Swan

Swans are birds of the family Anatidae within the genus Cygnus. The swans' close relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae. There are six or seven species of swan in the genus Cygnus; in addition there is another species known as the coscoroba swan, although this species is no longer considered one of the true swans. Swans usually mate for life, though "divorce" does sometimes occur, particularly following nesting failure, and if a mate dies, the remaining swan will take up with another. The number of eggs in each clutch ranges from three to eight.

Etymology and terminology

The English word 'swan', akin to the German Schwan, Dutch zwaan and Swedish svan, is derived from Indo-European root *swen (to sound, to sing). Young swans are known as swanlings or as cygnets, from Greek κύκνος, kýknos and from the Latin word cygnus ("swan") and the Old French suffix -et ("little"). An adult male is a cob, from Middle English cobbe (leader of a group); an adult female is a pen.

Swan (manga)

Swan (スワン) is a shōjo manga by Kyoko Ariyoshi. The shōjo magazine Margaret serialized the story in Japan during the seventies. 21 volumes were released. In North America the story was published by CMX, but the series was abandoned after 15 volumes due to the closure of the imprint. The plot mostly follows a young girl, Masumi, as she struggles to become a ballerina.

Plot

The first volume begins with Masumi sneaking backstage after a Tokyo ballet performance in order to express her admiration for the lead dancers, Alexei Sergeiev and Maria Prisetskaya . However, when she meets the stars, Masumi becomes tongue-tied and clumsily begins to dance the Odile Variation from Swan Lake. Sergeiev and Prisetskaya graciously excuse her, saying that nothing could give them more happiness than her physical expression of appreciation, and Masumi returns home slightly embarrassed. Later, Masumi receives an invitation to enter a nationwide ballet competition. The competition is being held to discover the best ballet students in Japan, in order to invite them to an exclusive ballet school designed to improve the quality of Japanese ballet. Her impromptu dance for Sergeiev and Prisetskaya captured the attention of Sergeiev, and so Masumi goes to Tokyo in order to compete.

Swan (nuclear primary)

Swan was a U.S. test nuclear explosive, which was developed into the XW-45 warhead.

It was tested standalone on June 22, 1956 in shot Redwing Inca. It was tested again as the primary of a thermonuclear device on July 2, 1956 in shot Redwing Mohawk. Both tests were successful. It subsequently served as the primary in numerous thermonuclear devices during the 1950s.

Most subsequent U.S. primaries are Swan-derived, including the Robin, the Tsetse, the Python, and the much later (asymmetrical) ovoid (prolate) primaries.

Design features

The Swan device is the first design to incorporate a two-point hollow-pit air lens implosion assembly together with fusion boosting.

The Swan device had a yield of 15 kilotons, weighed 105 lb (47.6 kg), and had a (symmetrical) ovoid (non-prolate) shape with a diameter of 11.6 inches (29.5 cm) and a length of 22.8 inches (58 cm), a length to diameter ratio of 1.97.

The above schematic illustrates what were probably its essential features.

One-point safety

Stathmin

Stathmin 1/oncoprotein 18, also known as STMN1, is a highly conserved 17 kDa protein. Its function as an important regulatory protein of microtubule dynamics has been well-characterized. Eukaryotic microtubules are one of three major components of the cell’s cytoskeleton. They are highly dynamic structures that continuously alternate between assembly and disassembly. Stathmin performs an important function in regulating rapid microtubule remodeling of the cytoskeleton in response to the cell’s needs. Microtubules are cylindrical polymers of α,β-tubulin. Their assembly is in part determined by the concentration of free tubulin in the cytoplasm.

At low concentrations of free tubulin, the growth rate at the microtubule ends is slowed and results in an increased rate of depolymerization (disassembly).

Function

Stathmin interacts with two molecules of dimeric α,β-tubulin to form a tight ternary complex called the T2S complex. One mole of stathmin binds to two moles of tubulin dimers through the stathmin-like domain (SLD). When stathmin sequesters tubulin into the T2S complex, tubulin becomes non-polymerizable. Without tubulin polymerization, there is no microtubule assembly. Stathmin also promotes microtubule disassembly by acting directly on the microtubule ends.

Times New Roman

Times New Roman is a serif typeface commissioned by the British newspaper The Times in 1931 and created by Victor Lardent in collaboration with the British branch of the printing equipment company Monotype. Although no longer used by The Times, Times New Roman is still very common in book and general printing. Through distribution with Microsoft products and as a standard computer font, it has become one of the most widely used typefaces in history.

Times New Roman's creation took place through the influence of Stanley Morison of Monotype. Morison was an artistic director at Monotype, historian of printing and informal adviser to the Times, who recommended that they change typeface from the spindly and somewhat dated nineteenth-century Didone typeface previously used to a more robust, solid design, returning to traditions of printing from the eighteenth century and before. This matched a common trend in printing of the period.

Morison proposed an older Monotype typeface named Plantin as a basis for the design, but revisions were made to increase legibility and economy of space. The new font was drawn by Victor Lardent, an artist from the advertising department of The Times, with Morison consulting, before refinement by the experienced Monotype drawing office team.The new design made its debut in the 3 October 1932 issue of The Times. After one year, the design was released for commercial sale. The Times stayed with Times New Roman for 40 years, but new production techniques and the format change from broadsheet to tabloid in 2004 have caused the newspaper to switch typeface five times since 1972. However, all the new fonts have been variants of the original New Roman typeface.

Multiplication sign

The multiplication sign or times sign is the symbol ×. The symbol is similar to the lowercase letter x but is a more symmetric saltire, and has different uses. It is also known as St. Andrew's Cross and dimension sign.

Uses

In mathematics, the symbol × (read as times or multiplied by) is primarily used to denote the

In biology, the multiplication sign is used in a botanical hybrid name, where it is read as "cross".

The multiplication sign is also used by historians for an event between two dates. When employed between two dates, for example 1225 and 1232, 1225×1232 means "no earlier than 1225 and no later than 1232". It can also be used in a date range: 1225×1232–1278.

History

The × symbol for multiplication was introduced by William Oughtred in 1631. It was chosen for religious reasons to represent the cross.

4 Times

"4 Times" (stylized as "4 TIMES") is the 50th single by pop/R&B singer Koda Kumi. It was released on August 17, 2011. The single charted at #6 and stayed on the charts for nine consecutive weeks. In commemoration of it being the fiftieth single since her debut, the single contained four a-sides, making it her first since 4 hot wave (2006).

The single came in four editions: CD, CD+DVD, CD+OLIX Digital Camera and CD+50 Postcards BOX Set. The latter two only carried the song Poppin' love cocktail feat. TEEDA.

Background Information

A short audio teaser of KO-SO-KO-SO was leaked online on June 28, 2011 and the full song premiered on July 10. The "making of" videos were uploaded to AVEX's YouTube as previews to the single. The music video for V.I.P was released August 1 and the rest of the PVs were released the 13th August. V.I.P. contains a short sample of American group Fort Minor's song Believe Me.

Poppin' love cocktail featured BACK-ON's TEEDA and was certified gold for 100,000 downloads in January 2014.