Bireme

A bireme is an ancient oared warship (galley) with two decks of oars, probably invented by the Phoenicians. Long vessels built for military purposes had relatively high speed, meticulous construction, strength, and depending on the number of rows of oars, were called uniremes, biremes, triremes, quadriremes, etc.

Description

The name bireme comes from "bi-" meaning two and "-reme" meaning oar.

It was typically about 80 feet (24 m) long with a maximum beam width of around 10 feet (3 m). It was modified from the penteconter, a ship that had only one set of oars on each side, the bireme having two sets of oars on each side. The bireme was twice the triaconter's length and height, and thus employed 120 rowers. Biremes were galleys, galleasses, dromons, and small pleasure crafts pamphyles.

The next development, the trireme, keeping the length of the bireme, added a tier to the height, the rowers being thus increased to 180. It also had a large square sail.

Uses

These ships were frequently used by the Romans, as during the second of Caesar's invasions of Britain. The bireme eventually evolved into the trireme. A unit commandant (who was given a tent on the open deck) directed a group of marines. The bireme was recorded in ancient history on 8th-century Assyrian reliefs.

Bireme (horse)

Bireme (2 May 1977 – January 10, 2002) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare best known for winning the classic Epsom Oaks in 1980. After winning one of her two starts in 1979, she won the Musidora Stakes on her three-year-old debut before winning the Oaks in record time. Later that summer she broke loose during a training session and sustained career-ending injuries. She was retired to stud with a record of three wins in four races and has had some influence as a broodmare.

Background

Bireme was a chestnut mare with a white blaze bred by her owner Richard Dunbavin "Dick" Hollingsworth at his Arches Hall Stud in Hertfordshire. She was one of the first crop of foals sired by Grundy, an outstanding racehorse who won the Epsom Derby and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes in 1975. Grundy went on to sire several other good winners, but his stock tended to be slow-maturing stayers and he was sold and exported to Japan in 1983.

Bireme's dam Ripeck was a highly successful broodmare whose other offspring included the Queen Alexandra Stakes winner Balinger and the Coronation Cup winner Buoy. Ripeck was a granddaughter of the Hollingsworth family's influential broodmare Felucca, whose other descendants included Cut Above (St Leger Stakes), Sharp Edge (Irish 2000 Guineas), Longboat (Ascot Gold Cup), Bolas (Irish Oaks), Dash for Cash (Australian Guineas) and Daffodil (AJC Oaks).

Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information

The Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information or BIREME was founded in Brazil in 1967 as the Biblioteca Regional de Medicina (Regional Library of Medicine, hence the acronym), a specialized center of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) / World Health Organization (WHO).

BIREME coordinates the model development of the Virtual Health Library which includes around 20 million references for the access to the scientific and technical literature of the Latin America and Caribbean region.

Description

BIREME is located in São Paulo, Brazil, in the campus of the Universidade Federal de São Paulo – Unifesp (Federal University of São Paulo). Since its foundation in 1967, BIREME is established by the agreement between PAHO, Brazilian Ministry of Health, Brazilian Ministry of Education, Secretary of Health of the State of São Paulo, and Unifesp. Since 2009, the agreement coexists with the process of implementation of the new legal statute approved by the 49th Directing Council of PAHO.