text:
American Pickers
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American Pickers
Also known as
The Pickers (outside the US, Canada, UK, and Australia)
Antiqot al Haderekh (Hebrew: ענתיקות על הדרך, Antiques on the Way) in Israel
Cazatesorosi in Spain, Pe urmele antichităților in Romania
Genre
Reality
Created by
Mike Wolfe
Developed by
Mark Poertner
Stephen Pettinger
Directed by
Anthony Mastanduno
Starring
Mike Wolfe
Frank Fritz
Danielle Colby
Lauren Wray
Robbie Wolfe
Dave Ohrt
Theme music composer
Jingle Punks Music
Composer(s)
The Dark Studio
Country of origin
United States
Original language(s)
English
No. of seasons
19
No. of episodes
254 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)
Charles Tremayne
Mark Poertner
Mike Wolfe
Producer(s)
Simon Lloyd
Stephen Pettinger
Julie Cooper
Location(s)
LeClaire, Iowa
Nashville, Tennessee
Nationwide, particularly Rural America (especially the Rust Belt, Midwest, and South)
Cinematography
John Chiappardi
Editor(s)
Julianna Borg
Max Cherpitel
Charles Montany
William Shaw
Camera setup
Multiple (Casey Marucci, Jennifer Tsai)
Running time
60 minutes
Production company(s)
Cineflix (AP2/AP3/AP4/AP5) Inc.
A&E Television Networks, LLC
Release
Original network
History
Original release
January 18, 2010 (2010-01-18) – present
External links
Website
American Pickers is an American reality television series that premiered on January 18, 2010 on the History channel, produced by A&E Television Networks in collaboration with Cineflix Media.
Contents
[hide]
1 Overview
2 Reception
3 Episodes
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
Overview[edit]
The Nash Statesman Super in front of the Antique Archaeology building in Le Claire, Iowa
The show follows antique and collectible pickers Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz who travel around the United States to buy or "pick" various items for resale, for clients, or for their own personal collections. They originally traveled in a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van and now a Ford Transit. Danielle Colby runs the office of Wolfe's business, Antique Archaeology,[1] from their home base in Le Claire, Iowa, and more recently at a second location in Nashville, Tennessee. Fritz sells his acquisitions at his own shop and on his own website,[2] Frank Fritz Finds, upriver in Savanna, Illinois.[3] The men go on the road, not only following up leads that Colby has generated, but also "free-styling" - stopping at places that look like they might hold items worth buying. They also pick some places more than once.
The series introduction is narrated by Wolfe and Fritz. The first three seasons used the complete opening. Beginning with season 4, a shortened version is used, with the portion in italics below removed:
I'm Mike Wolfe. And I'm Frank Fritz. And we're pickers. We travel the back roads of America looking to buy rusty gold.
We're looking for amazing things buried in people's garages and barns. What most people see as junk, we see as dollar signs. We'll buy "anything" we think we can make a buck on. Each item we pick has a history all its own. And the people we meet? Well, they're a breed all their own.
We make a living telling the history of America...one piece at a time.
Mike and Frank explore people's homes, barns, sheds, outbuildings, and other places where they have stored antiques and collectibles. They call upon casual collectors, hoarders, and occasionally people who have inherited overwhelming collections of apparent junk. Wolfe, who has been picking since age four,[4] has a particular interest in antique motorcycles, air-cooled Volkswagens (referred to as VOTES-wagons by Wolfe), old bicycles, and penny-farthings, while Fritz has a fondness for antique toys, oil cans, and old Hondas.[5] They have purchased old advertisements and commercial signage, film posters, a rare 15-gallon visible gasoline pump, and a Piaggio Ape (pronounced: ah-peh) that one of their friends told them is probably the only one of its kind in North America.[6][7]
In December 2011, American Pickers revealed that Antique Archaeology had leased part of a former 1914 car factory in Nashville, Tennessee, which originally made the Marathon automobile, for a second business location to decrease the distance required to haul their finds from the southern states.[8]
Reception[edit]
The series debuted on January 18, 2010. The premiere episode of American Pickers had 3.1 million viewers, making it the highest rated History channel debut since Ice Road Truckers in 2007.[9] The September 8, 2010, episode "Laurel & Hardy" garnered Nielsen ratings as high as 5.3 million viewers in the 25–54 age group. As of that episode, the show retained the title of #1 new non-fiction series of 2010 among all viewers and adults 25–54.[10]
Episodes[edit]
Main article: List of American Pickers episodes
See also[edit]
Canadian Pickers / Cash Cowboys (2011–13), a similar TV series featuring two pickers in Canada; produced by Cineflix Media for the History channel in Canada.
Aussie Pickers, a similar TV series featuring two pickers in Australia on the A&E Australia channel, beginning in 2013.
Picker Sisters, a 2011 TV series about two female pickers/designers.
Picked Off, History's 2012 reality competition series, also produced by Cineflix Media.
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Steven Kurutz (August 24, 2011). "At Home with Mike Wolfe: The Jack Kerouac of Junk". The New York Times.
Jump up ^ Rob Owen (September 2, 2012). "'Pickers' don't compete on sales". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Jump up ^ http://frankfritzfinds.com/The-Store.aspx
Jump up ^ "'Mike Wolfe & Frank Fritz'".
Jump up ^ "Mike's Breakdown" (season 2, episode 12)
Jump up ^ "American Pickers": The Inside Story of the History Channel’s Surprise Hit River Cities' Reader Quote: "The episode "Super Scooter" shows how the pair works together. Wolfe is nearly drooling over a Vespa Ape scooter."
Jump up ^ "Big Bear" (season 1, episode 1)
Jump up ^ Antique Archaeology web page about Nashville location Archived 2011-12-25 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2012-01-03
Jump up ^ "'Series Debut of American Pickers Scores 3.1 million'".
Jump up ^ "'HISTORY Posts Blockbuster Ratings on Monday Night with Premiere Episodes of Hit Series 'American Pickers & 'Pawn Stars".
External links[edit]
Official website
History's "Meet the Pickers" cast bios
Official Antique Archaeology website
Official Frank Fritz Finds website
American Pickers on IMDb
"American Pickers": The Inside Story of the History Channel’s Surprise Hit, Jeff Ignatius, River Cities' Reader, 17 March 2010
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Bryophyte
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Marchantia, an example of a liverwort.
