Signal

In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. 　Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. 　The IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing includes audio, video, speech, image, sonar, and radar as examples of signal. 　A signal may also be defined as any observable change in a quantity over space or time (a time series), even if it does not carry information. 　In nature, signals can be actions done by an organism to alert other organisms, ranging from the release of plant chemicals to warn nearby plants of a predator, to sounds or motions made by animals to alert other animals of food. 　Signaling occurs in all organisms even at cellular levels, with cell signaling. 　Signaling theory, in evolutionary biology, proposes that a substantial driver for evolution is the ability of animals to communicate with each other by developing ways of signaling. 　In human engineering, signals are typically provided by a sensor, and often the original form of a signal is converted to another form of energy using a transducer. 　For example, a microphone converts an acoustic signal to a voltage waveform, and a speaker does the reverse. 　Another important property of a signal is its entropy or information content. 　Information theory serves as the formal study of signals and their content. 　The information of a signal is often accompanied by noise, which primarily refers to unwanted modifications of signals, but is often extended to include unwanted signals conflicting with desired signals (crosstalk). 　The reduction of noise is covered in part under the heading of signal integrity. 　The separation of desired signals from background noise is the field of signal recovery, one branch of which is estimation theory, a probabilistic approach to suppressing random disturbances. 　Engineering disciplines such as electrical engineering have advanced the design, study, and implementation of systems involving transmission, storage, and manipulation of information. 　In the latter half of the 20th century, electrical engineering itself separated into several disciplines: electronic engineering and computer engineering developed to specialize in the design and analysis of systems that manipulate physical signals, while design engineering developed to address the functional design of signals in user–machine interfaces.

Sleep

Sleep is a sedentary state of mind and body. 　It is characterized by altered consciousness, relatively inhibited sensory activity, reduced muscle activity and reduced interactions with surroundings. 　It is distinguished from wakefulness by a decreased ability to react to stimuli, but more reactive than a coma or disorders of consciousness, with sleep displaying different, active brain patterns. 　Sleep occurs in repeating periods, in which the body alternates between two distinct modes: REM sleep and non-REM sleep. 　Although REM stands for "rapid eye movement", this mode of sleep has many other aspects, including virtual paralysis of the body. 　Dreams are a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. 　During sleep, most of the body's systems are in an anabolic state, helping to restore the immune, nervous, skeletal, and muscular systems; these are vital processes that maintain mood, memory, and cognitive function, and play a large role in the function of the endocrine and immune systems. 　The internal circadian clock promotes sleep daily at night. 　The diverse purposes and mechanisms of sleep are the subject of substantial ongoing research. 　Sleep is a highly conserved behavior across animal evolution, likely going back hundreds of millions of years. 　Humans may suffer from various sleep disorders, including dyssomnias such as insomnia, hypersomnia, narcolepsy, and sleep apnea; parasomnias such as sleepwalking and rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder; bruxism; and circadian rhythm sleep disorders. 　The use of artificial light has substantially altered humanity's sleep patterns. 　Common sources of artificial light include outdoor lighting and the screens of electronic devices such as smartphones and televisions, which emit large amounts of blue light, a form of light typically associated with daytime. 　This disrupts the release of the hormone melatonin needed to regulate the sleep-cycle.

Constitution

A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. 　When these principles are written down into a single document or set of legal documents, those documents may be said to embody a written constitution; if they are encompassed in a single comprehensive document, it is said to embody a codified constitution. 　The Constitution of the United Kingdom is a notable example of an uncodified constitution; it is instead written in numerous fundamental Acts of a legislature, court cases or treaties. 　Constitutions concern different levels of organizations, from sovereign countries to companies and unincorporated associations. 　A treaty which establishes an international organization is also its constitution, in that it would define how that organization is constituted. 　Within states, a constitution defines the principles upon which the state is based, the procedure in which laws are made and by whom. 　Some constitutions, especially codified constitutions, also act as limiters of state power, by establishing lines which a state's rulers cannot cross, such as fundamental rights. 　The Constitution of India is the longest written constitution of any country in the world, with 146,385 words in its English-language version, while the Constitution of Monaco is the shortest written constitution with 3,814 words. 　The Constitution of San Marino might be the world's oldest active written constitution, since some of its core documents have been in operation since 1600, while the Constitution of the United States is the oldest active codified constitution. 　The historical life expectancy of a constitution since 1789 is approximately 19 years.

Yellow

Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. 　It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575–585 nm. 　It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. 　In the RGB color model, used to create colors on television and computer screens, yellow is a secondary color made by combining red and green at equal intensity. 　Carotenoids give the characteristic yellow color to autumn leaves, corn, canaries, daffodils, and lemons, as well as egg yolks, buttercups, and bananas. 　They absorb light energy and protect plants from photo damage in some cases. 　Sunlight has a slight yellowish hue when the Sun is near the horizon, due to atmospheric scattering of shorter wavelengths (green, blue, and violet). 　Because it was widely available, yellow ochre pigment was one of the first colors used in art; the Lascaux cave in France has a painting of a yellow horse 17,000 years old. 　Ochre and orpiment pigments were used to represent gold and skin color in Egyptian tombs, then in the murals in Roman villas. 　In the early Christian church, yellow was the color associated with the Pope and the golden keys of the Kingdom, but it was also associated with Judas Iscariot and used to mark heretics. 　In the 20th century, Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe were forced to wear a yellow star. 　In China, bright yellow was the color of the Middle Kingdom, and could be worn only by the emperor and his household; special guests were welcomed on a yellow carpet. 　According to surveys in Europe, Canada, the United States and elsewhere, yellow is the color people most often associate with amusement, gentleness, humor, happiness, and spontaneity, but also with duplicity, envy, jealousy, greed, and, in the U.S., cowardice. 　In Iran it has connotations of pallor/sickness, but also wisdom and connection. 　In China and many Asian countries, it is seen as the color of happiness, glory, harmony and wisdom.

Block (meteorology)

Blocks in meteorology are large-scale patterns in the atmospheric pressure field that are nearly stationary, effectively "blocking" or redirecting migratory cyclones. 　They are also known as blocking highs or blocking anticyclones. 　These blocks can remain in place for several days or even weeks, causing the areas affected by them to have the same kind of weather for an extended period of time (e.g. precipitation for some areas, clear skies for others). 　In the Northern Hemisphere, extended blocking occurs most frequently in the spring over the eastern Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. 　Whilst these events are linked to the occurrence of extreme weather events such as heat waves, particularly the onset and decay of these events is still not well captured in numerical weather forecasts and remains an open area of research.

Poland

Coordinates: 52°N 20°E / 52°N 20°E / 52; 20 Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. 　It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of 312,696 km2 (120,733 sq mi). 　Poland has a population of 38 million and is the fifth-most populous member state of the European Union. 　Warsaw is the nation's capital and largest metropolis. 　Other major cities include Kraków, Wrocław, Łódź, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin. 　Poland has a temperate transitional climate and its territory traverses the Central European Plain, extending from Baltic Sea in the north to Sudeten and Carpathian Mountains in the south. 　The longest Polish river is the Vistula, and Poland's highest point is Mount Rysy, situated in the Tatra mountain range of the Carpathians. 　The country is bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west. 　It also shares maritime boundaries with Denmark and Sweden. 　The history of human activity on Polish soil dates to circa 10,000 BC. 　Culturally diverse throughout late antiquity, the region became inhabited by tribal Polans who gave Poland its name in the early medieval period. 　The establishment of statehood in 966 coincided with a pagan ruler of the Polans converting to Christianity under the auspices of the Roman Church. 　The Kingdom of Poland emerged in 1025 and in 1569 cemented its longstanding association with Lithuania, thus forming the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. 　It was one of the largest great powers of Europe at the time, with a uniquely liberal political system that adopted Europe's first modern constitution in 1791. 　With the passing of a prosperous Polish Golden Age, the country was partitioned by neighbouring states at the end of the 18th century and regained its independence in 1918 as the Second Polish Republic. 　In September 1939, the German-Soviet invasion of Poland marked the beginning of World War II, which resulted in the Holocaust and millions of Polish casualties. 　As a member of the Communist Bloc in the global Cold War, the Polish People's Republic was a founding signatory of the Warsaw Pact. 　Through the emergence and contributions of the Solidarity movement, the communist government was dissolved and Poland re-established itself as a democratic state in 1989. 　Poland is a parliamentary republic, with its bicameral legislature comprising the Sejm and the Senate. 　It is a developed market and a high income economy. 　Considered a middle power, Poland has the sixth largest economy in the European Union by GDP (nominal) and the fifth largest by GDP (PPP). 　It provides high standards of living, safety and economic freedom, as well as free university education and a universal health care system. 　The country has 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 15 of which are cultural. 　Poland is a founding member state of the United Nations, as well as a member of the World Trade Organization, NATO, and the European Union (including the Schengen Area).

Era

Look up era in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. 　An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. 　Comparable terms are epoch, age, period, saeculum, aeon (Greek aion) and Sanskrit yuga.

Travel

Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. 　Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. 　Travel can also include relatively short stays between successive movements, as in the case of tourism.

Champion

A champion (from the late Latin campio) is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition. 　There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and world championships, and even further (artificial) divisions at one or more of these levels, as in association football. 　Their champions can be accordingly styled, e.g. national champion, world champion.

Mayor

In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. 　Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well as the means by which a mayor is elected or otherwise mandated. 　Depending on the system chosen, a mayor may be the chief executive officer of the municipal government, may simply chair a multi-member governing body with little or no independent power, or may play a solely ceremonial role. 　A mayor's duties and responsibilities may be to appoint and oversee municipal managers and employees, provide basic governmental services to constituents, and execute the laws and ordinances passed by a municipal governing body (or mandated by a state, territorial or national governing body). 　Options for selection of a mayor include direct election by the public, or selection by an elected governing council or board. 　The term mayor shares a linguistic origin with the military rank of Major, both ultimately derived from French majeur.

Soul

In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". 　In lay terms the soul is the spiritual essence of a person, which includes our identity, personality, and memories that is believed to be able to survive our physical death.

Understanding

Understanding is a psychological process related to an abstract or physical object, such as a person, situation, or message whereby one is able to use concepts to model that object. 　Understanding is a relation between the knower and an object of understanding. 　Understanding implies abilities and dispositions with respect to an object of knowledge that are sufficient to support intelligent behavior. 　Understanding is often, though not always, related to learning concepts, and sometimes also the theory or theories associated with those concepts. 　However, a person may have a good ability to predict the behavior of an object, animal or system—and therefore may, in some sense, understand it—without necessarily being familiar with the concepts or theories associated with that object, animal, or system in their culture. 　They may have developed their own distinct concepts and theories, which may be equivalent, better or worse than the recognized standard concepts and theories of their culture. 　Thus, understanding is correlated with the ability to make inferences.

Evolution

Evolution is the change in heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. 　These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. 　Variation tends to exist within any given population as a result of genetic mutation and recombination. 　Evolution occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection (including sexual selection) and genetic drift act on this variation, resulting in certain characteristics becoming more common or more rare within a population. 　The evolutionary pressures that determine whether a characteristic is common or rare within a population constantly change, resulting in a change in heritable characteristics arising over successive generations. 　It is this process of evolution that has given rise to biodiversity at every level of biological organisation, including the levels of species, individual organisms, and molecules. 　The theory of evolution by natural selection was conceived independently by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in the mid-19th century and was set out in detail in Darwin's book On the Origin of Species. 　Evolution by natural selection is established by observable facts about living organisms: (1) more offspring are often produced than can possibly survive; (2) traits vary among individuals with respect to their morphology, physiology, and behaviour (phenotypic variation); (3) different traits confer different rates of survival and reproduction (differential fitness); and (4) traits can be passed from generation to generation (heritability of fitness). 　In successive generations, members of a population are therefore more likely to be replaced by the offspring of parents with favourable characteristics. 　In the early 20th century, other competing ideas of evolution such as mutationism and orthogenesis were refuted as the modern synthesis concluded Darwinian evolution acts on Mendelian genetic variation. 　All life on Earth—including humanity—shares a last universal common ancestor (LUCA), which lived approximately 3.5–3.8 billion years ago. 　The fossil record includes a progression from early biogenic graphite to microbial mat fossils to fossilised multicellular organisms. 　Existing patterns of biodiversity have been shaped by repeated formations of new species (speciation), changes within species (anagenesis), and loss of species (extinction) throughout the evolutionary history of life on Earth. 　Morphological and biochemical traits are more similar among species that share a more recent common ancestor, and these traits can be used to reconstruct phylogenetic trees. 　Evolutionary biologists have continued to study various aspects of evolution by forming and testing hypotheses as well as constructing theories based on evidence from the field or laboratory and on data generated by the methods of mathematical and theoretical biology. 　Their discoveries have influenced not just the development of biology but numerous other scientific and industrial fields, including agriculture, medicine, and computer science.

Drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television. 　Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been contrasted with the epic and the lyrical modes ever since Aristotle's Poetics (c. 335 BC)—the earliest work of dramatic theory. 　The term "drama" comes from a Greek word meaning "deed" or "act" (Classical Greek: δρᾶμα, drâma), which is derived from "I do" (Classical Greek: δράω, dráō). 　The two masks associated with drama represent the traditional generic division between comedy and tragedy. 　In English (as was the analogous case in many other European languages), the word play or game (translating the Anglo-Saxon pleġan or Latin ludus) was the standard term for dramas until William Shakespeare's time—just as its creator was a play-maker rather than a dramatist and the building was a play-house rather than a theatre. 　The use of "drama" in a more narrow sense to designate a specific type of play dates from the modern era. 　"Drama" in this sense refers to a play that is neither a comedy nor a tragedy—for example, Zola's Thérèse Raquin (1873) or Chekhov's Ivanov (1887). 　It is this narrower sense that the film and television industries, along with film studies, adopted to describe "drama" as a genre within their respective media. 　The term "radio drama" has been used in both senses—originally transmitted in a live performance. 　It may also be used to refer to the more high-brow and serious end of the dramatic output of radio. 　The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a collective form of reception. 　The structure of dramatic texts, unlike other forms of literature, is directly influenced by this collaborative production and collective reception. 　Mime is a form of drama where the action of a story is told only through the movement of the body. 　Drama can be combined with music: the dramatic text in opera is generally sung throughout; as for in some ballets dance "expresses or imitates emotion, character, and narrative action". 　Musicals include both spoken dialogue and songs; and some forms of drama have incidental music or musical accompaniment underscoring the dialogue (melodrama and Japanese Nō, for example). 　Closet drama is a form that is intended to be read, rather than performed. 　In improvisation, the drama does not pre-exist the moment of performance; performers devise a dramatic script spontaneously before an audience.

Fish

Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. 　Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. 　Approximately 95% of living fish species are ray-finned fish, belonging to the class Actinopterygii, with around 99% of those being teleosts. 　The earliest organisms that can be classified as fish were soft-bodied chordates that first appeared during the Cambrian period. 　Although they lacked a true spine, they possessed notochords which allowed them to be more agile than their invertebrate counterparts. 　Fish would continue to evolve through the Paleozoic era, diversifying into a wide variety of forms. 　Many fish of the Paleozoic developed external armor that protected them from predators. 　The first fish with jaws appeared in the Silurian period, after which many (such as sharks) became formidable marine predators rather than just the prey of arthropods. 　Most fish are ectothermic ("cold-blooded"), allowing their body temperatures to vary as ambient temperatures change, though some of the large active swimmers like white shark and tuna can hold a higher core temperature. 　Fish can acoustically communicate with each other, most often in the context of feeding, aggression or courtship. 　Fish are abundant in most bodies of water. 　They can be found in nearly all aquatic environments, from high mountain streams (e.g., char and gudgeon) to the abyssal and even hadal depths of the deepest oceans (e.g., cusk-eels and snailfish), although no species has yet been documented in the deepest 25% of the ocean. 　With 34,300 described species, fish exhibit greater species diversity than any other group of vertebrates. 　Fish are an important resource for humans worldwide, especially as food. 　Commercial and subsistence fishers hunt fish in wild fisheries or farm them in ponds or in cages in the ocean (in aquaculture). 　They are also caught by recreational fishers, kept as pets, raised by fishkeepers, and exhibited in public aquaria. 　Fish have had a role in culture through the ages, serving as deities, religious symbols, and as the subjects of art, books and movies. 　Tetrapods (amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) emerged within lobe-finned fishes, so cladistically they are fish as well. 　However, traditionally fish (pisces or ichthyes) are rendered paraphyletic by excluding the tetrapods, and are therefore not considered a formal taxonomic grouping in systematic biology, unless it is used in the cladistic sense, including tetrapods, although usually "vertebrate" is preferred and used for this purpose (fish plus tetrapods) instead. 　Furthermore, cetaceans, although mammals, have often been considered fish by various cultures and time periods.

Register (phonology)

This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). 　For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. 　For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. 　In phonology, a register, or pitch register, is a prosodic feature of syllables in certain languages in which tone, vowel phonation, glottalization or similar features depend upon one another. 　It occurs in Burmese, Vietnamese, Wu Chinese and Zulu.

Alexander

This article contains special characters. 　Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols. 　Alexander is a male given name. 　The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. 　Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Aleksander and Aleksandr. 　Related names and diminutives include Iskandar, Alec, Alek, Alex, Alexandre, Aleks, Aleksa and Sander; feminine forms include Alexandra, Alexandria, and Sasha.

Platform (geology)

In geology, a platform is a continental area covered by relatively flat or gently tilted, mainly sedimentary strata, which overlie a basement of consolidated igneous or metamorphic rocks of an earlier deformation. 　Platforms, shields and the basement rocks together constitute cratons. 　Platform sediments can be classified into the following groups: a "protoplatform" of metamorphosed sediments at the bottom, a "quasiplatform" of slightly deformed sediments, a "cataplatform", and an "orthoplatform" at the top. 　The Mesoproterozoic Jotnian sediments of the Baltic area are examples of a "quasiplatform". 　The post-Ordovician rocks of the South American Platform are examples of an orthoplatform.

Identified

Identified is the second studio album by Vanessa Hudgens, released on July 1, 2008 in the U.S. June 24, 2008 in Japan, February 13, 2009 in most European countries and February 16, 2009 in the United Kingdom. 　The album received generally positive reviews from music critics. 　Hudgens embarked on her first concert tour, Identified Summer Tour between August and September 2008 in support of the album.

Visit

Visit refer as go to see and spend time with socially. 　Look up visit in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. 　Visit may refer to: State visit, a formal visit by a head of state to a foreign country Conjugal visit, in which a prisoner is permitted to spend several hours or days in private with a visitor, usually a spouse US-VISIT, a U.S. immigration and border management system Constable Visit, a fictional character from the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett VisIt, interactive parallel visualization and analysis software Visit (internet), measures an individual's first request for a page on a firm’s server

Hole

A hole is an opening in or through a particular medium, usually a solid body. 　Holes occur through natural and artificial processes, and may be useful for various purposes, or may represent a problem needing to be addressed in many fields of engineering. 　Depending on the material and the placement, a hole may be an indentation in a surface (such as a hole in the ground), or may pass completely through that surface (such as a hole created by a hole puncher in a piece of paper).

Traffic

Traffic comprises pedestrians, vehicles, ridden or herded animals, trains, and other conveyances that use public ways (roads) for travel and transportation. 　Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffic laws and informal rules that may have developed over time to facilitate the orderly and timely flow of traffic. 　Organized traffic generally has well-established priorities, lanes, right-of-way, and traffic control at intersections. 　Traffic is formally organized in many jurisdictions, with marked lanes, junctions, intersections, interchanges, traffic signals, or signs. 　Traffic is often classified by type: heavy motor vehicle (e.g., car, truck), other vehicle (e.g., moped, bicycle), and pedestrian. 　Different classes may share speed limits and easement, or may be segregated. 　Some jurisdictions may have very detailed and complex rules of the road while others rely more on drivers' common sense and willingness to cooperate. 　Organization typically produces a better combination of travel safety and efficiency. 　Events which disrupt the flow and may cause traffic to degenerate into a disorganized mess include road construction, collisions, and debris in the roadway. 　On particularly busy freeways, a minor disruption may persist in a phenomenon known as traffic waves. 　A complete breakdown of organization may result in traffic congestion and gridlock. 　Simulations of organized traffic frequently involve queuing theory, stochastic processes and equations of mathematical physics applied to traffic flow.

Scotland

Scotland (Scots: Scotland, Scottish Gaelic: Alba [ˈal̪ˠapə] (listen)) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. 　Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a 96-mile (154-kilometre) border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, the North Sea to the northeast and east, and the Irish Sea to the south. 　It also contains more than 790 islands, principally in the archipelagos of the Hebrides and the Northern Isles. 　Most of the population, including the capital Edinburgh, is concentrated in the Central Belt—the plain between the Scottish Highlands and the Southern Uplands—in the Scottish Lowlands. 　Scotland is divided into 32 administrative subdivisions or local authorities, known as council areas. 　Glasgow City is the largest council area in terms of population, with Highland being the largest in terms of area. 　Limited self-governing power, covering matters such as education, social services and roads and transportation, is devolved from the Scottish Government to each subdivision. 　Scotland is the second-largest country in the United Kingdom, and accounted for 8.3% of the population in 2012. 　The Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the 9th century and continued to exist until 1707. 　By inheritance in 1603, James VI of Scotland became king of England and Ireland, thus forming a personal union of the three kingdoms. 　Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. 　The union also created the Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. 　In 1801, the Kingdom of Great Britain entered into a political union with the Kingdom of Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (in 1922, the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being officially renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1927). 　Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles and other royal symbols of statehood specific to the pre-union Kingdom of Scotland. 　The legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland; Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. 　The continued existence of legal, educational, religious and other institutions distinct from those in the remainder of the UK have all contributed to the continuation of Scottish culture and national identity since the 1707 incorporating union with England. 　In 1999, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. 　The head of the Scottish Government is the first minister of Scotland, who is supported by the deputy first minister of Scotland. 　Scotland is represented in the United Kingdom Parliament by 59 members of parliament (MPs). 　It is also a member of the British–Irish Council, sending five members of the Scottish Parliament to the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly, as well as being part of the Joint Ministerial Committee, represented by the first minister.

Evening

Evening is the period of a day that starts at the end of the afternoon and overlaps with the beginning of night. 　The exact times when evening begins and ends depend on location, time of year, and culture, but it is generally regarded as beginning when the Sun is low in the sky and lasting until the end of twilight. 　Depending on the speaker, it may start as early as 5 p.m. and to last until night. 　It may be used colloquially to include the last waning afternoon shortly before sunset.