to play in the Belarusian First League. Striker Aleksey Khodnevich set a record for the Second League in the number of goals scored in one season.

In 2022, FC Ostrovets made its debut in the First League.

## Current squad

*As of July 2024*

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

| No. Pos. Nation Player  1 GK  BLR Artem Bely  3 DF  BLR Vadim Dak  4 MF  BLR Yegor Shashko  5 MF  BLR Vitaliy Grigarkevich  7 MF  BLR Zakhar Kondratovich  8 MF  BLR Aleksandr Bakinovskiy  9 MF  BLR Denis Khvostovich  10 MF  BLR Yegor Semyonov  11 MF  BLR Stepan Gomonov  12 MF  BLR Nikita Kachur  13 MF  IRN Amirreza Ashrafi  15 MF  BLR Ivan Furmanov  17 DF  BLR Vitaliy Urbanovich | No. Pos. Nation Player  18 FW  BLR Andrey Kolomatskiy  19 DF  BLR Alyaksandr Konew  20 FW  BLR Arseniy Zhukovskiy  21 MF  BLR Maksim Lotysh  22 DF  BLR Maksim Avgustinovich  23 MF  BLR Yury Valavik  25 FW  BLR Vladislav Yatskevich  35 GK  BLR Vladimir Loyko  47 DF  BLR Vladislav Belashevich  77 MF  BLR Artem Drozdovich  99 GK  BLR Vadim Yukhnovich  FW  BLR Yevgeniy Apanasovich  MF  BLR Aleksandr Zayats |
| --- | --- |

## InfoBox

FC Ostrovets
|  | |
| --- | --- |
| Full name | Football Club Ostrovets |
| Founded | 2019 |
| Ground | ASK Stadium, Ostrovets |
| Capacity | 1,006 |
| Head Coach | Yuriy Karatay |
| League | Belarusian First League |
| 2023 | Belarusian First League, 12th of 17 |
| Website | Club website |


title: FC Oskil Kupiansk

abstract: Oskil Kupiansk was a Ukrainian football club from Kupiansk, Kharkiv Oblast.

text:
# FC Oskil Kupiansk

**Oskil Kupiansk** was a Ukrainian football club from Kupiansk, Kharkiv Oblast.

## History

After winning the KFK 5th Zone (Eastern Ukraine) Amateur Championship in the 1992–93 season the club garnered the right to enter the Professional Leagues. The next season the club participated in the Ukrainian Third League. When the Ukrainian Third League was dissolved the club was promoted to the Ukrainian Second League Group B. Between 1995 and 2001 the club performed reasonably well, finishing in third place on three occasions.

In the 2001–02 the club fell on hard times financially and players left. The club was demoted to the amateur level but never recovered. The club ceased to exist in 2003.

## Seasons

| Season | Div. | Pos. | Pl. | W | D | L | GS | GA | P | Domestic Cup | Europe | | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1993–94 | 4th | **6** | 34 | 15 | 6 | 13 | 52 | 52 | **36** | Did not enter |  |  |  |
| 1994–95 | 4th | **5** | 42 | 25 | 5 | 12 | 50 | 32 | **80** | 1/128 finals |  |  | Promoted |
| 1995–96 | 3rd "B" | **4** | 38 | 21 | 7 | 10 | 45 | 28 | **70** | 1/32 finals |  |  |  |
| 1996–97 | 3rd "B" | **3** | 32 | 15 | 10 | 7 | 38 | 23 | **55** | 1/16 finals |  |  |  |
| 1997–98 | 3rd "C" | **4** | 30 | 16 | 5 | 9 | 35 | 28 | **53** | 1/32 finals |  |  |  |
| 1998–99 | 3rd "C" | **3** | 26 | 14 | 7 | 5 | 38 | 20 | **49** | 1/128 finals |  |  |  |
| 1999-00 | 3rd "C" | **7** | 26 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 29 | 17 | **42** | 1/32 finals Second League Cup |  |  |  |
| 2000–01 | 3rd "C" | **3** | 30 | 16 | 8 | 6 | 40 | 24 | **56** | 1/16 finals Second League Cup |  |  |  |
| 2001–02 | 3rd "C" | **18** | 34 | 6 | 7 | 21 | 28 | 54 | **25** | 2nd Round |  |  | Relegated |
| 2003 | Club is dissolved | | | | | | | | | | | | |

## Notes and references


abstract: The FOW International Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling title in American independent promotion Future of Wrestling. The title was created when Cyborg won the title in Lima, Peru on April 24, 1999. It was defended throughout southern Florida, most often in Davie, Plantation, Pembroke Pines and occasionally in Ft. Lauderdale and Tampa, Florida. During the first half of 1999, the title was also defended in Lima and during later international tours to Peru and Saudi Arabia. There have been a total of 13 recognized individual champions, who have had a combined 15 official reigns.

text:
# FOW International Heavyweight Championship

The **FOW International Heavyweight Championship** was a professional wrestling title in American independent promotion Future of Wrestling. The title was created when Cyborg won the title in Lima, Peru on April 24, 1999. It was defended throughout southern Florida, most often in Davie, Plantation, Pembroke Pines and occasionally in Ft. Lauderdale and Tampa, Florida. During the first half of 1999, the title was also defended in Lima and during later international tours to Peru and Saudi Arabia. There have been a total of 13 recognized individual champions, who have had a combined 15 official reigns.

## Title history

| No. | Wrestlers | Reigns together | Date | Days held | Place | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Cyborg | 1 | April 24, 1999 | 31 | Lima, Peru |  |
| 2 | Anthony Adonis | 1 | May 25, 1999 | 68 | Tampa, Florida |  |
| 3 | J-Dawg | 1 | August 1, 1999 | 55 | Lima, Peru |  |
| 4 | Billy Fives | 1 | September 25, 1999 | 42 | Pembroke Pines, Florida |  |
| 5 | Chasyn Rance | 1 | November 6, 1999 | 1 | Davie, Florida | Fabulous Frank, Fives' manager, defended the title against Rance. |
| 6 | Billy Fives | 1(2) | November 7, 1999 | 53 | N/A | FOW changed their minds on letting a manager defend a title for their competitor and returned the title to Fives. |
| 7 | Warlock | 1 | December 30, 1999 | 44 | Davie, Florida |  |
| 8 | Bobby Brooks | 1 | February 12, 2000 | 43 | Ft. Lauderdale, Florida |  |
| 9 | The Blackhart | 1 | March 26, 2000 | 475 | Ft. Lauderdale, Florida |  |
| 10 | Bruno Sassi | 1 | July 14, 2001 | 483 | Davie, Florida |  |
| 11 | David Babylon | 1 | November 9, 2002 |  | Plantation, Florida | David Babylon remains champion until the promotion closes in early 2003. |
|
| *Title vacant.* | | | | | | |
| 12 | Maxx Stardom | 1 | October 21, 2011 | 134 | Boca Raton, Florida | Win's championship in a Rumble. |
| 13 | Johnny Vandal | 1 | March 03, 2012 | 63 | Hollywood, Florida |  |
| 14 | Lince Dorado | 1 | May 05, 2012 | 14 | Orlando, Florida |  |
| 15 | Johnny Vandal | 2 | May 19, 2012 | 85 | Orlando, Florida |  |
| 16 | Craig Classic | 1 | August 12, 2012 | 17 | Tokyo, Japan |  |
| 17 | Johnny Vandal | 3 | August 29, 2012 | 101 | Tokyo, Japan |  |
|
| *Title Retired On December 08, 2012.* | | | | | | |
|

