Surface (topology)

In the part of mathematics referred to as topology, a surface is a two-dimensional manifold. 　Some surfaces arise as the boundaries of three-dimensional solids; for example, the sphere is the boundary of the solid ball. 　Other surfaces arise as graphs of functions of two variables; see the figure at right. 　However, surfaces can also be defined abstractly, without reference to any ambient space. 　For example, the Klein bottle is a surface that cannot be embedded in three-dimensional Euclidean space. 　Topological surfaces are sometimes equipped with additional information, such as a Riemannian metric or a complex structure, that connects them to other disciplines within mathematics, such as differential geometry and complex analysis. 　The various mathematical notions of surface can be used to model surfaces in the physical world.

Surface

A surface, as the term is most generally used, is the outermost or uppermost layer of a physical object or space. 　It is the portion or region of the object that can first be perceived by an observer using the senses of sight and touch, and is the portion with which other materials first interact. 　The surface of an object is more than "a mere geometric solid", but is "filled with, spread over by, or suffused with perceivable qualities such as color and warmth". 　The concept of surface has been abstracted and formalized in mathematics, specifically in geometry. 　Depending on the properties on which the emphasis is given, there are several non equivalent such formalizations, that are all called surface, sometimes with some qualifier, such as algebraic surface, smooth surface or fractal surface. 　The concept of surface and its mathematical abstraction are both widely used in physics, engineering, computer graphics, and many other disciplines, primarily in representing the surfaces of physical objects. 　For example, in analyzing the aerodynamic properties of an airplane, the central consideration is the flow of air along its surface. 　The concept also raises certain philosophical questions—for example, how thick is the layer of atoms or molecules that can be considered part of the surface of an object (i.e., where does the "surface" end and the "interior" begin), and do objects really have a surface at all if, at the subatomic level, they never actually come in contact with other objects.

China

China (Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. 　It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. 　China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land, the most of any country in the world, tied with Russia. 　With an area of approximately 9.6 million square kilometres (3,700,000 sq mi), it is the world's third largest country by total land area. 　The country consists of 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). 　The national capital is Beijing, and the most populous city and largest financial center is Shanghai. 　Modern Chinese trace their origins to a cradle of civilization in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. 　The semi-legendary Xia dynasty in the 21st century BCE and the well-attested Shang and Zhou dynasties developed a bureaucratic political system to serve hereditary monarchies, or dynasties. 　Chinese writing, Chinese classic literature, and the Hundred Schools of Thought emerged during this period and influenced China and its neighbors for centuries to come. 　In the third century BCE, Qin's wars of unification created the first Chinese empire, the short-lived Qin dynasty. 　The Qin was followed by the more stable Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), which established a model for nearly two millennia in which the Chinese empire was one of the world's foremost economic powers. 　The empire expanded, fractured, and reunified; was conquered and reestablished; absorbed foreign religions and ideas; and made world-leading scientific advances, such as the Four Great Inventions: gunpowder, paper, the compass, and printing. 　After centuries of disunity following the fall of the Han, the Sui (581–618) and Tang (618–907) dynasties reunified the empire. 　The multi-ethnic Tang welcomed foreign trade and culture that came over the Silk Road and adapted Buddhism to Chinese needs. 　The early modern Song dynasty (960–1279) became increasingly urban and commercial. 　The civilian scholar-officials or literati used the examination system and the doctrines of Neo-Confucianism to replace the military aristocrats of earlier dynasties. 　The Mongol invasion established the Yuan dynasty in 1279, but the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) re-established Han Chinese control. 　The Manchu-led Qing dynasty nearly doubled the empire's territory and established a multi-ethnic state that was the basis of the modern Chinese nation, but suffered heavy losses to foreign imperialism in the 19th century. 　The Chinese monarchy collapsed in 1912 with the Xinhai Revolution, when the Republic of China (ROC) replaced the Qing dynasty. 　In its early years as a republic, the country underwent a period of instability known as the "Warlord Era" before mostly reunifying in 1928 under a Nationalist government. 　A civil war between the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began in 1927. 　Japan invaded China in 1937, starting the Second Sino-Japanese War and temporarily halting the civil war. 　The surrender and expulsion of Japanese forces from China in 1945 left a power vacuum in the country, which led to renewed fighting between the CCP and the Kuomintang. 　The civil war ended in 1949 with the division of Chinese territory; the CCP established the People's Republic of China on the mainland while the Kuomintang-led ROC government retreated to the island of Taiwan. 　Both claim to be the sole legitimate government of China, although the United Nations has recognized the PRC as the sole representation since 1971. 　From 1959 to 1961, the PRC implemented an economic and social campaign called the "Great Leap Forward" that resulted in a sharp economic decline and an estimated 15 to 55 million deaths, mostly through man-made famine. 　From 1966 to 1976, the turbulent period of political and social chaos within China known as the Cultural Revolution led to greater economic and educational decline, with millions being purged or subjected to either persecution or "politicide" based on political categories. 　Since then, the Chinese government has rebuked some of the earlier Maoist policies, conducting a series of political and economic reforms since 1978 that have greatly raised Chinese standards of living, and increased life expectancies. 　China is currently governed as a unitary Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist republic by the CCP. 　China is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and a founding member of several multilateral and regional cooperation organizations such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Silk Road Fund, the New Development Bank, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and the RCEP. 　It is also a member of the BRICS, the G8+5, the G20, the APEC, and the East Asia Summit. 　It ranks among the lowest in measurements of democracy, civil liberties, government transparency, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and the human rights of ethnic minorities. 　The Chinese authorities have been criticized by human rights activists and non-governmental organizations for human rights abuses, including political repression, mass censorship, mass surveillance of their citizens, and violent suppression of protest and dissent. 　Making up around one-fifth of the world economy, China is the world's largest economy by GDP at purchasing power parity, the second-largest economy by nominal GDP, and the second-wealthiest country. 　The country is one of the fastest-growing major economies and is the world's largest manufacturer and exporter, as well as the second-largest importer. 　China is a recognized nuclear-weapon state with the world's largest standing army by military personnel and the second-largest defense budget. 　China is considered to be a potential superpower due to its high level of innovation, economic potential, growing military strength, and influence in international affairs.