Bryophytes are an informal group consisting of three divisions of non-vascular land plants (embryophytes), the liverworts, hornworts and mosses.[1] They are characteristically limited in size and prefer moist habitats although they can survive in drier environments.[2] The bryophytes consist of about 20,000 plant species.[3][4] Bryophytes produce enclosed reproductive structures (gametangia and sporangia), but they do not produce flowers or seeds. They reproduce via spores. Bryophytes are usually considered to be a paraphyletic group and not a monophyletic group, although some studies have produced contrary results. Regardless of their status, the name is convenient and remains in use as an informal collective term. The term "bryophyte" comes from Greek βρύον, bryon "tree-moss, oyster-green" and φυτόν, phyton "plant".
The defining features of bryophytes are:
Their life cycles are dominated by the gametophyte stage
Their sporophytes are unbranched
They do not have a true vascular tissue containing lignin (although some have specialized tissues for the transport of water)
Contents
[hide]
1 Habitat
2 Life cycle
2.1 Sexuality
3 Classification and phylogeny
3.1 Paraphyletic view
3.2 Other views
4 Evolution
4.1 Similarities to land plants
4.2 Similarities to aquatic plants
5 Comparative morphology
6 Uses
7 See also
8 References
9 Bibliography
10 External links
Habitat[edit]
Bryophytes exist in a wide variety of habitats. They can be found growing in a range of temperatures (cold arctics and in hot deserts), elevations (sea-level to alpine), and moisture (dry deserts to wet rainforests).[5]
Bryophytes can grow where vascularized plants cannot because they do not depend on roots for an uptake of nutrients from soil. Bryophytes can survive on rocks and bare soil.[5]
Life cycle[edit]
See also: Alternation of generations
The life cycle of a dioicous bryophyte. The gametophyte (haploid) structures are shown in green, the sporophyte (diploid) in brown.
Like all land plants (embryophytes), bryophytes have life cycles with alternation of generations. In each cycle, a haploid gametophyte, each of whose cells contains a fixed number of unpaired chromosomes, alternates with a diploid sporophyte, whose cell contain two sets of paired chromosomes. Gametophytes produce haploid sperm and eggs which fuse to form diploid zygotes that grow into sporophytes. Sporophytes produce haploid spores by meiosis, that grow into gametophytes.
Bryophytes are gametophyte dominant, meaning that the more prominent, longer-lived plant is the haploid gametophyte.[6] The diploid sporophytes appear only occasionally and remain attached to and nutritionally dependent on the gametophyte. In bryophytes, the sporophytes are always unbranched and produce a single sporangium (spore producing capsule).
Liverworts, mosses and hornworts spend most of their lives as gametophytes. Gametangia (gamete-producing organs), archegonia and antheridia, are produced on the gametophytes, sometimes at the tips of shoots, in the axils of leaves or hidden under thalli. Some bryophytes, such as the liverwort Marchantia, create elaborate structures to bear the gametangia that are called gametangiophores. Sperm are flagellated and must swim from the antheridia that produce them to archegonia which may be on a different plant. Arthropods can assist in transfer of sperm.[7]
Fertilized eggs become zygotes, which develop into sporophyte embryos inside the archegonia. Mature sporophytes remain attached to the gametophyte. They consist of a stalk called a seta and a single sporangium or capsule. Inside the sporangium, haploid spores are produced by meiosis. These are dispersed, most commonly by wind, and if they land in a suitable environment can develop into a new gametophyte. Thus bryophytes disperse by a combination of swimming sperm and spores, in a manner similar to lycophytes, ferns and other cryptogams.
Further information: Liverwort § Life cycle, Moss § Life cycle, and Hornwort § Life cycle
Sexuality[edit]
The arrangement of antheridia and archegonia on an individual bryophyte plant is usually constant within a species, although in some species it may depend on environmental conditions. The main division is between species in which the antheridia and archegonia occur on the same plant and those in which they occur on different plants. The term monoicous may be used where antheridia and archegonia occur on the same gametophyte and the term dioicous where they occur on different gametophytes.[8]
In seed plants, "monoecious" is used where flowers with anthers (microsporangia) and flowers with ovules (megasporangia) occur on the same sporophyte and "dioecious" where they occur on different sporophytes. These terms occasionally may be used instead of "monoicous" and "dioicous" to describe bryophyte gametophytes. "Monoecious" and "monoicous" are both derived from the Greek for "one house", "dioecious" and "dioicous" from the Greek for two houses. The use of the "oicy" terminology is said to have the advantage of emphasizing the difference between the gametophyte sexuality of bryophytes and the sporophyte sexuality of seed plants.[8]
Monoicous plants are necessarily bisexual (or hermaphroditic), meaning that the same plant has both sexes.[8] The exact arrangement of the antheridia and archegonia in monoicous plants varies. They may be borne on different shoots (autoicous or autoecious), on the same shoot but not together in a common structure (paroicous or paroecious), or together in a common "inflorescence" (synoicous or synoecious).[8][9] Dioicous plants are unisexual, meaning that the same plant has only one sex.[8] All four patterns (autoicous, paroicous, synoicous and dioicous) occur in species of the moss genus Bryum.[9]
Classification and phylogeny[edit]
Hornworts include those bryophytes that are believed to be the closest living relatives of the vascular plants.
Mosses are one group of bryophytes.
Traditionally, all living land plants without vascular tissues were classified in a single taxonomic group, often a division (or phylum). More recently, phylogenetic research has questioned whether the bryophytes form a monophyletic group and thus whether they should form a single taxon. Although a 2005 study supported the traditional view that the bryophytes form a monophyletic group,[10] by 2010 a broad consensus had emerged among systematists that bryophytes as a whole are not a natural group (i.e., are paraphyletic), although each of the three extant (living) groups is monophyletic.[11][12][13]
The three bryophyte clades (which may be treated as divisions) are the Marchantiophyta (liverworts), Bryophyta (mosses) and Anthocerotophyta (hornworts).[14] The vascular plants or tracheophytes form a fourth, unranked clade of land plants called the "Polysporangiophyta". In this analysis, hornworts are sister to vascular plants and liverworts are sister to all other land plants, including the hornworts and mosses.[13][15] Phylogenetic studies continue to produce conflicting results. In particular those based on gene sequences suggest the bryophytes are paraphyletic, whereas those based on the amino acid translations of the same genes suggest they are monophyletic. A 2014 study concluded that composition biases were responsible for these differences and that the bryophytes are monophyletic.[16] The issue remains unresolved.
Paraphyletic view[edit]
embryophytes

