title: List of districts in Russia

text:
This is a list of districts of Russia. A district (raion) is an administrative and municipal division of a federal subject of Russia.

Within the framework of administrative divisions, the administrative districts are on the same level of hierarchy as the cities of federal subject significance and may be further subdivided into towns of district significance, urban-type settlements of district significance, and selsoviets, although the exact terms for these entities vary from one federal subject to another.

Within the framework of municipal divisions, the municipal districts are on the same level of hierarchy as urban okrugs and are further subdivided into urban settlements, rural settlements, or both. Municipal districts are commonly formed within the boundaries of existing administrative districts, although in practice there are some exceptions to this rule.

Major Russian cities are divided into city districts. Despite a similarity in terminology, they are divisions of a different kind and are not within the scope of this article.

Unlike other federal subjects of Russia, the federal cities have the unique structure of the administrative-territorial divisions. The administrative-territorial divisions of the federal city of Moscow in particular include districts and settlements, which, in turn, are grouped into administrative okrugs. Only the districts are included below. However, as the districts of neither Moscow nor St. Petersburg include any inhabited localities, they do not have administrative centers.

The Republic of Crimea is a federal subject of Russia formed on the territory of the Crimean Peninsula, which is disputed between Russia and Ukraine. Within the Russian legal framework, the districts of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (an administrative division of Ukraine) continue to be in use and are included in the tables below. The federal city of Sevastopol is also located on the peninsula, with its districts having a status similar to that of the districts of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

As of 2014, excluding Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Sevastopol, there are 1,873 administrative districts (including the 14 in the Republic of Crimea) and 1,823 municipal districts (also including the 14 in the Republic of Crimea) in Russia. All these districts have an administrative center, which is usually the same locality for both the administrative and municipal entity.

Administrative districts
The following tables list the administrative districts of the federal subjects and include their administrative center and population information. Unless otherwise noted, the administrative districts are municipally incorporated as municipal districts and the boundaries of the two entities are identical.

Republic of Adygea

Altai Krai

Altai Republic

Amur Oblast

Arkhangelsk Oblast

Astrakhan Oblast

Republic of Bashkortostan

Belgorod Oblast

Bryansk Oblast

Republic of Buryatia

Chechen Republic

Chelyabinsk Oblast

Chukotka Autonomous Okrug

Chuvash Republic

Republic of Crimea

Republic of Dagestan

Republic of Ingushetia

Irkutsk Oblast

Ivanovo Oblast

Jewish Autonomous Oblast

Kabardino-Balkar Republic

Kaliningrad Oblast

Republic of Kalmykia

Kaluga Oblast

Kamchatka Krai

Karachay-Cherkess Republic

Republic of Karelia

Note: the territory of the town of republic significance of Sortavala is incorporated as Sortavalsky Municipal District.

Kemerovo Oblast

Khabarovsk Krai

Republic of Khakassia

Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug

Kirov Oblast

Komi Republic

Note: the territories of the towns of republic significance of Pechora, Sosnogorsk, and Vuktyl are incorporated, correspondingly, as Pechora, Sosnogorsk, and Vuktyl Municipal Districts.

Kostroma Oblast

Krasnodar Krai

Krasnoyarsk Krai

Kurgan Oblast

Kursk Oblast

Leningrad Oblast

Lipetsk Oblast

Magadan Oblast

Mari El Republic

Republic of Mordovia

Federal city of Moscow

Murmansk Oblast

Nenets Autonomous Okrug

Nizhny Novgorod Oblast

Republic of North Ossetia–Alania

Novgorod Oblast

Novosibirsk Oblast

Omsk Oblast

Orenburg Oblast

Oryol Oblast

Penza Oblast

Perm Krai

Note: the territories of the cities and towns of krai significance of Alexandrovsk, Chusovoy, Dobryanka, Gremyachinsk, Kizel, and Krasnokamsk are incorporated, correspondingly, as Alexandrovsky, Chusovskoy, Dobryansky, Gremyachinsky, Kizelovsky, and Krasnokamsky Municipal Districts.

Primorsky Krai

Pskov Oblast

Rostov Oblast

Ryazan Oblast

Federal city of Saint Petersburg

Sakha Republic

Sakhalin Oblast

Samara Oblast

Saratov Oblast

Federal city of Sevastopol

Smolensk Oblast

Stavropol Krai

Sverdlovsk Oblast

Tambov Oblast

Republic of Tatarstan

Tomsk Oblast

Tula Oblast

Tuva Republic

Tver Oblast

Tyumen Oblast

Udmurt Republic

Ulyanovsk Oblast

Vladimir Oblast

Volgograd Oblast

Vologda Oblast

Voronezh Oblast

Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug

Yaroslavl Oblast

Zabaykalsky Krai

References

Districts of Russia
Municipalities of Russia


title: Financial Alliance for Women

text:
The Financial Alliance for Women (formerly the Global Banking Alliance for Women or GBA) is a non-profit organization working as an international consortium of financial institutions interested in the female economy. Its members work in more than 135 countries to build programs that support women with access to capital, information, education and markets. The organization is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York.

History and leadership
The Alliance was established in 2000 by a network of banks. In November 2012, Inez Murray was appointed as its chief executive officer. She previously worked for Women's World Banking. The Alliance is also guided by a governing board.

Services and programs
The Alliance works with a range of financial institutions to bank women and support women entrepreneurs. Members include Westpac in Australia, BLC Bank in Lebanon, Access Bank in Nigeria, Standard Chartered and NatWest Group in the United Kingdom, Banco Popular in the United States, Itaú Unibanco in Brazil, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Sponsors
The Financial Alliance for Women is sponsored by:
 Data2X
 FMO
 International Development Research Centre
 The International Finance Corporation

References

External links
Official Site
 World Bank: Women's Access to Financial Services

Banking organizations
International non-profit organizations
Banking institutes
Non-profit organizations based in New York City


title: Häng me' på party

text:
Häng me' på party, written by Ulf Neidemar, is a song recorded by Ulf Neidemar and released as a single in 1971. An Ola Håkansson recording stayed at Svensktoppen for three weeks between 6–20 August 1972 with three 7th positions. Magnus Uggla recorded the song at his 1987 cover album "Allting som ni gör kan jag göra bättre".

References

1971 songs
Magnus Uggla songs
Swedish-language songs


title: Het Jachthuis Hoog Soeren

text:
Het Jachthuis Hoog Soeren is a defunct restaurant in Hoog Soeren, Apeldoorn in the Netherlands. It was awarded one Michelin star in 1994 and retained that rating until 2001. The restaurant closed in February 2014, when the lease expired. Owner and head chef cited the high rent, the economic crisis and the lack of Michelin star as reasons to quit, as he deemed exploitation not viable under these circumstances.

GaultMillau awarded the restaurant 16.0 out of 20 points.

Head chef of Het Jachthuis Hoog Soeren was Peter-Paul van den Breemen, who took over the restaurant in 2005. Head chef in the Michelin period was Jankees Roggeveen.

See also
List of Michelin starred restaurants in the Netherlands

References

Restaurants in the Netherlands
Michelin Guide starred restaurants in the Netherlands


title: James Rutledge

text:
James Rutledge is an English, London-based musician, record producer and remixer.  He is from Ashbourne, Derbyshire, England.

Life
James Rutledge studied at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Ashbourne alongside fellow musician Dave Tyack, before reading English Literature at St Anne's College, Oxford between 1996 and 1999.

Career
Rutledge recorded initially under the name Pedro, with his first EP in 1999 launching Manchester's Melodic Records. The name Pedro was derived from the main protagonist in the Alex Cox film El Patrullero. He has also recorded as Vowels and played with Ashbourne's Strongest Man, Chapters and D.O.T. (the latter in collaboration with Dave Tyack).  He has released work on the labels 4AD, Domino, Melodic, Moshi Moshi, Mush, RCA and Warp.

He has worked with, remixed or been remixed by Bloc Party, Bombay Bicycle Club, Bracken, Danger Mouse, Everything Everything, Fever Ray, Foals, Four Tet, Ellie Goulding, The Kills, MGMT, Telepathe, The Pastels, Post War Years, Prefuse 73 and Radiohead.

In 2008 he auctioned a four-hour remix of the Radiohead song Videotape recorded on VHS on eBay with the money going to the charity Missing People, in part in memory of Dave Tyack.

Awards
He was the Remixer of the Year at the 2011 MPG Awards.

He was shortlisted for Breakthrough Producer and Remixer of the Year at the 2012 MPG Awards.

Discography

Singles and EPs (as Pedro)
 Pedro EP (Melodic Records, 1999)
 Chapel Was My Dream (Melodic Records, 2001)

Remixes
 Japancakes - "Soon" (James Rutledge Mix)
 Bloc Party - "Uniform" (James Rutledge Remix)
 Fever Ray - "Triangle Walks" (James Rutledge Remix)
 Everything Everything - "MY KZ UR BF" (James Rutledge Remix)
 The Kills - "Last Day of Magic" (James Rutledge Remix)
 MGMT - "Electric Feel" (James Rutledge Remix)
 DNTEL - "To a Fault" (James Rutledge Remix)

References

English electronic musicians
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford
English record producers
Remixers
People from Ashbourne, Derbyshire


title: Get Hurt

text:
Get Hurt may refer to:

 Get Hurt (album), by the Gaslight Anthem (2014)
 Get Hurt (EP), by No Age (2007)
 "Get Hurt", a song by AFI from AFI (2017)


title: Mandatory Fun

text:
Mandatory Fun is the fourteenth and most recent studio album by American musician "Weird Al" Yankovic. The self-produced album was released by RCA Records in the United States on July 15, 2014. Yankovic had previously released Alpocalypse in 2011 and was touring in support of it when he first spoke of his next record. When he began to work on Mandatory Fun, Yankovic found himself listening to older acts, many of which he stylistically spoofed on the album.

Recorded at studios in Los Angeles and Massachusetts from 2012 to 2014, Mandatory Fun contains twelve songs, which include parodies of songs by Pharrell Williams, Robin Thicke, Iggy Azalea, Lorde and Imagine Dragons. It also features original songs in the form of pastiche, imitating the styles of the Pixies, Cat Stevens, Foo Fighters, Crosby, Stills & Nash and Southern Culture on the Skids. Yankovic composed the originals first and wrote the parodies last to allow them to be as timely as possible upon the album's release. Many artists reacted positively to being parodied; Williams remarked that he was "honored" to be spoofed by Yankovic, while Imagine Dragons advised Yankovic on how to replicate sounds in their original song.

After Yankovic's 32 years under contract, Mandatory Fun marks his first number one album in the United States. It received positive reviews from contemporary music critics. Yankovic chose not to release a lead single and instead publicized the album by launching eight music videos online during the first week of the album release through different video content portals. Among these, "Word Crimes" became Yankovic's fourth top 40 song, making him one of few artists to achieve such a feat in four separate decades.