Novel

A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. 　The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the Italian: novella for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the Latin: novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of novellus, diminutive of novus, meaning "new". 　Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. 　According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella. 　The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the historical romances of Walter Scott and the Gothic novel. 　Some, including M. H. Abrams and Walter Scott, have argued that a novel is a fiction narrative that displays a realistic depiction of the state of a society, while the romance encompasses any fictitious narrative that emphasizes marvellous or uncommon incidents. 　Works of fiction that include marvellous or uncommon incidents are also novels, including The Lord of the Rings, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Frankenstein. 　"Romances" are works of fiction whose main emphasis is on marvellous or unusual incidents, and should not be confused with the romance novel, a type of genre fiction that focuses on romantic love. 　Murasaki Shikibu's Tale of Genji, an early 11th-century Japanese text, has sometimes been described as the world's first novel based on its early use of the experience of intimacy in a narrative form, but there is considerable debate over this — there were certainly long fictional prose works that preceded it. 　Spread of printed books in China led to the appearance of classical Chinese novels by the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and Qing dynasty (1616-1911). 　An early example from Europe was written in Muslim Spain by the Sufi writer Ibn Tufayl entitled Hayy ibn Yaqdhan. 　Later developments occurred after the invention of the printing press. 　Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote (the first part of which was published in 1605), is frequently cited as the first significant European novelist of the modern era. 　Literary historian Ian Watt, in The Rise of the Novel (1957), argued that the modern novel was born in the early 18th century. 　Recent technological developments have led to many novels also being published in non-print media: this includes audio books, web novels, and ebooks. 　Another non-traditional fiction format can be found in some graphic novels. 　While these comic book versions of works of fiction have their origins in the 19th century, they have only become popular more recently.

Germany

Coordinates: 51°N 9°E / 51°N 9°E / 51; 9 Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. 　It is the second-most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. 　Germany is situated between the Baltic and North seas to the north, and the Alps to the south; it covers an area of 357,022 square kilometres (137,847 sq mi), with a population of around 84 million within its 16 constituent states. 　Germany borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, and France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the west. 　The nation's capital and most populous city is Berlin and its main financial centre is Frankfurt; the largest urban area is the Ruhr. 　Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity. 　A region named Germania was documented before AD 100. 　In 962, the Kingdom of Germany formed the bulk of the Holy Roman Empire. 　During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation. 　Following the Napoleonic Wars and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the German Confederation was formed in 1815. 　Formal unification of Germany into the modern nation-state was commenced on 18 August 1866 with the North German Confederation Treaty establishing the Prussia-led North German Confederation later transformed in 1871 into the German Empire. 　After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was in turn transformed into the semi-presidential Weimar Republic. 　The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 led to the establishment of a totalitarian dictatorship, World War II, and the Holocaust. 　After the end of World War II in Europe and a period of Allied occupation, in 1949, Germany as a whole was organized into two separate polities with limited sovereignity: the Federal Republic of Germany, generally known as West Germany, and the German Democratic Republic, East Germany, while Berlin de jure continued its Four Power status. 　The Federal Republic of Germany was a founding member of the European Economic Community and the European Union, while the German Democratic Republic was a communist Eastern Bloc state and member of the Warsaw Pact. 　After the fall of communist led-government in East Germany, German reunification saw the former East German states join the Federal Republic of Germany on 3 October 1990—becoming a federal parliamentary republic. 　Germany is a great power with a strong economy; it has the largest economy in Europe, the world's fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP and the fifth-largest by PPP. 　As a global power in industrial, scientific and technological sectors, it is both the world's third-largest exporter and importer. 　As a highly developed country, which ranks ninth on the Human Development Index, it offers social security and a universal health care system, environmental protections, a tuition-free university education, and it is ranked as sixteenth-most peaceful country in the world. 　Germany is a member of the United Nations, the European Union, NATO, the Council of Europe, the G7, the G20 and the OECD. 　It has the third-greatest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Learning

Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, attitudes, and preferences. 　The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some machines; there is also evidence for some kind of learning in certain plants. 　Some learning is immediate, induced by a single event (e.g. being burned by a hot stove), but much skill and knowledge accumulate from repeated experiences. 　The changes induced by learning often last a lifetime, and it is hard to distinguish learned material that seems to be "lost" from that which cannot be retrieved. 　Human learning starts at birth (it might even start before in terms of an embryo's need for both interaction with, and freedom within its environment within the womb.) and continues until death as a consequence of ongoing interactions between people and their environment. 　The nature and processes involved in learning are studied in many established fields (including educational psychology, neuropsychology, experimental psychology, cognitive sciences, and pedagogy), as well as emerging fields of knowledge (e.g. with a shared interest in the topic of learning from safety events such as incidents/accidents, or in collaborative learning health systems). 　Research in such fields has led to the identification of various sorts of learning. 　For example, learning may occur as a result of habituation, or classical conditioning, operant conditioning or as a result of more complex activities such as play, seen only in relatively intelligent animals. 　Learning may occur consciously or without conscious awareness. 　Learning that an aversive event cannot be avoided or escaped may result in a condition called learned helplessness. 　There is evidence for human behavioral learning prenatally, in which habituation has been observed as early as 32 weeks into gestation, indicating that the central nervous system is sufficiently developed and primed for learning and memory to occur very early on in development. 　Play has been approached by several theorists as a form of learning. 　Children experiment with the world, learn the rules, and learn to interact through play. 　Lev Vygotsky agrees that play is pivotal for children's development, since they make meaning of their environment through playing educational games. 　For Vygotsky, however, play is the first form of learning language and communication, and the stage where a child begins to understand rules and symbols. 　This has led to a view that learning in organisms is always related to semiosis, and often associated with representational systems/activity.

Nature

Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. 　"Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. 　The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. 　Although humans are part of nature, human activity is often understood as a separate category from other natural phenomena. 　The word nature is borrowed from the Old French nature and is derived from the Latin word natura, or "essential qualities, innate disposition", and in ancient times, literally meant "birth". 　In ancient philosophy, natura is mostly used as the Latin translation of the Greek word physis (φύσις), which originally related to the intrinsic characteristics of plants, animals, and other features of the world to develop of their own accord. 　The concept of nature as a whole, the physical universe, is one of several expansions of the original notion; it began with certain core applications of the word φύσις by pre-Socratic philosophers (though this word had a dynamic dimension then, especially for Heraclitus), and has steadily gained currency ever since. 　During the advent of modern scientific method in the last several centuries, nature became the passive reality, organized and moved by divine laws. 　With the Industrial revolution, nature increasingly became seen as the part of reality deprived from intentional intervention: it was hence considered as sacred by some traditions (Rousseau, American transcendentalism) or a mere decorum for divine providence or human history (Hegel, Marx). 　However, a vitalist vision of nature, closer to the presocratic one, got reborn at the same time, especially after Charles Darwin. 　Within the various uses of the word today, "nature" often refers to geology and wildlife. 　Nature can refer to the general realm of living plants and animals, and in some cases to the processes associated with inanimate objects—the way that particular types of things exist and change of their own accord, such as the weather and geology of the Earth. 　It is often taken to mean the "natural environment" or wilderness—wild animals, rocks, forest, and in general those things that have not been substantially altered by human intervention, or which persist despite human intervention. 　For example, manufactured objects and human interaction generally are not considered part of nature, unless qualified as, for example, "human nature" or "the whole of nature". 　This more traditional concept of natural things that can still be found today implies a distinction between the natural and the artificial, with the artificial being understood as that which has been brought into being by a human consciousness or a human mind. 　Depending on the particular context, the term "natural" might also be distinguished from the unnatural or the supernatural.