## Combined reigns

| Rank | Wrestler | No. of
reigns | Combined days |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Bruno Sassi | 1 | 483 |
| 2 | The Blackhart | 1 | 473 |
| 3 | Johnny Vandal | 3 | 249 |
| 4 | Maxx Stardom | 1 | 134 |
| 5 | Billy Fives | 1(2) | 95 |
| 6 | Anthony Adonis | 1 | 68 |
| 7 | J-Dawg | 1 | 55 |
| 8 | Warlock | 1 | 44 |
| 9 | Bobby Brooks | 1 | 43 |
| 10 | Cyborg | 1 | 31 |
| 11 | Craig Classic | 1 | 17 |
| 12 | Lince Dorado | 1 | 14 |
| 13 | Chasyn Rance | 1 | 1 |
| 14 | David Babylon | 1 |  |

## InfoBox

| FOW International Heavyweight Championship | |
| --- | --- |
| Details | |
| Promotion | Future of Wrestling |
| Date established | April 24, 1999 |
| Date retired | December 08, 2012 |
| Statistics  First champion(s) Cyborg  Final champion(s) Johnny Vandal  Most reigns Johnny Vandal (3 reigns)  Longest reign Bruno Sassi (483 days)  Shortest reign Chasyn Rance (1 day) | |


title: Eğrikavak, Maden

abstract: Eğrikavak is a village in the Maden District of Elazığ Province in Turkey. Its population is 143 (2021).

text:
# Eğrikavak, Maden

**Eğrikavak** is a village in the Maden District of Elazığ Province in Turkey. Its population is 143 (2021).

## InfoBox

| Eğrikavak | |
| --- | --- |
| Village | |
| EğrikavakLocation in Turkey | |
| Coordinates: 38°21′23″N 39°29′52″E / 38.35639°N 39.49778°E / 38.35639; 39.49778 | |
| Country | Turkey |
| Province | Elazığ |
| District | Maden |
| Population (2021) | 143 |
| Time zone | UTC+3 (TRT) |


title: FC Fossombrone

abstract: F.C. Fossombrone is an Italian association football located in Fossombrone, Marche. The small club was made popular after it was acquired by Belgian fashion designer Dirk Bikkembergs.

text:
# FC Fossombrone

**F.C. Fossombrone** (formerly **F.C. Bikkembergs Fossombrone**) is an Italian association football located in Fossombrone, Marche. The small club was made popular after it was acquired by Belgian fashion designer Dirk Bikkembergs.

## History

The club was founded on 16 June 1949 by a group of local sportsmen in the town of Fossombrone as **Polisportiva Forsempronese**. Since then, the club spent all of its history playing at the amateur level, arriving up to Eccellenza. In 2005, Dirk Bikkembergs decided to acquire the club and started a huge rebranding, also renaming it **F.C. Bikkembergs Fossombrone**, with the aim to use the team as a laboratory for styling and fabric technology, in order to make all of his designs tested and promoted directly by football players.

In 2006–07 season, under head coach Gabriele Morganti, with former managerial experiences also at professional level, new players were attracted, the club directly decided to target promotion to Serie D. The club reached the regional semi-final in the Coppa Italia Dilettanti, being stopped by Piano San Lazzaro before they might claim a spot for the final, while in the league they missed promotion only by one point of the leader, being defeated in the national playoff finals by Torgiano of Umbria.

The following season did not change that much, as Fossombrone, under a new head coach, ended again in second place, missing promotion for a second consecutive time. However, promotion to Serie D finally arrived in 2008–09, with Fossombrone being crowned Eccellenza Marche winners.

At the end of the 2009-10 Serie D season Bikkember.gs decided to sell the club.

In the season 2010–11, from Serie D group F relegated to Eccellenza Marche, also due to the strong downgrading now by neglect of Bikkembergs.

## Colours and badge

Fossombrone always played with blue and white color uniforms with strips since the club was established in 1949. However, since the arrival of **Dirk Bikkembergs**, kits were completely rebranded in a more original way, with home jerseys being white with blue swirls, while the away is black with a butterfly pattern. Dirk Bikkembergs has also changed the after-game look, discarding the traditional jacket and tie for jeans and tracksuit-like leather jacket. This portrays Fossombrone more as the young team that they are, and Bikkembergs uses the squad to try out his latest designs in sportswear.

## Achievements

* **Eccellenza:**
    + **Winners:** 2008–2009
    + **Runners-up:** 2006–2007, 2007–2008

## InfoBox

FC Fossombrone
|  | |
| --- | --- |
| Full name | Football Club Fossombrone |
| Nickname(s) | *Bianco-azzuri* (The White and Blues) |
| Founded | 1949 |
| Ground | Stadio Comunale,<br>Fossombrone, Italy |
| Capacity | 1000 |
| Chairman | Francesco Tramontana |
| Manager | Francesco Baldarelli |
| League | Eccellenza Marche |
| 2010–11 | Serie D/F, 19th (relegated) |
|  | |
|  | |
|  | |


title: FC Fribourg

abstract: FC Fribourg is a Swiss football club from the town of Fribourg in the Canton of Fribourg. In the 2022–23 season, the team plays in 2. Liga Interregional, the fifth highest tier in the Swiss football pyramid.

text:
# FC Fribourg

**FC Fribourg** is a Swiss football club from the town of Fribourg in the Canton of Fribourg. In the 2022–23 season, the team plays in 2. Liga Interregional, the fifth highest tier in the Swiss football pyramid.

## History

The club was founded on 21 October 1900 and began life as FC Technicum. It took its name from the local school where nine young men gathered in the school brewery to establish the foundations for a football club. The majority of the men were not local, most of the men were students from England. The team had to wait over a year for their first match. On 27 October 1901 the club lost 4–1 to Club Romand.

On 25 September 1904, FC Technicum became a member of Swiss Football Association. On 12 November 1904 the club changed its name to Stella FC. The club at the time were competing in Nationalliga B, the second highest tier in Swiss football. It was around this time, in 1909, that the club held their first match against foreign opponents by playing two matches against Milan Football and Cricket Club. In 1909 the club were promoted to Swiss Super League but lasted just two seasons and in 1911 the club were relegated. In 1910 the club opened a junior team, led by local priest Father Freeley, to serve as a nursery side for the 1st team. This, at the time, was considered to be something new. The junior side was named FC College.