The album won the award for Best Comedy Album at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, Yankovic's fourth career Grammy. Due to the completion of his record contract obligations and the success of the video strategy, Yankovic has suggested Mandatory Fun may be his last traditional album, switching to more timely releases of singles and EPs of his songs.

Background
During the closing stages of the Alpocalypse tour, Yankovic stated in an interview with The Morning Call that he had one more album on his contract; the paper and other sources took to mean that this album would be his last. Yankovic later clarified that this was the last album on the current recording contract with his label, that he is currently "weighing his options" for renewing the contract or looking to another publisher, and made it clear that he was not retiring from music in the foreseeable future. In a later interview with NPR's Weekend Edition, he stated that this might be his last conventional album, turning instead to more frequent releases of singles and EPs. For an LP, Yankovic stated that given the time lapse between the beginning of the process and the release of the finished product, "chances are a lot of the material is going to be somewhat dated by the time it comes out".

The first tracks conceived for the album were original songs in the style of various bands as, compared to direct parodies, the pastiches "age better". Prior to composing these songs, Yankovic had been listening to older acts such as Cat Stevens, Foo Fighters, and Southern Culture on the Skids for his own amusement. His Crosby, Stills & Nash style parody "Mission Statement" draws from his experiences attending executive meetings in his music career. Shortly after completing the song, Yankovic encountered Graham Nash, who coincidentally asked Yankovic to parody "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes". Yankovic played a recording of his pastiche on his phone to Nash on the spot, and Nash loved the track. "First World Problems" is an original composition emulating the style of the Pixies, whom Yankovic had performed alongside for a charity concert two years earlier. The song features background vocals by Amanda Palmer, emulating the vocal style of Kim Deal (particularly from the song "Debaser"). Palmer, who cites Yankovic and the Pixies as being among her childhood heroes, explained on her personal website that she and Yankovic had met at one of her concerts in Los Angeles a few years previously. After Yankovic learned that his fans had petitioned for him to headline a Super Bowl halftime show, he realized that he lacked a sports-themed composition in his repertoire, and decided to write "Sports Song".

Yankovic described that his usual method of generating parody ideas is to scan Billboard charts, radio play and online buzz to create a master list of candidates. From that point, he works out possible puns on the song titles, the potential for humor, and general direction for his versions. Fans speculated ahead of the album's release that Yankovic would parody "Let It Go", from the Disney film Frozen, due to the song's popularity. He considered making a Frozen parody titled "Make It So" about Star Trek: The Next Generation, but decided not to after discovering such a parody already existed. Yankovic observed that the existing spoof "had gotten enough attention online to make the Disney legal department ask them to take it down! I couldn't think of an idea that I liked as much as 'Make It So', so... I gave up!". There were several other songs he intended to parody, but felt he was unable to develop a clever enough idea for, and instead used them in the medley "Now That's What I Call Polka". More specifically, Yankovic expressed that while Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" is an "iconic song", it was too repetitive for him to incorporate new lyrics into effectively.

Recording

Twelve songs were recorded for Mandatory Fun. Most of the sessions took place at Way Station, GoDaveyGo Studio and Bedrock L.A. in Los Angeles. Yankovic pre-recorded demos of each song on his personal laptop prior to recording, to show his bandmates the direction to go in. The earliest songs produced were "Mission Statement", "Lame Claim to Fame" and "My Own Eyes", which were recorded on September 4, 2012. Three more songs were recorded later: "Sports Song" on May 3, followed by "First World Problems" and "Jackson Park Express" on May 8, 2013. Yankovic announced Amanda Palmer's involvement in the album later that month. Her background vocal sessions for "First World Problems" took place at Mad Oak Studios in Allston, Massachusetts, as she was unable to travel to L.A. at the time. Yankovic coached Palmer remotely via Skype as she attempted to emulate the vocal style of Kim Deal.

Yankovic sought permission from the original artists for his parodies, as he had typically done in the past; in contrast to previous albums, he had few difficulties. Yankovic stated "This is the first time where I've gotten everybody that I wanted, and I couldn't be happier about it." He was able to get Pharrell Williams' permission for three of the songs he represented on the album, Williams' "Happy", Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines", and "Get Lucky", through a personal email to the artist after Yankovic's manager had difficulty working this with Williams' manager; according to Yankovic, Williams was "honored" to have his work used by Yankovic. Yankovic and his band got full cooperation from Imagine Dragons, who gave permission and advised on how to recreate some of the sounds used in "Radioactive" for Yankovic's sendup "Inactive".

When Yankovic decided to parody "Blurred Lines", he was initially concerned that by the time his version was released, a year later, many parodies would already exist. He therefore opted to go in a more distinct direction by making "Word Crimes", which continues his fascination with grammar previously expressed in video set pieces where he corrected malformed public signage and text. Yankovic said that his version avoids the perceived misogyny of the original song and its various existing parodies. He also considered this "the only chance that 'Blurred Lines' will be used in the curriculum of somebody's school". "Word Crimes", "Inactive" and "Foil" were all recorded in December 2013 while "Tacky" and "Now That's What I Call Polka!" were produced the following April. Lisa Popeil also revealed in April that she would be recording with Yankovic for the album. Comedian Patton Oswalt, who appears in the video for "Foil", listened to Yankovic's album in May 2014 and revealed that "He satirizes a band I've worshiped since the 90s". Yankovic later affirmed that Oswalt was referring to his Pixies pastiche.

Eleven tracks had been completed by early 2014, and Yankovic set the release date in the middle of the year as to keep the material "as timely as possible". However, he wished to find "the big hit of the summer" to add to the set. Yankovic recalled that he determined the saturation point of Iggy Azalea's "Fancy" by asking his daughter: "I said, 'Are they talking about Iggy Azalea at school?' And she says, 'Well, not so much.' I asked the same thing two weeks later and she said, 'Oh yeah, that's all they're talking about now!'" Yankovic then traveled from Los Angeles to Denver, Colorado in early June 2014 to ask Azalea permission to parody her song. He noted that meeting a spoof target in person is not his usual method for obtaining permission, but was necessary in this instance to meet the album deadline. The encounter was described by TMZ as an "ambush" as Yankovic presented the potential parody lyrics to Azalea backstage at one of her concerts. He later clarified that the meeting was much more polite and blown out of proportion by TMZ. Yankovic recorded the Azalea parody "Handy" that same month, and announced that the album mastering process was complete on June 12.

Composition

Mandatory Fun consists of twelve tracks, five of which are parodies of songs popular at the time of the album's production. The opening Iggy Azalea parody of "Fancy" is "Handy", performed from the point of view of a person described by Kenneth Partridge of Billboard as "the world's most braggadocious contractor". The character portrayed in the song rhymes about various handyman tasks including installing countertops, tile floors, and repairing leaf blowers. Kevin O'Keeffe of The Wire noted that the only direct connection between the character and Azalea is the line "I got 99 problems but a switch ain't one", which refers to Azalea's appearance in the song "Problem".

The Southern Culture on the Skids pastiche "Lame Claim to Fame" examines celebrity-obsessed culture. It features frequent name-drops as the singer brags about having tangential associations with popular people. "Foil" is a parody of the Lorde song "Royals" and focuses on two cases of aluminum foil use: the first verse deals with food being preserved with the material, while the second verse describes the foil being used by conspiracy theorists as a protective hat. O'Keeffe observed that it is the shortest parody on Mandatory Fun as it omits the bridge and final chorus of the original song. The original composition "Sports Song" imagines a college marching band directly insulting the opposing team with their fight song. Annie Zaleski of The A.V. Club summarized the track as a "passable but not particularly inspired take on rabid fandom".

The following Robin Thicke parody, "Word Crimes", involves the singer pointing out common grammatical errors and shaming people who engage in various other common textual misconceptions. "My Own Eyes" is a style parody of the Foo Fighters in which the protagonist recalls witnessing unusual events throughout his life, such as elderly men dying of "Bieber fever" and a mime "hacked to death with an imaginary cleaver". Partridge felt that the pastiche "falls flat" without Dave Grohl's songwriting and personality. "Now That's What I Call Polka!" is Yankovic's twelfth polka medley, in which Yankovic sings selections of various popular songs at the time of recording, set to a polka music. The title is a parody of the long-running series of compilation albums released by EMI, Now That's What I Call Music!.

The song "Mission Statement" emulates the style of Crosby, Stills & Nash, with the lyrics citing a series of corporate buzzwords and executive jargon. Yankovic considered it "ironic to juxtapose that with the song stylings of CSN, whose music pretty much symbolizes the antithesis of corporate America". Rolling Stone noted that the song imitates the band's layered harmonies used in "Carry On" and "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes".

"Inactive" is a spoof of the Imagine Dragons song "Radioactive" that centers on an extremely lethargic character covered in food residue. O'Keeffe remarked upon the breathing sounds of the original song being recontextualized in the parody, as the character mentions that he requires an inhaler. The Pixies pastiche "First World Problems" lampoons people who complain of various First World problems such as the lack of gluten-free cookies in an airport lounge. The song features "off-kilter guitars and a Black Francis-esque raucous vocal delivery" with stylistic references to the Pixies songs "Debaser" and "Hang Wire". The sendup of Pharrell Williams' "Happy" is the song "Tacky", in which the singer boasts of having no shame and making unfashionable or tactless choices. Reviews noted that the song lists various disruptive acts associated with social media, referencing Instagram, Twitter, and Yelp.

Following Yankovic's tradition of recording long-form songs such as "Albuquerque", "Genius in France", and "Trapped in the Drive-Thru", he concludes the album with a 9-minute plus track called "Jackson Park Express". The song is in the style of Cat Stevens and can be described as "an in-depth vignette about a bus-ride-length romance that's really a figment of the protagonist's imagination." Another review detailed that the piece is a conversation between two bus passengers involving topics such as relationships,  deodorant, and wearing the skin of another person; the protagonist insists that the latter is "not in a creepy way." Comedy website Chortle opined that "Jackson Park Express" is the best song on the album and "arguably the funniest one he's ever written."

Packaging

The cover art and title of the album was first affirmed via the RCA Records website. Regarding the title of the album, Yankovic commented that "That was just an oxymoron that I've always been amused by. It's used a lot in corporate retreats and, I'm told, in the military." Yankovic also acknowledged that the name is speculated to be a reference to the album marking the end of his 32-year-long label contract.

The artwork is designed to resemble an agglomeration of Soviet and Chinese propaganda, and Yankovic is described by Rolling Stone as wearing a Russian military costume over a font resembling Soviet text. Communist propaganda is often drawn in  shades of red, features people marching, and is supported in the background by an image of a leader. Yankovic stated that the cover image was photographed as early as August 2013. Yankovic said the cover art was a play on the name Mandatory Fun.

