document_title: New7Wonders of the World

question_text: seven wonders of the world as of january 2018

text: New7Wonders of the World

text: Winners

text: The Great Pyramid of Giza, largest and oldest of the three pyramids at the Giza Necropolis in Egypt and the only surviving (and oldest) of the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was granted honorary status.

text:
Wonder

Location

Image

Year

Great Pyramid of Giza  (honorary status)
Giza Necropolis, Egypt

2560 BCE

Great Wall of China
China

700 BCE

Petra
Jordan

312 BCE

The Colosseum
Rome, Italy

80 CE

Chichen Itza
Yucatán, Mexico

600 CE

Machu Picchu
Cuzco Region, Peru

1450 CE

Taj Mahal
Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India

1643 CE

Christ the Redeemer
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

1931 CE

text: Reactions

text: United Nations

text: In 2007, the New7Wonders Foundation contracted a partnership with the United Nations in recognition of the efforts to promote the UN's Millennium Development Goals". The UN posted on its website:[10]

text: The New7Wonders campaigns aim to contribute to the process of uplifting the well being and mutual respect of citizens around the world, through encouraging interaction, expression  opinion and direct participation by voting and polling on popular global issues which are understandable to everyone.

text: However, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in a press release on June 20, 2007, reaffirmed that it has no link with the "private initiative".  The press release concluded:[7]

text: There is no comparison between Mr. Weber's mediatised campaign and the scientific and educational work resulting from the inscription of sites on UNESCO's World Heritage List. The list of the 8 New Wonders of the World will be the result of a private undertaking, reflecting only the opinions of those with access to the Internet and not the entire world. This initiative cannot, in any significant and sustainable manner, contribute to the preservation of sites elected by this public.

text: Brazil

text: In Brazil there was a campaign Vote no Cristo (Vote for the Christ) which had the support of private companies, namely telecommunications operators that stopped charging voters to make telephone calls and SMS messages to vote.[11]  Additionally, leading corporate sponsors including Banco Bradesco and Rede Globo spent millions of reals in the effort to have the statue voted into the top seven.[3] Newsweek reports the campaign was so pervasive that:[3]

text: One morning in June, Rio de Janeiro residents awoke to a beeping text message on their cell phones: "Press 4916 and vote for Christ. It's free!" The same pitch had been popping up all over the city since late January—flashing across an electronic screen every time city-dwellers swiped their transit cards on city buses and echoing on TV infomercials that featured a reality-show celebrity posing next to the city's trademark Christ the Redeemer statue.

text: According to an article in Newsweek, around 10 million Brazilians had voted in the contest by early July.[3] This number is estimated as the New7Wonders Foundation never released such details about the campaign. An airplane message, with a huge inscription "4916 VOTE FOR CHRIST" flew in Rio de Janeiro for a month.

text: Peru

text: An intensive campaign led by the Peruvian Ministry of Commerce and Tourism in Peru had a great impact in the media and consequently Peruvian people voted massively for its national wonder.  The announcement of the new World Wonders generated great expectation and the election of Machu Picchu was celebrated nationwide.

text: Chile

text: The Chilean representative for Easter Island's Moais, Alberto Hotus, said Weber gave him a letter saying that the Moais had finished eighth and were morally one of the New Seven Wonders. Hotus said he was the only participant to receive such an apology.[12]

text: India

text: A campaign to publicize the Taj Mahal in India gathered speed  and it reached a climax in July 2007 with news channels, radio stations, and many celebrities asking people to vote for the Taj Mahal.

text: Jordan

text: Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan joined the campaign to back Petra, Jordan's national treasure.[3]

text: Mexico

text: There was a campaign on the news programs to encourage people to vote for Chichen Itzá.[citation needed]

text: Other finalists

text: The other 13 finalists,[13] listed alphabetically, were:

text:
Wonder

Location

Image

Year

Acropolis of Athens
Athens, Greece

447 BCE

Alhambra
Granada, Spain

1333

Angkor Wat
Angkor, Cambodia

1113

Eiffel Tower
Paris, France

1887

Hagia Sophia
İstanbul, Turkey

537

Kiyomizu-dera
Kyoto, Japan

1633

Moai
Easter Island, Chile

1250

Neuschwanstein
Füssen, Germany

1869

Red Square
Moscow, Russia

1561

Statue of Liberty
New York City, United States

1886

Stonehenge
Amesbury, United Kingdom

2400 BCE

Sydney Opera House
Sydney, Australia

1959

Timbuktu
Timbuktu, Mali

1327


document_title: Zebrafish

question_text: what is the size of the largest zebrafish

root

text: Zebrafish

text: Taxonomy[edit]

text: The zebrafish is a derived member of the genus Danio, of the family Cyprinidae. It has a sister-group relationship with Danio aesculapii.[8] Zebrafish are also closely related to the genus Devario, as demonstrated by a phylogenetic tree of close species.[9] The zebrafish was referred to in scientific literature as Brachydanio rerio for many years until its reassignment to the genus Danio.[10]

tag: p

text: Distribution[edit]

text: The zebrafish is native to the streams of the southeastern Himalayan region,[11] and is found in parts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Myanmar.[12] The species arose in the Ganges region in eastern India, and commonly inhabits streams, canals, ditches, ponds, and slow-moving or stagnant water bodies, including rice fields.[13] Zebrafish are most commonly found in low flow streams that has sandy substrates.[14] Zebrafish have been introduced to parts of the United States, presumably by deliberate release or by escape from fish farms.[12]

text: Description[edit]

text: The zebrafish is named for the five uniform, pigmented, horizontal, blue stripes on the side of the body, which are reminiscent of a zebra's stripes, and which extend to the end of the caudal fin. Its shape is fusiform and laterally compressed, with its mouth directed upwards. The male is torpedo-shaped, with gold stripes between the blue stripes; the female has a larger, whitish belly and silver stripes instead of gold. Adult females exhibit a small genital papilla in front of the anal fin origin. The zebrafish can grow to 6.4 cm (2.5 in) in length, although it seldom grows larger than 4 cm (1.6 in) in captivity. Its lifespan in captivity is around two to three years, although in ideal conditions, this may be extended to over five years.[13][15]

text: Reproduction[edit]

text: The approximate generation time for Danio rerio is three months. A male must be present for ovulation and spawning to occur. Females are able to spawn at intervals of two to three days, laying hundreds of eggs in each clutch. Upon release, embryonic development begins; absent sperm, growth stops after the first few cell divisions. Fertilized eggs almost immediately become transparent, a characteristic that makes D. rerio a convenient research model species.[13]

text: The zebrafish embryo develops rapidly, with precursors to all major organs appearing within 36 hours of fertilization. The embryo begins as a yolk with a single enormous cell on top (see image, 0 h panel), which divides into two (0.75 h panel) and continues dividing until there are thousands of small cells (3.25 h panel). The cells then migrate down the sides of the yolk (8 h panel) and begin forming a head and tail (16 h panel). The tail then grows and separates from the body (24 h panel). The yolk shrinks over time because the fish uses it for food as it matures during the first few days (72 h panel). After a few months, the adult fish reaches reproductive maturity (bottom panel).