World War I put a stop to the club's progress and between 1914 and 1916 the club did not participate in any official championship. On 22 July 1917 the club changed its name to its present name, FC Fribourg.

In 1929 the club was back in the Swiss Super League but again this was just for two seasons as in 1931 the club dropped down a tier.

During World War II there was some minor interruptions to the football calendar but in the 1939–40 season the club narrowly missed out on promotion back to the Super League by losing a play-off match against FC Basel.

The golden era of the club was in the 1950s. At the end of the 1951–52 season the club were champions of Nationalliga B and so were back in the top flight to play in the 1952–53 season. The club spent four years in the top league finishing 9th in 1952–53, 12th in 1952–53, 10th in 1954–55 and 14th place in 1955–56. In 1954 the club also reached the final of the Swiss Cup losing 2–0 to FC La Chaux-de-Fonds, the best Swiss club at that time, inside the Wankdorf Stadium which later became the Stade de Suisse.

In the 1960–61 season the club was back in the top flight but were relegated in 1962 after only two seasons, finishing in last place. In 1969 the club were back in the top flight but again the club lasted just two years and were relegated in 1971. The club bounced back at the first attempt and at the end of the 1971–72 season they gained promotion back to the Super League but lasted just one term, as they suffered relegation at the end of the 1972–73 season. This was to be for the last time as to this day the club have not played in the top level of Swiss football.

Directly following their relegation to the second tier, the club suffered relegation again to the third tier, the 1. Liga, for the first time in their history at the end of the 1973–74 season. The club stayed at that level for four years before returning to the Nationalliga B. The club remained at this level until 1999 when they suffered relegation to the 1. Liga Promotion.

## Stadium

FC Fribourg play their home games at Stade Universitaire. The capacity is 9,000. The stadium has 1,000 seats and 8,000 standing places.

## Current squad

*As of 1 October 2020*

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

| No. Pos. Nation Player  1 GK  SUI Piero Soldini  2 DF  KOS Clirim Ademi  3 DF  CPV Remy Mendes Cabral  4 MF  POR Vasco Teixeira  5 MF  POR Fabio Furtado  6 MF  SUI Joël Raetzo  7 FW  SUI Maxime Mason  8 MF  SUI Vincent Villommet  9 FW  MLI Karim Diarra  10 MF  POR Bryan Rodrigues  11 FW  COL Santiago Cerezo  13 DF  CPV Sami Varela | No. Pos. Nation Player  14 FW  KOS Qëndrim Makshana  15 DF  SUI Michel Oberlin  17 FW  COD Nathan Dimbu  18 DF  SWE Olle Egil Chaplin Economidis  20 MF  POR Simão Magalhaes  21 FW  POR Kevin de Oliveira  22 DF  SUI César Schwartz  23 MF  SUI Matéo Rusca  24 DF  SUI Jean Assui  25 MF  KOS Fabijan Markaj  30 GK  SUI Simon Monney |
| --- | --- |

## Honours

## InfoBox

Fribourg
|  | |
| --- | --- |
| Full name | Football Club Fribourg |
| Founded | 21 October 1900 |
| Ground | Stade Universitaire |
| Capacity | 9,000) (1,000 seated |
| President | Magdalena Lauper |
| Entraineur | Turgut Akdag |
| League | 2.\_Liga\_Interregional |
|  | |
|  | |
|  | |


title: Renato Dionisi (composer)

abstract: Renato Dionisi was an Italian composer and music educator.

text:
# Renato Dionisi (composer)

**Renato Dionisi** (2 January 1910 in Rovinj – 24 August 2000 in Verona) was an Italian composer and music educator.

## Biography

Renato Dionisi was born in Rovinj in Istria, but soon moved to Borgo Sacco, Rovereto where he spent his childhood and early youth. He studied music composition at the music schools in Bolzano and Rovereto, graduating in 1936. From 1940 he taught music history, choral music, harmony and counterpoint at several schools including the Bolzano Conservatory, Milan Conservatory and the Conservatory "Luigi Cherubini" in Florence.

## Selected works

Dionisi's scores are largely published by Casa Ricordi, Edizioni Suvini Zerboni, Edizioni Musicali G. Zanibon and Edizioni Bèrben. Orchestral * *Aldebaran* for flute, oboe, trumpet, harp, string orchestra and percussion (1981)
* *Luctus in ludis* for narrator and chamber orchestra (1971)
* *Sonatina per orchestra e pianoforte a quattro mani (1982)*

Concertante * *Tre movimenti* (3 Movements) for viola and string orchestra (1966)
* Concerto for 2 pianos and string orchestra (1968)
* *Musica* for timpani and chamber orchestra

Chamber music * *Quartetto a fiati* (Wind Quartet) for flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon (1958)
* *Divertimento per sei strumenti* (Divertimento for Six Instruments) for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon and piano (1966)
* *Piccole composizioni per strumenti a fiato* (Little Compositions for Wind Instruments), 19 Small Pieces for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon in various combinations (1970)
* *Melismi* for guitar and 4 instruments (flute, clarinet, viola, cello) (1971)
* *Dialogo* for trumpet and organ (1972)
* *Tredici piccole composizioni* (13 Little Compositions) for violin and piano (1973)
* *Fantasia* for 2 trumpets, 2 trombones and organ (1976)
* *Piccole composizioni* (Little Compositions), 9 Pieces (set 1) for 2 cellos (1980)
* *Piccole composizioni* (Little Compositions), 9 Pieces (set 2) for cello and piano (1980)
* Sonatina for viola and piano (1983)
* *Due pezzi* (2 Pieces) for clarinet solo

Organ * *Tre contrappunti* (1966)

Piano * *15 piccole composizioni per pianisti piccoli* (15 Little Compositions for Little Pianists) (1959)
* *Movimenti* (1966)
* *Suoni e risonanze* (1971)

Vocal * *Due canti sacri* for voice, clarinet and piano (1968)


title: Punjgirain

abstract:
Panjgirain is a town of Darya Khan Tehsil, Bhakkar District, Punjab, Pakistan. It is also the headquarters of union council Punjgirain. It is located on Darya Khan Kalur Kot Road. There is a basic health unit (BHU) and Govt. High School for boys and girls here. A Panj Girain railway station is also on Multan Kundian railway track section. Jamia Masjid Sadiqia is the largest mosque of the town Jamia Naqvia Arabia is a Shia Islamic School in Panjgirain.
A police patrol check post is also there. Pir Haji Ahmed Sultan, Haji Shah and Imam's are main graveyards.
Wheat, sugarcane, chickpea, Mung bean, and cotton are corps produced there. On the east of town the area is desert called Thal and west area is well cultivated near by Indus River called Nashaib.
Main villages in the union council are Jhok Mehar Shah, Jhok Qalander Bakhsh, Jhok Laal Shah, Basti Ahmad Shah wali Dager, Dirkhani Khuh and Nashaib.

text:
# Punjgirain

**Panjgirain** is a town of Darya Khan Tehsil, Bhakkar District, Punjab, Pakistan. It is also the headquarters of union council Punjgirain. It is located on Darya Khan Kalur Kot Road. There is a basic health unit (BHU) and Govt. High School for boys and girls here. A Panj Girain railway station is also on Multan Kundian railway track section.