Festival

A festival is an extraordinary event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. 　It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. 　A festival constitutes typical cases of glocalization, as well as the high culture-low culture interrelationship. 　Next to religion and folklore, a significant origin is agricultural. 　Food is such a vital resource that many festivals are associated with harvest time. 　Religious commemoration and thanksgiving for good harvests are blended in events that take place in autumn, such as Halloween in the northern hemisphere and Easter in the southern. 　Festivals often serve to fulfill specific communal purposes, especially in regard to commemoration or thanking to the gods, goddesses or saints: they are called patronal festivals. 　They may also provide entertainment, which was particularly important to local communities before the advent of mass-produced entertainment. 　Festivals that focus on cultural or ethnic topics also seek to inform community members of their traditions; the involvement of elders sharing stories and experience provides a means for unity among families. 　Attendants of festivals are often motivated by a desire for escapism, socialization and camaraderie; the practice has been seen as a means of creating geographical connection, belonging and adaptability.

Property

Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. 　Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, redefine, rent, mortgage, pawn, sell, exchange, transfer, give away, or destroy it, or to exclude others from doing these things, as well as to perhaps abandon it; whereas regardless of the nature of the property, the owner thereof has the right to properly use it under the granted property rights. 　In economics and political economy, there are three broad forms of property: private property, public property, and collective property (also called cooperative property). 　Property that jointly belongs to more than one party may be possessed or controlled thereby in very similar or very distinct ways, whether simply or complexly, whether equally or unequally. 　However, there is an expectation that each party's will (rather discretion) with regard to the property be clearly defined and unconditional,[citation needed] to distinguish ownership and easement from rent. 　The parties might expect their wills to be unanimous, or alternately every given one of them, when no opportunity for or possibility of a dispute with any other of them exists, may expect his, her, it's or their own will to be sufficient and absolute. 　The first Restatement defines property as anything, tangible or intangible, whereby a legal relationship between persons and the State enforces a possessory interest or legal title in that thing. 　This mediating relationship between individual, property, and State is called a property regime. 　In sociology and anthropology, property is often defined as a relationship between two or more individuals and an object, in which at least one of these individuals holds a bundle of rights over the object. 　The distinction between "collective property" and "private property" is regarded as confusion since different individuals often hold differing rights over a single object. 　Types of property include real property (the combination of land and any improvements to or on the ground), personal property (physical possessions belonging to a person), private property (property owned by legal persons, business entities or individual natural persons), public property (State-owned or publicly owned and available possessions) and intellectual property (exclusive rights over artistic creations, inventions, etc.). 　However, the last is not always as widely recognized or enforced. 　An article of property may have physical and incorporeal parts. 　A title, or a right of ownership, establishes the relation between the property and other persons, assuring the owner the right to dispose of the property as the owner sees fit.　[citation needed] The unqualified term "property" is often used to refer specifically to real property.

Security

Security is protection from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwanted coercive) caused by others, by restraining the freedom of others to act. 　Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be of persons and social groups, objects and institutions, ecosystems or any other entity or phenomenon vulnerable to unwanted change. 　Security mostly refers to protection from hostile forces, but it has a wide range of other senses: for example, as the absence of harm (e.g. freedom from want); as the presence of an essential good (e.g. food security); as resilience against potential damage or harm (e.g. secure foundations); as secrecy (e.g. a secure telephone line); as containment (e.g. a secure room or cell); and as a state of mind (e.g. emotional security). 　The term is also used to refer to acts and systems whose purpose may be to provide security (security company, security forces, security guard, cyber security systems, security cameras, remote guarding). 　Security can be physical and virtual. 　On a governance level, security is a defining characteristic of a society as a fundamental function of the state, and a necessary condition to allow the enjoyment and exercise of rights and freedoms pursued by the rule of law.