liverworts

mosses

hornworts

vascular plants

bryophytes
Liverworts are included in the bryophyte group
When extinct plants are taken into account, the picture is slightly altered. Some extinct land plants, such as the horneophytes, are not bryophytes, but also are not vascular plants because, like bryophytes, they do not have true vascular tissue. A different distinction is needed. In bryophytes, the sporophyte is a simple unbranched structure with a single spore-forming organ (sporangium). In all other land plants, the polysporangiophytes, the sporophyte is branched and carries many sporangia.[17][18] It has been argued that this contrast between bryophytes and other land plants is less misleading than the traditional one of non-vascular versus vascular plant, since many mosses have well-developed water-conducting vessels.[19] The contrast is shown in a slightly different cladogram:[20]
land plants

liverworts

mosses

hornworts

polysporangiophytes

"protracheophytes", such as Horneophyton or Aglaophyton

tracheophytes or vascular plants

The term "bryophyte" thus refers to a grade of lineages defined primarily by what they lack. Compared to other living land plants, they lack vascular tissue containing lignin and branched sporophytes bearing multiple sporangia. The prominence of the gametophyte in the life cycle is also a shared feature of the three bryophyte lineages (extant vascular plants are all sporophyte dominant).
Other views[edit]
An alternative phylogeny, based on amino acids rather than genes, shows bryophytes as a monophyletic group:[21]
embryophytes
bryophytes