Promotion

Before the album was complete and a release date was set, Yankovic had already booked promotional appearances that coincidentally fell around the album's time of release: this included an appearance on the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History where he dressed as Isaac Newton and the Comedy Central series Drunk History where he played Adolf Hitler.  Yankovic started hinting at the release of Mandatory Fun using social media in mid-June 2014. On June 14, he posted a self-described "cryptic" image of himself with the message "July 15", which Rolling Stone specified as being the album release date. Yankovic used a series of short trailers to tease the album, using stock footage of historical communism and military propaganda films interspersed with imagery from the album cover art. He later observed that his portrayal of Hitler on Drunk History fit the "totalitarian theme" of the Mandatory Fun artwork.

Yankovic announced that there would be no pre-album single for Mandatory Fun and instead he would let the listeners decide which songs are the hits. He also revealed that he would participate in a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" session on the day of the album release. Yankovic explained that the pre-release campaign deliberately withheld song information, since he felt it has become more difficult to establish a unique take on a parody in the age of YouTube content creation. He later made an appearance on the Hulu sitcom The Hotwives of Orlando that coincided with the Mandatory Fun launch. After the album was released, he elaborated that putting out singles was technically unnecessary, since customers can buy the songs individually from digital vendors.

Yankovic made a commitment not to tour for an entire year during 2014, instead using Mandatory Fun to tour "with a vengeance" in 2015. "The Mandatory World Tour" was announced in January 2015, and covered venues in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand throughout 2015 starting that May. Yankovic continued this tour in 2016 primarily across North America.

Music videos

To help promote Mandatory Fun in social media circles, Yankovic produced eight music videos for the album; one was revealed each day starting on July 14, 2014, a day prior to the album's release. Yankovic commented that "there is no more music television" as there was in the past, and that "the Internet [...] is the new MTV" that operates continuously. Yankovic came up with the idea for the video promotion of the new album about two years before its release. He felt that releasing a new video for eight continuous days "would make an impact because people would be talking about the album all week long". The approach has been compared to Beyoncé Knowles' marketing for her album Beyoncé which took advantage of social media; when asked if this video strategy was influenced by Knowles, Yankovic pointed out that his previous record Alpocalypse featured videos for every song at the time of release: "Nobody said to Beyoncé, 'Hey, you're doing a Weird Al, aren't ya?' So for the record, I was first."

Although the music video aspect of Yankovic's songs had long been a part of his success, RCA Records opted not to fund any video production for Mandatory Fun. Yankovic instead turned to various social media portals including Funny or Die and CollegeHumor which he had worked with in the past; these sites helped to cover the production cost of the videos with Yankovic forgoing any video ad revenue. He chose to distribute the videos to different portals to avoid burdening any single one with all of the costs and work needed to produce them. This release strategy was considered by The Atlantic as a "web-enabled precision video delivery operation, and evidence of some serious digital distributional forethought" as it allows the videos to be seen by different sets of audiences for each site. During an interview on Fox Business, Yankovic explained his method of funding to Stuart Varney, who seemed to misunderstand the possible monetization of Yankovic's videos.

The first music video debuted on July 14, featuring the song "Tacky". Produced by Nerdist Industries, the one-shot video mimicks Williams' own style used in his video for "Happy": It features Aisha Tyler, Margaret Cho, Eric Stonestreet, Kristen Schaal, Jack Black and Yankovic dressed in tacky clothes and dancing poorly on purpose while lip-synching to the song's lyrics about a person who brags on about his questionable style choices. The video was filmed at Palace Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, previously featured as Julianne Moore's apartment in 1998 film The Big Lebowski. Yankovic specified that during each of the six continuous takes, he had to rush down five flights of stairs while changing his outfit in order to appear in the beginning and end of the video. The video for "Word Crimes" features kinetic typography created by Jarrett Heather, reflecting the song's theme of proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation. The "Foil" video, produced in conjunction with CollegeHumor, shows Yankovic as the host of a cooking show obsessing on the use of aluminium foil, suddenly descending into conspiracy theories; it also includes guest appearances by Patton Oswalt, Tom Lennon, and Robert Ben Garant.

"Handy" was released through Yahoo! Screen's "Sketchy" channel, and it is presented in the style of a late-night infomercial with Yankovic performing as a residential general contractor; the video also includes Eddie Pepitone, Justin Giddings, and Ted Hollis.  The video for "Sports Song" plays to the song's theme, featuring Yankovic along with the Riverside City College Marching Tigers band performing a routine on a football field during the song; the video was directed by Yankovic with Andrew Bush and Brad Schulz and produced in conjunction with Funny or Die. The video for "First World Problems" was directed by Liam Lynch and shows Yankovic, posing as a "pretentious jerk" wearing a "douchey blonde wig", over-reacting to minor annoyances of a well-off lifestyle.

"Lame Claim to Fame" is a stop-motion video directed by animator Tim Thompson, using a scrapbooking approach to show the protagonist's passing ties with various celebrities. This video took over a year and a half to complete. Among the cut-outs of celebrities named in the song, the video includes pictures of Dr. Demento, the radio host that helped Yankovic's rise to popularity, his band members, and numerous references to past songs he wrote. The final video was for "Mission Statement", which was released via the Wall Street Journal. The video was produced by the business marketing company TruScribe, featuring their time-lapse whiteboard drawings which they have done for advertisements for companies like Microsoft and PayPal. It took about 10 months to create, going back and forth with Yankovic to match their drawings to the concept and musical themes of the song.

Reception

Critical response

The review aggregator website Metacritic gave the album an average score of 77, based on 11 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews." The Los Angeles Times gave the album a perfect four star rating and called it a "stone cold masterpiece", praising how the album's parody tracks work well from their original material with Yankovic's take on the lyrics. The A.V. Club considered the album successful with only a few missteps, with "smart meta-commentary on pop music and a collection that never takes itself too seriously". Rolling Stone reviewed the song "Tacky" stating that "Weird Al is in fine form throughout the track".

ABC News's Allan Raible described the album as among his best work, writing, "What makes this one sharp is that it really captures the current culture in a bubble in a way that is more pinpointed than on previous records." Billboard considered the record's original songs its best material and "Word Crimes" the best parody. Paste similarly agreed that Yankovic's original materials were the highlight of the album and that, as a whole, Mandatory Fun is "a good, humorous album that shows that Yankovic is not slowing down in the slightest".

Mandatory Fun won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album at the 57th edition.

Commercial performance
Mandatory Fun debuted atop the United States Billboard 200 on the week of August 2, 2014. This makes it Yankovic's first number one album on the chart in his more than 30-year career. Mandatory Fun was the first comedy album to debut at the number one slot. Mandatory Fun is also the first comedy album to reach the number one spot since Allan Sherman's My Son, the Nut in August 1963. It achieved the largest sales week for a comedy album since The Beavis and Butt-head Experience in 1994 after selling 104,700 copies during the sales week ending July 20, 2014. Prior to final figures, Yankovic was slated to sell 70,000–75,000 retail copies by the end of the tracking week, placing him just above Jason Mraz's Yes! The estimated sales figures are almost double that of sales of Alpocalypse during its first week of release in 2011. The song "Word Crimes" placed #39 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the same week, the fourth Top 40 song in Yankovic's career and making him the third artist, after Michael Jackson and Madonna, to have a Top 40 song in each of the four decades since the 1980s.

Businessweek attributed the sales success of Mandatory Fun to the viral music video campaign. ABC World News elaborated that Yankovic's success is in part due to the Internet's interest in viral and humorous videos catching up with what Yankovic has been doing for his entire career. Yankovic himself was amazed with the response he got from the album and video releases, stating that "I've been doing the same thing for 30 years and all of a sudden I'm having the best week of my life" and that he "kind of stumbled on my formula for the future". He also stated, "A No. 1 album is something I never had in my wildest dreams ever thought would be a reality." The total collection of videos had acquired more than 46 million views within 10 days of the album's release, and six of the eight videos reached the top position on the Billboard Twitter Real-Time Trending 140 chart during that week. In contrast, Yankovic's video for "Perform This Way", the lead single off Alpocalypse, only received 16.8 million views in the three years since its release, while an individual video from Mandatory Fun, like "Tacky", received 12.8 million views within the first week. His exposure on social networks jumped 3,391% between the weeks of July 7–13 and July 14–20, giving him more exposures than Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and Justin Timberlake.

Track listing

Personnel
The following is adapted from the album liner notes.

"Weird Al" Yankovic Band
 "Weird Al" Yankovic – production, lead vocals, accordion, keyboards, backing vocals
 Jim "Kimo" West – guitar, banjo, keyboards, vocals
 Steve Jay – bass guitar, keyboards, string arrangement, vocals
 Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz – drums, percussion, drum programming, vocals
Technical personnel
 Dave Way, Brian Warwick, Rafael Serrano – engineering
 Benny Grotto – additional production (track 10)
 Bernie Grundman – mastering

Additional performers
 Monique Donnelly – background vocals (track 3)
 James King– saxophone (track 4)
 Mike Uhler – cornet (track 4)
 Mike Bolger – tuba (track 4)
 Wayne Bergeron – trumpet (track 7)
 Joel Peskin – clarinet (track 7)
 Jim Self – tuba (track 7)
 Suzanne Yankovic – screams (track 7)
 Amanda Palmer – vocals (track 10)
 Lisa Popeil – background vocals (track 11)
 Scottie Haskell, Maxine Waters, Julia Waters – background vocals (track 12)

Release history

Chart positions

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Notes

  Gaye was not credited as a songwriter, but a court later ruled that "Blurred Lines" plagiarized Gaye's song "Got to Give It Up", and it thus must be credited on "Blurred Lines" and all derivative works, including "Word Crimes".

References

External links
Official music videos from "Weird Al" Yankovic's YouTube account:
 "Word Crimes"
 "Foil"
 "Lame Claim to Fame"
 "First World Problems"
 "Sports Song"
 "Handy"
 "Tacky"
 "Mission Statement"

2014 albums
Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album
RCA Records albums
"Weird Al" Yankovic albums


title: Fedden Mission

text:
The Fedden Mission was a British scientific mission sent by the Ministry of Aircraft Production to Germany at the end of the Second World War in Europe, to gather technical intelligence about German aircraft and aeroengines. It was named for the Mission's leader, Roy Fedden. It visited Bad Oeynhausen, Bad Eilsen, Völkenrode, Braunschweig, Magdeburg, Oschersleben, Staßfurt, Dessau, Kothen, Nordhausen, Göttingen, Kassel, Eisenach, Frankfurt, Rüsselsheim, Darmstadt, Stuttgart, Esslingen, Reutlingen, Mengen, Lindau, Freising, Munich, Rosenheim, Kochel, Oberammergau, Kolbermoor, Salzburg, Spittal, Villach, and Klagenfurt. This is much less than the fifty-two locations they had intended to visit when the Mission began.