Hospital

A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. 　The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emergency department to treat urgent health problems ranging from fire and accident victims to a sudden illness. 　A district hospital typically is the major health care facility in its region, with many beds for intensive care and additional beds for patients who need long-term care. 　Specialized hospitals include trauma centers, rehabilitation hospitals, children's hospitals, seniors' (geriatric) hospitals, and hospitals for dealing with specific medical needs such as psychiatric treatment (see psychiatric hospital) and certain disease categories. 　Specialized hospitals can help reduce health care costs compared to general hospitals. 　Hospitals are classified as general, specialty, or government depending on the sources of income received. 　A teaching hospital combines assistance to people with teaching to health science students and auxiliary healthcare students. 　A health science facility smaller than a hospital is generally called a clinic. 　Hospitals have a range of departments (e.g. surgery and urgent care) and specialist units such as cardiology. 　Some hospitals have outpatient departments and some have chronic treatment units. 　Common support units include a pharmacy, pathology, and radiology. 　Hospitals are typically funded by public funding, health organisations (for-profit or nonprofit), health insurance companies, or charities, including direct charitable donations. 　Historically, hospitals were often founded and funded by religious orders, or by charitable individuals and leaders. 　Currently, hospitals are largely staffed by professional physicians, surgeons, nurses, and allied health practitioners, whereas in the past, this work was usually performed by the members of founding religious orders or by volunteers. 　However, there are various Catholic religious orders, such as the Alexians and the Bon Secours Sisters that still focus on hospital ministry in the late 1990s, as well as several other Christian denominations, including the Methodists and Lutherans, which run hospitals. 　In accordance with the original meaning of the word, hospitals were original "places of hospitality", and this meaning is still preserved in the names of some institutions such as the Royal Hospital Chelsea, established in 1681 as a retirement and nursing home for veteran soldiers.

Professor

Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. 　Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes". 　Professors are usually experts in their field and teachers of the highest rank. 　In most systems of academic ranks, "professor" as an unqualified title refers only to the most senior academic position, sometimes informally known as "full professor". 　In some countries and institutions, the word "professor" is also used in titles of lower ranks such as associate professor and assistant professor; this is particularly the case in the United States, where the unqualified word is also used colloquially to refer to associate and assistant professors as well. 　This usage would be considered incorrect among other academic communities. 　However, the otherwise unqualified title "Professor" designated with a capital letter nearly always refers to a full professor. 　Professors often conduct original research and commonly teach undergraduate, professional, or postgraduate courses in their fields of expertise. 　In universities with graduate schools, professors may mentor and supervise graduate students conducting research for a thesis or dissertation. 　In many universities, full professors take on senior managerial roles such as leading departments, research teams and institutes, and filling roles such as president, principal or vice-chancellor. 　The role of professor may be more public-facing than that of more junior staff, and professors are expected to be national or international leaders in their field of expertise.

Morning

Morning is the period from sunrise to noon. 　There are no exact times for when morning begins (also true of evening and night) because it can vary according to one's lifestyle and the hours of daylight at each time of year. 　However, morning strictly ends at noon, which is when afternoon starts. 　Morning can also be defined as starting from midnight to noon. 　Morning precedes afternoon, evening, and night in the sequence of a day. 　Originally, the term referred to sunrise.

Question

A question is an utterance which serves as a request for information. 　Questions are sometimes distinguished from interrogatives, which are the grammatical forms typically used to express them. 　Rhetorical questions, for instance, are interrogative in form but may not be considered bona fide questions, as they are not expected to be answered. 　Questions come in a number of varieties. 　Polar questions are those such as the English example "Is this a polar question?", which can be answered with "yes" or "no". 　Alternative questions such as "Is this a polar question, or an alternative question?" present a list of possibilities to choose from. 　Open questions such as "What kind of question is this?" allow many possible resolutions. 　Questions are widely studied in linguistics and philosophy of language. 　In the subfield of pragmatics, questions are regarded as illocutionary acts which raise an issue to be resolved in discourse. 　In approaches to formal semantics such as alternative semantics or inquisitive semantics, questions are regarded as the denotations of interrogatives, and are typically identified as sets of the propositions which answer them.

Plan

A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with details of timing and resources, used to achieve an objective to do something. 　It is commonly understood as a temporal set of intended actions through which one expects to achieve a goal. 　For spatial or planar topologic or topographic sets see map. 　Plans can be formal or informal: Structured and formal plans, used by multiple people, are more likely to occur in projects, diplomacy, careers, economic development, military campaigns, combat, sports, games, or in the conduct of other business. 　In most cases, the absence of a well-laid plan can have adverse effects: for example, a non-robust project plan can cost the organization time and money. 　Informal or ad hoc plans are created by individuals in all of their pursuits. 　The most popular ways to describe plans are by their breadth, time frame, and specificity; however, these planning classifications are not independent of one another. 　For instance, there is a close relationship between the short- and long-term categories and the strategic and operational categories. 　It is common for less formal plans to be created as abstract ideas, and remain in that form as they are maintained and put to use. 　More formal plans as used for business and military purposes, while initially created with and as an abstract thought, are likely to be written down, drawn up or otherwise stored in a form that is accessible to multiple people across time and space. 　This allows more reliable collaboration in the execution of the plan.

Minutes

Minutes, also known as minutes of meeting (abbreviation MoM), protocols or, informally, notes, are the instant written record of a meeting or hearing. 　They typically describe the events of the meeting and may include a list of attendees, a statement of the activities considered by the participants, and related responses or decisions for the activities.

Longer

"Longer" is a song written and recorded by the American singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg and released in 1979 by Full Moon Records and Epic Records. 　The song can be found on Fogelberg's 1979 album Phoenix. 　It was also included on his 1982 greatest hits album as well as various other retrospective and compilation recordings. 　Fogelberg, who had released more rock oriented songs throughout the 1970s, jokingly described "Longer" in the liner notes to one of his retrospective albums as "the song that put me on the elevators." 　He wrote the song while vacationing in Maui, "lounging in a hammock one night and looking up at the stars. It just seems this song was drifting around the universe, saw me, and decided I'd give it a good home." 　Accompanying Fogelberg's vocals is an acoustic guitar (played by the singer) as well as a flugelhorn solo by Jerry Hey. 　Lyrically, the song compares various events ("Longer than there've been stars up in the heavens") with his emotional attachment to the one he loves ("I've been in love with you").

Phase (archaeology)

In archaeology, a phase refers to the logical reduction of contexts recorded during excavation to nearly contemporary archaeological horizons that represent a distinct "phase" of previous land use. 　These often but not always will be a representation of a former land surface or occupation level and all associated features that were created into or from this point in time. 　A simplified description of phase would be that "a phase is a view of a given archaeological site as it would have been at time X". 　Examples of phases that would have no associated occupation surfaces are phases of a site that have been horizontally truncated by later phases and only elements surviving of the truncated phase are those that were below ground level and the subsequent truncation at that time. 　Subsequent or earlier phases are representations in changing occupation patterns and land use over time. 　Phase is an extremely important concept in archeological excavation and post-excavation work. 　Phasing is achieved by compiling smaller groups of contexts together through the use of stratification and stratigraphic excavation into ever larger units of understanding. 　The terminology of these sub-units or collections of contexts varies depending on practitioner, but the terms interface, sub-group, group, and feature are common. 　Phasing a site has a slightly different meaning from "digging in phase". 　Digging in phase is the process of stratigraphic removal of archaeological remains not to avoid removing contexts that are earlier in time lower in the sequence before other contexts that have a latter physical stratigraphic relationship to them. 　Digging a site "in phase" is considered good practice and can be thought of as the process of removing the deposits on site in the reverse order that they arrived. 　Phasing is achieved on site by many methods including intuition and experience, but the main analytical tool post excavation is the Harris matrix. 　Phase is sometimes termed differently depending on practitioner, examples include the term period but in the main phase is universal.

Europe

Europe is a continent that is part of Eurasia and is located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. 　Comprising the westernmost peninsulas of Eurasia, it shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with both Africa and Asia. 　It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east. 　Europe is commonly considered to be separated from Asia by the watershed of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Greater Caucasus, the Black Sea and the waterways of the Turkish Straits. 　Europe covers about 10.18 million km2 (3.93 million sq mi), or 2% of Earth's surface (6.8% of land area), making it the second-smallest continent (using the seven-continent model). 　Politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states, of which Russia is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. 　Europe had a total population of about 745 million (about 10% of the world population) in 2021. 　The European climate is largely affected by warm Atlantic currents that temper winters and summers on much of the continent, even at latitudes along which the climate in Asia and North America is severe. 　Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast. 　European culture is the root of Western civilisation, which traces its lineage back to ancient Greece and ancient Rome. 　The fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE and the related Migration Period marked the end of Europe's ancient history, and the beginning of the Middle Ages. 　Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era. 　Since the Age of Discovery, started by Spain and Portugal, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. 　Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers colonised at various times the Americas, almost all of Africa and Oceania, and the majority of Asia. 　The Age of Enlightenment, the subsequent French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars shaped the continent culturally, politically and economically from the end of the 17th century until the first half of the 19th century. 　The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to radical economic, cultural and social change in Western Europe and eventually the wider world. 　Both world wars took place for the most part in Europe, contributing to a decline in Western European dominance in world affairs by the mid-20th century as the Soviet Union and the United States took prominence. 　During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the West and the Warsaw Pact in the East, until the Revolutions of 1989, Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Dissolution of the Soviet Union. 　In 1949, the Council of Europe was founded with the idea of unifying Europe to achieve common goals and prevent future wars. 　Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union (EU), a separate political entity that lies between a confederation and a federation. 　The EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. 　The currency of most countries of the European Union, the euro, is the most commonly used among Europeans; and the EU's Schengen Area abolishes border and immigration controls between most of its member states, and some non-member states. 　There exists a political movement favouring the evolution of the European Union into a single federation encompassing much of the continent.

Bed (geology)

In geology, a bed is a layer of sediment, sedimentary rock, or pyroclastic material "bounded above and below by more or less well-defined bedding surfaces". 　Specifically in sedimentology, a bed can be defined in one of two major ways. 　First, Campbell and Reineck and Singh use the term bed to refer to a thickness-independent layer comprising a coherent layer of sedimentary rock, sediment, or pyroclastic material bounded above and below by surfaces known as bedding planes. 　By this definition of bed, laminae are small beds that constitute the smallest (visible) layers of a hierarchical succession and often, but not always, internally comprise a bed. 　Alternatively, a bed can be defined by thickness where a bed is a coherent layer of sedimentary rock, sediment, or pyroclastic material greater than 1 cm thick and a lamina is a coherent layer of sedimentary rock, sediment, or pyroclastic material less than 1 cm thick. 　This method of defining bed versus lamina is frequently used in textbooks, e.g., Collinson & Mountney or Miall. 　Both definitions have merit and the choice of which one to use will depend on the focus of the specific study on a case by case basis. 　In geology, a bedding surface is either a planar, nearly planar, to wavy or curved 3-dimensional surface that visibly separates each successive bed (of the same or different lithology) from the preceding or following bed. 　Where bedding surfaces occur as cross-sections, e.g., in a 2-dimensional vertical cliff face of horizontal strata, are often referred to as bedding contacts. 　Within conformable successions, each bedding surface acted as the depositional surface for the accumulation of younger sediment. 　Typically, but not always, bedding surfaces record changes in either the rate or type of accumulating sediment that created the underlying bed. 　Typically, they represent either a period of nondeposition, erosional truncation, shift in flow or sediment regime, abrupt change in composition, or combination of these as a result of changes in environmental conditions. 　As a result, a bed is typically, but not always, interpreted to represent a single period of time when sediments or pyroclastic material accumulated during uniform and steady paleoenvironmental conditions. 　However, some bedding surfaces may be postdepositional features either formed or enhanced by diagenetic processes or weathering. 　The relationship between bedding surfaces controls the gross geometry of a bed. 　Most commonly, the bottom and top surfaces of beds are subparallel to parallel to each other. 　However, some bedding surfaces of a bed are nonparallel, e.g., wavy, or curved. 　Differing combinations of nonparallel bedding surfaces results in beds of widely varying geometric shapes such as uniform-tabular, tabular-lenticular, curved-tabular, wedge-shaped, and irregular beds. 　Types of beds include cross-beds and graded beds. 　Cross-beds, or "sets," are not layered horizontally and are formed by a combination of local deposition on the inclined surfaces of ripples or dunes, and local erosion. 　Graded beds show a gradual change in grain or clast sizes from one side of the bed to the other. 　A normal grading occurs where there are larger grain sizes on the older side, while an inverse grading occurs where there are smaller grain sizes on the older side.

Bed

A bed is an item of furniture that is used as a place to sleep, rest, and relax. 　Most modern beds consist of a soft, cushioned mattress on a bed frame. 　The mattress rests either on a solid base, often wood slats, or a sprung base. 　Many beds include a box spring inner-sprung base, which is a large mattress-sized box containing wood and springs that provide additional support and suspension for the mattress. 　Beds are available in many sizes, ranging from infant-sized bassinets and cribs, to small beds for a single person or adult, to large queen and king-size beds designed for two people. 　While most beds are single mattresses on a fixed frame, there are other varieties, such as the murphy bed, which folds into a wall, the sofa bed, which folds out of a sofa, the trundle bed, which is stored under a low, twin-sized bed and can be rolled out to create a larger sleeping area, and the bunk bed, which provides two mattresses on two tiers as well as a ladder to access the upper tier. 　Temporary beds include the inflatable air mattress and the folding camp cot. 　Some beds contain neither a padded mattress nor a bed frame, such as the hammock. 　Other beds are made specifically for animals. 　Beds may have a headboard for resting against, and may have side rails and footboards. 　"Headboard only" beds may incorporate a "dust ruffle", "bed skirt", or "valance sheet" to hide the bed frame. 　To support the head, a pillow made of a soft, padded material is usually placed on the top of the mattress. 　Some form of covering blanket is often used to insulate the sleeper, often bed sheets, a quilt, or a duvet, collectively referred to as bedding. 　Bedding is the removable non-furniture portion of a bed, which enables these components to be washed or aired out.

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only place known in the universe where life has originated and found habitability. 　While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. 　Approximately 70.8% of Earth's surface is made up of the ocean, dwarfing Earth's polar ice, lakes, and rivers. 　The remaining 29.2% of Earth's surface is land, consisting of continents and islands. 　Earth's surface layer is formed of several slowly moving tectonic plates, which interact to produce mountain ranges, volcanoes, and earthquakes. 　Earth's liquid outer core generates the magnetic field that shapes the magnetosphere of Earth, deflecting destructive solar winds. 　The atmosphere of Earth consists mostly of nitrogen and oxygen. 　Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere like carbon dioxide (CO2) trap a part of the energy from the Sun close to the surface. 　Water vapor is widely present in the atmosphere and forms clouds that cover most of the planet. 　More solar energy is received by tropical regions than polar regions and is redistributed by atmospheric and ocean circulation. 　A region's climate is governed not only by latitude but also by elevation and proximity to moderating oceans. 　In most areas, severe weather, such as tropical cyclones, thunderstorms, and heat waves, occurs and greatly impacts life. 　Earth is an ellipsoid with a circumference of about 40,000 km. 　It is the densest planet in the Solar System. 　Of the four rocky planets, it is the largest and most massive. 　Earth is about eight light-minutes away from the Sun and orbits it, taking a year (about 365.25 days) to complete one revolution. 　The Earth rotates around its own axis in slightly less than a day (in about 23 hours and 56 minutes). 　The Earth's axis of rotation is tilted with respect to the perpendicular to its orbital plane around the Sun, producing seasons. 　Earth is orbited by one permanent natural satellite, the Moon, which orbits Earth at 384,400 km (1.28 light seconds) and is roughly a quarter as wide as Earth. 　Through tidal locking, the Moon always faces the Earth with the same side, which causes tides, stabilizes Earth's axis, and gradually slows its rotation. 　Earth, like most other bodies in the Solar System, formed 4.5 billion years ago from gas in the early Solar System. 　During the first billion years of Earth's history, the ocean formed and then life developed within it. 　Life spread globally and began to affect Earth's atmosphere and surface, leading to the Great Oxidation Event two billion years ago. 　Humans emerged 300,000 years ago, and have reached a population of 8 billion today. 　Humans depend on Earth's biosphere and natural resources for their survival, but have increasingly impacted the planet's environment. 　Humanity's current impact on Earth's climate and biosphere is unsustainable, threatening the livelihood of humans and many other life, causing widespread extinctions.

Robert

The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic *Hrōþi- "fame" and *berhta- "bright" 　(Hrōþiberhtaz). 　Compare Old Dutch Robrecht and Old High German Hrodebert 　(a compound of Hruod 　(Old Norse: Hróðr) 　"fame, glory, honour, praise, renown" and berht "bright, light, shining"). 　It is the second most frequently used given name of ancient Germanic origin. 　It is also in use as a surname. 　Another commonly used form of the name is Rupert. 　After becoming widely used in Continental Europe it entered England in its Old French form Robert, where an Old English cognate form (Hrēodbēorht, Hrodberht, Hrēodbēorð, Hrœdbœrð, Hrœdberð, Hrōðberχtŕ) had existed before the Norman Conquest. 　The feminine version is Roberta. 　The Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish form is Roberto. 　Robert is also a common name in many Germanic languages, including English, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Scots, Danish, and Icelandic. 　It can be used as a French, Polish, Irish, Finnish, Romanian, and Estonian name as well.

Kingdom (biology)

In biology, a kingdom is the second highest taxonomic rank, just below domain. 　Kingdoms are divided into smaller groups called phyla. 　Traditionally, some textbooks from the United States and Canada used a system of six kingdoms (Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista, Archaea/Archaebacteria, and Bacteria/Eubacteria) while textbooks in Great Britain, India, Greece, Brazil and other countries use five kingdoms only (Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista and Monera). 　Some recent classifications based on modern cladistics have explicitly abandoned the term kingdom, noting that some traditional kingdoms are not monophyletic, meaning that they do not consist of all the descendants of a common ancestor. 　The terms flora (for plants), fauna (for animals), and, in the 21st century, funga (for fungi) are also used for life present in a particular region or time.