Jamia Masjid Sadiqia (Ahale Sunnat) is the largest mosque of the town Jamia Naqvia Arabia is a Shia Islamic School in Panjgirain. A police patrol check post is also there. Pir Haji Ahmed Sultan, Haji Shah and Imam's are main graveyards. Wheat, sugarcane, chickpea, Mung bean, and cotton are corps produced there.

On the east of town the area is desert called Thal and west area is well cultivated near by Indus River called Nashaib. Main villages in the union council are Jhok Mehar Shah, Jhok Qalander Bakhsh, Jhok Laal Shah, Basti Ahmad Shah wali Dager, Dirkhani Khuh and Nashaib.

## Demographics

The population of the town, according to 2017 census was 13,588.

## InfoBox

| Panjgirain پنجگرائیں | |
| --- | --- |
| Town | |
| Panjgirain | |
| PanjgirainLocation in Pakistan | |
| Coordinates: 31°55′10″N 71°09′00″E / 31.91944°N 71.15000°E / 31.91944; 71.15000 | |
| Pakistan | Pakistan |
| Province | Punjab |
| Government | |
| UC Nazim | Qari Muhammad Ashrif |
| UC Naib Naib Nazim | Ghulam Qasim Karkali |
| Elevation | 148 m (486 ft) |
| Time zone | UTC+5 (PST) |
| 30110 | 30100 |
| Number of Union councils | 1 |
| Website | http://www.bhakkar.com.pk |


title: Elena Fanchini

abstract: Elena Fanchini was an Italian World Cup alpine ski racer. Born in Val Camonica, she focused on the speed events of downhill and super-G. Her younger sisters Nadia and Sabrina also raced on the Italian team.

text:
# Elena Fanchini

**Elena Fanchini** (30 April 1985 – 8 February 2023) was an Italian World Cup alpine ski racer. Born in Val Camonica, she focused on the speed events of downhill and super-G. Her younger sisters Nadia and Sabrina also raced on the Italian team.

## Biography

Fanchini won two World Cup races in downhill 9 years apart and won a silver medal at the 2005 world championships. She represented Italy at three Winter Olympics and six World Championships.

## Illness and death

On 12 January 2018, Fanchini announced that she would not compete in the 2018 Winter Olympics at Pyeongchang in order to undergo cancer treatment. That November, she was preparing to return to the World Cup; during training in the United States at Copper Mountain, Colorado, she fell and suffered a fracture of a finger of the hand and a distortion-bruising trauma to the left knee, with fracture of the proximal fibula. The injury forced her to return to Italy and miss the 2019 season.

On 22 April 2020, sisters Elena and Nadia Fanchini announced their retirement from racing.

At age 37, Fanchini died from colon cancer on 8 February 2023 at Pian Camuno.

## World Cup results

### Season standings

| Season | Age | Overall | Slalom | Giant
slalom | Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2005 | *19* | 75 |  |  | 45 | 32 |  |
| 2006 | *20* | 41 |  |  | 47 | 12 |  |
| 2007 | *21* | 77 |  |  | 50 | 30 |  |
| 2008 | *22* | 45 |  |  | 34 | 23 | 39 |
| 2009 | *23* |  | | | | | |
| 2010 | *24* | 53 |  |  | 26 | 24 |  |
| 2011 | *25* | 28 |  |  | 25 | 12 |  |
| 2012 | *26* | 36 |  |  | 32 | 13 | 18 |
| 2013 | *27* | 62 |  |  | 47 | 22 | 37 |
| 2014 | *28* | 33 |  |  | 42 | 10 |  |
| 2015 | *29* | 17 |  |  | 19 | 5 |  |
| 2016 | *30* | 51 |  |  | 24 | 24 |  |
| 2017 | *31* | 57 |  |  | 50 | 16 |  |
| 2018 | *32* | 70 |  |  | 40 | 27 |  |

### Race podiums

* 2 wins – (2 DH)
* 4 podiums – (4 DH); 25 top tens (20 DH, 5 SG)

| Season | Date | Location | Discipline | Place |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2006 | 2 December 2005 | Lake Louise, Canada | Downhill | **1st** |
| 2014 | 29 November 2013 | Beaver Creek, United States | Downhill | 3rd |
| | 6 December 2013 | Lake Louise, Canada | Downhill | 3rd |
| 2015 | 16 January 2015 | Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy | Downhill | **1st** |

## World Championship results

| Year | Age | Slalom | Giant
slalom | Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2005 | *19* |  | DNF1 |  | 2 | 20 |
| 2007 | *21* |  |  | 31 | 27 | DNS2 |
| 2009 | *23* |  | | | | | |
| 2011 | *25* |  |  | 18 | 16 |  |
| 2013 | *27* |  |  |  |  | 15 |
| 2015 | *29* |  |  |  | 26 | 16 |
| 2017 | *31* |  |  |  | 14 |  |

## Olympic results

| Year | Age | Slalom | Giant
slalom | Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2006 | *20* |  |  | DNF | 29 |  |
| 2010 | *24* |  |  | 14 | DNF |  |
| 2014 | *28* |  |  |  | 12 | DNS2 |

## National titles

Elena Fanchini won **7** national titles.

## InfoBox

Elena Fanchini
| Fanchini in 2014 | |
| --- | --- |
| Personal information | |
| Born | (1985-04-30)30 April 1985
Lovere, Bergamo,
Lombardy, Italy |
| Died | 8 February 2023(2023-02-08) (aged 37)
Pian Camuno, Italy |
| Occupation | Alpine skier |
| Height | 164 cm (5 ft 5 in) |
|  | |
| Skiing career | |
| Disciplines | Downhill, Super-G |
| Club | G.S. Fiamme Gialle |
| World Cup debut | 6 January 2005 (age 19) |
| Website | sorellefanchini.it |
| Olympics | |
| Teams | 3 – (2006-2014) |
| Medals | 0 |
| World Championships | |
| Teams | 6 – (2005-2007, 2011-2017) |
| Medals | 1 (0 gold) |
| World Cup | |
| Seasons | 13 – (20052008, 20102018) |
| Wins | 2 – (2 DH) |
| Podiums | 4 – (4 DH) |
| Overall titles | 0 – *(17th in 2015)* |
| Discipline titles | 0 – *(5th in DH, 2015)* |
| Medal record      World Cup race podiums   Event 1st 2nd 3rd  Downhill 2 0 2   Women's alpine skiing  Representing  Italy  World Championships  2005 Bormio Downhill | |
|  | |


title: Pulse detonation engine

abstract: A pulse detonation engine (PDE) is a type of propulsion system that uses detonation waves to combust the fuel and oxidizer mixture. The engine is pulsed because the mixture must be renewed in the combustion chamber between each detonation wave and the next. Theoretically, a PDE can operate from subsonic up to a hypersonic flight speed of roughly Mach 5. An ideal PDE design can have a thermodynamic efficiency higher than other designs like turbojets and turbofans because a detonation wave rapidly compresses the mixture and adds heat at constant volume. Consequently, moving parts like compressor spools are not necessarily required in the engine, which could significantly reduce overall weight and cost. Key issues for further development include fast and efficient mixing of the fuel and oxidizer, the prevention of autoignition, and integration with an inlet and nozzle. As of May 2023, no practical PDE has been put into production, but several testbed engines have been built and one was successfully integrated into a low-speed demonstration aircraft that flew in sustained PDE powered flight in 2008.

text:
# Pulse detonation engine

A **pulse detonation engine** (**PDE**) is a type of propulsion system that uses detonation waves to combust the fuel and oxidizer mixture.

The engine is pulsed because the mixture must be renewed in the combustion chamber between each detonation wave and the next. Theoretically, a PDE can operate from subsonic up to a hypersonic flight speed of roughly Mach 5. An ideal PDE design can have a thermodynamic efficiency higher than other designs like turbojets and turbofans because a detonation wave rapidly compresses the mixture and adds heat at constant volume. Consequently, moving parts like compressor spools are not necessarily required in the engine, which could significantly reduce overall weight and cost. Key issues for further development include fast and efficient mixing of the fuel and oxidizer, the prevention of autoignition, and integration with an inlet and nozzle.

As of May 2023, no practical PDE has been put into production, but several testbed engines have been built and one was successfully integrated into a low-speed demonstration aircraft that flew in sustained PDE powered flight in 2008.

## History

PDEs have been considered for propulsion since 1940.

The first known flight of an aircraft powered by a pulse detonation engine took place at the Mojave Air & Space Port on 31 January 2008. The project was developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory and Innovative Scientific Solutions, Inc. The aircraft selected for the flight was a heavily modified Scaled Composites Long-EZ, named *Borealis*. The engine consisted of four tubes producing pulse detonations at a frequency of 80 Hz, creating up to 200 pounds of thrust (890 newtons). Many fuels were considered and tested by the engine developers in recent years, but a refined octane was used for this flight. A small rocket system was used to facilitate the liftoff of the Long-EZ, but the PDE operated under its own power for 10 seconds at an altitude of approximately 100 feet (30 m). The flight took place at a low speed whereas the appeal of the PDE engine concept lies more at high speeds, but the demonstration showed that a PDE can be integrated into an aircraft frame without experiencing structural problems from the 195-200 dB detonation waves. No more flights are planned for the modified Long-EZ, but the success is likely to fuel more funding for PDE research. The aircraft itself has been moved to the National Museum of the United States Air Force for display.

In June 2008, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) unveiled Blackswift, which was intended to use this technology to reach speeds of up to Mach 6. However the project was reported cancelled soon afterward, in October 2008.

## Operation

The basic operation of the PDE is similar to that of the pulse jet engine. In the pulse jet, air is mixed with fuel to create a flammable mixture that is then ignited in an open chamber. The resulting combustion greatly increases the pressure of the mixture to approximately 100 atmospheres (10 MPa), which then expands through a nozzle for thrust.

To ensure that the mixture exits to the rear, thereby pushing the aircraft forward, a series of shutters are used to close off the front of the engine. Careful tuning of the inlet ensures the shutters close at the right time to force the air to travel in one direction only through the engine. Some pulse jet designs used a tuned resonant cavity to provide the valving action through the airflow in the system. These designs normally look like a U-shaped tube, open at both ends.

In either system, the pulse jet has problems during the combustion process. As the fuel burns and expands to create thrust, it is also pushing any remaining unburnt charge rearward, out of the nozzle. In many cases some of the charge is ejected before burning, which causes the famous trail of flame seen on the V-1 flying bomb and other pulse jets. Even while inside the engine, the mixture's volume is constantly changing which inefficiently converts fuel into usable energy.

All regular jet engines and most rocket engines operate on the *deflagration* of fuel, that is, the rapid but subsonic combustion of fuel. The pulse detonation engine is a concept currently in active development to create a jet engine that operates on the supersonic *detonation* of fuel. Because the combustion takes place so rapidly, the charge (fuel/air mix) does not have time to expand during this process, so it takes place under almost constant volume. Constant volume combustion is more efficient than open-cycle designs like gas turbines, which leads to greater fuel efficiency.

As the combustion process is so rapid, mechanical shutters are difficult to arrange with the required performance. Instead, PDEs generally use a series of valves to time the process carefully.

Most PDE research is military in nature, as the engine could be used to develop a new generation of high-speed, long-range reconnaissance aircraft that would fly high enough to be out of range of any current anti-aircraft defenses, while offering range considerably greater than the SR-71, which required a massive tanker support fleet.

Key difficulties in pulse detonation engines are achieving DDT without requiring a tube long enough to make it impractical and drag-imposing on the aircraft (adding a U-bend into the tube extinguishes the detonation wave); reducing the noise (often described as sounding like a jackhammer); and damping the severe vibration caused by the operation of the engine.

## Uses

If both fuel and oxidizer are carried by the vehicle a pulse detonation engine is independent of the atmosphere and it can be used in spaceflight. On 26 July 2021 (UTC), Japan's space agency JAXA successfully tested a pulse detonation rocket engine in space on a S-520 sounding rocket flight. The upper stage of the rocket used a rotating detonation engine (RDE) as the main engine and a S-shaped pulse detonating engine was used to de-spin the stage after the main engine burn. PDE operated three times in the flight for a total of 14 cycles.


title: Electronic Payment Services

abstract: Electronic Payment Services, commonly known as EPS, is an electronic payment system based in Hong Kong, Macau, and with limited acceptance in Shenzhen since it began operations in 1985. The service is provided by EPS Company Limited which currently has over 30,000 acceptance locations.

text:
# Electronic Payment Services

**Electronic Payment Services** (simplified Chinese: 易办事; traditional Chinese: 易辦事; pinyin: *Yì bànshì*), commonly known as **EPS**, is an electronic payment system based in Hong Kong, Macau, and with limited acceptance in Shenzhen since it began operations in 1985. The service is provided by **EPS Company (Hong Kong) Limited** which currently has over 30,000 acceptance locations.

## System

In each retail location, a terminal is installed and is usually connected to the POS system of the retailer. The terminal may also be independently connected to banks through the public phone system.

Transactions approved before the cut-off time are batched into a payment made directly to the retailer's account by the end of the business day.

## Service

### ATM card payment

EPS entails the simple use of an ATM card or a credit card with ATM capability issued by a member bank of the EPS, acting as a debit card. No application for the service is required.

The EPS device is a dual-unit device consisting of a removable card processor and a stationary base that serves as a charger and data link. Some retailers may use an integrated machine. In such situations, the customer inserts the card into the machine directly and waits for the retailer's acknowledgement before proceeding to the rest of the steps.

### EasyCash service

EasyCash (Chinese: 提款易) allows card holders to withdraw cash at over 1,200 locations in Hong Kong upon a regular purchase by EPS. The cash withdrawal amount must be in units of $100, up to $500. EPS EasyCash service is a kind of cashback service.

EPS EasyCash service is available at Hong Kong–based chain stores such as Gourmet, Great, IKEA, Mannings, MarketPlace, Massimo Dutti, Circle K, Oliver's, Parknshop, Taste, ThreeSixty, Vango, China Resources Vanguard (CRV), V'ole and Wellcome.

### PPS

PPS (Chinese: 繳費靈) is a service which allows card holders to pay bills using the phone or the internet. To use the service, the card holder must swipe the ATM card or the credit card with ATM capability through a PPS terminal to create an account. Afterwards, the account may be used to pay bills either through the PPS hotline, website or the mobile application.

## Members

## InfoBox

Electronic Payment Services
EPS
|  | |
| --- | --- |
| Operating area | Hong Kong |
| Members | 21 |
| Founded | 1984 |
| Owner | EPS Company (Hong Kong) Limited |
| Website | www.eps.com.hk/eng/ |


title: Push-button

abstract: A push-button or simply button is a simple switch mechanism to control some aspect of a machine or a process. Buttons are typically made out of hard material, usually plastic or metal. The surface is usually flat or shaped to accommodate the human finger or hand, so as to be easily depressed or pushed. Buttons are most often biased switches, although many un-biased buttons still require a spring to return to their un-pushed state. Terms for the "pushing" of a button include pressing, depressing, mashing, slapping, hitting, and punching.

text:
# Push-button

A **push-button** (also spelled **pushbutton**) or simply **button** is a simple switch mechanism to control some aspect of a machine or a process. Buttons are typically made out of hard material, usually plastic or metal. The surface is usually flat or shaped to accommodate the human finger or hand, so as to be easily depressed or pushed. Buttons are most often biased switches, although many un-biased buttons (due to their physical nature) still require a spring to return to their un-pushed state.

Terms for the "pushing" of a button include **pressing**, **depressing**, **mashing**, **slapping**, **hitting**, and **punching**.

## Uses

The "push-button" has been utilized in calculators, push-button telephones, kitchen appliances, and various other mechanical and electronic devices, home and commercial.

In industrial and commercial applications, push buttons can be connected together by a mechanical linkage so that the act of pushing one button causes the other button to be released. In this way, a stop button can "force" a start button to be released. This method of linkage is used in simple manual operations in which the machine or process has no electrical circuits for control.

Red pushbuttons can also have large heads (called mushroom heads) for easy operation and to facilitate the stopping of a machine. These pushbuttons are called emergency stop buttons and for increased safety are mandated by the electrical code in many jurisdictions. This large mushroom shape can also be found in buttons for use with operators who need to wear gloves for their work and could not actuate a regular flush-mounted push button.

As an aid for operators and users in industrial or commercial applications, a pilot light is commonly added to draw the attention of the user and to provide feedback if the button is pushed. Typically this light is included into the center of the pushbutton and a lens replaces the pushbutton hard center disk. The source of the energy to illuminate the light is not directly tied to the contacts on the back of the pushbutton but to the action the pushbutton controls. In this way a start button when pushed will cause the process or machine operation to be started and a secondary contact designed into the operation or process will close to turn on the pilot light and signify the action of pushing the button caused the resultant process or action to start.

To avoid an operator from pushing the wrong button in error, pushbuttons are often color-coded to associate them with their function. Commonly used colors are red for stopping the machine or process and green for starting the machine or process.

In popular culture, the phrase "the button" (sometimes capitalized) refers to a (usually fictional) button that a military or government leader could press to launch nuclear weapons.

### Scram and scramble switches

Akin to fire alarm switches, some big red buttons, when deployed with suitable visual and audible warnings such as flashing lights and sirens for extreme exigent emergencies, are known as "scram switches" (from the slang term scram, "get out of here"). Generally, such buttons are connected to large scale functions, beyond a regular fire alarm, such as automated shutdown procedures, complete facility power cut, fire suppression like halon release, etc.

A variant of this is the scramble switch which triggers an alarm to activate emergent personnel to proactively attend to and go to such disasters. An air raid siren at an air base initiates such action, where the fighter pilots are alerted and "scrambled" to their planes to defend the base.

## History

Push buttons were invented sometime in the late 19th century, certainly no later than 1880. The name came from the French word *bouton* (something that sticks out), rather than from the kind of buttons used on clothing. The initial public reaction was curiosity mixed with fear, some of which was due to widespread fear of electricity, which was a relatively new technology at the time.

## Further reading

## InfoBox

Push-button
| Generic arcade game buttons | |
| --- | --- |
| Type | Switch |
| Electronic symbol | |
|  | |


title: Push-Over (video game)

abstract: Push-Over is a puzzle-platform game developed by Red Rat Software and published by Ocean Software in 1992 for the Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was sponsored by Smiths' British snack Quavers, and the plot revolves around the then Quavers mascot Colin Curly losing his Quavers packets down a giant ant hill. The player is tasked with controlling G.I. Ant, a large soldier ant, to recover the Quavers by solving a series of puzzles. The Super NES version lacks the Quavers branding, and instead the aim is to recover bundles of cash dropped down the ant hill by Captain Rat.

text:
# Push-Over (video game)

***Push-Over*** is a puzzle-platform game developed by Red Rat Software and published by Ocean Software in 1992 for the Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was sponsored by Smiths' British snack Quavers (now owned by Walkers), and the plot revolves around the then Quavers mascot Colin Curly losing his Quavers packets down a giant ant hill. The player is tasked with controlling G.I. Ant, a large soldier ant, to recover the Quavers by solving a series of puzzles. The Super NES version lacks the Quavers branding, and instead the aim is to recover bundles of cash dropped down the ant hill by Captain Rat.

## Gameplay

The game consists of 100 levels of increasing complexity over nine different themed worlds. Each level features several interconnected platforms holding a number of "dominoes". The aim is to rearrange the dominoes, such that with a single push, all of the dominoes are toppled, thus opening the exit to the next level. There are 11 different types of domino, identified by red and yellow patterns, each with different actions. The player controls G.I. Ant, who can move certain dominoes by carrying them one at a time.

Various factors can result in failure to complete a level. As well as toppling all of the dominoes, the player must be able to access the exit door once the dominoes have fallen. For instance, the player will be unable to reach the exit if a ledge leading to the exit has been destroyed, or if a gap leading to the exit has not been bridged, or if a line of dominoes lie across the exit. G.I. Ant may die by falling from a large height, by falling off the bottom of the screen, or by being crushed under a falling domino. The player is then greeted with the message "You Failed, You Died" and has to restart the level. Also, the level will be failed if any dominoes are destroyed by landing one domino on top of another.

Each level has a time limit during which it must be completed. However, if the time runs out the player is still able to continue with the puzzle if they wish. By pausing the game once the time has run out, a small hint will be displayed, giving advice on how to complete the level. As a side note, the hint for level 98 informs the player that the game's designer cannot remember how to complete the level without trickery ("Use a drop! There is a way to make it work with a push, but I can't find it!").

The themed worlds, in order, are an industrial complex, an Aztec world, a space station, an electronic world, a Greek temple, a Medieval castle, a Meccano-inspired world, a dungeon and a Japanese temple. Each world has 11 levels, making a total of 99 regular levels. A packet of Colin's Quavers is retrieved after each world, with nine packets in all to be collected. Many of the early levels are tutorials demonstrating how each type of domino will act. Often there is only a single solution to each level, though some levels have multiple solutions. The final level, level 100, must be completed using dominoes with hidden markings.

A password system allows the player to continue an earlier game, without having to restart from the first level. Additionally, upon completing a level the player gains a token, which once a level has been failed, allows the player to return to the point before the domino push, rather than having to return to the initial state of the level.

## Development

Creative differences between RedRat Software and Ocean Software around branding and graphical changes overshadowed this title and a breakdown between both parties occurred once legal action was taken by RedRat to regain creative control/claim a breach of contract. The legal battle led to the downfall of RedRat Software, who were unable to fund continual legal costs vs the much deeper pockets of Ocean Software.

## Reception

The game was reviewed in 1993 in *Dragon* #193 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in the "Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars.

*Entertainment Weekly* gave the game a B− and wrote that "The theme of *Pushover* (*Ocean of America, for Super NES*) is ingenious — players have to line up 10 kinds of dominoes, then get them all to fall with a single push — but the static execution will have small kids dozing off way before their bedtime."

### Reviews

## InfoBox

| Push-Over | |
| --- | --- |
|  | |
| Developer(s) | Red Rat Software |
| Publisher(s) | Ocean Software |
| Platform(s) | Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, Super NES |
| Release | 1992 |
| Genre(s) | Puzzle-platform |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |


title: Elena Curtoni

abstract: Elena Curtoni is an Italian World Cup alpine ski racer. Her sister Irene Curtoni is also a former World Cup racer.

text:
# Elena Curtoni

**Elena Curtoni** (born 3 February 1991) is an Italian World Cup alpine ski racer.

Her sister Irene Curtoni is also a former World Cup racer.

## Biography

Born in Morbegno, Sondrio, Lombardy, she has competed for Italy in five World Championships.
Curtoni made her World Cup debut in November 2009 at age 18 and gained her first podium in March 2016; her first win was in a downhill at Bansko in January 2020, leading an Italian podium sweep with teammates Marta Bassino and Federica Brignone.

## World Cup results

### Season standings

| Season | Age | Overall | Slalom | Giant
slalom | Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2011 | *20* | 53 |  |  | 23 | 43 | 21 |
| 2012 | *21* | 40 |  | 47 | 11 | 48 | 15 |
| 2013 | *22* | 38 |  | 29 | 19 | 44 | 7 |
| 2014 | *23* | 75 |  | 37 | 35 |  |  |
| 2015 | *24* | 44 |  | 33 | 16 |  | 18 |
| 2016 | *25* | 23 |  | 25 | 15 | 16 | 23 |
| 2017 | *26* | 17 |  | 26 |  | 30 | 20 |
| 2018 | *27* | 126 |  | 52 |  |  |  |
| 2019 | *28* | 57 |  |  | 21 | 35 |  |
| 2020 | *29* | 15 |  |  | 11 |  | 10 |
| 2021 | *30* | 14 |  | 18 | 10 |  |  |
| 2022 | *31* | 13 |  | 38 |  | 19 | |
| 2023 | *32* |  |  |  |  |  | |

### Race podiums

* 3 wins – (2 DH, 1 SG)
* 12 podiums – (5 DH, 7 SG)

| Season | Date | Location | Discipline | Place |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **2016** | 16 Mar 2016 | St. Moritz, Switzerland | Downhill | 3rd |
| **2017** | 18 Dec 2016 | Val d'Isère, France | Super-G | 3rd |
| | 25 Feb 2017 | Crans-Montana, Switzerland | Super-G | 2nd |
| **2020** | 25 Jan 2020 | Bansko, Bulgaria | Downhill | **1st** |
| **2021** | 23 Jan 2021 | Crans-Montana, Switzerland | Downhill | 3rd |
| **2022** | 12 Dec 2021 | St. Moritz, Switzerland | Super-G | 2nd |
| | 19 Dec 2021 | Val d'Isère, France | Super-G | 3rd |
| | 23 Jan 2022 | Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy | Super-G | **1st** |
| **2023** | 16 Dec 2022 | St. Moritz, Switzerland | Downhill | **1st** |
| | 18 Dec 2022 | | Super-G | 2nd |
| | 21 Jan 2023 | Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy | Downhill | 3rd |
| | 3 Mar 2023 | Kvitfjell, Norway | Super-G | 2nd |

## World Championship results

| Year | Age | Slalom | Giant
slalom | Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2011 | *20* |  |  |  |  | 16 |
| 2013 | *22* |  |  | 18 |  | 13 |
| 2015 | *24* |  |  | 10 |  | DNF1 |
| 2017 | *26* |  |  |  |  | DNF2 |
| 2021 | *30* |  | DNS2 | 18 |  |  |
| 2023 | *32* |  |  | 15 | 13 |  |

## Olympic results

| Year | Age | Slalom | Giant
slalom | Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2022 | *31* |  | 20 | 10 |  | DNF1 |

## InfoBox

Elena Curtoni
| December 2010 | |
| --- | --- |
| Personal information | |
| Born | (1991-02-03) 3 February 1991
Morbegno, Sondrio, Lombardy, Italy |
| Occupation | Alpine skier |
| Height | 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) |
|  | |
| Skiing career | |
| Disciplines | Super-G, downhill, giant slalom, combined |
| Club | C.S. Esercito |
| World Cup debut | 14 November 2009 (age 18) |
| Olympics | |
| Teams | 1 – (2022) |
| Medals | 0 |
| World Championships | |
| Teams | 6 – (201117, 2021, 2023) |
| Medals | 0 |
| World Cup | |
| Seasons | 14 – (20102023) |
| Wins | 3 – (2 DH, 1 SG) |
| Podiums | 11 – (5 DH, 6 SG) |
| Overall titles | 0 – *(13th in 2022)* |
| Discipline titles | 0 – *(2nd in SG, 2022)* |
| Medal record      Women's alpine skiing  Representing  Italy   World Cup race podiums  Event 1st 2nd 3rd  Downhill 2 1 2  Super-G 1 4 2  Total 3 5 4   Junior World Championships  2011 Crans-Montana Super-G  2009 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Combined | |
|  | |


title: Elena Quiroga

abstract: Elena Quiroga de Abarca was a Spanish writer. Elena Quiroga was renowned for her narrative prose work. She was considered one of the most prominent women of her time, mostly because she was preoccupied by injustice, and explored the themes of childhood and adolescence. She was the second woman to enter the Real Academia Española from 1944 to 1983.

text:
# Elena Quiroga

**Elena Quiroga de Abarca** (Santander, October 26, 1921 – Corunna, October 3, 1995) was a Spanish writer.

Elena Quiroga was renowned for her narrative prose work. She was considered one of the most prominent women of her time, mostly because she was preoccupied by injustice, and explored the themes of childhood and adolescence. She was the second woman to enter the *Real Academia Española* (Royal Academy of the Spanish Language) from 1944 to 1983.

## Biography

Born into a wealthy family, Elena Quiroga lived with her father in Villoria (Galicia), and was a happy child and teenager. During her time, it was quite uncommon for women to get access to education. However, Elena Quiroga was given a high level of academic training. For that reason, ever since she was a child, she could develop her inner literary sensitivity. We can see that in her first novel that she published when she was 20, *La Soledad Sonora* (1949), in which she narrates the story of a woman from her adolescence until the end of her life. Even though she did not go to University, Quiroga attended free classes, and worked for many years, 4 to 5 hours a day on her books and texts.

After she married Dalmiro de Válgoma in 1950, they moved to Madrid where she had the opportunity to enter a group of writers. They are known for having reinvented the contemporary Spanish novel of the 20th century.

On August 31, she was hospitalized in La Coruña because of a serious injury, where she died of a brain disease at the age of 73.

## Career

While she started writing at a young age, it was only when she got married that her career really began. When she moved to Madrid, she wrote an award-winning novel, *Viento del Norte* (1950), which is about the relationship between a young maid and her master. In this novel, Quiroga defines the keys of her following writing. Some of them are the use of intimacy about the memories of the childhood and adolescence and a well-defined plot and characters. She uses a rich, elegant and pure language in her prose. In 1952, she wrote her third novel*: La Sangre*. According to her editors, it gave her the status of being an extraordinary novelist because of the delicacy of her style and the interest of the problems that she deals with. It tells the story of four generations through a tree, the true main character of the book.

In 1954, Quiroga wrote *Algo pasa en la calle,* where she explores new and more current areas of the genre of the novel. The novel deals with love failure and a marriage break up that are settled in urban spaces. Its characters are psychologically more complex and close to the mentality of modern men.

Elena Quiroga published *La Careta* (1995) and *La Enferma* (1955), where she talks about the story of a woman who deals with psychological problems and who is abandoned by his lover. She also wrote *Plácida la joven y otras narraciones* (1956) and *La última corrida* (1958). That makes a total of eight novels published in less than ten years. This fact made her one of the most prolific Spanish writers of the moment without losing quality in her prose.

After years of an intense literary activity, her production of novels took a slower rhythm. In 1960, she published *Tristura*, a novel that won the award *Premio de la Crítica Catalana.* However, it took her five years to write another novel: *Escribo tu nombre* (1965), Other novels written by her are *Trayecto uno*, *El pájaro de oro*, *La otra ciudad, Presente profund*o (1970) and *Grandes Soledades* (1983).

Elena Quiroga belongs to a generation of writers whose stories about the Spanish Civil War incremented the psychological deepness in the women's testimony in that topic.

### Real Academia Española

In 1983, Elena Quiroga was elected as a member of the *Real Academia Española* because of her brilliant career and her publications. She was the second woman in history who achieved this membership, after Carmen Conde, a writer who entered in this institution in 1978.

It was very important for the Real Academia Española the inclusion of women in their institution.

## Works

* *La soledad sonora*. Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1949.
* *Viento del norte*. Barcelona: Destino, 1951
* *La sangre*. Barcelona: Destino, 1952.
* *Trayecto uno*, Madrid: Tecnos, 1953.
* *Algo pasa en la calle*. Barcelona: Destino, 1954.
* *La careta*. Barcelona: Noguer, 1955.
* *La enferma*. Barcelona: Noguer, 1955.
* *Plácida, la joven y otras narraciones*. Madrid: Prensa española, 1956.
* *La última corrida*. Barcelona: Noguer, 1958.
* *Tristura*. Barcelona: Noguer, 1960.
* *Carta a Cadaqués*. Santander: Imp. Bedia, 1961.
* *Envío a Faramello*. Madrid: Raycar, 1963.
* *Escribo tu nombre*. Barcelona: Noguer, 1965.
* *El pájaro de oro*
* *La otra ciudad*
* *Presente profundo*. Barcelona: Destino, 1973.
* *Grandes soledades*, 1983.
* *Presencia y ausencia de Álvaro Cunqueiro*. Madrid: Real Academia Española (RAE), 1984.

1. MCNBiografias.com. "Quiroga y Abarca, Elena (1921-1995). » MCNBiografias.com". *www.mcnbiografias.com* (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-05-16.
2. "Biografia de Elena Quiroga". *www.biografiasyvidas.com* (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-05-16.
3. "La escritora Elena Quiroga muere a los 74 años". *EL PAÍS* (in Spanish). 1995-10-04. Retrieved 2017-05-16.
4. MCNBiografias.com. "Quiroga y Abarca, Elena (1921-1995). » MCNBiografias.com". *www.mcnbiografias.com* (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-05-16.
5. "ABC (Madrid) - 04/10/1995, p. 49 - ABC.es Hemeroteca". *hemeroteca.abc.es* (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-05-16.
6. Quiroga, Elena (1984). *Presencia y ausencia de Álvaro Cunqueiro*. Madrid: Real Academia Española.

## InfoBox

| Elena Quiroga | |
| --- | --- |
|  | |
| Born | (1921-10-26)26 October 1921
Santander, Spain |
| Died | 3 October 1995(1995-10-03) (aged 73)
A Coruña, Spain |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | Spanish |
| Genre | Novel |
| Literary movement | Generation of '50 |
| Notable awards | Premio Nadal |
|  | |
|  | |
| Seat *a* of the Real Academia Española | |
| **In office**
8 April 1984  3 October 1995 | |
| Preceded by | Juan Antonio de Zunzunegui |
| Succeeded by | Domingo Ynduráin Muñoz |
|  | |
|  | |
|  | |


abstract: Pustelnia is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Cekcyn, within Tuchola County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-central Poland.

text:
# Pustelnia, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship

**Pustelnia** \[pusˈtɛlɲa\] is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Cekcyn, within Tuchola County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-central Poland.

## InfoBox

| Pustelnia | |
| --- | --- |
| Village | |
| Pustelnia | |
| Coordinates: 53°33′44″N 18°05′07″E / 53.56222°N 18.08528°E / 53.56222; 18.08528 | |
| Country | Poland |
| Voivodeship | Kuyavian-Pomeranian |
| County | Tuchola |
| Gmina | Cekcyn |