The Mission was inspired in part by the similar American scientific mission, Operation Lusty, as well as by the German advances in jet aircraft and engines, as well as ballistic missiles, toward the war's end. It was also, in part, inspired by the desire to disarm Germany and prevent another postwar rise, like the one following the end of the First World War. (Unspoken, but also doubtless a factor, was a desire to keep Britain from becoming a second-rate nation.) In any event, the capture of German technology by both the United States and Soviet Union contributed to an acceleration of the postwar arms race.

Organized at the instruction of Stafford Cripps, then Minister of Aircraft Production, the Mission consisted of Fedden; Dr W J Duncan, Professor of Aeronautics from University College of Hull, then seconded to the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE); J C King of RAE's Structural and Mechanical Engineering Department; Flight Lieutenant A B P Beeton, RAF, of RAE's Engine Department; Bert Newport of Rotol, Ltd. They were assisted by W J Stern of the Allied Control Commission and Wing Commander V Cross, RAF, the Mission's Liaison Officer to Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (as well as its translator); their two RAF Dakotas were flown by F/L Reid, RAF, and F/L Cheany, RAFVR. These aircraft each carried one of the Mission's Jeeps, which they soon learned to unload and have on the road in only ten minutes.

Everywhere the Mission went, it encountered looting by Allied troops and German civilians, and sabotage by German factory workers and the Heer (on Hitler's orders) The German scientists and technicians were, in general, very co-operative with the British interviewers, with Fedden mentioning "considerable apprehension" about their fate and some wishing to emigrate to the U.S. or Canada. (They had genuine concern about forced emigration to the Soviet Union, as many of the V-2 program scientists suffered.)

The Mission particularly criticized the RLM for its starting and stopping of engine production programs.

In Germany

First week - June 12-16
The Mission left RAF Northolt on Tuesday, 12 June 1945 at 14.15, bound for Bückeburg, Germany,  southwest of Hannover. They reached Bückeburg at 16.30 and were immediately sent on to another airfield; they eventually reached Bad Eilsen, headquarters of Second Tactical Air Force, at 21.30. From there, they were driven to 21st Army Group. headquarters at Bad Oeynhausen, where they spent their first night. Wing Commander Cross, by proposing one aircraft fly ahead to arrange accommodations, permits for interviews, travel permits for interview subjects, and so on, made an important contribution to the timely operation, and ultimate success, of the Mission. The Mission's access to German civilians was strictly limited by an Allied policy discouraging contact beyond what was strictly necessary.

The Mission based their initial forays out of Braunschweig, in the British Occupation Zone, where they spent their first six days, moving later to Kassel, in the American Zone. For their more southerly objecties, they worked out of Freising, headquarters of Third U.S. Army Intelligence, some  from Hamburg, for another six days. Their third base of operations was SHAEF Headquarters, Frankfurt.

On their second full day in Germany, Thursday 14 June, they visited the most secret German aeronautical research establishment, the Hermann Göring Institute (or Luftfahrtforschungsanstalt, LFA), at Völkenrode; they remained there through 15 June. Völkenrode, today a western district of the nearby city of Braunschweig, was at the top of Fedden's list — despite its eventual presence on the west side of the Inner German border, with Völkenrode being within West German borders — because it was initially within the designated Russian Zone of Occupation, due to be handed over from British control (in which it was when he departed) in a matter of days. When the Mission arrived, the LFA had already been stripped by Combined Intelligence Objectives Subcommittee (CIOS) teams, and was (despite being in the British Zone) effectively in U.S. hands.

At Völkenrode, the Mission examined the wind tunnels. These had been used to develop the swept wing, the forward-swept wing, the Messerschmitt Me 262, the BMW-designed cowlings used for all versions of the BMW 801 radial (used in the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 and a number of other important German military aircraft designs, especially in unitized engine formats), the Argus-designed pulsejet engine of the V-1 cruise missile, and other items. The members also viewed examples of the Rheinmetall-Börsig F25 Feuerlilie surface-to-air missile, named for the Fire Lily flower (though the Mission Report shows photographs of the F55), and examples of documentation concerning the competing designs for the Amerikabomber design competition (which is suspected to not have included any mention, nor discovered any evidence of Heinkel's entry in the program), as well as the Engine Department.

While the team found evidence of trials of photoelastic lacquers for stress tests, it proved impossible to interview any of the laboratory staff to learn more. (Fedden considered the LFA Engine Department lacking in modern equipment, but the LFA complex possessed a better altitude test bed installation than any in Britain; a better example still would be seen at BMW's Munich facility.)  The turbojet engine research artifacts found included examples of turbine and stator blade forms, blade cooling, blade construction (including hollow and ceramic types), piston cooling, and other matters. While at Völkenrode, the Americans stole equipment from under the noses of the British (including an interferometer), only to have the thefts denied when confronted by Britain at Potsdam. The Fedden Mission spent two days at Völkenrode, its sub-team returning ten days later.

The Mission left Braunschweig airfield 19.15 on Friday, 15 June for Kassel,  away (where the Henschel firm's aviation division was based); next morning, one group went to Göttingen to interrogate Dr. Ludwig Prandtl and his team; Fedden called them "a first class team of experimental research workers". While in Göttingen, Mission members examined more than ten wind tunnels on the campus, plus several used for fluid dynamics studies. They spent 17 June in Göttingen, also.

The same day, the second Mission group flew to Oschersleben (the home of AGO, a major Fw 190A subcontractor) then drove by Jeep to the Junkers jet engine plant at Magdeburg. They had little time before it, and all the surrounding territory, was handed over to the Soviets. The Junkers works, used for manufacturing and overhaul of Jumo 004 jet engines, had been heavily bombed; while there were a number of engine test-beds, there was no sign of jet engine research having been done there. Otto Hartkopf, then acting works manager, conducted the Junkers factory tour, explaining all the jet engine drawings had already been removed. Hartkopf reported over 5,000 jet engines had been produced there in all; production, including several other plants, was expected to reach 5,000 per month. (At war's end, deliveries of 004s had reached 1,500 a month.) The Mission observed the construction methods of the 004; Fedden criticized the attachment of the 004's compressor casing, which was in two halves, bolted to the half-sections of the stator assemblies.

Second week (17-23 June 1945)
The Mission also examined production of the BMW 003 jet engine, at facilities in  Eisenach and Staßfurt. On Monday, 18 June, it split in two teams again, one driving the Eisenach works.  Fedden met with Dr. Bruno Bruckmann, head of BMW's jet engine research program in Berlin and strong supporter of jet engine production and use, as well as to drive propellers (turboprop engines); in 1942, Bruckman was made head of BMW piston engine programs.  At Eisenach, the Mission spoke to the facility's managing director, Dr. Schaaf, and Drs. Fattler and Stoffergen, learning BMW employed 11,000 there in all, 4,500 in a camouflaged factory in the side of the hill, the rest in the town. Despite adding plants at Spandau, Nordhausen, and Prague, BMW never reached the production target of 5,000 to 6,000 109-003 engines a month, with only some 500 examples of the 003 built before V-E Day.

At Eisenach, the Mission discovered the BMW 003R had incorporated a reusable liquid fueled rocket engine in the rear of the nacelle, the BMW 109-718, to act as an assisted take-off unit, or to provide acceleration in climb or flight (akin to what the Americans postwar called "mixed power"). Fedden called the production quality at Eisenach "excellent". The next day, the Mission examined a BMW facility near Staßfurt, set up in a former salt mine  underground, which was to have used for machining jet engine parts, and possibly for assembly, also; Stoffergen said 1,700 machine tools had been installed, and some 2,000 workers had been employed. The Mission also found some information on the high-thrust (designed for a 34.3 kN (7,700 lbf) top output level) BMW 018 jet engine project, which was begun in 1940, but remained unfinished by war's end; Fedden himself examined compressor blade forgings and a turbine blade.

By Monday, June 18, the Mission drove from Kothen to Dessau, home of Junkers Flugzeug-und-Motorenwerke. Speaking to the technical director in charge of the inverted V12, liquid-cooled Junkers Jumo 213's development, the Mission learned there were many experimental variants, but only three [definitive] models: the 213A (the major production version), the 213E (a high-altitude model), and the projected 213J (improved still more).

The Mission visited Nordhausen (the Mittelwerk) 19 June, some by DC-3 Dakota, some by Jeep. There, they first came in contact with concentration camps (among which Nordhausen was not officially counted). Nevertheless, Mission members found themselves revolted. With the handover to the Soviets only two days away, the Mission had little time to explore, and there was no well-informed guide. They found hundreds of incomplete V-1s, and many spare parts for the V-2, even after the U.S. had spent the ten weeks since the factory was discovered stripping it before turning it over to the Soviets; as much as three hundred railcar-loads worth of material may have been removed, in addition to numerous complete V-2s.

On Thursday, 21 June, the Fedden Mission travelled from Eisenach to Klobermoor, location of the Heinkel-Hirth engine works. There, they examined copies of the Heinkel HeS 011 jet engine, one of Germany's finest and most advanced turbine engines of the period, of which only 19 development and test examples were ever completed. The Mission conducted extensive interviews with the managing director, Mr. Schaaf, and the senior planning engineer, Mr. Dorls, as well as Hartkopf, comparing piston and jet engine production; the Mission compiled a table of comparative cost of materials, finding jets were between one half and two-thirds as costly, as well as being simpler and requiring lower-skill labor and less sophisticated tooling; in fact, most of making of hollow turbine blades and sheet metal work on jets could be done by tooling used in making automobile body panels. While Fedden was critical of some of the German design decisions, the Mission estimated German jet engine production by mid-1946 would have been at a rate of at least 100,000 a year.

The Mission was told the overhaul cycle for the Jumo 004 was between thirty and fifty hours (and about fifty for the BMW 003), and approximately 300 Jumo 004 engines had been rebuilt, some more than once.

Between Wednesday, 20 June and the following Sunday (24 June), the Mission (billetted overnight 20–21 June at the Third U.S. Army's Intelligence Center, examined BMW's plant at Munich and interviewed Dr. Bruckmann, Fedden's old friend, technical director of BMW's engine programs; Dr. Amman, in charge of BMW's piston engine development; Mr. Willich, his top aide; and Dr. Sachse, senior engineer until 1942,  and the man responsible for overseeing production of the 801 radial. While at Munich, the Mission examined several 801 developments, including a turbocharged version with hollow turbine blades; several of these were apparently abandoned at Kassel's airfield They also examined the Wright Duplex-Cyclone displacement class BMW 802, an "interesting and unorthodox design" by Sachse; Fedden considered it "one of the most interesting piston engines seen in Germany". Of the 83.5-litre displacement class, BMW 803 possessing a 28-cylinder layout reminiscent of the Pratt & Whitney Wasp Major, but with the BMW four-row radial design using liquid cooling instead, as designed by Dr. Spiegel of Siemens, the final report remarked, "Its layout and design appeared clumsy and rather indifferent." They also witnessed the BMW 003A-1 axial-flow turbojet run on the Herbitus test stand.