hornworts

liverworts

mosses

vascular plants

If this phylogeny proves correct, then the complex sporophyte of living vascular plants might have evolved independently of the simpler unbranched sporophyte present in bryophytes.[16] Other studies suggest a monophyletic group comprising liverworts and mosses, with hornworts being sister to vascular plants.[22]
Evolution[edit]
Between 510 - 630 million years ago, land plants evolved from aquatic plants, specifically green algae. Molecular phylogenetic studies conclude that bryophytes are the earliest diverging lineages of the extant land plants.[23][1][24][25] They provide insights into the migration of plants from aquatic environments to land. A number of physical features link bryophytes to both land plants and aquatic plants.
Similarities to land plants[edit]
Distinct adaptations observed in bryophytes have allowed plants to colonize Earth's terrestrial environments. To prevent desiccation of plant tissues in a terrestrial environment, a waxy cuticle covering the soft tissue of the plant provides protection. The development of gametangia provided further protection specifically for gametes.[26] They also have embryonic development which is a significant adaptation seen in land plants and not green algae.[27] While bryophytes have no truly vascularized tissue, they do have organs that have specific functions, similar to those functions of leaves and stems in higher level land plants.[27]
Similarities to aquatic plants[edit]
Bryophytes also exhibit connections to their aquatic ancestry. They share various features with their green algae ancestors. Both green algae and bryophytes have chlorophyll a and b, and the chloroplast structures are similar.[27] Like algae and land plants, bryophytes also produce starch and contain cellulose in their walls.[27]
Bryophytes depend on water for reproduction and survival. A thin layer of water is required on the surface of the plant to enable the movement of sperm between gametophytes and the fertilization of an egg.[26]
Comparative morphology[edit]
Summary of the morphological characteristics of the gametophytes of the three groups of bryophytes:
Liverworts
Mosses
Hornworts
Structure Thalloid or Foliose Foliose Thalloid
Symmetry Dorsiventral or radial Radial Dorsiventral
Rhizoids Unicellular Pluricellular Unicellular
Chloroplasts/cell Many Many One
Protonemata Reduced Present Absent
Gametangia
(antheridia
and archegonia) Superficial Superficial Immersed
Summary of the morphological characteristics of the sporophytes of the three groups of bryophytes:
Liverworts
Mosses
Hornworts
Stomata Absent Present Present
Structure Small, without chlorophyll Large, with chlorophyll Large, with chlorophyll
Persistence Ephemeral Persistent Persistent
Growth Defined Defined Continuous
Seta Present Present Absent
Capsule form Simple Differentiated
(operculum, peristome) Elongated
Maturation of spores Simultaneous Simultaneous Graduate
Dispersion of spores Elaters Peristome teeth Pseudo-elaters
Columella Absent Present Present
Dehiscence Longitudinal or irregular Transverse Longitudinal
Uses[edit]
This article is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this article to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (April 2017)
Environmental
Soil Conditioning
Bioindicators
Moss gardens
Pesticides
Characteristics of bryophytes make them useful to the environment. Depending on the specific plant texture, bryophytes have been shown to help improve the water retention and air space within soil.[28] Bryophytes are used in pollution studies to indicate soil pollution (such as the presence of heavy metals), air pollution, and UV-B radiation.[28] Gardens in Japan are designed with moss to create peacful sanctuaries.[28] Some bryophytes have been found to produce natural pesticides. The liverwort, Plagiochila, produces a chemical that is poisonous to mice.[28] Other bryophytes produce chemicals that are antifeedants which protect them from being eaten by slugs.[28] When Phythium sphagnum is sprinkled on the soil of germinating seeds, it inhibits growth of "damping off fungus" which would otherwise kill young seedlings.[29]
Moss peat is made from Sphagnum
Commercial
Fuel
Packaging
Wound Dressing
Peat is a fuel that is produced from dried bryophytes, typically sphagnum. Bryophytes antibiotic properties and ability to retain water make them a useful packaging material for vegetables, flowers, and bulbs.[28] Also, because of the antibiotic properties, sphagnum was used as a surgical dressing in World War I.[28]
See also[edit]
Anthocerotophyta (hornworts)
Bryophyta (mosses)
Embryophyte
Marchantiophyta (liverworts)
Plant sexuality
List of British county and local bryophyte floras
References[edit]
^ Jump up to: a b "Reviews glossary". Retrieved 2009-03-26.
Jump up ^ Levetin, Estelle; McMahon, Karen (2012). Plants and Society. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. p. 139. ISBN 978-0-07-352422-1.
Jump up ^ "Bryophytes (Mosses and liverworts) — The Plant List". www.theplantlist.org. Retrieved 2017-04-11.
Jump up ^ "What are Bryophytes". bryophytes.plant.siu.edu. Retrieved 2017-04-11.
^ Jump up to: a b "Habitats - ecology - bryophyte". www.anbg.gov.au. Retrieved 2017-04-12.
Jump up ^ "Bryophytes - introduction". Retrieved 2009-05-31.
Jump up ^ Cronberg N, Natcheva R, Hedlund K (2006). "Microarthropods Mediate Sperm Transfer in Mosses". Science. 313 (5791): 1255. doi:10.1126/science.1128707. PMID 16946062.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Glime, J.M. & Bisang, I. (2014). "Sexuality: Its Determination (Ch. 3-1)" (PDF). In Glime, J.M. Bryophyte Ecology. Volume 1 Physiological Ecology. Michigan Technological University and the International Association of Bryologists. Retrieved 2014-11-09.
^ Jump up to: a b Watson, E.V. (1981). British Mosses and Liverworts (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 7. (Watson uses the "oecy" terms rather than the "oicy" terms.)
Jump up ^ Goremykin, V. V. & Hellwig, F. H. (2005). "Evidence for the most basal split in land plants dividing bryophyte and tracheophyte lineages". Plant Systematics and Evolution. 254 (1–2): 93–103. doi:10.1007/s00606-005-0337-1.
Jump up ^ Konrat, M.; Shaw, A. J.; Renzaglia, K. S. (2010). "A special issue of Phytotaxa dedicated to Bryophytes: The closest living relatives of early land plants". Phytotaxa. 9: 5–10.
Jump up ^ Troitsky AV, Ignatov MS, Bobrova VK, Milyutina IA (December 2007). "Contribution of genosystematics to current concepts of phylogeny and classification of bryophytes". Biochemistry Mosc. 72 (12): 1368–76. doi:10.1134/S0006297907120115. PMID 18205621.
^ Jump up to: a b Knoop, Volker (2010). "Looking for sense in the nonsense: a short review of non-coding organellar DNA elucidating the phylogeny of bryophytes". Tropical Bryology. 31: 51–60.
Jump up ^ "GLOSSARY B". Retrieved 2009-03-26.
Jump up ^ Qiu, Y. L.; Li, L.; Wang, B.; et al. (October 2006). "The deepest divergences in land plants inferred from phylogenomic evidence". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 103 (42): 15511–6. Bibcode:2006PNAS..10315511Q. doi:10.1073/pnas.0603335103. PMC 1622854  . PMID 17030812.
^ Jump up to: a b Cox, Cymon J.; Li, Blaise; Foster, Peter G.; Embley, T. Martin & Civáň, Peter (2014). "Conflicting Phylogenies for Early Land Plants are Caused by Composition Biases among Synonymous Substitutions". Systematic Biology. 63 (2): 272–279. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syt109. PMC 3926305  . PMID 24399481.
Jump up ^ Kenrick, Paul & Crane, Peter R. (1997a). "The Origin and Early Diversification of Land Plants: A Cladistic Study". Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 978-1-56098-730-7.
Jump up ^ Kenrick, P. & Crane, P.R. (1997b). "The origin and early evolution of plants on land". Nature. 389 (6646): 33–39. Bibcode:1997Natur.389...33K. doi:10.1038/37918.
Jump up ^ Bell, N. E. & Hyvönen, J. (2010). "Phylogeny of the moss class Polytrichopsida (BRYOPHYTA): Generic-level structure and incongruent gene trees". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 55 (2): 381–398. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2010.02.004. PMID 20152915.
Jump up ^ Crane, P. R.; Herendeen, P. & Friis, E. M. (2004). "Fossils and plant phylogeny". American Journal of Botany. 91 (10): 1683–99. doi:10.3732/ajb.91.10.1683. PMID 21652317.
Jump up ^ Cox et al. 2014, p. 274.
Jump up ^ Karol, Kenneth G.; Arumuganathan, Kathiravetpillai; Boore, Jeffrey L.; Duffy, Aaron M.; Everett, Karin DE; Hall, John D.; Hansen, S.K.; Kuehl, Jennifer V.; Mandoli, Dina F.; Mishler, Brent D.; Olmstead, Richard G.; Renzaglia, Karen S. & Wolf, Paul G. (2010). "Complete plastome sequences of Equisetum arvense and Isoetes flaccida: implications for phylogeny and plastid genome evolution of early land plant lineages". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 10 (1): 321. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-10-321. PMC 3087542  . PMID 20969798.
Jump up ^ Konrat, M.; Shaw, A.J.; Renzaglia, K.S. (2010). "A special issue of Phytotaxa dedicated to Bryophytes: The closest living relatives of early land plants". Phytotaxa. 9: 5–10.
Jump up ^ Karol, Kenneth G.; Arumuganathan, Kathiravetpillai; Boore, Jeffrey L.; Duffy, Aaron M.; Everett, Karin DE; Hall, John D.; Hansen, S.K.; Kuehl, Jennifer V.; Mandoli, Dina F.; Mishler, Brent D.; Olmstead, Richard G.; Renzaglia, Karen S. & Wolf, Paul G. (2010). "Complete plastome sequences of Equisetum arvense and Isoetes flaccida: implications for phylogeny and plastid genome evolution of early land plant lineages". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 10 (1): 321. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-10-321. PMC 3087542  . PMID 20969798.
Jump up ^ Shaw, A. Jonathan; Szövényi, Péter; Shaw, Blanka (2011-03-01). "Bryophyte diversity and evolution: Windows into the early evolution of land plants". American Journal of Botany. 98 (3): 352–369. doi:10.3732/ajb.1000316. ISSN 0002-9122. PMID 21613131.
^ Jump up to: a b Purcell, Adam. "Bryophytes". Basic Biology.
^ Jump up to: a b c d Everet, Ray; Eichhorn, Susan (2013). Biology of Plants. W.H.Freeman and Company Publishers.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Glime, Janice. "Economic and Ethnic Uses of Bryophytes" (PDF). harvard.edu.
Jump up ^ Wolffhechel, H. (1988). "The Suppressiveness of Sphagnum Peat to Pythium spp". Acta Horticulturae (221): 217–222. doi:10.17660/actahortic.1988.221.22.
Bibliography[edit]
Lesica, P.; McCune, B.; Cooper, S. V.; Hong, W. S. (1991). "Differences in lichen and bryophyte communities between old-growth and managed second-growth forests in the Swan Valley, Montana". Canadian Journal of Botany. 69 (8): 1745–1755. doi:10.1139/b91-222.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bryophytes.
Look up bryophyte in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Bryophyta.
Andrew's Moss Site Photos of bryophytes
27-May-2013 Centuries-old frozen plants revived, 400-year-old bryophyte specimens left behind by retreating glaciers in Canada are brought back to life in the laboratory.[1]
Magill, R. E., ed. (1990). Glossarium polyglottum bryologiae. A multilingual glossary for bryology. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden, v. 33, 297 pp. Online version: Internet Archive.
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GND: 4040211-3
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text:
Signed zero
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Signed zero is zero with an associated sign. In ordinary arithmetic, the number 0 does not have a sign, so that −0, +0 and 0 are identical. However, in computing, some number representations allow for the existence of two zeros, often denoted by −0 (negative zero) and +0 (positive zero), regarded as equal by the numerical comparison operations but with possible different behaviors in particular operations. This occurs in the sign and magnitude and ones' complement signed number representations for integers, and in most floating-point number representations. The number 0 is usually encoded as +0, but can be represented by either +0 or −0.
The IEEE 754 standard for floating-point arithmetic (presently used by most computers and programming languages that support floating point numbers) requires both +0 and −0. Real arithmetic with signed zeros can be considered a variant of the extended real number line such that 1/−0 = −∞ and 1/+0 = +∞; division is only undefined for ±0/±0 and ±∞/±∞.
Negatively signed zero echoes the mathematical analysis concept of approaching 0 from below as a one-sided limit, which may be denoted by x → 0−, x → 0−, or x → ↑0. The notation "−0" may be used informally to denote a small negative number that has been rounded to zero. The concept of negative zero also has some theoretical applications in statistical mechanics and other disciplines.
It is claimed that the inclusion of signed zero in IEEE 754 makes it much easier to achieve numerical accuracy in some critical problems,[1] in particular when computing with complex elementary functions.[2] On the other hand, the concept of signed zero runs contrary to the general assumption made in most mathematical fields that negative zero is the same thing as zero. Representations that allow negative zero can be a source of errors in programs, if software developers do not take into account that while the two zero representations behave as equal under numeric comparisons, they yield different results in some operations.
Contents
1 Representations
2 Properties and handling
2.1 Notation
2.2 Arithmetic
2.3 Comparisons
3 Scientific uses
4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading
Representations[edit]
The widely used two's complement encoding does not allow a negative zero. In a 1+7-bit sign-and-magnitude representation for integers, negative zero is represented by the bit string 10000000. In an 8-bit one's complement representation, negative zero is represented by the bit string 11111111. In all three encodings, positive zero is represented by 00000000.
Negative zero by IEEE 754 representation in binary32
In IEEE 754 binary floating point numbers, zero values are represented by the biased exponent and significand both being zero. Negative zero has the sign bit set to one. One may obtain negative zero as the result of certain computations, for instance as the result of arithmetic underflow on a negative number, or −1.0×0.0, or simply as −0.0.
In IEEE 754 decimal floating point encoding, a negative zero is represented by an exponent being any valid exponent in the range for the encoding, the true significand being zero, and the sign bit being one.
Properties and handling[edit]
The IEEE 754 floating point standard specifies the behavior of positive zero and negative zero under various operations. The outcome may depend on the current IEEE rounding mode settings.
Notation[edit]
In systems that include both signed and unsigned zeros, the notation 0 + {\displaystyle 0^{+}} and 0 − {\displaystyle 0^{-}} is sometimes used for signed zeros.
Arithmetic[edit]
Addition and multiplication are commutative, but there are some special rules that have to be followed, which mean the usual mathematical rules for algebraic simplification may not apply. The = {\displaystyle =} sign below shows the signed result of the operations.
The usual rule for signs is always followed when multiplying or dividing:
− 0 | x | = − 0 {\displaystyle {\frac {-0}{\left|x\right|}}=-0\,\!} (for x {\displaystyle x} different from 0)
( − 0 ) ⋅ ( − 0 ) = + 0 {\displaystyle (-0)\cdot (-0)=+0\,\!}
There are special rules for adding or subtracting signed zero:
x + ( ± 0 ) = x {\displaystyle x+(\pm 0)=x\,\!} (for x {\displaystyle x} different from 0)
( − 0 ) + ( − 0 ) = ( − 0 ) − ( + 0 ) = − 0 {\displaystyle (-0)+(-0)=(-0)-(+0)=-0\,\!}
( + 0 ) + ( + 0 ) = ( + 0 ) − ( − 0 ) = + 0 {\displaystyle (+0)+(+0)=(+0)-(-0)=+0\,\!}
x − x = x + ( − x ) = + 0 {\displaystyle x-x=x+(-x)=+0\,\!} (for any finite x {\displaystyle x} , −0 when rounding toward negative)
Because of negative zero (and also when the rounding mode is upward or downward), the expressions −(x − y) and (−x) − (−y), for floating-point variables x and y, cannot be replaced by y − x. However (−0) + x can be replaced by x with rounding to nearest (except when x can be a signaling NaN).
Some other special rules:
− 0 = − 0 {\displaystyle {\sqrt {-0}}=-0\,\!} [3]
− 0 − ∞ = + 0 {\displaystyle {\frac {-0}{-\infty }}=+0\,\!} (follows the sign rule for division)
| x | − 0 = − ∞ {\displaystyle {\frac {\left|x\right|}{-0}}=-\infty \,\!} (for non-zero x {\displaystyle x} , follows the sign rule for division)
± 0 × ± ∞ = NaN {\displaystyle {\pm 0}\times {\pm \infty }={\mbox{NaN}}\,\!} (Not a Number or interrupt for indeterminate form)
± 0 ± 0 = NaN {\displaystyle {\frac {\pm 0}{\pm 0}}={\mbox{NaN}}\,\!}
Division of a non-zero number by zero sets the divide by zero flag, and an operation producing a NaN sets the invalid operation flag. An exception handler is called if enabled for the corresponding flag.
Comparisons[edit]
According to the IEEE 754 standard, negative zero and positive zero should compare as equal with the usual (numerical) comparison operators, like the == operators of C and Java. In those languages, special programming tricks may be needed to distinguish the two values:
Type punning the number to an integer type, so as to look at the sign bit in the bit pattern;
using the ISO C copysign() function (IEEE 754 copySign operation) to copy the sign of the zero to some non-zero number;
using the ISO C signbit() macro (IEEE 754 isSignMinus operation) that returns whether the sign bit of a number is set;
taking the reciprocal of the zero to obtain either 1/(+0) = +∞ or 1/(−0) = −∞ (if the division by zero exception is not trapped).
Note: Casting to integral type will not always work, especially on two's complement systems.
However, some programming languages may provide alternative comparison operators that do distinguish the two zeros. This is the case, for example, of the equals method in Java's Double wrapper class.[4]
Scientific uses[edit]
Informally, one may use the notation “−0” for a negative value that was rounded to zero. This notation may be useful when a negative sign is significant; for example, when tabulating Celsius temperatures, where a negative sign means below freezing.
In statistical mechanics, one sometimes uses negative temperatures to describe systems with population inversion, which can be considered to have a temperature greater than positive infinity, because the coefficient of energy in the population distribution function is −1/Temperature. In this context, a temperature of −0 is a (theoretical) temperature larger than any other negative temperature, corresponding to the (theoretical) maximum conceivable extent of population inversion, the opposite extreme to +0.[5]
See also[edit]
Line with two origins
References[edit]
Jump up ^ William Kahan, "Branch Cuts for Complex Elementary Functions, or Much Ado About Nothing's Sign Bit", in The State of the Art in Numerical Analysis (eds. Iserles and Powell), Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1987.
Jump up ^ William Kahan, Derivatives in the Complex z-plane, p. 10.
Jump up ^ Cowlishaw, Mike (7 April 2009). "Decimal Arithmetic: Arithmetic operations – square-root". speleotrove.com (IBM Corporation). Retrieved 7 December 2010.
Jump up ^ http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/lang/Double.html#equals(java.lang.Object)
Jump up ^ Kittel, Charles and Herbert Kroemer (1980). Thermal Physics (2nd ed.). W. H. Freeman Company. p. 462. ISBN 0-7167-1088-9.
"Floating point types". MSDN C# Language Specification. Retrieved 15 October 2005.
"Division operator". MSDN C# Language Specification. Retrieved 15 October 2005.
Thomas Wang (March 2000). "Java Floating-Point Number Intricacies". September 2000. Archived from the original on 2005-09-21.
Mike Colishaw (28 July 2008). "Decimal Arithmetic Specification, version 1.68". Retrieved 2008-08-14. – a decimal floating point specification that includes negative zero
Further reading[edit]
Michael Ingrassia. "Fortran 95 SIGN Change". Sun Developer Network. Retrieved October 15, 2005. – the changes in the Fortran SIGN function in Fortran 95 to accommodate negative zero
"JScript data types". MSDN JScript. Retrieved October 16, 2005. – JScript's floating point type with negative zero by definition
"A look at the floating-point support of the Java virtual machine". Javaworld. Retrieved October 16, 2005. – representation of negative zero in the Java virtual machine
Bruce Dawson (25 February 2012). "Comparing floating point numbers, 2012 Edition". – how to handle negative zero when comparing floating-point numbers
John Walker. "Minus Zero". UNIVAC Memories. Retrieved October 17, 2005. – one's complement numbers on the UNIVAC 1100 family computers
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Signed_zero&oldid=848458057"
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text:
The Power of the Powerless
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For the album by Cui Jian, see The Power of the Powerless (album).
The Power of the Powerless (Czech: Moc bezmocných) is an expansive political essay written in October 1978 by the Czech dramatist, political dissident and later politician, Václav Havel. The essay dissects the nature of the communist regime of the time, life within such a regime and how by their very nature such regimes can create dissidents of ordinary citizens. The essay goes on to discuss ideas and possible actions by loose communities of individuals linked by a common cause, such as Charter 77. Officially suppressed, the essay was circulated in samizdat form and translated into multiple languages. It became a manifesto for dissent in Czechoslovakia, Poland and other communist regimes.
Contents
[hide]
1 Background
2 Genesis and publication history
3 Content
3.1 Life in a "post-totalitarian" system
3.2 Overcoming powerlessness
3.3 Forms of opposition to the regime
3.4 Towards a "post-democratic" system
4 Impact
5 References
6 Notes
7 External links
Background[edit]
Under the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, there was an omnipresent pressure exerted by the political apparatus on culture.[1] Various methods were utilized to pressure citizens into compliance.[2] Havel's philosophical mentor, Jan Patočka, who was also the co-spokesman of the human rights petition, Charter 77, died of a stroke in March 1977, after an eleven-hour interrogation by the Czechoslovak secret police regarding his involvement in the Charter.
After the launch of Charter 77, which coincided with the release of The Power of the Powerless, Havel was put under continuous pressure by the secret police. He was under constant government surveillance and they interrogated him almost daily. When he didn't cave, Havel was imprisoned.[3] He was arrested in May 1979 and remained imprisoned until February 1983.[4]
Genesis and publication history[edit]
The Power of the Powerless was originally written by Havel in October 1978. It had its genesis in a planned book of Polish and Czechoslovak essays on the nature of freedom. Each of the contributors was to have received a copy of Havel's essay and then to respond to it. However only the individual Czechoslovak essays were "published" and distributed in samizdat form in 1979 after Havel was arrested along with other members of the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted (Výbor na obranu nespravedlivě stíhaných or VONS); an organization that Havel co-founded in 1979.[5] An English translation by Paul Wilson was published in 1985 in a volume of essays edited by John Keane.[6]
Content[edit]
The topic of how best to resist a totalitarian system occupied Havel's mind after the launch of Charter 77. This became the crux of his essay, which was one of the most "original and compelling pieces of political writing" to come out of the Eastern Bloc.[7] Dedicated to the memory of Jan Patočka, the opening section of the essay sought to explain what Charter 77 signified to those living within Czechoslovakia, and "to give courage" to fellow opponents of the Soviet block elsewhere.[7]
Life in a "post-totalitarian" system[edit]
Havel coined the term "post-totalitarian" for this essay, writing, "I do not wish to imply by the prefix "post-" that the system is no longer totalitarian; on the contrary, I mean that it is totalitarian in a way fundamentally different from classical dictatorships..."[8][9]
Havel biographer, John Keane, describes Havel's definition of a post-totalitarian world: "Within the system, every individual is trapped within a dense network of the state's governing instruments...themselves legitimated by a flexible but comprehensive ideology, a 'secularized religion'...it is therefore necessary to see, argued Havel, that power relations...are best described as a labyrinth of influence, repression, fear and self-censorship which swallows up everyone within it, at the very least by rendering them silent, stultified and marked by some undesirable prejudices of the powerful..."[10]
Havel uses the example of a green grocer who displays in his shop the sign Workers of the world, unite!. Since failure to display the sign could be seen as disloyalty, he displays it and the sign becomes not a symbol of his enthusiasm for the regime, but a symbol of both his submission to it and humiliation by it. Havel returns repeatedly to this motif to show the contradictions between the "intentions of life" and the "intentions of systems", i.e. between the individual and the state, in a totalitarian society.
An individual living within such a system must live a lie, to hide that which he truly believes and desires, and to do that which he must do to be left in peace and to survive.
...they must live within a lie. They need not accept the lie. It is enough for them to have accepted their life with it and in it. For by this very fact, individuals confirm the system, fulfill the system, make the system, are the system.
This essay reached us in the Ursus factory in 1979 at a point when we felt we were at the end of the road...we had been speaking on the shop floor, talking to people, participating in public meetings, trying to speak the truth about the factory, the country, and politics. There came a moment when people thought that we were crazy. Why were we doing this? Why were we taking such risks? Not seeing any immediate and tangible results, we began to doubt the purposefulness of what we were doing...Then came the essay by Havel. Reading it gave us the theoretical underpinnings for our activity. It maintained our spirits; we did not give up, and a year later — in August 1980 — it became clear that the party apparatus and the factory management were afraid of us. We mattered. And the rank and file saw us as leaders of the movement...[5] -Zbigniew Bujak, Solidarity activist, recalling the effect that Havel's essay had upon the leaders of Poland's nascent Solidarity movement
“
”
Individuals at each level within the bureaucracy must display their own equivalent of the grocer's Workers of the world, unite! sign, oppressing those below them and in turn oppressed by those above. Against this public lie is contrasted a life lived in truth, a title suggested by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and his essay Live Not By Lies. Havel argued that the restoration of a free society could only be achieved through a paradigm based on the individual, "human existence," and a fundamental reconstitution of one's "respect for self, for others and for the universe"; to refuse to give power to empty slogans and meaningless rituals, to refuse to allow the lie to oppress oneself, and to refuse to be part of the lie that oppresses others.
Overcoming powerlessness[edit]
Havel proposes that the oppressed always contain "within themselves the power to remedy their own powerlessness..."[11] Havel argued that by an individual "living in truth" in their daily life they automatically differentiate themselves from the officially mandated culture prescribed by the State; since power is only effective inasmuch as citizens are willing to submit to it.[12]
Havel explained step-by-step that the powerlessness of the powerful is traceable to several factors: Those who rule at the top of the pyramid are fundamentally incapable of controlling every aspect of an individual citizen's life despite their best efforts to do so. And those in petty power positions all the way down the line perform the prescribed rituals mandated by the State yet it is this blind obedience which in turn tends to dull the perceptions of the leaders at the top — inadvertently opening space for those who wish not to conform.[13]
Official power is further eroded by the ideological rituals that the entire power structure depend on, and "that are ever less credible, exactly because they are untested by public discussion and controversy". Havel argued that the part of a human being that yearns for freedom, truth, and self-dignity can never be fully repressed.[14]
Havel echoed Patočka's sentiment that no matter what the situation, individuals carry responsibility with them. Therefore it is possible to not allow oneself to be humiliated by superiors anymore, or intimidated by the secret police. Havel felt that all that is suffered over time under such systems often leads to deeper reflection: "There are times, when we must sink to the bottom of our misery to understand truth, just as we must descend to the bottom of a well to see the stars in broad daylight." Havel wrote that "living in truth" meant rejecting the notion that power is something to be grasped or abolished. Havel instead argues that power is relational.[15]
Havel said the written laws in the East and West are pretty similar. The difference is in their administration. "Demanding that the laws be upheld ... threatens the whole mendacious structure at its point of maximum mendacity." People were "easily and inconspicuously locked up for copying banned books". However, "policemen, prosecutors, or judges ... exposed to public attention ... suddenly and anxiously begin to take particular care that no cracks appear in the [legal] ritual."[16]
Forms of opposition to the regime[edit]
In later sections, Havel writes of what form opposition in such regimes could take and the nature of being a dissident in the circumstances of the time, using the example of Charter 77. Havel's political program being a breaking with both the traditional forms of governing and opposition. He contrasts Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk's observation of the limits of grassroots organization, of so-called small works, with the example of the Polish Workers' Defence Committee (Komitet Obrony Robotników or 'KOR) and of what could be achieved through an independent social life and organization to achieve "social self-defense". Such a defense throughout the then Eastern Bloc having as its basis the defense of human and civil rights.
Havel touches upon the concepts articulated by fellow dissident and Charter 77 signatory, Vaclav Benda, who had earlier described "parallel structures" of "parallel institutions" within a society more responsive to human needs. He points out that the first person in Czechoslovakia to formulate and put into practice a concept of a "second culture" was Ivan Jirous; although Jirous was mainly referring to events such as rock music concerts.[17]
Towards a "post-democratic" system[edit]
Havel concludes the essay with a discussion about democracy and the problems of technology. He rejects the view that the only answer to a post-totalitarian regime would be to establish parliamentary democracy. "To cling to the notion", he writes, "of traditional parliamentary democracy as one’s political ideal and to succumb to the illusion that only this tried and true form is capable of guaranteeing human beings enduring dignity and an independent role in society would, in my opinion, be at the very least shortsighted."[18] He calls for an "existential revolution" that goes "significantly beyond the framework of classical parliamentary democracy"[18] and that can thus be called post-democratic. "Having introduced the term 'posttotalitarian' for the purposes of this discussion, perhaps I should refer to the notion I have just outlined - purely for the moment - as the prospects for a 'post-democratic' system."[18] The post-democratic system he envisages should "provide hope of a moral reconstitution of society, which means a radical renewal of the relationship of human beings to what I have called the 'human order,' which no political order can replace. A new experience of being, a renewed rootedness in the universe, a newly grasped sense of higher responsibility, a newfound inner relationship to other people and to the human community-these factors clearly indicate the direction in which we must go."[19]
Impact[edit]
After the fall of the communist regimes of central-eastern Europe in 1989, which included the Fall of the Berlin Wall and Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution, observers hearkened back to the writings of dissidents who had dissected the inherent weaknesses in the political regimes. Solidarity activist Zbigniew Bujak said of the essay, "When I look at the victories of Solidarity, and of Charter 77, I see in them an astonishing fulfillment of the prophecies and knowledge contained in Havel's essay."[5]
References[edit]
Havel, Václav; et al. (1985). Keane, John, ed. The Power of the Powerless: Citizens against the state in central-eastern Europe. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe. ISBN 0-87332-761-6.
Havel, Václav (1991). Wilson, Paul trans, ed. "The Power of the Powerless" (in) Open Letters: Selected Writings: 1965—1990. ISBN 0-679-73811-8.
Keane, John (2000). Václav Havel: A Political Tragedy In Six Acts. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-03720-9.
Kriseová, Eda (1993). Václav Havel: The Authorized Biography. St. Martins Press. ISBN 0-88687-739-3.
Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ Eda Kriseová (1993). Václav Havel: The Authorized Biography. St. Martins Press. p. 205. ISBN 0-88687-739-3.
Jump up ^ John Keane (23 May 2001). Vaclav Havel: A Political Tragedy In Six Acts. Basic Books. pp. 254–. ISBN 978-0-465-03720-9. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
Jump up ^ Keane; p. 254.
Jump up ^ Eda Kriseová (1993). Václav Havel: The Authorized Biography. St. Martins Press. pp. 168, 195. ISBN 0-88687-739-3.
^ Jump up to: a b c Wilson, Paul (1991). Introduction to The Power of the Powerless: To the memory of Jan Patocka; found in Open Letters: Selected Writings 1965—1990 Václav Havel. pp. 125–126. ISBN 0679400273.
Jump up ^ (See ISBN 978-0873327619)
^ Jump up to: a b Keane; p. 268.
Jump up ^ Havel, Václav. The Power of the Powerless in Open Letters: Selected Writings: 1965—1990 Edited and Translated by Paul Wilson. p. 131.
Jump up ^ Václav Havel; John Keane (1985). The Power of the Powerless: Citizens Against the State in Central-Eastern Europe. M.E. Sharpe. pp. 27–. ISBN 978-0-87332-761-9. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
Jump up ^ Keane; p. 273-274.
Jump up ^ Keane; p. 269.
Jump up ^ Keane; p. 270.
Jump up ^ Keane; p. 271-272.
Jump up ^ Keane; p. 272.
Jump up ^ Keane; p. 273.
Jump up ^ Havel et al. (1985, pp. 75-77)
Jump up ^ Havel, Václav. The Power of the Powerless in Open Letters: Selected Writings: 1965—1990 Edited and Translated by Paul Wilson. pp. 192–195.
^ Jump up to: a b c Keane; p. 285.
Jump up ^ Keane; p. 283.
The content of this article is based in part on the corresponding article at the Czech Wikipedia.
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