text: To encourage the fish to spawn, some researchers use a fish tank with a sliding bottom insert, which reduces the depth of the pool to simulate the shore of a river. Zebrafish spawn best in the morning due to their Circadian rhythms. Researchers have been able to collect 10,000 embryos in 10 minutes using this method.[16] Male zebrafish are furthermore known to respond to more pronounced markings on females, i.e., "good stripes", but in a group, males will mate with whichever females they can find. What attracts females is not currently understood. The presence of plants, even plastic plants, also apparently encourages spawning.[16]

text: Feeding[edit]

text: Zebrafish are omnivorous, primarily eating zooplankton, phytoplankton, insects and insect larvae, although they can eat a variety of other foods, such as worms and small crustaceans, if their preferred food sources are not readily available.[13]

text: In research, adult zebrafish are often fed with brine shrimp, or paramecia.[17]

text: In the aquarium[edit]

text: Zebrafish are hardy fish and considered good for beginner aquarists. Their enduring popularity can be attributed to their playful disposition,[18] as well as their rapid breeding, aesthetics, cheap price and broad availability. They also do well in schools or shoals of six or more, and interact well with other fish species in the aquarium. However, they are susceptible to Oodinium or velvet disease, microsporidia (Pseudoloma neurophilia), and Mycobacterium species. Given the opportunity, adults eat hatchlings, which may be protected by separating the two groups with a net, breeding box or separate tank. In captivity, zebrafish live approximately forty two months. Some captive zebrafish can develop a curved spine.[19]

text: The Zebra Danio was also used to make genetically modified fish and were the first species to be sold as GloFish (fluorescent colored fish).

text: Strains[edit]

text: In late 2003, transgenic zebrafish that express green, red, and yellow fluorescent proteins became commercially available in the United States. The fluorescent strains are tradenamed GloFish; other cultivated varieties include "golden", "sandy", "longfin" and "leopard".

text: The leopard danio, previously known as Danio frankei, is a spotted colour morph of the zebrafish which arose due to a pigment mutation.[20] Xanthistic forms of both the zebra and leopard pattern, along with long-finned subspecies, have been obtained via selective breeding programs for the aquarium trade.[21]

text: Various transgenic and mutant strains of zebrafish were stored at the China Zebrafish Resource Center (CZRC),[22] a non-profit organization, which was jointly supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

text: Wild-type strains[edit]

text: The Zebrafish Information Network (ZFIN) provides up-to-date information about current known wild-type (WT) strains of D. rerio, some of which are listed below.[23]

text:
AB (AB)
AB/C32 (AB/C32)
AB/TL (AB/TL)
AB/Tuebingen (AB/TU)
C32 (C32)
Cologne (KOLN)
Darjeeling (DAR)
Ekkwill (EKW)

HK/AB (HK/AB)
HK/Sing (HK/SING)
Hong Kong (HK)
India (IND)
Indonesia (INDO)
Nadia (NA)
RIKEN WT (RW)
Singapore (SING)

SJA (SJA)
SJD (SJD)
SJD/C32 (SJD/C32)
Tuebingen (TU)
Tupfel long fin (TL)
Tupfel long fin nacre (TLN)
WIK (WIK)
WIK/AB (WIK/AB)

tag: table

text: Hybrids[edit]

text: Hybrids between different Danio species may be fertile: for example, between D. rerio and D. nigrofasciatus.[9]

text: In scientific research[edit]

text: D. rerio is a common and useful scientific model organism for studies of vertebrate development and gene function. Its use as a laboratory animal was pioneered by the American molecular biologist George Streisinger and his colleagues at the University of Oregon in the 1970s and 1980s; Streisinger's zebrafish clones were among the earliest successful vertebrate clones created.[24] Its importance has been consolidated by successful large-scale forward genetic screens (commonly referred to as the Tübingen/Boston screens). The fish has a dedicated online database of genetic, genomic, and developmental information, the Zebrafish Information Network (ZFIN). The Zebrafish International Resource Center (ZIRC) is a genetic resource repository with 29,250 alleles available for distribution to the research community. D. rerio is also one of the few fish species to have been sent into space.

text: Research with D. rerio has yielded advances in the fields of developmental biology, oncology,[25] toxicology,[26][27][28] reproductive studies, teratology, genetics, neurobiology, environmental sciences, stem cell research, regenerative medicine,[29][30] muscular dystrophies[31] and evolutionary theory.[9]

text: Model characteristics[edit]

text: As a model biological system, the zebrafish possesses numerous advantages for scientists. Its genome has been fully sequenced, and it has well-understood, easily observable and testable developmental behaviors. Its embryonic development is very rapid, and its embryos are relatively large, robust, and transparent, and able to develop outside their mother.[32] Furthermore, well-characterized mutant strains are readily available.

text: Other advantages include the species' nearly constant size during early development, which enables simple staining techniques to be used, and the fact that its two-celled embryo can be fused into a single cell to create a homozygous embryo. The zebrafish is also demonstrably similar to mammalian models and humans in toxicity testing, and exhibits a diurnal sleep cycle with similarities to mammalian sleep behavior.[33] However, zebrafish are not a universally ideal research model; there are a number of disadvantages to their scientific use, such as the absence of a standard diet[34] and the presence of small but important differences between zebrafish and mammals in the roles of some genes related to human disorders.[35][36]

text: Regeneration[edit]

text: Zebrafish have the ability to regenerate their heart and lateral line hair cells during their larval stages.[37][38] In 2011, the British Heart Foundation ran an advertising campaign publicising its intention to study the applicability of this ability to humans, stating that it aimed to raise £50 million in research funding.[39][40]

text: Zebrafish have also been found to regenerate photoreceptor cells and retinal neurons following injury, which has been shown to be mediated by the dedifferentiation and proliferation of Müller glia.[41] Researchers frequently amputate the dorsal and ventral tail fins and analyze their regrowth to test for mutations. It has been found that histone demethylation occurs at the site of the amputation, switching the zebrafish's cells to an "active", regenerative, stem cell-like state.[42] In 2012, Australian scientists published a study revealing that zebrafish use a specialised protein, known as fibroblast growth factor, to ensure their spinal cords heal without glial scarring after injury.[4] In addition, hair cells of the posterior lateral line have also been found to regenerate following damage or developmental disruption.[38][43] Study of gene expression during regeneration has allowed for the identification of several important signaling pathways involved in the process, such as Wnt signaling and Fibroblast growth factor.[43][44]

text: In probing disorders of the nervous system, including neurodegenerative diseases, movement disorders, psychiatric disorders and deafness, researchers are using the zebrafish to understand how the genetic defects underlying these conditions cause functional abnormalities in the human brain, spinal cord and sensory organs. Researchers have also studied the zebrafish to gain new insights into the complexities of human musculoskeletal diseases, such as muscular dystrophy.[45] Another focus of zebrafish research is to understand how a gene called Hedgehog, a biological signal that underlies a number of human cancers, controls cell growth.

text: Genetics[edit]

text: Gene expression[edit]

text: Due to their short lifecycles and relatively large clutch sizes, zebrafish are a useful model for genetic studies. A common reverse genetics technique is to reduce gene expression or modify splicing using Morpholino antisense technology. Morpholino oligonucleotides (MO) are stable, synthetic macromolecules that contain the same bases as DNA or RNA; by binding to complementary RNA sequences, they can reduce the expression of specific genes or block other processes from occurring on RNA. MO can be injected into one cell of an embryo after the 32-cell stage, reducing gene expression in only cells descended from that cell. However, cells in the early embryo (less than 32 cells) are interpermeable to large molecules,[46][47] allowing diffusion between cells. Guidelines for using Morpholinos in zebrafish describe appropriate control strategies.[48] Morpholinos are commonly microinjected in 500pL directly into 1-2 cell stage zebrafish embryos. The morpholino is able to integrate into most cells of the embryo.[49]

text: A known problem with gene knockdowns is that, because the genome underwent a duplication after the divergence of ray-finned fishes and lobe-finned fishes, it is not always easy to silence the activity one of the two gene paralogs reliably due to complementation by the other paralog.[50] Despite the complications of the zebrafish genome, a number of commercially available global platforms exist for analysis of both gene expression by microarrays and promoter regulation using ChIP-on-chip.[51]

text: Genome sequencing[edit]

text: The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute started the zebrafish genome sequencing project in 2001, and the full genome sequence of the Tuebingen reference strain is publicly available at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)'s Zebrafish Genome Page. The zebrafish reference genome sequence is annotated as part of the Ensembl project, and is maintained by the Genome Reference Consortium.[52]

text: In 2009, researchers at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in Delhi, India, announced the sequencing of the genome of a wild zebrafish strain, containing an estimated 1.7 billion genetic letters.[53][54] The genome of the wild zebrafish was sequenced at 39-fold coverage. Comparative analysis with the zebrafish reference genome revealed over 5 million single nucleotide variations and over 1.6 million insertion deletion variations. The zebrafish reference genome sequence of 1.4GB and over 26,000 protein coding genes was published by Kerstin Howe et al. in 2013.[55]

text: Mitochondrial DNA[edit]

text: In October 2001, researchers from the University of Oklahoma published D. rerio's complete mitochondrial DNA sequence.[56] Its length is 16,596 base pairs. This is within 100 base pairs of other related species of fish, and it is notably only 18 pairs longer than the goldfish (Carassius auratus) and 21 longer than the carp (Cyprinus carpio). Its gene order and content are identical to the common vertebrate form of mitochondrial DNA. It contains 13 protein-coding genes and a noncoding control region containing the origin of replication for the heavy strand. In between a grouping of five tRNA genes, a sequence resembling vertebrate origin of light strand replication is found. It is difficult to draw evolutionary conclusions because it is difficult to determine whether base pair changes have adaptive significance via comparisons with other vertebrates' nucleotide sequences.[56]

text: Pigmentation genes[edit]

text: In 1999, the nacre mutation was identified in the zebrafish ortholog of the mammalian MITF transcription factor.[57] Mutations in human MITF result in eye defects and loss of pigment, a type of Waardenburg Syndrome. In December 2005, a study of the golden strain identified the gene responsible for its unusual pigmentation as SLC24A5, a solute carrier that appeared to be required for melanin production, and confirmed its function with a Morpholino knockdown. The orthologous gene was then characterized in humans and a one base pair difference was found to strongly segregate fair-skinned Europeans and dark-skinned Africans.[58] Zebrafish with the nacre mutation have since been bred with fish with a roy orbison (roy) mutation to make fish that have no melanophores or iridophores, and are transparent into adulthood. These fish are characterized by uniformly pigmented eyes and translucent skin.[6]

text: Transgenesis[edit]

text: Transgenesis is a popular approach to study the function of genes in zebrafish. Construction of transgenic zebrafish is rather easy by a method using the Tol2 transposon system.[59]

text: Transparent adult bodies[edit]

text: In 2008, researchers at Boston Children's Hospital developed a new strain of zebrafish, named Casper, whose adult bodies had transparent skin.[6] This allows for detailed visualization of cellular activity, circulation, metastasis and many other phenomena. Because many gene functions are shared between fish and humans, the Casper strain is expected to yield insights into human diseases such as leukemia and other cancers.[6] In January 2013, Japanese scientists genetically modified a transparent zebrafish specimen to produce a visible glow during periods of intense brain activity, allowing the fish's "thoughts" to be recorded as specific regions of its brain lit up in response to external stimuli.[7]

text: Use in environmental monitoring[edit]

text: In January 2007, Chinese researchers at Fudan University genetically modified zebrafish to detect oestrogen pollution in lakes and rivers, which is linked to male infertility. The researchers cloned oestrogen-sensitive genes and injected them into the fertile eggs of zebrafish. The modified fish turned green if placed into water that was polluted by oestrogen.[5]

text: RNA splicing[edit]

text: In 2015, researchers at Brown University discovered that 10% of zebrafish genes do not need to rely on the U2AF2 protein to initiate RNA splicing. These genes have the DNA base pairs AC and TG as repeated sequences at the ends of each intron. On the 3'ss (3' splicing site), the base pairs adenine and cytosine alternate and repeat, and on the 5'ss (5' splicing site), their complements thymine and guanine alternate and repeat as well. They found that there was less reliance on U2AF2 protein than in humans, in which the protein is required for the splicing process to occur. The pattern of repeating base pairs around introns that alters RNA secondary structure was found in other teleosts, but not in tetrapods. This indicates that an evolutionary change in tetrapods may have led to humans relying on the U2AF2 protein for RNA splicing while these genes in zebrafish undergo splicing regardless of the presence of the protein.[60]

text: Inbreeding depression[edit]

text: When close relatives mate, progeny may exhibit the detrimental effects of inbreeding depression. Inbreeding depression is predominantly caused by the homozygous expression of recessive deleterious alleles.[61] For zebra fish, inbreeding depression might be expected to be more severe in stressful environments, including those caused by anthropogenic pollution. Exposure of zebra fish to environmental stress induced by the chemical clotrimazole, an imidazole fungicide used in agriculture and in veterinary and human medicine, amplified the effects of inbreeding on key reproductive traits.[62] Embryo viability was significantly reduced in inbred exposed fish and there was a tendency for inbred males to sire fewer offspring.

text: In medical research[edit]

text: Cancer[edit]

text: Zebrafish have been used to make several transgenic models of cancer, including melanoma, leukemia, pancreatic cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma.[63][64] Zebrafish expressing mutated forms of either the BRAF or NRAS oncogenes develop melanoma when placed onto a p53 deficient background. Histologically, these tumors strongly resemble the human disease, are fully transplantable, and exhibit large-scale genomic alterations. The BRAF melanoma model was utilized as a platform for two screens published in March 2011 in the journal Nature. In one study, by Ceol, Houvras and Zon, the model was used as a tool to understand the functional importance of genes known to be amplified and overexpressed in human melanoma.[65] One gene, SETDB1, markedly accelerated tumor formation in the zebrafish system, demonstrating its importance as a new melanoma oncogene. This was particularly significant because SETDB1 is known to be involved in the epigenetic regulation that is increasingly appreciated to be central to tumor cell biology.

text: In another study, by White and Zon, an effort was made to therapeutically target the genetic program present in the tumor's origin neural crest cell using a chemical screening approach.[66] This revealed that an inhibition of the DHODH protein (by a small molecule called leflunomide) prevented development of the neural crest stem cells which ultimately give rise to melanoma via interference with the process of transcriptional elongation. Because this approach would aim to target the "identity" of the melanoma cell rather than a single genetic mutation, leflunomide may have utility in treating human melanoma.[67]

text: Cardiovascular disease[edit]

text: In cardiovascular research, the zebrafish has been used to model blood clotting, blood vessel development, heart failure, and congenital heart and kidney disease.[68]

text: Immune system[edit]

text: In programmes of research into acute inflammation, a major underpinning process in many diseases, researchers have established a zebrafish model of inflammation, and its resolution. This approach allows detailed study of the genetic controls of inflammation and the possibility of identifying potential new drugs.[69]

text: Zebrafish has been extensively used as a model organism to study vertebrate innate immunity. The innate immune system is capable of phagocytic activity by 28 to 30 h postfertilization (hpf)[70] while adaptive immunity is not functionally mature until at least 4 weeks postfertilization.[71]

text: Infectious diseases[edit]

text: As the immune system is relatively conserved between zebrafish and humans, many human infectious diseases can be modeled in zebrafish.[72][73][74][75] The transparent early life stages are well suited for in vivo imaging and genetic dissection of host-pathogen interactions.[76][77][78][79] Zebrafish models for a wide range of bacterial, viral and parasitic pathogens have already been established; for example, the zebrafish model for tuberculosis provides fundamental insights into the mechanisms of pathogenesis of mycobacteria.[80][81][82][83] Furthermore, robotic technology has been developed for high-throughput antimicrobial drug screening using zebrafish infection models.[84][85]

text: Repairing retinal damage[edit]

text: Another notable characteristic of the zebrafish is that it possesses four types of cone cell, with ultraviolet-sensitive cells supplementing the red, green and blue cone cell subtypes found in humans. Zebrafish can thus observe a very wide spectrum of colours. The species is also studied to better understand the development of the retina; in particular, how the cone cells of the retina become arranged into the so-called 'cone mosaic'. Zebrafish, in addition to certain other teleost fish, are particularly noted for having extreme precision of cone cell arrangement.[86]

text: This study of the zebrafish's retinal characteristics has also extrapolated into medical enquiry. In 2007, researchers at University College London grew a type of zebrafish adult stem cell found in the eyes of fish and mammals that develops into neurons in the retina. These could be injected into the eye to treat diseases that damage retinal neurons—nearly every disease of the eye, including macular degeneration, glaucoma, and diabetes-related blindness. The researchers studied Müller glial cells in the eyes of humans aged from 18 months to 91 years, and were able to develop them into all types of retinal neurons. They were also able to grow them easily in the lab. The stem cells successfully migrated into diseased rats' retinas, and took on the characteristics of the surrounding neurons. The team stated that they intended to develop the same approach in humans.[87]

text: Drug discovery[edit]

text: As demonstrated through ongoing research programmes, the zebrafish model enables researchers not only to identify genes that might underlie human disease, but also to develop novel therapeutic agents in drug discovery programmes.[88] Zebrafish embryos have proven to be a rapid, cost-efficient, and reliable teratology assay model.[89] Drug screens in zebrafish can be used to identify novel classes of compounds with biological effects, or to repurpose existing drugs for novel uses; an example of the latter would be a screen which found that a commonly used statin (rosuvastatin) can suppress the growth of prostate cancer [90] To date, 65 small-molecule screens have been carried out and at least one has led to clinical trials.[91] Within these screens, many technical challenges remain to be resolved, including differing rates of drug absorption resulting in levels of internal exposure that cannot be extrapolated from the water concentration, and high levels of natural variation between individual animals.[91] To understand drug effects, the internal drug exposure is essential, as this drives the pharmacological effect. Translating experimental results from zebrafish to higher vertebrates (like humans) requires concentration-effect relationships, which can be derived from pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic analysis. To date, only a pharmacokinetic model for paracetamol has been developed in zebrafish larvae.[92] The potential for pharmacological analyses in this organism is however promising.[93]

text: Muscular dystrophies[edit]

text: Muscular dystrophies (MD) are a heterogeneous group of genetic disorders that cause muscle weakness, abnormal contractions and muscle wasting, often leading to premature death.Zebraish is widely used model to study muscular dystrophies.[94] For example the sapje (sap) mutant is the zebrafish orthologue of human Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).[95] The Machuca-Tzili and co-workers applied zebrafish to determine the role of alternative splicing factor, MBNL, in myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) pathogenesis.[96] More recently, Todd et al. described a new zebrafish model designed to explore the impact of CUG repeat expression during early development in DM1 disease.[97] Zebrafish is also an excellent animal model to study congenital muscular dystrophies including CMD Type 1 A (CMD 1A) caused by mutation in the human laminin α2 (LAMA2) gene.[98] The zebrafish, because of its advantages discussed above, and in particular the ability of zebrafish embryos to absorb chemicals, has become a model of choice in screening and testing new drugs against muscular distrophies.[99]


document_title: Ernst

question_text: where does the last name ernst come from

text: Ernst

text: Ernst is both a surname and a given name, the German, Dutch, and Scandinavian form of Ernest. Notable people with the name include:

text: Surname[edit]

text:
Adolf Ernst (1832–1899) German botanist known by the author abbreviation "Ernst"
Alice Henson Ernst (1880-1980), American writer and historian
Cornelia Ernst, German politician
Edzard Ernst, German-British Professor of Complementary Medicine
Emil Ernst, astronomer
Ernie Ernst (1924/25–2013), former District Judge in Walker County, Texas
Fabian Ernst, German soccer player
Gustav Ernst, Austrian writer
Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst, Moravian violinist and composer
Jim Ernst, Canadian politician
Jimmy Ernst, American painter, son of Max Ernst
Joni Ernst, U.S. Senator from Iowa
Ken Ernst, U.S. comics artist
Karl Friedrich Paul Ernst, German writer (1866–1933)
Klaus Ernst, German politician
Max Ernst, (1891-1976), German artist and painter
Mensen Ernst (1795–1843), Norwegian road runner and ultramarathonist and one of the first sport professionals
Morris Ernst, American attorney
Ole Ernst (1940–2013), Danish actor
Oswald Herbert Ernst, American general and engineer
Paul Ernst (American writer), pulp novelist
Richard R. Ernst, Swiss chemist
Susan Ernst, American developmental biologist
Tony Ernst, Swedish journalist
W. Gary Ernst, American geologist specializing in petrology and geochemistry
Wolfgang Ernst, (1956), German lawyer and legal historian

tag: ul

text: Given name[edit]

text:
Ernst

Pronunciation
/ˈɜːrnst/ URNST
German: [ˈɛʁnst]

Gender
M

Origin

Word/name
Germanic

Meaning
Serious (person)

Other names

Related names
Ernest, Ernie

text:
Ernst Anders, German painter
Ernst August (disambiguation page)
Ernst Blofeld, evil genius from the James Bond novels and films
Ernst Boepple (1887–1950), German Nazi official and SS officer executed for war crimes
Ernst Cassirer, German Jewish philosopher.
Ernst Chain, German-born British biochemist
Ernst Cohen, Dutch Jewish chemist known for his work on the allotropy of metals
Ernst Gebauer, German painter
Ernst Haeckel, German biologist and illustrator
Ernst Happel, Austrian football (soccer) manager
Ernst Jaakson, Estonian diplomat
Ernst Jansz, Dutch musician and founding member of Doe Maar
Ernst Jünger (1895-1998), German writer
Ernst Kaltenbrunner (1903-1946), Austrian-German Nazi SS police chief and war criminal, executed for war crimes
Ernst Keil (1816-1878), German publisher
Ernst Kummer, German mathematician
Ernst Laraque, Haitian judoka
Ernst Larsen, Norwegian athlete
Ernst Lubitsch (1892–1947), German-born Jewish film director
Ernst Mach, physicist, coined the term "mach number"
Ernst Mayr, evolutionary biologist, influential in the philosophy of biology
Ernst Neizvestny, Russian sculptor
Ernst Öpik, Estonian astronomer
Ernst Heinrich Roth, (1877–1948), German luthier
Ernst Röhm, (1887-1934), German military officer and co-founder of the Nazi SA (Stormtroopers)
Ernst Ruska, a German physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986
Ernst "Fritz" Sauckel (1894-1946), German Nazi politician, executed for war crimes
Ernst Sieber (born 1927), Swiss pastor, social worker, writer, politician and founder of the Sozialwerke Pfarrer Sieber relief organisation
Ernst Jansen Steur, Dutch notorious former neurologist convicted on over twenty counts of harm
Ernst Stromer, German palaeontologist
Ernst Udet, (1896-1941), German flying ace
Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg, Austrian writer and traveller
Ernst van de Wetering, Dutch art historian considered to be the world's foremost expert on Rembrandt
Ernst vom Rath, (1909-1938), Nazi German diplomat
Ernst Zermelo, set theorist
Ernst Ziegler (1894-1974), German actor
Count Ernst of Lippe-Biesterfeld, regent of Lippe


document_title: 2,000-yard club

question_text: nfl running backs that ran for 2000 yards

text: 2,000-yard club

text: Key[edit]

text:
Key

Symbol

Meaning

No.

Number of the player, ranked by the time he surpassed 2,000 rushing yards

Games

Games in the season

Att.

Total rushing attempts

Yds.

Total rushing yards

TD

Total rushing touchdowns

Y/A

Rushing yards per attempt

Y/G

Rushing yards per game

Fumb.

Total fumbles

MVP

AP Most Valuable Player

OPOY

AP Offensive Player of the Year

HOF

Pro Football Hall of Fame member

*

Active NFL player

N/E

Not yet eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame[A]

text: 2,000-yard rushers[edit]

text:
List of players with 2,000 or more rushing yards in a regular season

No.

Season

Player

Team

Games

Att.

Yds.

TDs

Y/A

Y/G

Fumb.

MVP

OPOY

HOF

Retired

Ref

1

1973

O. J. Simpson

Buffalo Bills

14

332

2,003

12

6.0

143.1

7

Yes

Yes

1985

Yes

[8]

2

1984

Eric Dickerson

Los Angeles Rams

16

379

2,105

14

5.6

131.6

14

No

No

1999

Yes

[9]

3

1997

Barry Sanders

Detroit Lions

16

335

2,053

11

6.1

128.3

3

Yes

Yes

2004

Yes

[10]

4

1998

Terrell Davis

Denver Broncos

16

392

2,008

21

5.1

125.5

2

Yes

Yes

2017

Yes

[11]

5

2003

Jamal Lewis

Baltimore Ravens

16

387

2,066

14

5.3

129.1

8

No

Yes

No

Yes

[12]

6

2009

Chris Johnson*

Tennessee Titans

16

358

2,006

14

5.6

125.4

3

No

Yes

N/E

Yes

[13]

7

2012

Adrian Peterson*

Minnesota Vikings

16

348

2,097

12

6.0

131.1

4

Yes

Yes

N/E

No

[14]

text: Notes[edit]

text: ^ Jump up to: a b To be eligible for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the candidate must have been retired for at least five years.[7]

tag: ol

text:
^ Jump up to: a b "Minnesota Vikings' Adrian Peterson joins the 2,000-yard club". NFL.com. December 30, 2012. Retrieved March 3, 2013.

Jump up ^ "NFL Single-Season Rushing Yards Leaders". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved March 17, 2013.

Jump up ^ "Adrian Peterson just misses record". ESPN.com. December 31, 2012. Retrieved March 17, 2013.

^ Jump up to: a b c d e Bender, Bill (December 23, 2012). "Adrian Peterson has one more week to enter elite 2,000 yard club". Sporting News. AOL.com. Retrieved March 3, 2013.

^ Jump up to: a b c d "NFL Single-Season Rushing Leaders". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved March 3, 2013.

Jump up ^ "Mission Statement". Pro Football Hall of Fame. Retrieved March 3, 2013.

Jump up ^ "Hall of Famers: Selection Process FAQ". Pro Football Hall of Fame. Retrieved March 3, 2013.

Jump up ^ "O.J. Simpson AFL & NFL Football Statistics". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved March 3, 2013.

Jump up ^ "Eric Dickerson NFL Football Statistics". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved March 3, 2013.

Jump up ^ "Barry Sanders NFL Football Statistics". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved March 3, 2013.

Jump up ^ "Terrell Davis NFL Football Statistics". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved March 3, 2013.

Jump up ^ "Jamal Lewis NFL Football Statistics". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved March 3, 2013.

Jump up ^ "Chris Johnson NFL Football Statistics". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved March 3, 2013.

Jump up ^ "Adrian Peterson NFL Football Statistics". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved March 3, 2013.

text: General references[edit]

text:
"AP MVP winners". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Archived from the original on March 5, 2013. Retrieved March 3, 2013.
"AP Offensive Player of the Year winners". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Archived from the original on March 5, 2013. Retrieved March 3, 2013.


document_title: Rookie

question_text: when are you considered a rookie in mlb

question_tokens: when are you considered a rookie in mlb

text: Rookie

text: Throughout sports[edit]

text: This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2011)

text: In some sports there are traditions in which rookies must do things, or tricks are played on them. Examples in baseball include players having to dress up in very strange costumes, or getting hit in the face with a cream pie; a traditional rookie's "hazing" procedure in American football involves taping players to a goalpost and dousing them with ice water, Gatorade, and other substances.[1]

text: Auto racing[edit]

text: In NASCAR, rookies are denoted by a yellow stripe on the rear bumper of the car that is placed on both sides of the name or symbol of the manufacturer of the car.[2]

text: Baseball[edit]

text: To qualify as a rookie in Major League Baseball, a player must not have exceeded 130 at bats or fifty innings pitched in the majors, and also fewer than 45 days on the active rosters of major league clubs (excluding time on the disabled list or any time after rosters are expanded on September 1) in their previous seasons.[3] Major League Baseball awards the best rookie with the Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award, as voted upon by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

text: Etymology[edit]

text: Look up rookie in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

text: The Oxford English Dictionary states that the origins are uncertain, but that perhaps it is a corruption of the word recruit. The earliest example in the OED is from Rudyard Kipling's Barrack-Room Ballads (published 1892): So 'ark an' 'eed, you rookies, which is always grumblin' sore, referring to rookies in the sense of raw recruits to the British Army.[4] At least during the beginning of the 20th century, in the British Army the term "rookie" was typically used in place of "recruit" as exemplified in "Trenching at Gallipoli" by John Gallishaw (New York Century Co.:1916) and in "The Amateur Army" by Patrick MacGill (London,Herbert Jenkins:1915). Perhaps the expression is derived from "rook", whereby a "rookie" would be someone who is cheated or defrauded.


document_title: United Nations Security Council

question_text: where was the first un security council meeting held

text: United Nations Security Council

text: History[edit]

text: Background and creation[edit]

text: In the century prior to the UN's creation, several international treaty organizations and conferences had been formed to regulate conflicts between nations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907.[7] Following the catastrophic loss of life in World War I, the Paris Peace Conference established the League of Nations to maintain harmony between the nations.[8] This organization successfully resolved some territorial disputes and created international structures for areas such as postal mail, aviation, and opium control, some of which would later be absorbed into the UN.[9] However, the League lacked representation for colonial peoples (then half the world's population) and significant participation from several major powers, including the US, USSR, Germany, and Japan; it failed to act against the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria, the Second Italo-Ethiopian War in 1935, the 1937 Japanese occupation of China, and Nazi expansions under Adolf Hitler that escalated into World War II.[10]

text: The earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939.[11] Roosevelt first coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries."On New Year’s Day 1942, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, Maxim Litvinov, of the USSR, and T. V. Soong, of China, signed a short document which later came to be known as the United Nations Declaration and the next day the representatives of twenty-two other nations added their signatures."[12] The term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration. By 1 March 1945, 21 additional states had signed.[13] "Four Policemen" was coined to refer to the four major Allied countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China.[14] and became the foundation of an executive branch of the United Nations, the Security Council.[15]

text: In mid-1944, the delegations from the Allied "Big Four", the Soviet Union, the UK, the US and China, met for the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in Washington, D.C. to negotiate the UN's structure,[16] and the composition of the UN Security Council quickly became the dominant issue. France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the UK, and US were selected as permanent members of the Security Council; the US attempted to add Brazil as a sixth member, but was opposed by the heads of the Soviet and British delegations.[17] The most contentious issue at Dumbarton and in successive talks proved to be the veto rights of permanent members. The Soviet delegation argued that each nation should have an absolute veto that could block matters from even being discussed, while the British argued that nations should not be able to veto resolutions on disputes to which they were a party. At the Yalta Conference of February 1945, the American, British, and Russian delegations agreed that each of the "Big Five" could veto any action by the council, but not procedural resolutions, meaning that the permanent members could not prevent debate on a resolution.[18]

text: On 25 April 1945, the UN Conference on International Organization began in San Francisco, attended by 50 governments and a number of non-governmental organizations involved in drafting the United Nations Charter.[19] At the conference, H. V. Evatt of the Australian delegation pushed to further restrict the veto power of Security Council permanent members.[20] Due to the fear that rejecting the strong veto would cause the conference's failure, his proposal was defeated twenty votes to ten.[21]

text: The UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five then-permanent members of the Security Council and by a majority of the other 46 signatories.[19] On 17 January 1946, the Security Council met for the first time at Church House, Westminster, in London, United Kingdom.[22]

text: Cold War[edit]

text: The Security Council was largely paralysed in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and USSR and their allies, and the Council generally was only able to intervene in unrelated conflicts.[23] (A notable exception was the 1950 Security Council resolution authorizing a US-led coalition to repel the North Korean invasion of South Korea, passed in the absence of the USSR.)[19][24] In 1956, the first UN peacekeeping force was established to end the Suez Crisis;[19] however, the UN was unable to intervene against the USSR's simultaneous invasion of Hungary following that country's revolution.[25] Cold War divisions also paralysed the Security Council's Military Staff Committee, which had been formed by Articles 45–47 of the UN Charter to oversee UN forces and create UN military bases. The committee continued to exist on paper but largely abandoned its work in the mid-1950s.[26][27]

text: In 1960, the UN deployed the United Nations Operation in the Congo (UNOC), the largest military force of its early decades, to restore order to the breakaway State of Katanga, restoring it to the control of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by 1964.[28] However, the Security Council found itself bypassed in favour of direct negotiations between the superpowers in some of the decade's larger conflicts, such as the Cuban missile crisis or the Vietnam War.[29] Focusing instead on smaller conflicts without an immediate Cold War connection, the Security Council deployed the United Nations Temporary Executive Authority in West New Guinea in 1962 and the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus in 1964, the latter of which would become one of the UN's longest-running peacekeeping missions.[30][31]

text: On 25 October 1971, over US opposition but with the support of many Third World nations, the mainland, communist People's Republic of China was given the Chinese seat on the Security Council in place of Taiwan; the vote was widely seen as a sign of waning US influence in the organization.[32] With an increasing Third World presence and the failure of UN mediation in conflicts in the Middle East, Vietnam, and Kashmir, the UN increasingly shifted its attention to its ostensibly secondary goals of economic development and cultural exchange. By the 1970s, the UN budget for social and economic development was far greater than its budget for peacekeeping.[33]

text: Post-Cold War[edit]

text: After the Cold War, the UN saw a radical expansion in its peacekeeping duties, taking on more missions in ten years' time than it had in its previous four decades.[34] Between 1988 and 2000, the number of adopted Security Council resolutions more than doubled, and the peacekeeping budget increased more than tenfold.[35] The UN negotiated an end to the Salvadoran Civil War, launched a successful peacekeeping mission in Namibia, and oversaw democratic elections in post-apartheid South Africa and post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia.[36] In 1991, the Security Council demonstrated its renewed vigor by condemning the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on the same day of the attack, and later authorizing a US-led coalition that successfully repulsed the Iraqis.[37] Undersecretary-General Brian Urquhart later described the hopes raised by these successes as a "false renaissance" for the organization, given the more troubled missions that followed.[38]

text: Though the UN Charter had been written primarily to prevent aggression by one nation against another, in the early 1990s, the UN faced a number of simultaneous, serious crises within nations such as  Haiti, Mozambique and the former Yugoslavia.[39] , the UN mission to Bosnia faced "worldwide ridicule" for its indecisive and confused mission in the face of ethnic cleansing.[40] In 1994, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda failed to intervene in the Rwandan Genocide in the face of Security Council indecision.[41]

text:
In the late 1990s, UN-authorised international interventions took a wider variety of forms. The UN mission in the 1991–2002 Sierra Leone Civil War was supplemented by British Royal Marines, and the UN-authorised 2001 invasion of Afghanistan was overseen by NATO.[42] In 2003, the US invaded Iraq despite failing to pass a UN Security Council resolution for authorization, prompting a new round of questioning of the organization's effectiveness.[43] In the same decade, the Security Council intervened with peacekeepers in crises including the War in Darfur in Sudan and the Kivu conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2013, an internal review of UN actions in the final battles of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009 concluded that the organization had suffered "systemic failure".[44]
In November/December 2014, Egypt presented a motion proposing an expansion of the NPT (non-Proliferation Treaty), to include Israel and Iran; this proposal was due to increasing hostilities and destruction in the Middle-East connected to the Syrian Conflict as well as others. All members of the Security Council are signatory to the NPT.[45]

text: Role[edit]

text:
UN Security Council Resolutions

Sources:UN Security Council · UNBISnet · Wikisource

1 to 100 (1946–1953)

101 to 200 (1953–1965)

201 to 300 (1965–1971)

301 to 400 (1971–1976)

401 to 500 (1976–1982)

501 to 600 (1982–1987)

601 to 700 (1987–1991)

701 to 800 (1991–1993)

801 to 900 (1993–1994)

901 to 1000 (1994–1995)

1001 to 1100 (1995–1997)

1101 to 1200 (1997–1998)

1201 to 1300 (1998–2000)

1301 to 1400 (2000–2002)

1401 to 1500 (2002–2003)

1501 to 1600 (2003–2005)

1601 to 1700 (2005–2006)

1701 to 1800 (2006–2008)

1801 to 1900 (2008–2009)

1901 to 2000 (2009–2011)

2001 to 2100 (2011–2013)

2101 to 2200 (2013–2015)

2201 to 2300 (2015–2016)

2301 to 2400 (2016–2018)

2401 to 2500 (2018–present)

Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Portal:United Nations Security Council Resolutions

text: The UN's role in international collective security is defined by the UN Charter, which authorizes the Security Council to investigate any situation threatening international peace; recommend procedures for peaceful resolution of a dispute; call upon other member nations to completely or partially interrupt economic relations as well as sea, air, postal, and radio communications, or to sever diplomatic relations; and enforce its decisions militarily, or by any means necessary. The Security Council also recommends the new Secretary-General to the General Assembly and recommends new states for admission as member states of the United Nations.[46][47] The Security Council has traditionally interpreted its mandate as covering only military security, though US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke controversially persuaded the body to pass a resolution on HIV/AIDS in Africa in 2000.[48]

text: Under Chapter VI of the Charter, "Pacific Settlement of Disputes", the Security Council "may investigate any dispute, or any situation which might lead to international friction or give rise to a dispute". The Council may "recommend appropriate procedures or methods of adjustment" if it determines that the situation might endanger international peace and security.[49] These recommendations are generally considered to not be binding, as they lack an enforcement mechanism.[50] A minority of scholars, such as Stephen Zunes, have argued that resolutions made under Chapter VI are "still directives by the Security Council and differ only in that they do not have the same stringent enforcement options, such as the use of military force".[51]

text: Under Chapter VII, the Council has broader power to decide what measures are to be taken in situations involving "threats to the peace, breaches of the peace, or acts of aggression".[27] In such situations, the Council is not limited to recommendations but may take action, including the use of armed force "to maintain or restore international peace and security".[27] This was the legal basis for UN armed action in Korea in 1950 during the Korean War and the use of coalition forces in Iraq and Kuwait in 1991 and Libya in 2011.[52][53] Decisions taken under Chapter VII, such as economic sanctions, are binding on UN members; the Security Council is the only UN body with the authority to issue binding resolutions.[54][55]

text: The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court recognizes that the Security Council has authority to refer cases to the Court in which the Court could not otherwise exercise jurisdiction.[56] The Council exercised this power for the first time in March 2005, when it referred to the Court "the situation prevailing in Darfur since 1 July 2002"; since Sudan is not a party to the Rome Statute, the Court could not otherwise have exercised jurisdiction.[57][58] The Security Council made its second such referral in February 2011 when it asked the ICC to investigate the Libyan government's violent response to the Libyan Civil War.[59]

text: Security Council Resolution 1674, adopted on 28 April 2006, "reaffirms the provisions of paragraphs 138 and 139 of the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document regarding the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity".[60] The Security Council reaffirmed this responsibility to protect in Resolution 1706 on 31 August of that year.[61] These resolutions commit the Security Council to take action to protect civilians in an armed conflict, including taking action against genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.[62]

text: Members[edit]

text: Permanent members[edit]

text: The Security Council's five permanent members, below, have the power to veto any substantive resolution; this allows a permanent member to block adoption of a resolution, but not to prevent or end debate.[63]

text:
Country

Regional group

Current state representation

Former state representation

 China

Asia-Pacific

 People's Republic of China (since 1971)

 Republic of China (1946–1949) (on the Mainland and Taiwan) Republic of China (1949–1971) (on Taiwan only)

 France

Western Europeand Others

 French Fifth Republic (since 1958)

 Provisional Government of the French Republic (1945–1946) French Fourth Republic (1946–1958)

 Russia

Eastern Europe

 Russian Federation (since 1992)

 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1946–1991)

 United Kingdom

Western Europeand Others

 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (since 1946)

—

 United States

Western Europeand Others

 United States of America (since 1946)

—

text: At the UN's founding in 1945, the five permanent members of the Security Council were the Republic of China, the French Republic, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. There have been two major seat changes since then. China's seat was originally held by Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Government, the Republic of China. However, the Nationalists were forced to retreat to the island of Taiwan in 1949, during the Chinese Civil War. The Communist government assumed control of mainland China, thenceforth known as the People's Republic of China. In 1971, General Assembly Resolution 2758 recognized the People's Republic as the rightful representative of China in the UN and gave it the seat on the Security Council that had been held by the Republic of China, which was expelled from the UN altogether with no opportunity of membership as a separate nation.[32] After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian Federation was recognized as the legal successor state of the Soviet Union and maintained the latter's position on the Security Council.[64] Additionally, France reformed its government into the French Fifth Republic in 1958, under the leadership of Charles de Gaulle. France maintained its seat as there was no change in its international status or recognition, although many of its overseas possessions eventually became independent.[65]

text: The five permanent members of the Security Council were the victorious powers in World War II[66] and have maintained the world's most powerful military forces ever since. They annually topped the list of countries with the highest military expenditures.[67] In 2013, they spent over US$1 trillion combined on defence, accounting for over 55% of global military expenditures (the US alone accounting for over 35%).[67] They are also among the world's largest arms exporters[68] and are the only nations officially recognized as "nuclear-weapon states" under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), though there are other states known or believed to be in possession of nuclear weapons.[69]

text: Veto power[edit]

text: Under Article 27 of the UN Charter, Security Council decisions on all substantive matters require the affirmative votes of nine members. A negative vote or "veto" by a permanent member prevents adoption of a proposal, even if it has received the required votes.[63] Abstention is not regarded as a veto in most cases, though all five permanent members must actively concur to amend the UN Charter or to recommend the admission of a new UN member state.[54] Procedural matters are not subject to a veto, so the veto cannot be used to avoid discussion of an issue. The same holds for certain decisions that directly regard permanent members.[63] A majority of vetoes are used not in critical international security situations, but for purposes such as blocking a candidate for Secretary-General or the admission of a member state.[71]

text: In the negotiations building up to the creation of the UN, the veto power was resented by many small countries, and in fact was forced on them by the veto nations –  US, UK, China, France and the Soviet Union – through a threat that without the veto there will be no UN. Here is a description by Francis O. Wilcox, an adviser to US delegation to the 1945 conference: "At San Francisco, the issue was made crystal clear by the leaders of the Big Five: it was either the Charter with the veto or no Charter at all. Senator Connally [from the US delegation] dramatically tore up a copy of the Charter during one of his speeches and reminded the small states that they would be guilty of that same act if they opposed the unanimity principle. 'You may, if you wish,' he said, 'go home from this Conference and say that you have defeated the veto. But what will be your answer when you are asked: "Where is the Charter"?'"[72]

text: As of 2012, 269 vetoes had been cast since the Security Council's inception.[a] In this period, China (ROC/PRC) used the veto 9 times, France 18, USSR/Russia 128, the UK 32, and the US 89. Roughly two-thirds of Soviet/Russian vetoes were in the first ten years of the Security Council's existence. Between 1996 and 2012, China vetoed 5 resolutions, Russia 7, and the US 13, while France and the UK did not use the veto.[71]

text: An early veto by Soviet Commissar Andrei Vishinsky blocked a resolution on the withdrawal of French forces from the then-colonies of Syria and Lebanon in February 1946; this veto established the precedent that permanent members could use the veto on matters outside of immediate concerns of war and peace. The USSR went on to veto matters including the admission of Austria, Cambodia, Ceylon, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Laos, Libya, Portugal, South Vietnam, and Transjordan as UN member states, delaying their joining by several years. Britain and France used the veto to avoid Security Council condemnation of their actions in the 1956 Suez Crisis. The first veto by the US came in 1970, blocking General Assembly action in Southern Rhodesia. From 1985–90, the US vetoed 27 resolutions, primarily to block resolutions it perceived as anti-Israel but also to protect its interests in Panama and Korea. The USSR, US, and China have all vetoed candidates for Secretary-General, with the US using the veto to block the re-election of Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1996.[73]

text: Non-permanent members[edit]

text: Along with the five permanent members, the Security Council has temporary members that hold their seats on a rotating basis by geographic region. Non-permanent members may be involved in global security briefings.[74]  In its first two decades, the Security Council had six non-permanent members, the first of which were Australia, Brazil, Egypt, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Poland. In 1965, the number of non-permanent members was expanded to ten.[75]

text: These ten non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms starting on 1 January, with five replaced each year.[76] To be approved, a candidate must receive at least two-thirds of all votes cast for that seat, which can result in deadlock if there are two roughly evenly matched candidates. In 1979, a standoff between Cuba and Colombia only ended after three months and a record 154 rounds of voting; both eventually withdrew in favour of Mexico as a compromise candidate.[77] A retiring member is not eligible for immediate re-election.[78]

text: The African Group is represented by three members; the Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia-Pacific, and Western European and Others groups by two apiece; and the Eastern European Group by one. Traditionally, one of the seats assigned to either the Asia-Pacific Group or the African Group is filled by a nation from the Arab world.[79] Currently, elections for terms beginning in even-numbered years select two African members, and one each within Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Terms beginning in odd-numbered years consist of two Western European and Other members, and one each from Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean.[77]

text: The current elected members, with the regions they were elected to represent, are as follows:[76]

text:
Term

Africa

Asia-Pacific

Latin America and Caribbean

Western Europe and Other

Eastern Europe

2017

 Ethiopia

 Kazakhstan

 Bolivia
 Sweden
 Italy[80][81]

2018

 Côte d'Ivoire
 Equatorial Guinea
 Kuwait
 Peru
 Netherlands
 Poland

2019

 South Africa
 Indonesia[82]
 Dominican Republic
 Belgium
 Germany

2020

text: The 2017–18 term is the first time in over five decades that two members have agreed to split a term, with Italy and the Netherlands agreeing that each would occupy the WEOG seat for a one-year term;[83] otherwise intractable deadlocks have instead usually been resolved by the candidate countries withdrawing in favour of a third member state.

text: President[edit]

text: The role of president of the Security Council involves setting the agenda, presiding at its meetings and overseeing any crisis. The president is authorized to issue both presidential statements (subject to consensus among Council members) and notes,[84][85] which are used to make declarations of intent that the full Security Council can then pursue.[85] The presidency of the Council is held by each of the members in turn for one month, following the English alphabetical order of the Member States names.[86]

text: The list of nations that will hold the Presidency in 2018 is as follows:[87]

text:
Security Council Presidency in 2018

Country

Month

 Kazakhstan

January

 Kuwait

February

 Netherlands

March

 Peru

April

 Poland

May

 Russia

June

 Sweden

July

 UK

August

 USA

September

 Bolivia

October

 China

November

 Côte d'Ivoire

December

text: Meeting locations[edit]

text: Unlike the General Assembly, the Security Council meets year-round. Each Security Council member must have a representative available at UN Headquarters at all times in case an emergency meeting becomes necessary.[88]

text: The Security Council generally meets in a designated chamber in the United Nations Conference Building in New York City, U.S. The chamber was designed by the Norwegian architect Arnstein Arneberg and was a gift from Norway. The mural painted by the Norwegian artist Per Krohg depicts a phoenix rising from its ashes, symbolic of the world's rebirth after World War II.[89]

text: The Security Council has also held meetings in cities including Nairobi, Kenya; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Panama City, Panama; and Geneva, Switzerland.[88] In March 2010, the Security Council moved into a temporary facility in the General Assembly Building as its chamber underwent renovations as part of the UN Capital Master Plan.[90] The renovations were funded by Norway, the chamber's original donor, for a total cost of US$5 million.[91] The chamber reopened on 16 April 2013.[92]

text: Consultation room[edit]

text: Because meetings in the Security Council Chamber are covered by the international press, proceedings are highly theatrical in nature. Delegates deliver speeches to justify their positions and attack their opponents, playing to the cameras and the audience at home. Delegations also stage walkouts to express their disagreement with actions of the Security Council.[93] Due to the public scrutiny of the Security Council Chamber,[94] all of the real work of the Security Council is conducted behind closed doors in "informal consultations".[95][96]

text: In 1978, West Germany funded the construction of a conference room next to the Security Council Chamber. The room was used for "informal consultations", which soon became the primary meeting format for the Security Council. In 1994, the French ambassador complained to the Secretary-General that "informal consultations have become the Council's characteristic working method, while public meetings, originally the norm, are increasingly rare and increasingly devoid of content: everyone knows that when the Council goes into public meeting everything has been decided in advance".[97] When Russia funded the renovation of the consultation room in 2013, the Russian ambassador called it "quite simply, the most fascinating place in the entire diplomatic universe".[98]

text: Only members of the Security Council are permitted in the conference room for consultations. The press is not admitted, and other members of the United Nations cannot be invited into the consultations.[99] No formal record is kept of the informal consultations.[100][101] As a result, the delegations can negotiate with each other in secret, striking deals and compromises without having their every word transcribed into the permanent record. The privacy of the conference room also makes it possible for the delegates to deal with each other in a friendly manner. In one early consultation, a new delegate from a Communist nation began a propaganda attack on the United States, only to be told by the Soviet delegate, "We don't talk that way in here."[96]

text: A permanent member can cast a "pocket veto" during the informal consultation by declaring its opposition to a measure. Since a veto would prevent the resolution from being passed, the sponsor will usually refrain from putting the resolution to a vote. Resolutions are only vetoed if the sponsor feels so strongly about a measure that it wishes to force the permanent member to cast a formal veto.[95][102] By the time a resolution reaches the Security Council Chamber, it has already been discussed, debated, and amended in the consultations. The open meeting of the Security Council is merely a public ratification of a decision that has already been reached in private.[103][95] For example, Resolution 1373 was adopted without public debate in a meeting that lasted just five minutes.[95][104]

text: The Security Council holds far more consultations than public meetings. In 2012, the Security Council held 160 consultations, 16 private meetings, and 9 public meetings. In times of crisis, the Security Council still meets primarily in consultations, but it also holds more public meetings. After the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis in 2013, the Security Council returned to the patterns of the Cold War, as Russia and the Western countries engaged in verbal duels in front of the television cameras. In 2016, the Security Council held 150 consultations, 19 private meetings, and 68 public meetings.[105]

text: Subsidiary organs/bodies[edit]

text: Article 29 of the Charter provides that the Security Council can establish subsidiary bodies in order to perform its functions. This authority is also reflected in Rule 28 of the Provisional Rules of Procedure. The subsidiary bodies established by the Security Council are extremely heterogenous. On the one hand, they include bodies such as the Security Council Committee on Admission of New Members. On the other hand, both the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda were also created as subsidiary bodies of the Security Council. The by now numerous Sanctions Committees (see Category:United Nations Security Council sanctions regimes) established in order to oversee implementation of the various sanctions regimes are also subsidiary bodies of the Council.

text: United Nations peacekeepers[edit]

text: After approval by the Security Council, the UN may send peacekeepers to regions where armed conflict has recently ceased or paused to enforce the terms of peace agreements and to discourage combatants from resuming hostilities. Since the UN does not maintain its own military, peacekeeping forces are voluntarily provided by member states. These soldiers are sometimes nicknamed "Blue Helmets" for their distinctive gear.[106][107] The peacekeeping force as a whole received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988.[108]

text: In September 2013, the UN had 116,837 peacekeeping soldiers and other personnel deployed on 15 missions. The largest was the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), which included 20,688 uniformed personnel. The smallest, United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), included 42 uniformed personnel responsible for monitoring the ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir. Peacekeepers with the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) have been stationed in the Middle East since 1948, the longest-running active peacekeeping mission.[109]

text: UN peacekeepers have also drawn criticism in several postings. Peacekeepers have been accused of child rape, soliciting prostitutes, or sexual abuse during various peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,[110] Haiti,[111] Liberia,[112] Sudan and what is now South Sudan,[113] Burundi and Ivory Coast.[114] Scientists cited UN peacekeepers from Nepal as the likely source of the 2010–2013 Haiti cholera outbreak, which killed more than 8,000 Haitians following the 2010 Haiti earthquake.[115]

text: The budget for peacekeeping is assessed separately from the main UN organisational budget; in the 2013–2014 fiscal year, peacekeeping expenditures totalled $7.54 billion.[109][116] UN peace operations are funded by assessments, using a formula derived from the regular funding scale, but including a weighted surcharge for the five permanent Security Council members. This surcharge serves to offset discounted peacekeeping assessment rates for less developed countries. In 2013, the top 10 providers of assessed financial contributions to United Nations peacekeeping operations were the US (28.38%), Japan (10.83%), France (7.22%), Germany (7.14%), the United Kingdom (6.68%), China (6.64%), Italy (4.45%), Russian Federation (3.15%), Canada (2.98%), and Spain (2.97%).[117]

text: Criticism and evaluations[edit]

text: In examining the first sixty years of the Security Council's existence, British historian Paul Kennedy concludes that "glaring failures had not only accompanied the UN's many achievements, they overshadowed them", identifying the lack of will to prevent ethnic massacres in Bosnia and Rwanda as particular failures.[118] Kennedy attributes the failures to the UN's lack of reliable military resources, writing that "above all, one can conclude that the practice of announcing (through a Security Council resolution) a new peacekeeping mission without ensuring that sufficient armed forces will be available has usually proven to be a recipe for humiliation and disaster".[119]

text: A 2005 RAND Corporation study found the UN to be successful in two out of three peacekeeping efforts. It compared UN nation-building efforts to those of the United States, and found that seven out of eight UN cases are at peace.[120] Also in 2005, the Human Security Report documented a decline in the number of wars, genocides and human rights abuses since the end of the Cold War, and presented evidence, albeit circumstantial, that international activism—mostly spearheaded by the UN—has been the main cause of the decline in armed conflict since the end of the Cold War.[121]

text: Scholar Sudhir Chella Rajan argued in 2006 that the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, who are all nuclear powers, have created an exclusive nuclear club that predominately addresses the strategic interests and political motives of the permanent members—for example, protecting the oil-rich Kuwaitis in 1991 but poorly protecting resource-poor Rwandans in 1994.[122] Since three of the five permanent members are also European, and four are predominantly white Western nations, the Security Council has been described as a pillar of global apartheid by Titus Alexander, former Chair of Westminster United Nations Association.[123]

text: The Security Council's effectiveness and relevance is questioned by some because, in most high-profile cases, there are essentially no consequences for violating a Security Council resolution. During the Darfur crisis, