Literature

Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. 　In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include oral literature, much of which has been transcribed. 　Literature is a method of recording, preserving, and transmitting knowledge and entertainment, and can also have a social, psychological, spiritual, or political role. 　Literature, as an art form, can also include works in various non-fiction genres, such as biography, diaries, memoir, letters, and essays. 　Within its broad definition, literature includes non-fictional books, articles or other printed information on a particular subject. 　Etymologically, the term derives from Latin literatura/litteraturacode: lat promoted to code: la "learning, a writing, grammar," originally "writing formed with letters," from litera/litteracode: lat promoted to code: la "letter". 　In spite of this, the term has also been applied to spoken or sung texts. 　Developments in print technology have allowed an ever-growing distribution and proliferation of written works, which now includes electronic literature. 　Literature is classified according to whether it is poetry, prose or drama, and such works are often further categorized according to historical period, adherence to certain aesthetic features, or genre.

Mexico

Coordinates: 23°N 102°W / 23°N 102°W / 23; -102 Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. 　It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. 　Mexico covers 1,972,550 square kilometers (761,610 sq mi), making it the world's 13th-largest country by area; with approximately 126,014,024 inhabitants, it is the 10th-most-populous country and has the most Spanish-speakers. 　Mexico is organized as a federal republic comprising 31 states and Mexico City, its capital. 　Other major urban areas include Monterrey, Guadalajara, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, and León. 　Human presence in Pre-Columbian Mexico goes back to 8,000 BCE and it went to become one of the world's six cradles of civilization. 　In particular, the Mesoamerican region was home to many intertwined civilizations, including the Olmec, Maya, Zapotec, Teotihuacan, and Purepecha. 　Last were the Aztecs, who dominated the region in the century before European contact. 　In 1521, the Spanish Empire and its indigenous allies conquered the Aztec Empire from its capital Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City), establishing the colony of New Spain. 　Over the next three centuries, Spain and the Catholic Church played an important role expanding the territory, enforcing Christianity and spreading the Spanish language throughout. 　With the discovery of rich deposits of silver in Zacatecas and Guanajuato, New Spain soon became one of the most important mining centers worldwide. 　Wealth coming from Asia and the New World contributed to Spain's status as a major world power for the next centuries, and brought about a price revolution in Western Europe. 　The colonial order came to an end in the early nineteenth century with the War of Independence against Spain. 　Mexico's early history as an independent nation state was marked by political and socioeconomic upheaval, both domestically and in foreign affairs. 　The Federal Republic of Central America shortly seceded the country. 　Then two invasions by foreign powers took place: first, by the United States as a consequence of the Texas Revolt by American settlers, which led to the Mexican–American War and huge territorial losses in 1848. 　After the introduction of liberal reforms in the Constitution of 1857, conservatives reacted with the war of Reform and prompted France to invade the country and install an Empire, against the Republican resistance led by liberal President Benito Juárez, which emerged victorious. 　The last decades of the 19th century were dominated by the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, who sought to modernize Mexico and restore order. 　However, the Porfiriato era led to great social unrest and ended with the outbreak in 1910 of the decade-long Mexican Revolution (civil war). 　This conflict led to profound changes in Mexican society, including the proclamation of the 1917 Constitution, which remains in effect to this day. 　The remaining war generals ruled as a succession of presidents until the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) emerged in 1929. 　The PRI governed Mexico for the next 70 years, first under a set of paternalistic developmental policies of considerable economic success. 　During World War II Mexico also played an important role for the Allied war effort. 　Nonetheless, the PRI regime resorted to repression and electoral fraud to maintain power, and moved the country to a more US-aligned neoliberal economic policy during the late 20th century. 　This culminated with the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, which caused a major indigenous rebellion in the state of Chiapas. 　PRI lost the presidency for the first time in 2000, against the conservative party (PAN). 　Mexico has the world's 15th-largest economy by nominal GDP and the 11th-largest by PPP, with the United States being its largest economic partner. 　As a newly industrialized and developing country ranking 86th, high in the Human Development Index, its large economy and population, cultural influence, and steady democratization make Mexico a regional and middle power which is also identified as an emerging power by several analysts. 　Mexico ranks first in the Americas and seventh in the world for the number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. 　It is also one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries, ranking fifth in natural biodiversity. 　Mexico's rich cultural and biological heritage, as well as varied climate and geography, makes it a major tourist destination: as of 2018, it was the sixth most-visited country in the world, with 39 million international arrivals. 　However, the country continues to struggle with social inequality, poverty and extensive crime. 　It ranks poorly on the Global Peace Index, due in large part to ongoing conflict between drug trafficking syndicates, which violently compete for the US drug market and trade routes. 　This "drug war" has led to over 120,000 deaths since 2006. 　Mexico is a member of United Nations, the G20, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, the Organization of American States, Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, and the Organization of Ibero-American States.

Engine

An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. 　Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power generation), heat energy (e.g. geothermal), chemical energy, electric potential and nuclear energy (from nuclear fission or nuclear fusion). 　Many of these processes generate heat as an intermediate energy form, so heat engines have special importance. 　Some natural processes, such as atmospheric convection cells convert environmental heat into motion (e.g. in the form of rising air currents). 　Mechanical energy is of particular importance in transportation, but also plays a role in many industrial processes such as cutting, grinding, crushing, and mixing. 　Mechanical heat engines convert heat into work via various thermodynamic processes. 　The internal combustion engine is perhaps the most common example of a mechanical heat engine, in which heat from the combustion of a fuel causes rapid pressurisation of the gaseous combustion products in the combustion chamber, causing them to expand and drive a piston, which turns a crankshaft. 　Unlike internal combustion engines, a reaction engine (such as a jet engine) produces thrust by expelling reaction mass, in accordance with Newton's third law of motion. 　Apart from heat engines, electric motors convert electrical energy into mechanical motion, pneumatic motors use compressed air, and clockwork motors in wind-up toys use elastic energy. 　In biological systems, molecular motors, like myosins in muscles, use chemical energy to create forces and ultimately motion (a chemical engine, but not a heat engine). 　Chemical heat engines which employ air (ambient atmospheric gas) as a part of the fuel reaction are regarded as airbreathing engines. 　Chemical heat engines designed to operate outside of Earth's atmosphere (e.g. rockets, deeply submerged submarines) need to carry an additional fuel component called the oxidizer (although there exist super-oxidizers suitable for use in rockets, such as fluorine, a more powerful oxidant than oxygen itself); or the application needs to obtain heat by non-chemical means, such as by means of nuclear reactions.

Shoulder

The human shoulder is made up of three bones: the clavicle (collarbone), the scapula (shoulder blade), and the humerus (upper arm bone) as well as associated muscles, ligaments and tendons. 　The articulations between the bones of the shoulder make up the shoulder joints. 　The shoulder joint, also known as the glenohumeral joint, is the major joint of the shoulder, but can more broadly include the acromioclavicular joint. 　In human anatomy, the shoulder joint comprises the part of the body where the humerus attaches to the scapula, and the head sits in the glenoid cavity. 　The shoulder is the group of structures in the region of the joint. 　The shoulder joint is the main joint of the shoulder. 　It is a ball and socket joint that allows the arm to rotate in a circular fashion or to hinge out and up away from the body. 　The joint capsule is a soft tissue envelope that encircles the glenohumeral joint and attaches to the scapula, humerus, and head of the biceps. 　It is lined by a thin, smooth synovial membrane. 　The rotator cuff is a group of four muscles that surround the shoulder joint and contribute to the shoulder's stability. 　The muscles of the rotator cuff are supraspinatus, subscapularis, infraspinatus, and teres minor. 　The cuff adheres to the glenohumeral capsule and attaches to the humeral head. 　The shoulder must be mobile enough for the wide range actions of the arms and hands, but stable enough to allow for actions such as lifting, pushing, and pulling.

Memory

Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. 　It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. 　If past events could not be remembered, it would be impossible for language, relationships, or personal identity to develop. 　Memory loss is usually described as forgetfulness or amnesia. 　Memory is often understood as an informational processing system with explicit and implicit functioning that is made up of a sensory processor, short-term (or working) memory, and long-term memory. 　This can be related to the neuron. 　The sensory processor allows information from the outside world to be sensed in the form of chemical and physical stimuli and attended to various levels of focus and intent. 　Working memory serves as an encoding and retrieval processor. 　Information in the form of stimuli is encoded in accordance with explicit or implicit functions by the working memory processor. 　The working memory also retrieves information from previously stored material. 　Finally, the function of long-term memory is to store through various categorical models or systems. 　Declarative, or explicit, memory is the conscious storage and recollection of data. 　Under declarative memory resides semantic and episodic memory. 　Semantic memory refers to memory that is encoded with specific meaning, while episodic memory refers to information that is encoded along a spatial and temporal plane. 　Declarative memory is usually the primary process thought of when referencing memory. 　Non-declarative, or implicit, memory is the unconscious storage and recollection of information. 　An example of a non-declarative process would be the unconscious learning or retrieval of information by way of procedural memory, or a priming phenomenon. 　Priming is the process of subliminally arousing specific responses from memory and shows that not all memory is consciously activated, whereas procedural memory is the slow and gradual learning of skills that often occurs without conscious attention to learning. 　Memory is not a perfect processor, and is affected by many factors. 　The ways by which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved can all be corrupted. 　Pain, for example, has been identified as a physical condition that impairs memory, and has been noted in animal models as well as chronic pain patients. 　The amount of attention given new stimuli can diminish the amount of information that becomes encoded for storage. 　Also, the storage process can become corrupted by physical damage to areas of the brain that are associated with memory storage, such as the hippocampus. 　Finally, the retrieval of information from long-term memory can be disrupted because of decay within long-term memory. 　Normal functioning, decay over time, and brain damage all affect the accuracy and capacity of the memory.

Italy

Coordinates: 43°N 12°E / 43°N 12°E / 43; 12 Italy (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja] (listen)), officially the Italian Republic or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern and Western Europe. 　Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, it consists of a peninsula delimited by the Alps and surrounded by several islands; its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical region. 　Italy shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. 　It has a territorial exclave in Switzerland, Campione. 　Italy covers an area of 301,230 km2 (116,310 sq mi), with a population of about 60 million. 　It is the third-most populous member state of the European Union, the sixth-most populous country in Europe, and the tenth-largest country in the continent by land area. 　Italy's capital and largest city is Rome. 　Italy was the native place of many civilizations such as the Italic peoples and the Etruscans, while due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, the country has also historically been home to myriad peoples and cultures, who immigrated to the peninsula throughout history. 　The Latins, native of central Italy, formed the Roman Kingdom in the 8th century BC, which eventually became a republic with a government of the Senate and the People. 　The Roman Republic initially conquered and assimilated its neighbours on the Italian peninsula, eventually expanding and conquering a large part of Europe, North Africa and Western Asia. 　By the first century BC, the Roman Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean Basin and became a leading cultural, political and religious centre, inaugurating the Pax Romana, a period of more than 200 years during which Italy's law, technology, economy, art, and literature developed. 　During the Early Middle Ages, Italy endured the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the Barbarian Invasions, but by the 11th century, numerous city-states and maritime republics, mostly in the North, became prosperous through trade, commerce, and banking, laying the groundwork for modern capitalism. 　The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, and art. 　During the Middle Ages, Italian explorers discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the European Age of Discovery. 　However, centuries of rivalry and infighting between the Italian city-states, and the invasions of other European powers during the Italian Wars of the 15th and 16th centuries, left Italy politically fragmented. 　Italy's commercial and political power significantly waned during the 17th and 18th centuries with the decline of the Catholic Church and the increasing importance of trade routes that bypassed the Mediterranean. 　By the mid-19th century, rising Italian nationalism, along with other social, economic, and military events, led to a period of revolutionary political upheaval. 　After centuries of political and territorial divisions, Italy was almost entirely unified in 1861 following a war of independence, establishing the Kingdom of Italy. 　From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Italy rapidly industrialised, mainly in the north, and acquired a colonial empire, while the south remained largely impoverished and excluded from industrialisation, fuelling a large and influential diaspora. 　Despite being one of the victorious allied powers in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil, leading to the rise of the Italian fascist dictatorship in 1922. 　The participation of Italy in World War II on the Axis led to the Italian surrender to Allied powers and its occupation by Nazi Germany helped by Fascists, followed by the rise of the Italian Resistance and the subsequent Italian Civil War and liberation of Italy. 　After the war, the country abolished its monarchy, established a democratic unitary parliamentary republic, and enjoyed a prolonged economic boom, getting a major advanced economy. 　Italy is a highly developed country, having the tenth-largest nominal GDP (third in the European Union) in the world, the ninth-largest national wealth and the third-largest central bank gold reserve. 　It ranks highly in life expectancy, quality of life, healthcare, education, and Human Development Index. 　The country is a great power, and it has a significant role in regional and global economic, military, cultural, and diplomatic affairs. 　Italy is a founding and leading member of the European Union and a member of numerous international institutions, including the United Nations, NATO, the OECD, the G7, the Latin Union, the Schengen Area, and many more. 　The source of many inventions and discoveries, the country is considered a cultural superpower and has long been a global centre of art, music, literature, philosophy, science and technology, tourism and fashion, as well as having greatly influenced and contributed to diverse fields including cinema, cuisine, sports, jurisprudence, banking, and business. 　It has the world's largest number of World Heritage Sites (58), and is the world's fifth-most visited country.

Assistant

Look up assistant, assistants, or right-hand man in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. 　Assistant may refer to: Assistant (by Speaktoit), a virtual assistant app for smartphones Assistant (software), a software tool to assist in computer configuration Google Assistant, a virtual assistant by Google The Assistant (TV series), an MTV reality show ST Assistant, a British tugboat HMS Assistant, a Royal Navy vessel

Miss

Miss (pronounced /ˈmɪs/) is an English language honorific typically used for a girl, for an unmarried woman (when not using another title such as "Doctor" or "Dame"), or for a married woman retaining her maiden name. 　Originating in the 17th century, it is a contraction of mistress. 　Its counterparts are Mrs.　, used for a married women who has taken her husband's name, and Ms.　, which can be used for married or unmarried women. 　The plural Misses may be used, such as in The Misses Doe. 　The traditional French "Mademoiselle" (abbreviation "Mlle") may also be used as the plural in English language conversation or correspondence. 　In Australian, British, and Irish schools the term 'miss' is often used by pupils in addressing any female teacher.

Claimed

"Claimed" is the eleventh episode of the fourth season of the post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead, which aired on AMC on February 23, 2014. 　The episode was written by Nichole Beattie and Seth Hoffman, and directed by Seith Mann. 　Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun) and Tara Chambler (Alanna Masterson) interact with three new survivors headed for Washington, D.C., while Rick (Andrew Lincoln) deals with a group of marauders and Carl (Chandler Riggs) learns more about Michonne (Danai Gurira).

Russia

Russia (Russian: Россия, Rossiya, [rɐˈsʲijə]), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. 　It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering 17,098,246 square kilometres (6,601,670 sq mi), and encompassing one-eighth of Earth's inhabitable landmass. 　Russia extends across eleven time zones and shares land boundaries with fourteen countries. 　It is the world's ninth-most populous country and Europe's most populous country, with a population of over 147 million people. 　The country's capital and largest city is Moscow. 　Saint Petersburg is Russia's cultural centre and second-largest city. 　Other major urban areas include Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, and Kazan. 　The East Slavs emerged as a recognisable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries CE. 　The first East Slavic state, Kievan Rus', arose in the 9th century, and in 988, it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire. 　Rus' ultimately disintegrated, with the Grand Duchy of Moscow growing to become the Tsardom of Russia. 　By the early 18th century, Russia had vastly expanded through conquest, annexation, and the efforts of Russian explorers, developing into the Russian Empire, which remains the third-largest empire in history. 　However, with the Russian Revolution in 1917, Russia's monarchic rule was abolished and replaced by the Russian SFSR—the world's first constitutionally socialist state. 　Following the Russian Civil War, the Russian SFSR established the Soviet Union (with three other Soviet republics), within which it was the largest and principal constituent. 　At the expense of millions of lives, the Soviet Union underwent rapid industrialization in the 1930s, and later played a decisive role for the Allies of World War II by leading large-scale efforts on the Eastern Front. 　With the onset of the Cold War, it competed with the United States for global ideological influence; the Soviet era of the 20th century saw some of the most significant Russian technological achievements, including the first human-made satellite and the first human expedition into outer space. 　In 1991, the Russian SFSR emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as the independent Russian Federation. 　A new constitution was adopted, and Russia has since been governed as a federal semi-presidential republic. 　Since the turn of the century, Russia's political system has been dominated by Vladimir Putin, under whom the country has experienced democratic backsliding and a shift towards authoritarianism. 　Russia has been involved militarily in a number of post-Soviet conflicts, which has included the internationally unrecognised annexations of Crimea in 2014 from neighbouring Ukraine and four other regions in 2022 during an ongoing invasion. 　International rankings of Russia place it low in measurements of human rights and freedom of the press; the country also has high levels of perceived corruption. 　Ranked worldwide, the Russian economy stands at the ninth-largest by nominal GDP and the sixth-largest by GDP (PPP). 　Its mineral and energy sources are the world's largest, and its figures for oil production and natural gas production rank high globally. 　Russia possesses the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, and has the fifth-highest military expenditure. 　The country is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council; a member state of the G20, the SCO, BRICS, the APEC, the OSCE, and the WTO; and is the leading member state of the CIS, the CSTO, and the EAEU. 　Russia is home to 30 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately 9.4 inches (24 cm) in diameter) through the defender's hoop (a basket 18 inches (46 cm) in diameter mounted 10 feet (3.048 m) high to a backboard at each end of the court), while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own hoop. 　A field goal is worth two points, unless made from behind the three-point line, when it is worth three. 　After a foul, timed play stops and the player fouled or designated to shoot a technical foul is given one, two or three one-point free throws. 　The team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but if regulation play expires with the score tied, an additional period of play (overtime) is mandated. 　Players advance the ball by bouncing it while walking or running (dribbling) or by passing it to a teammate, both of which require considerable skill. 　On offense, players may use a variety of shots – the layup, the jump shot, or a dunk; on defense, they may steal the ball from a dribbler, intercept passes, or block shots; either offense or defense may collect a rebound, that is, a missed shot that bounces from rim or backboard. 　It is a violation to lift or drag one's pivot foot without dribbling the ball, to carry it, or to hold the ball with both hands then resume dribbling. 　The five players on each side fall into five playing positions. 　The tallest player is usually the center, the second-tallest and strongest is the power forward, a slightly shorter but more agile player is the small forward, and the shortest players or the best ball handlers are the shooting guard and the point guard, who implements the coach's game plan by managing the execution of offensive and defensive plays (player positioning). 　Informally, players may play three-on-three, two-on-two, and one-on-one. 　Invented in 1891 by Canadian-American gym teacher James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts, in the United States, basketball has evolved to become one of the world's most popular and widely viewed sports. 　The National Basketball Association (NBA) is the most significant professional basketball league in the world in terms of popularity, salaries, talent, and level of competition. 　Outside North America, the top clubs from national leagues qualify to continental championships such as the EuroLeague and the Basketball Champions League Americas. 　The FIBA Basketball World Cup and Men's Olympic Basketball Tournament are the major international events of the sport and attract top national teams from around the world. 　Each continent hosts regional competitions for national teams, like EuroBasket and FIBA AmeriCup. 　The FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup and Women's Olympic Basketball Tournament feature top national teams from continental championships. 　The main North American league is the WNBA (NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship is also popular), whereas the strongest European clubs participate in the EuroLeague Women.

Marriage

Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. 　It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between them and their in-laws. 　It is nearly a cultural universal, but the definition of marriage varies between cultures and religions, and over time. 　Typically, it is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually sexual, are acknowledged or sanctioned. 　In some cultures, marriage is recommended or considered to be compulsory before pursuing any sexual activity. 　A marriage ceremony is called a wedding. 　Individuals may marry for several reasons, including legal, social, libidinal, emotional, financial, spiritual, and religious purposes. 　Whom they marry may be influenced by gender, socially determined rules of incest, prescriptive marriage rules, parental choice, and individual desire. 　In some areas of the world, arranged marriage, child marriage, polygamy, and forced marriage are practiced. 　In other areas, such practices are outlawed to preserve women's rights or children's rights (both female and male) or as a result of international law. 　In some parts of the world, marriage has historically restricted the rights of women, who are (or were) considered the property of the husband. 　Around the world, primarily in developed democracies, there has been a general trend towards ensuring equal rights for women within marriage (including abolishing coverture, liberalizing divorce laws, and reforming reproductive and sexual rights) and legally recognizing the marriages of interfaith, interracial/interethnic/inter-caste, and same-sex couples. 　Controversies continue regarding the legal status of married women, leniency towards violence within marriage, customs such as dowry and bride price, forced marriage, marriageable age, and criminalization of premarital and extramarital sex. 　Female age at marriage has proven to be a strong indicator for female autonomy and is continuously used by economic history research. 　Marriage can be recognized by a state, an organization, a religious authority, a tribal group, a local community, or peers. 　It is often viewed as a contract. 　A religious marriage is performed by a religious institution to recognize and create the rights and obligations intrinsic to matrimony in that religion. 　Religious marriage is known variously as sacramental marriage in Catholicism, nikah in Islam, nissuin in Judaism, and various other names in other faith traditions, each with their own constraints as to what constitutes, and who can enter into, a valid religious marriage.

Pressure

Pressure (symbol: p or P) is the force applied perpendicular to the surface of an object per unit area over which that force is distributed.　: 445  Gauge pressure (also spelled gage pressure) is the pressure relative to the ambient pressure. 　Various units are used to express pressure. 　Some of these derive from a unit of force divided by a unit of area; the SI unit of pressure, the pascal (Pa), for example, is one newton per square metre (N/m2); similarly, the pound-force per square inch (psi, symbol lbf/in2) is the traditional unit of pressure in the imperial and U.S. customary systems. 　Pressure may also be expressed in terms of standard atmospheric pressure; the atmosphere (atm) is equal to this pressure, and the torr is defined as 1⁄760 of this. 　Manometric units such as the centimetre of water, millimetre of mercury, and inch of mercury are used to express pressures in terms of the height of column of a particular fluid in a manometer.

Branch

A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to the central trunk of a tree (or sometimes a shrub). 　Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. 　The term twig usually refers to a terminus, while bough refers only to branches coming directly from the trunk. 　Due to a broad range of species of trees, branches and twigs can be found in many different shapes and sizes. 　While branches can be nearly horizontal, vertical, or diagonal, the majority of trees have upwardly diagonal branches. 　A number of mathematical properties are associated with tree branchings; they are natural examples of fractal patterns in nature, and, as observed by Leonardo da Vinci, their cross-sectional areas closely follow the da Vinci branching rule.

Hotel

A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. 　Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a refrigerator, and other kitchen facilities, upholstered chairs, a flat-screen television, and en-suite bathrooms. 　Small, lower-priced hotels may offer only the most basic guest services and facilities. 　Larger, higher-priced hotels may provide additional guest facilities such as a swimming pool, a business center with computers, printers, and other office equipment, childcare, conference and event facilities, tennis or basketball courts, gymnasium, restaurants, day spa, and social function services. 　Hotel rooms are usually numbered (or named in some smaller hotels and B&Bs) to allow guests to identify their room. 　Some boutique, high-end hotels have custom decorated rooms. 　Some hotels offer meals as part of a room and board arrangement. 　In Japan, capsule hotels provide a tiny room suitable only for sleeping and shared bathroom facilities. 　The precursor to the modern hotel was the inn of medieval Europe. 　For a period of about 200 years from the mid-17th century, coaching inns served as a place for lodging for coach travelers. 　Inns began to cater to wealthier clients in the mid-18th century. 　One of the first hotels in a modern sense was opened in Exeter in 1768. 　Hotels proliferated throughout Western Europe and North America in the early 19th century, and luxury hotels began to spring up in the later part of the 19th century, paricularly in the United States. 　Hotel operations vary in size, function, complexity, and cost. 　Most hotels and major hospitality companies have set industry standards to classify hotel types. 　An upscale full-service hotel facility offers luxury amenities, full-service accommodations, an on-site restaurant, and the highest level of personalized service, such as a concierge, room service, and clothes-ironing staff. 　Full-service hotels often contain upscale full-service facilities with many full-service accommodations, an on-site full-service restaurant, and a variety of on-site amenities. 　Boutique hotels are smaller independent, non-branded hotels that often contain upscale facilities. 　Small to medium-sized hotel establishments offer a limited amount of on-site amenities. 　Economy hotels are small to medium-sized hotel establishments that offer basic accommodations with little to no services. 　Extended stay hotels are small to medium-sized hotels that offer longer-term full-service accommodations compared to a traditional hotel. 　Timeshare and destination clubs are a form of property ownership involving ownership of an individual unit of accommodation for seasonal usage. 　A motel is a small-sized low-rise lodging with direct access to individual rooms from the car parking area. 　Boutique hotels are typically hotels with a unique environment or intimate setting. 　A number of hotels and motels have entered the public consciousness through popular culture. 　Some hotels are built specifically as destinations in themselves, for example casinos and holiday resorts. 　Most hotel establishments are run by a general manager who serves as the head executive (often referred to as the "hotel manager"), department heads who oversee various departments within a hotel (e.g., food service), middle managers, administrative staff, and line-level supervisors. 　The organizational chart and volume of job positions and hierarchy varies by hotel size, function and class, and is often determined by hotel ownership and managing companies.

Sex

Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. 　Male plants and animals produce small mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger, non-motile ones (ova, often called egg cells). 　Organisms that produce both types of gametes are called hermaphrodites. 　During sexual reproduction, male and female gametes fuse to form zygotes, which develop into offspring that inherit traits from each parent. 　Males and females of a species may have physical similarities (sexual monomorphism) or differences (sexual dimorphism) that reflect various reproductive pressures on the respective sexes. 　Mate choice and sexual selection can accelerate the evolution of physical differences between the sexes. 　The terms male and female typically do not apply in sexually undifferentiated species in which the individuals are isomorphic (look the same) and the gametes are isogamous (indistinguishable in size and shape), such as the green alga Ulva lactuca. 　Some kinds of functional differences between gametes, such as in fungi, may be referred to as mating types. 　The sex of a living organism is determined by its genes. 　Most mammals have the XY sex-determination system, where male mammals usually carry an X and a Y chromosome (XY), whereas female mammals usually carry two X chromosomes (XX). 　Other chromosomal sex-determination systems in animals include the ZW system in birds, and the X0 system in insects. 　Various environmental systems include temperature-dependent sex determination in reptiles and crustaceans.

Port

A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. 　Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manchester and Duluth; these access the sea via rivers or canals. 　Because of their roles as ports of entry for immigrants as well as soldiers in wartime, many port cities have experienced dramatic multi-ethnic and multicultural changes throughout their histories. 　Ports are extremely important to the global economy; 70% of global merchandise trade by value passes through a port. 　For this reason, ports are also often densely populated settlements that provide the labor for processing and handling goods and related services for the ports. 　Today by far the greatest growth in port development is in Asia, the continent with some of the world's largest and busiest ports, such as Singapore and the Chinese ports of Shanghai and Ningbo-Zhoushan. 　As of 2020, the busiest passenger port in Europe is the Port of Helsinki in Finland. 　Nevertheless, countless smaller ports do exist that may only serve their local tourism or fishing industries. 　Ports can have a wide environmental impact on local ecologies and waterways, most importantly water quality, which can be caused by dredging, spills and other pollution. 　Ports are heavily affected by changing environmental factors caused by climate change as most port infrastructure is extremely vulnerable to sea level rise and coastal flooding. 　Internationally, global ports are beginning to identify ways to improve coastal management practices and integrate climate change adaptation practices into their construction.

Territory

A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, belonging or connected to a particular country, person, or animal. 　In international politics, a territory is either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or else an administrative division, i.e. an area that is under the jurisdiction of a sovereign state. 　As a subdivision, a territory in most countries is an organized division of an area that is controlled by a country but is not formally developed into, or incorporated into, a political unit of that country, which political units are of equal status to one another and are often referred to by words such as "provinces", "regions", or "states". 　In its narrower sense, it is "a geographic region, such as a colonial possession, that is dependent on an external government."

Flight

Flight or flying is the process by which an object moves through a space without contacting any planetary surface, either within an atmosphere (i.e. air flight or aviation) or through the vacuum of outer space (i.e. spaceflight). 　This can be achieved by generating aerodynamic lift associated with gliding or propulsive thrust, aerostatically using buoyancy, or by ballistic movement. 　Many things can fly, from animal aviators such as birds, bats and insects, to natural gliders/parachuters such as patagial animals, anemochorous seeds and ballistospores, to human inventions like aircraft (airplanes, helicopters, airships, balloons, etc.) and rockets which may propel spacecraft and spaceplanes. 　The engineering aspects of flight are the purview of aerospace engineering which is subdivided into aeronautics, the study of vehicles that travel through the atmosphere, and astronautics, the study of vehicles that travel through space, and ballistics, the study of the flight of projectiles.

Virginia

Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. 　Its geography and climate are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay. 　The state's capital is Richmond. 　Its most-populous city is Virginia Beach, and Fairfax County is the state's most-populous political subdivision. 　Virginia's population in 2022[update] was over 8.68 million, with 35% of the state's population in the Washington–Baltimore area. 　Virginia's history begins with several indigenous groups, including the Powhatan. 　In 1607, the London Company established the Colony of Virginia as the first permanent English colony in the New World. 　Virginia's state nickname, the Old Dominion, is a reference to this status. 　Slave labor and land acquired from displaced native tribes fueled the growing plantation economy, but also fueled conflicts both inside and outside the colony. 　Virginia was one of the original Thirteen Colonies in the American Revolution, and several Revolutionary War battles were fought in in Virginia. 　During the American Civil War, Virginia was split when the state government in Richmond joined the Confederacy, but many of the state's northwestern counties remained loyal to the Union, separating as the state of West Virginia in 1863. 　Although the Commonwealth was under one-party rule for nearly a century following the Reconstruction era, both major political parties are competitive in modern Virginia. 　Virginia's state legislature is the Virginia General Assembly, which was established in July 1619, making it the oldest current law-making body in North America. 　It is made up of a 40-member Senate and a 100-member House of Delegates. 　Unlike other states, cities and counties in Virginia function as equals, and the state government manages most local roads inside them. 　It is also the only state where governors are prohibited from serving consecutive terms. 　Virginia's economy is diverse with a strong agriculture industry in the Shenandoah Valley; high tech and federal agencies in Northern Virginia, including the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency; and military facilities in Hampton Roads, the site of the region's main seaport.

Minute

The minute is a unit of time usually equal to 1/60 (the first sexagesimal fraction) of an hour, or 60 seconds. 　In the UTC time standard, a minute on rare occasions has 61 seconds, a consequence of leap seconds (there is a provision to insert a negative leap second, which would result in a 59-second minute, but this has never happened in more than 40 years under this system). 　Although not an SI unit, the minute is accepted for use with SI units. 　The SI symbol for minute or minutes is min (without a dot). 　The prime symbol is also sometimes used informally to denote minutes of time.

Joseph

Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). 　"Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. 　This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic countries. 　In Portuguese and Spanish, the name is "José". 　In Arabic, including in the Quran, the name is spelled يوسف Yūsuf. 　In Persian, the name is "Yousef". 　The name has enjoyed significant popularity in its many forms in numerous countries, and Joseph was one of the two names, along with Robert, to have remained in the top 10 boys' names list in the US from 1925 to 1972. 　It is especially common in contemporary Israel, as either "Yossi" or "Yossef", and in Italy, where the name "Giuseppe" was the most common male name in the 20th century. 　In the first century CE, Joseph was the second most popular male name for Palestine Jews. 　In the Book of Genesis Joseph is Jacob's eleventh son and Rachel's first son, and known in the Hebrew Bible as Yossef ben-Yaakov. 　In the New Testament the most notable two are Joseph, the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus; and Joseph of Arimathea, a secret disciple of Jesus who supplied the tomb in which Jesus was buried.

Neck

The neck is the part of the body on many vertebrates that connects the head with the torso. 　The neck supports the weight of the head and protects the nerves that carry sensory and motor information from the brain down to the rest of the body. 　In addition, the neck is highly flexible and allows the head to turn and flex in all directions. 　The structures of the human neck are anatomically grouped into four compartments; vertebral, visceral and two vascular compartments. 　Within these compartments, the neck houses the cervical vertebrae and cervical part of the spinal cord, upper parts of the respiratory and digestive tracts, endocrine glands, nerves, arteries and veins. 　Muscles of the neck are described separately from the compartments. 　They bound the neck triangles. 　In anatomy, the neck is also called by its Latin names, cervixcode: lat promoted to code: la or collumcode: lat promoted to code: la , although when used alone, in context, the word cervix more often refers to the uterine cervix, the neck of the uterus. 　Thus the adjective cervical may refer either to the neck (as in cervical vertebrae or cervical lymph nodes) or to the uterine cervix (as in cervical cap or cervical cancer).

Color

Color (American English) or colour (Commonwealth English) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. 　Though color is not an inherent property of matter, color perception is related to an object's light absorption, reflection, emission spectra and interference. 　For most humans, color are perceived in the visible light spectrum with three types of cone cells (trichromacy). 　Other animals may have a different number of cone cell types or have eyes sensitive to different wavelength, such as bees that can distinguish ultraviolet, and thus has a different color sensitivity range. 　Animal perception of color originates from different light wavelength or spectral sensitivity in cone cell types, which is then processed by the brain. 　Colors have perceived properties such as hue, colorfulness (saturation) and luminance. 　Colors can also be additively mixed (commonly used for actual light) or subtractively mixed (commonly used for materials). 　If the colors are mixed in the right proportions, because of metamerism, they may look the same as a single-wavelength light. 　For convenience, colors can be organized in a color space, which when being abstracted as a mathematical color model can assign each region of color with a corresponding set of numbers. 　As such, color spaces are an essential tool for color reproduction in print, photography, computer monitors and television. 　The most well-known color models are RGB, CMYK, YUV, HSL and HSV. 　Because the perception of color is an important aspect of human life, different colors have been associated with emotions, activity, and nationality. 　Names of color regions in different cultures can have different, sometimes overlapping areas. 　In visual arts, color theory is used to govern the use of colors in an aesthetically pleasing and harmonious way. 　The theory of color includes the color complements; color balance; and classification of primary colors (traditionally red, yellow, blue), secondary colors (traditionally orange, green, purple) and tertiary colors. 　The study of colors in general is called color science.