Unable to visit Daimler-Benz's Stuttgart works until the second trip in July, the Mission nevertheless found contradictions between his briefing before departure and what his interviews with the company's general manager, Mr. Haspel, and chief designer, Dr. Schmidt, told him. The Mission was informed development of the 24-cylinder Daimler-Benz DB 604 single-crankcase X engine had been stopped in 1940 by the RLM and had finally been abandoned by Daimler-Benz in September 1942; Daimler-Benz had considered 36-cylinder engines, as well.>

At Völkenrode, the Mission found examples of Otto Lutz's swing-piston engine, developed co-operatively with Bussing of Braunschweig, with work also done by Mahle and Bosch. Fedden was dismissive. By contrast, he praised German use of wind tunnels in engine development, and suggested fuel injection was increasingly important for piston engines, especially as the number of cylinders rose.

The Mission's examination of fuel injection research was hampered by being unable to speak to the injection specialists at Junkers in Magdeburg or Deckel in Munich, but at Munich, a member of Bosch's development department, Dr. Heinrich, advised the Mission members Germany had made few advances in the field beyond higher-capacity pumps, but learned BMW had preferred the Bosch closed nozzle for the 801, while Junkers chose the open nozzle for the Junkers Jumo 213 inverted V12 aviation engine. They got better information on German aircraft spark plugs, from BMW, Daimler, and Bosch, but not from Beru or Siemens, finding, in general, improvements focused on better performance at altitude or hotter, usually with better insulators or cooling.

Investigation of propellers found new research had been halted when RLM decided to focus on jets, only to be resumed. The Mission's interviews were limited to Vereinigte Deutsche Metallwerke (United German Metalworks, VDM), and, at Göttingen, they interviewed Dr. Stüper, who tested VDM's reversible propeller. This three-bladed unit had links to two electric motors, which could change the pitch at two degrees per second for constant speed or 60-100° per second for braking (in reverse mode); it was scheduled for production early in 1945, to be used by the Dornier Do 335, Dornier Do 317, and Focke-Wulf Fw 190. Mission members visited VDM's forging works at Heddernheim, on the outskirts of Frankfurt. Dr Eckert, of VDM spin-off company Continental Metall Gesellschaft (Continental Metal Company, CMG) confirmed Stüper's claims, adding CMG contemplated switching to hydraulic cylinders. CMG also had a four-bladed project propeller that could eliminate engine overspeeding, by reducing pitch on two blades and increasing it on the other two. In addition, CMG had done some work on hollow propeller blades, one made from a simple rectangular tube with welded-on edges.

Four members of the Mission went to Rosenheim and the BMW rocket development department at Bruckmühl, joined by Dr. Bruckmann, who informed them RLM had ordered rocket development begun in 1944. They were shown the BMW 109-718 assist rocket first. They were also shown the 109-558, used in the Henschel Hs 117 Schmetterling guided missile; the Report praised the 558 (though mildly. In addition, the Mission was shown the 109-548, the sustainer motor for the Ruhrstahl X-4 (which Fedden described as an "inter-aircraft rocket").

22 June, the Mission visited the Messerschmitt works at Oberammergau, in the Bavarian Alps, where a Bell Aircraft team had already been working some five weeks; there was also a representative from de Havilland. Messerschmitt had taken over a former Heer barracks in 1943, and constructed  of tunnels. The works there were a taste of the future, and Fedden interviewed a number of Messerschmitt's senior engineers, including Hans Hornung, Joseph Helmschrott, and chief designer Waldemar Voigt. The Mission were shown examples of the Me 262, with Voigt blaming inexperience among pilots, and compressor stalls, for several accidents. They also saw a variety of projected designs, including the P.1101 (the only one prototyped), P.1110, P.1112,. and P.1108 (which Fedden, apparently, mis-identifies as the PL.08.01).

Allied bombing
The Fedden Mission, throughout its time in Germany, encountered the destructive effects of bombing. Indeed, on its first day in Germany, it could scarcely navigate through Braunschweig. Many of the factories they had hoped to visit, including Daimler-Benz's in Untertürkheim (Stuttgart), Junkers' at Dessau, BMW's in Staßfurt, Bosch's in Stuttgart, and Junkers Jumo's at Magdeburg, were in ruins — the twin Junkers facilities and the Staßfurt facility for BMW were  to end up in the Soviet Zone of Occupation in a very short time. Yet many interview subjects reported Allied bombing of German communications, including railyards, trains, and roads, was ultimately more damaging to production than bombing of factories, since the works could be dispersed or restored to service with relative ease. The Germans reported communications attacks reduced production of piston aeroengines by spring 1945 to a third of what it had been. For his part, Albert Speer wondered why the Allies never attacked the few engine manufacturing works, which, he suggested, would have crippled German production.

The Second Mission
Most of the Mission returned to Britain on 1 July 1945, just Stern and Beeton remaining. 4 July, they arranged for the Mission to see BMW's high-altitude engine test bench in Munich, which Fedden and three others did 17 July, as part of an eight-day trip. A sub-group of the Mission, with some further British aeronautical design engineers, returned to Germany from 16–25 July 1945, working out of Freising,  to examine the BMW high-altitude test chamber at Munich, as well as German facilities at Stuttgart, Göttingen, Volkenrode, and Kochel, in order to gather more information on German turbine manufacture and to witness the testing of the Goblin on the Munich testbed. The BMW facility, codenamed Herbitus, was designed and operated by Christoph Soestmeyer, and was finished in May 1944. It was used for trials on BMW and Jumo turbine engines, as well as the 801; Soestmeyer reported RLM had intended to build similar facilities at the central Luftwaffe test station, or Erprobungsstelle at Rechlin, and in Berlin, Dessau, and Stuttgart. The test facility was a building  square and  high, containing a steel cylindrical altitude chamber some  in diameter and  long, with a detachable rear section, allowing engines to be wheeled in and out for testing. It was capable of altitudes of as much as  and test speeds . The Mission hoped to test the Derwent V and de Havilland Goblin at altitude. Fedden called it "far in advance of any engine testing plant in England or America", and was sufficiently impressed as to suggest the plant be moved to Britain, but the Americans refused.

While in Germany, the team also returned to the enormous research station at Volkenrode, to Stuttgart, Göttingen, and Kochel, and on a day off (22 July 1945) visited Salzburg and Berchtesgaden in the Dakota.

The Mission returned to Britain with a Volkswagen on board, as well as a number of jet engines and rocket motors, turbine blades, and "a large quantity of drawings", yet much less than the Americans, which came to nearer 2,000 tons.

Unable to get the Herbitus test stand moved to Britain, and though Operation Surgeon had identified some desired 1,500 specialists to be brought to Britain (forcibly, if need be), Fedden had no better luck persuading His Majesty's Government to bring back German engineers and scientists, which both the Soviets (under Operation Osoaviakhim) and Americans (Operation Overcast, later called Operation Paperclip) were doing. In the event, only about 100 leaving Germany in 1946 and 1947 actually stayed in Britain. The Soviets moved "between 10,000 and 15,000". So many were taken by both the U.S. and the Soviet Union, the space program's running joke was, "Let's see if their Germans are better than our Germans."

Final report
The Fedden Mission issued a final report in summer 1945.

See also
 Ferdinand Brandner, a key designer of some of the Junkers Motorenwerke powerplants, including the advanced, multibank Junkers Jumo 222 engine series
 Operation Lusty, the similar American effort to acquire examples of, and to better understand, "LUftwaffe Secret TechnologY".
 Watson's Whizzers, the special American aviation unit tasked by "Lusty" to help acquire examples of German military aircraft.

Notes

Sources
 Christopher, John. The Race for Hitler's X-Planes. The Mill, Gloucestershire:  History Press, 2013.
 Fedden, Roy. "German Piston-Engine Progress", Flight 6 December 1945, pp. 602–6. (at Flightglobal online)

Allied occupation of Germany
Research and development in Nazi Germany
Science and technology during World War II
Intelligence operations
World War II operations and battles of Europe
Aftermath of World War II in Germany
Battles and operations of World War II
Soviet Union–United Kingdom relations
Operation Surgeon


title: Alf Schwarz

text:
Alf Schwarz ( 22 May 1935 – 3 August 2015) was a Canadian sociologist noted for his research in Sub-Saharan Africa. After studies at the Sorbonne (Paris)  with Raymond Aron, Pierre Bourdieu, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Roger Bastide, Georges Balandier and research assignment at Université de Dakar (Senegal), he began his academic career in 1963 with a faculty position at the Institut de recherches économiques et sociales of  Université Lovanium (Kinshasa, RDC). He joined in 1966 Université Laval (Quebec City) as professor of sociology. He founded at Laval University the first academic program in African studies in French speaking Canada. As one of the pioneers of African studies in Canada he was decidedly involved in the creation of the Canadian Association of African Studies and edited for many years the Canadian Journal of African Studies/La Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines. He retired from Laval University in 1998. He died in Natal, Brazil in 2015.

Honours
Professor Schwarz has been awarded Doctor honoris causa by the Universidade Estadual do Rio Grande do Norte (UERN, Mossoró, Brazil), and received an honorary Fellowship of the Fundação José Augusto, Natal, Brazil.

Books
1989, L'industrie de la sécheresse - le développement régional au Nordeste brésilien, CRAD, Université Laval, Québec, 385 p.
1989, Raison d'État / raison paysanne: essai sur le développement rural, Collection essais, Publications du Laboratoire de recherches  sociologiques, Université Laval, 125 p.
1986, Masse et individualité, in  Jacques  Zylberberg  (ed.), La sociologie des masses, Klincksieck Méridiens, Paris
1983, Les dupes de la modernisation, Editions Nouvelle Optique, Montréal, 298 p.
1982, Le tiers-monde et sa modernité de seconde main, FJA, Natal, 354 p.
1980, Le développement inégal au Zaïre: approche psycho-sociologique, in  V.Y. Mudimbe  (ed.), La dépendance de l'Afrique et les moyens d'y remédier, Berger-Levrault, Paris
1979, Colonialistes, africanistes et Africains, Editions  Nouvelle Optique, Montréal 120 p.
1979, Les faux prophètes de l'Afrique ou  l´afr (eu)canisme, Les Presses de l'Université Laval, Quebec, 244 p.
1975, Autopsie d'une aliénation: la jeunesse amérindienne du Nord canadien, in Elia Zureik et Robert M. Pike (eds.), Sozialization and Values in Canadien Society, Mc. Clelland and  Stewart, Toronto, 1975, pp. 239-261

References

Canadian sociologists
Academic staff of Université Laval
University of Paris alumni
People from Biberach (district)
1935 births
2015 deaths


title: Pest insect population dynamics

text:
The population dynamics of pest insects is a subject of interest to farmers, agricultural economists, ecologists, and those concerned with animal welfare.

Factors affecting populations

 Density-independent: Affect a population equally regardless of its density. Examples:
 A winter freeze may kill a constant fraction of potato leafhoppers in a peanut field regardless of the total number of leafhoppers.
 Japanese beetle larvae survive well with lots of summer rain.
 Temperature, humidity, fires, storms, dissolved oxygen for aquatic species.
 Density-dependent: Affect a population more or less as the population is bigger. Examples:
 A bigger population may be more vulnerable to diseases and parasites.
 A bigger population may have more intraspecific competition, while a smaller population may have more interspecific competition.
 Emigration from the population may increase as it becomes more crowded.

Life tables

A life table shows how and how many insects die as they mature from eggs to adults. It helps with pest control by identifying at what life stage pest insects are most vulnerable and how mortality can be increased. A cohort life table tracks organisms through the stages of life, while a static life table shows the distribution of life stages among the population at a single point in time.

Following is an example of a cohort life table based on field data from Vargas and Nishida (1980). The overall mortality rate was 94.8%, but this is probably an underestimate because the study collected the pupae in cups, and these may have protected them from birds, mice, harsh weather, and so on.

Life expectancy

From a life table we can calculate life expectancy as follows. Assume the stages  are uniformly spaced. The average proportion  of organisms alive at stage  between beginning and end is
 .
The total number  of future stages to be lived by individuals at age  and older is
  .
Then the life expectancy  at age  is
 .
We could have done the same computation with raw numbers of individuals rather than proportions.

Basic reproductive rate

If we further know the number  of eggs produced (fecundity) at age , we can calculate the eggs produced per surviving individual  as
 ,
where  is the number of individuals alive at that stage.

The basic reproductive rate , also known as the replacement rate of a population, is the ratio of daughters to mothers. If it's greater than 1, the population is increasing. In a stable population the replacement rate should hover close to 1. We can calculate it from life-table data as
 .
This is because each  product computes (first-generation parents at age )/(first-generation eggs) times (second-generation eggs produced by age- parents)/(first-generation parents at age ).

If  is the initial population size and  is the population size after a generation, then
 .

Generation time

The cohort generation time  is the average duration between when a parent is born and when its child is born. If  is measured in years, then
 .

Intrinsic rate of increase

If  remains relatively stable over generations, we can use it to approximate the intrinsic rate of increase  for the population:
 .
This is because
 ,
where the approximation follows from the Mercator series.  is a change in time, . Then we have
 ,
which is the discrete definition of the intrinsic rate of increase.

Growth models

In general, population growth roughly follows one of these trends:
 Logistic growth leveling out at some carrying capacity.
 Overshoot ("boom" and "bust" cycles).
 Oscillation at or below the carrying capacity.

Insect pest growth rates are heavily influenced by temperature and rainfall, among other variables. Sometimes pest populations grow rapidly and become outbreaks.

Degree-day calculations

Because insects are ectothermic, "temperature is probably the single most important environmental factor influencing insect behavior, distribution, development, survival, and reproduction." As a result, growing degree-days are commonly used to estimate insect development, often relative to a biofix point, i.e., a biological milestone, such as when the insect comes out of pupation in spring. Degree-days can help with pest control.

Yamamura and Kiritani approximated the development rate  as
 ,
with  being the current temperature,  being the base temperature for the species, and  being a thermal constant for the species. A generation is defined as the duration required for the time-integral of  to equal 1. Using linear approximations, the authors estimate that if the temperature increased by  (for instance, maybe  = 2 °C for climate change by 2100 relative to 1990), then the increase in number of generations per year  would be
 ,
where  is the current annual mean temperature of a location. In particular, the authors suggest that 2 °C warming might lead to, for example, about one extra generation for Lepidoptera, Hemiptera, two extra generations for Diptera, almost three generations for Hymenoptera, and almost five generations for Aphidoidea. These changes in voltinism might happen through biological dispersal and/or natural selection; the authors point to prior examples of each in Japan.

Geometric Brownian motion

Sunding and Zivin model population growth of insect pests as a geometric Brownian motion (GBM) process. The model is stochastic in order to account for the variability of growth rates as a function of external conditions like weather. In particular, if  is the current insect population,  is the intrinsic growth rate, and  is a variance coefficient, the authors assume that
 ,
where  is an increment of time, and  is an increment of a Wiener process, with  being standard-normal distributed. In this model, short-run population changes are dominated by the stochastic term, , but long-run changes are dominated by the trend term, .

After solving this equation, we find that the population at time , , is log-normally distributed:
 ,
where  is the initial population.

As a case study, the authors consider mevinphos application on leaf lettuce in Salinas Valley, California for the purpose of controlling aphids. Previous research by other authors found that daily percentage growth of the green peach aphid could be modeled as an increasing linear function of average daily temperature. Combined with the fact that temperature is normally distributed, this agreed with the GBM equations described above, and the authors derived that  and . Since the expected population based on the log-normal distribution grows with , this implies an aphid doubling time of  days. Note that other literature has found aphid generation times to lie roughly in the range of 4.7 to 5.8 days.

Repeated outbreak cycles

A 2013 study analyzed population dynamics of the smaller tea tortrix, a moth pest that infests tea plantations, especially in Japan. The data consisted of counts of adult moths captured with light traps every 5–6 days at the Kagoshima tea station in Japan from 1961 to 2012. Peak populations were 100 to 4000 times higher than at their lowest levels. A wavelet decomposition showed a clear, relatively stationary annual cycle in the populations, as well as non-stationary punctuations between late April and early October, representing 4-6 outbreaks per year of this multivoltine species. The cycles result from population overshoot.

These moths have stage-structured development life cycles, and a traditional hypothesis suggests that these cycles should be most synchronized across the population in the spring due to the preceding effects of cold winter months, and as the summer progresses, the life stages become more randomly assorted. This is often what's observed in North America. However, this study observed instead that populations were more correlated as the season progressed, perhaps because temperature fluctuations enforced synchrony. The authors found that when temperatures first increased above ~15 °C in the spring, the population dynamics crossed a Hopf bifurcation from stability to repeated outbreak cycles, until stabilization again in the fall. Above the Hopf threshold, population-cycle amplitude increased roughly linearly with temperature. This study affirmed the classic concept of temperature as a "pacemaker of all vital rates."

Understanding life-cycle dynamics is relevant for pest control because some insecticides only work at one or two life stages of the insect.

Effects of pest control

B. Chaney, a farm advisor in Monterey County, CA, estimates that mevinphos would kill practically all aphids in a field upon application. Wyatt, citing data from various Arthropod Management Tests, estimates that the percent of lettuce aphids killed is 76.1% for endosulfan and 67.0% for imidacloprid.

Insecticides used on gypsy moths in the 1970s had roughly a 90% kill rate.

Impact of climate change

Temperature change is argued to be the biggest direct abiotic impact of climate change on herbivorous insects. In temperate regions, global warming will affect overwintering, and warmer temperatures will extend the summer season, allowing for more growth and reproduction.

A 2013 study estimated that on average, crop pests and pathogens have moved to higher latitudes at a rate of about 2.7 km/year since 1960. This is roughly in line with estimates of the rate of climate change in general.

See also
 Insect ecology
 Population ecology
 Pesticide resistance
 Insecticide
 Pest control

Notes

Insect ecology
Pest insects
Population ecology


title: India Backbone Implementation Network

text:
IbIn (pronounced as ‘Ib’+’in’) stands for India Backbone Implementation Network. Conceived during the creation of the 12th Five Year Plan, IbIn's objective is to systematically promote capabilities that ensure coordination, collaboration, and implementation on issues, projects and policy within India. These capabilities include stakeholder alignment, project management, and policy advisory all of which require technical skills (for the process) as well as domain knowledge (pertaining to the specific subject matter or sector) knowledge. Since no single entity can provide all these skills and knowledge, IbIn is designed as a network that will cross-share and cross-link this information by leveraging partner organizations

Background

India has huge potential but there are many constraints to growth. A study of the root causes for why projects in India “get stuck” highlighted issues like conflicting interests amongst stakeholders, and poor coordination between agencies. As a result, implementation failures exist at many levels –at the centre, in the states, in districts and cities too. Therefore, to address these challenges to implementation, the 12th Five Year Plan recognized the need for a “backbone organization”, which led to the conceptualization of IbIn.

The concept of the IBIN was then developed through extensive discussions within the country of the root causes for coordination and implementation failures and through exploration of methods of coordination and effective implementation adopted by other countries. The concept was then offered for criticism to an international panel of experts in national evolution strategies, consisting of Dani Rodrik and Ricardo Hausmann (Harvard Kennedy School of Public Policy), Charles Sabel (Columbia Law School), Francis Fukuyama (Stanford University) and Mushtaq Khan (London Univ.) IbIn was launched in April 2013 as a Planning Commission initiative under the leadership of Arun Maira and anchored by India@75. The website of IbIn was launched in August 2013.

The 'IbIn Way'
Lack of multi-stakeholder alignment is one of the main reason for poor implementation in a cooperation setup. In a diverse country such as India, this alignment cannot be achieved by either imposing authority or appointing selected ‘experts’ to find a solution that will be imposed on the rest.  An alternative approach would be to encourage all stakeholders to an open exploration towards achieving a common objective. Since such an open and deliberative process could be challenging to manage, the ‘IbIn’ way emphasizes the use of proven and tested processes.

Structure of the IbIn movement
The movement has been modeled on the Total Quality Management (TQM) of Japan, which revolutionized Japan and made the manufacturing sector in Japan recognizable as an international benchmark for excellence. The IbIn movement has been envisaged as a backbone network structure.

Since IbIn is modeled as a network, it will need some mechanism to disseminate its capabilities. One such mechanism is by establishing ‘nodes’. A node is a structural unit within another larger organization that promotes the use of IbIn processes and capabilities.

Each node aims to bring three types of partners together. The partners either possess technical skills (in which case they are known as ‘enablers’) or the ability to dedicate resources – financial, human, knowledge, (known as ‘sponsors’). The network is also composed of organizations that generate the demand for IbIn capabilities and thus help spread the word (thus known as ‘Channels’).

The IbIn cell is the first node of the IbIn movement. The cell's core group consists of 7-8 professionals under the mentorship of Arun Maira. The IbIn cell is endorsed by the Planning Commission but anchored outside the official government structure at India @ 75.

IbIn activities

Projects

IbIn cell is facilitating multi-stakeholder engagement over contentious issues like Industrial Relations and Affordable Healthcare.  It is also involved projects that promote good practices like Business regulatory framework for India and Aspiration of elderly healthcare.

Capability building

IbIn cell is developing an India-centric tool box to develop capabilities in managing cooperation system.

Match-making/Node formation

Several nodes have also been by the IbIn cell to build specific capabilities in diverse areas:

 PCMD division of Planning Commission: The Planning-Coordinating-Managing division (PCMD) is working on initiatives like Policy coherence, Think tank for policy formulation etc.
 NIESBUD at Ministry of MSME:  The National Institute for entrepreneurship and small business development (NIESBUD) is anchoring cluster stimulation cell for accelerated cluster growth. It is supported by Ministry of MSME.
 Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP):  DIPP is anchoring the business regulatory ratings initiative with the support from Planning Commission.  Under this initiative, it would rank all the states in terms of ease of doing business in that state and promote good practices across states for improvement.
 Sakal-Pemandu: PEMANDU and Sakal have inked a 50: 50 JV to launch a joint program in Maharashtra for ‘Deliver Maharashtra’ program. They have already brought on board senior politicians from all parties and have kicked off "planning labs" from early-2014. Other states of India are also exploring application of PEMANDU methodology in their respective states.
 Bangalore Baptist Hospital: The BBH is anchoring an initiative for elderly healthcare.

References

External links
 http://www.ibinmovement.in
 https://web.archive.org/web/20110716024621/http://planningcommission.nic.in/
 http://www.giz.de/en/
 http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/india
 http://indiaat75.in/

Government programmes of India


title: Kebabpizza Slivovitza

text:
Kebabpizza Slivovitza is a song performed at Melodifestivalen 2008 by the group Andra Generationen. Being knocked out at the semifinals, the song lyrics depict traditions by immigrants in Sweden, especially those from the Balkan Peninsula, like kebab pizza and slivovitza, as well as prejudices.

On 22 July 2008, the song was performed at SVT's Allsång på Skansen.

Single
The single "Kebabpizza Slivovitza" was released on 20 February 2008, peaking at 2nd position at the Swedish singles chart.

On 2 March 2008 the song was tested for Svensktoppen but it failed to enter the chart.

Single track listing
Kebabpizza Slivovitza
Aldrig Lycklig
Kebabpizza Slivovitza (karaoke version)

Chart performance

References

Melodifestivalen songs of 2008
2008 singles
Swedish-language songs
2008 songs


title: Isabelle M. Germano

text:
Isabelle M. Germano is a neurosurgeon and professor of neurosurgery, neurology, and oncology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. She is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Germano works with image-guided brain and spine surgery.

Education and post-doctoral training
After an undergraduate education with concentration in Latin and ancient Greek literature, she graduated from the University of Turin Medical School in 1984 with a thesis in neuro-pathology, and also completed a neurology residency. She completed her surgical internship at the University of California San Francisco and neurosurgery residency at UCSF and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. During her residency, she obtained training in epilepsy surgery at the University Hospital of Zürich, Switzerland. After her chief resident year, she completed a fellowship in epilepsy surgery, stereotaxy, and movement disorders under André Olivier at Montreal Neurological Institute.

Professional career
Germano joined the neurosurgery faculty at Mount Sinai in 1992 to develop the brain tumor and stereotactic clinical programs. She is the director of the comprehensive tumor program and co-director of the radiosurgery program there. She has worked in the field of image-guided brain and spine surgery  developing new technology for several years and for the last 10 years directed a practical course for neurosurgeons around the world to teach about it until it became standard-of-care. These technological advances are used to perform minimally invasive surgery for patients with brain tumors, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, movement disorders, and spine disease or tumors. Germano established a basic science laboratory within the neurosurgery department to focus on brain tumors translational research with particular emphasis on gene therapy, stem cells, and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC).

A member of many neurosurgery societies and an author, she has served on the executive committee of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS), on the board of directors of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), on the executive committee of the AANS/CNS Joint Section on Tumors, as a scientific program member for the AANS, CNS, and the American Epilepsy Society (AES). She is a past-president of Women in Neurosurgery (WINS). Germano’s clinical interests include newly diagnosed or recurrent brain and spine tumors, brain mapping and monitoring, gliomas, metastasis, meningiomas, brain and spine radiosurgery, epilepsy surgery, and problems of the cervical and lumbar spine.

Honors and awards
 2000 - Best Doctors of New York Hall of Fame
 2014 - Leksell Radiosurgery Award

Publications

Books
 Germano IM (Editor). Advanced Techniques in Image-Guided Brain and Spine surgery. 2002, Thieme Publishers, New York, NY, pages 233 Library of Congress
 Germano IM (Editor). LINAC and Gamma Knife Radiosurgery.  American Association of Neurological Surgeons Press, Park Ridge, IL, pages 295. Library of Congress
 Germano IM (Editor). Neurosurgery Treatment of movement Disorders. American Association of Neurological Surgeons Press, Park Ridge, IL, pages 275 Library of Congress

Papers

 Web based pathology assessment in RTOG 98-04
 Mormone E, D’Souza S, Alexeeva V, Bederson M, Germano IM. “Footprint-free” human induced  Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived astrocytes for in vivo cell-based therapy. Stem Cells and Dev [in press 2014]
 Douglas AC, Wippold FJ 2nd, Broderick DF, Aiken AH, Amin-Hanjani S, Brown DC, Corey AS, Germano IM, Hadley JA, Jagadeesan BD, Jurgens JS, Kennedy TA, Mechtler LL, Patel ND, Zipfel GJ. ACR Appropriateness Criteria Headache.J Am Coll Radiol. 2014 Jul;11(7):657-67
 Lo SS, Gore EM, Bradley JD, Buatti JM, Germano IM, Ghafoori AP, Henderson MA, Murad GJ, Patchell RA, Patel SH, Robbins JR, Robins HI, Vassil AD, Wippold FJ 2nd, Yunes MJ, Videtic GM. ACR Appropriateness Criteria® Pre-Irradiation Evaluation and Management of Brain Metastases. J Palliat Med. 2014 Jun 27.
 Germano IM and Binello E. Stem cells and gliomas: past, present, and future. J Neuro-Oncology [in press, 2014]
 Binello E, Emdad l, Mormone E, Germano IM. Characterization of fenofibrate-mediated anti-proliferative pro-apoptotic effects on high-grade glioma and anti-invasive effects on glioma stem cells. J Neurooncol, 117(2):225-34, 2014.
 Barthélemy EJ, Benjamin E, Jean-Pierre MY, Poitevien G, Ernst S, Osborn I, Germano IM. A prospective emergency department-based study of pattern and outcome of neurologic and neurosurgical diseases in Haiti. World Neurosurg. Oct 9. S1878-8750(13)01298-9, 2013 PIMD 24121294
 Binello E, Qadeer ZA, Kothari H, Emdad L,Germano IM. Stemness of the CT-2A Immunocompetent Mouse Brain Tumor Model:  Characterization in Vitro. Journal of Cancer, 3:166-174, 2012.
 Binello E, Germano IM. Stem cells as therapeutic vehicles for the treatment of high-grade gliomas. Neuro Oncol, 14:256-265, 2012.
 Emdad L, D’Souza, Qadeer ZA, Kothari HP, Germano IM. Efficient Differentiation of Human Embryonic and induced pluripotent Stem Cells into Functional Astrocytes. Stem Cells and Development, 21(3):404-4120, 2012.
 Patel S, Robbins JR, Gore EM, Bradley JD, Gaspar LE, Germano IM, et al. ACR Appropriateness Criteria: Follow-up and Retreatment of Brain Metastasis. Am J Clin Oncology, 35(3):302-306, 2012.
 Binello E and Germano IM. Targeting glioma stem cells:  a novel framework for brain tumors. Cancer Sci, 102:1958-1966, 2011.
 Binello E, Green S, Germano IM. Radiosurgery for high-grade glioma. Surg Neurol Int, 3(S2) 118-126, 2012
 Patel S, Robbins JR, Gore EM, Bradley JD, Gaspar LE, Germano IM, et al. ACR Appropriateness Criteria Follow-up and Retreatment of brain Metastasis. Am J Clin Oncology, 2012 Jun;35(3):302-306
 Emdad L, Qadeer ZA, Bederson LB, Kothari HP, Uzzaman M, Germano IM. Is there a common upstream link for autophagic and apoptotic cell death in human high grade gliomas? Neuro-Oncology, 13(7)725-35, 2011.
 Germano IM, Emdad l, Qader Z, Binello E, Uzzaman M. Embryonic stem cell (ESC) –mediated transgene delivery induces growth suppression, apoptosis, radiosensitization, and overcomes temozolomide resistance in malignant gliomas. Cancer Gene Therapy 17(9):664 – 74, 2010. .
 Germano IM, Swiss V, Casaccia P. Primary brain Tumors, Neural stem cells, and brain tumor cancer cells: where is the link? Neuro–pharmacology 58(6):903-10, 2010
 Suh JH, Videtic GMM, Aref AM, Germano IM, Goldsmith BJ, Imperato JP, Marcus KJ, McDermott MW, McDonald MW, Patchell R, Robins HI, Rogers CL, Wolfson  AH, wippold FJ, Gaspar LP. ACR appropriateness Criteria: Single brain metastasis. Curr Probl Cancer. 34(3):162-74, 2010
 Germano IM and Binello E. Gene therapy as an adjuvant treatment of malignant gliomas: from bench to bedside. J Neuro-Oncology 93:79-87, 2009.
 Binello E, Germano IM. Tonsillary carcinoma after temozolomide treatment for glioblastoma multiforme: treatment-related or dual-pathology? J Neuro-Oncol 94(1): 145-8, 2009.
 Uzzaman M, Keller G, Germano IM. In vivo Gene Delivery by embryonic stem cell-derived astrocytes for malignant gliomas. Neuro-Oncology, 11:102-108 2009.
 Videtic GMM, Gaspar LE, Aref AM, Germano IM, Goldsmith BJ, Imperato JP, Marcus KJ, McDermott MW, McDonald MW, Patchell RA, Robins HI, Rogers CL, Suh JH, Wolfson AH, Wippold FJ. American College of Radiology appropriateness criteria on multiple brain metastases. J Rad Oncol Biol Physics 75:961-965, 2009

 Germano IM, Uzzaman M,  Keller G. Gene delivery by embryonic stem cells for malignant glioma therapy:  hype or hope?  Cancer Biology and Therapy 7(9): 1341-7, 2008.
 Benzil D, Abosch A, Germano IM, Gilmer Holy, Maraire N, Muraszko K, Pannullo S, Rosseau G, Schwartz L, Todor, R, Ullman J, Zusman E. The future of neurosurgery: a white paper on the recruitment and retention of women in neurosurgery. J Neurosurgery 109: 367-375, 2008
 Uzzaman M, Keller G, Germano IM. Enhanced pro-apotptotic effects of tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) on temozolomide-resistant glioma cells. J Neurosurgery 106: 646-651, 2007.
 Germano IM, Uzzaman M, Benveniste R, Zaurova M, Keller G. Apoptosis in human glioma cells  produced using embryonic stem cell-derived astrocytes expressing tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL). J Neurosurgery 105:88-95, 2006.
 Uzzaman M, Benveniste R, Keller G,Germano IM. Embryonic stem cell-derived astrocytes: novel gene therapy vector for brain tumors. Neurosurgical Focus 19(3) E6, 2005.
 Benveniste R, Keller G, Germano IM. Embryonic stem cell-derived astrocytes expressing drug-inducible transgenes: Differentiation and allotransplantation into the mouse brain. J Neurosurgery 103:115-123,2005.
 Benveniste R. and Germano IM. Correlation of factors predicting intraoperative brain shift with successful resection of malignant brain tumors using image-guided techniques. Surg Neurol 63:542-549, 2005
 Kanzawa T, Zhang L, Xiao L, Germano IM, Kondo Y, Kondo S. Arsenic trioxide induces autophagic cell death in malignant glioma cells by up-regulation of mitochondrial cell death protein BNIP3. Oncogene 24: 980-91, 2005.
 Germano IM,Gracies JM, Weisz DJ,Tse W,Koller WC, Olanow CW. Unilateral stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus in Parkinson's disease- a double blind 12-month evaluation study. J Neurosurgery 101:36-42, 2004.

References

External links
 Mount Sinai profile
 Device tested to treat aggressive brain tumors
 CDI
 ACR Appropriateness Criteria Headache

Medical imaging
University of Turin alumni
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai faculty
American medical writers
Women medical writers
Living people
Women surgeons
Year of birth missing (living people)


title: N-Acylamides

text:
N-acyl amides are a general class of endogenous fatty acid compounds characterized by a fatty acyl group linked to a primary amine metabolite by an amide bond. Broadly speaking, N-acyl amides fall into several categories: amino acid conjugates (e.g., N-arachidonoyl-glycine), neurotransmitter conjugates (e.g., N-arachidonoyl-serotonin), ethanolamine conjugates (e.g., anandamide), and taurine conjugates (e.g., N-palmitoyl-taurine). N-acyl amides have pleiotropic signaling functions in physiology, including in cardiovascular function, metabolic homeostasis, memory, cognition, pain, motor control and others. Initial attention focused on N-acyl amides present in mammalian organisms, however recently lipid signaling systems consisting of N-acyl amides have also been found to be present in invertebrates, such as Drosophila melanogaster. N-acyl amides play important roles in many biochemical pathways involved in a variety of physiological and pathological processes, as well as the metabolic enzymes, transporters, and receptors that regulate their signaling.

Compounds

†-Compound found in mammalian species

#-Compound found in invertebrate (Drosophila melanogaster) species<ref name="Salzet 1" /

*-Compound found in plant species

Enzymatic biosynthesis and degradation

The enzymatic biosynthesis of the N-acyl amide class of metabolites is a topic of active research with various pathways being discovered for specific N-acyl amides. For example, a proposed biosynthetic pathway for the N-acyl ethanolamines (NAEs) has been the hydrolysis of an unusual phospholipid precursor, N-acyl-phosphatidylethanolamine (NAPE), by a phospholipase D activity to liberate NAE and, as a byproduct, phosphatidic acid. Mice deficient in the enzyme NAPE-PLD show decreased in a subset of brain NAEs, providing genetic evidence for this proposal, at least for a subset of the NAEs. Other biosynthetic pathways do exist and are currently being elucidated. Two possible alternative routes are via lysoNAPE or phosphate-NAE.

The degradation of NAEs in vivo is largely mediated by an enzyme called fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), which catalyzes the hydrolysis of NAEs into fatty acids and ethanolamine. Mice deficient in FAAH show complete loss of NAE degradation activity in tissues and dramatic elevations in tissue levels of NAEs.

FAAH also mediates the degradation of a separate class of N-acyl amides, the N-acyl taurines (NATs). FAAH knockout mice also show dramatic increases in tissue and blood NATs. The enzymatic biosynthesis of NATs remains unknown.

A distinct circulating enzyme, peptidase M20 domain containing 1 (PM20D1), can catalyze the bidirectional the condensation and hydrolysis of a variety of N-acyl amino acids in vitro. In vivo, PM20D1 overexpression increases the levels of various N-acyl amino acids in blood, demonstrating that this enzyme can contribute to N-acyl amino acid biosynthesis. PM20D1 knockout mice have complete loss of N-acyl amino acid hydrolysis activity in blood and tissues with concomitant bidirectional dysregulation of endogenous N-acyl amino acids.

Biological activity

N-acyl amides have been shown to play an important role in a variety of physiological functions as lipid signaling molecule. Apart from the aforementioned roles in cardiovascular function, memory, cognition, pain, and motor control, the compounds have also been shown to play a role in cell migration, inflammation and certain pathological conditions such as diabetes, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, and obesity.

In a more general sense, one of the key characteristics of the N-acyl amide group of compounds is their ubiquitous nature. Research has shown the presence of the compounds in mice, Drosophila melanogaster, Arabidopsis, C. Elegans, Cerevisiae (yeast), Pseudomonas Syringae, olive oil and PYD media
. This diverse presence of N-acyl amides attests to their importance in multiple biological systems and also shows that the detected presence of specific N-acyl amides in a number of species, including humans, may be endogenous or exogenous.

N-acyl amides are primarily involved in cell-to-cell communication in biological systems. An example of this is the lipid signaling system involving transient receptor potential channels (TRP), which interact with N-acyl amides such as N-arachidonoyl ethanolamide (Anandamide), N-arachidonoyl dopamine and others in an opportunistic fashion. This signaling system has been shown to play a role in the physiological processes involved in inflammation. Other N-acyl amides, including N-oleoyl-glutamine, have also been characterized as TRP channel antagonists.

An application of N-acyl amides that is currently at the forefront of related research is the correlation between oleoyl serine and bone remodeling. Recent research has shown that oleoyl serine, an N-acyl amide found in olive oil amongst other sources, plays a role in the proliferation of osteoblast activity and the inhibition of osteoclast activity. Further research regarding this application of oleoyl serine is set to take place to explore the possible correlation between the consumption of the compound by individuals at risk for osteoporosis.

Certain N-acyl amino acids can act as chemical uncouplers and directly stimulate mitochondrial respiration. These N-acyl amino acids are characterized by medium chain, unsaturated fatty acyl chains and neutral amino acid head groups. Administration of these N-acyl amino acids to mice elevates energy expenditure leading to profound body weight loss and improvement of glucose homeostasis.

Overall, the applications of N-acyl amides in biological settings are abundant. As mentioned, their importance in cell signaling in a variety systems leading to various physiological roles and in turn therapeutic capabilities, which gives all the more reason to continue the extensive research being conducted on the compounds today.

Several N-acyl amides have been demonstrated to physiologically activate G-protein coupled receptors. Anandamide activates the cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2. FAAH knockout mice show increased anandamide levels in vivo and cannabinoid-receptor dependent behaviors including antinociception and anxiolysis. GPR18, GPR55, GPR92 have also been proposed to be activated by various N-acyl amides, though the physiological relevance of these assignments remains unknown.

References

Fatty acids
Lipids


title: A Special Life

text:
A Special Life is a studio album by British blues musician John Mayall. It was released on 30 May 2014 by Forty Below Records, and it is his first studio album since 2009's Tough.

Track listing

Personnel
John Mayall – vocals, guitars, harmonica, organ, piano
Rocky Athas – guitars
Greg Rzab – bass guitar, percussions
Jay Davenport – drums
C. J. Chenier – accordion, vocals

References

2014 albums
John Mayall albums
Albums produced by John Mayall


title: Patient satisfaction

text:
Patient satisfaction is a measure of the extent to which a patient is content with the health care which they received from their health care provider.

In evaluations of health care quality, patient satisfaction is a performance indicator measured in a self-report study and a specific type of customer satisfaction metric.

Validity as a metric for evaluating health care quality
Because patients may be dissatisfied with health care which improves their health or satisfied with health care which does not, there are circumstances in which patient satisfaction is not a valid indicator of health care quality even though it is often used as such.

Many studies in acute medicine have failed to identify a relationship between patient satisfaction and health care quality. However, in long term conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic inflammatory arthritides patient satisfaction with care has been measured reliably and shown to be an outcome of care.

Factors influencing patient satisfaction
Patients' satisfaction with an encounter with health care service is mainly dependent on the duration and efficiency of care, and how empathetic and communicative the health care providers are. It is favored by a good doctor-patient relationship. Also, patients who are well-informed of the necessary procedures in a clinical encounter, and the time it is expected to take, are generally more satisfied even if there is a longer waiting time. Another critical factor influencing patient satisfaction is the job satisfaction experienced by the care-provider.

By region

In the United States, hospitals whose surgery patients reported being highly satisfied also performed higher quality surgical procedures. The implication of this is that there does not need to be trade-off between high patient satisfaction and quality patient care.

The Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems or CAHPS survey is an ongoing research project to guide the development of consumer surveys being used assess the quality of care provided by health plans, physician groups, and clinicians. It is an example of a major research effort which studies the significance of consumer responses to surveys.

Research
By 1998 the process of measuring and reporting of patient satisfaction had become an established industry.

A concern about asking patients about the quality of their care is that patients tend to be more satisfied by attractive healthcare than by effective healthcare, and satisfaction reports may not give good information about the ability of a hospital, doctor, or treatment to improve their health.  Higher patient satisfaction have been associated with less emergency department use but with greater inpatient use, higher overall health care and prescription drug expenditures, and increased mortality. Despite these concerns, more and more research has established customer satisfaction as a valid and reliable measure of customer behaviors and organizational performance. reduced complaint behavior about their primary care physician, and lower likelihood of terminating a relationship

Among healthcare consumers—i.e., patients—satisfaction is best understood as a multi-attribute model with different aspects of care determining overall satisfaction. Importantly, lower performance on an attribute creates much more dissatisfaction than the satisfaction generated by higher performance on an attribute; in other words, negative performance is more consequential than positive performance. Thus, ensuring overall patient satisfaction, it is more important to reduce negative performance on the patient-care dimension with the worst perceived performance than to maximize positive performance on another dimension. A fruitful solution can be measuring patient dissatisfaction instead of satisfaction.

References

Product testing
Health care quality
Patient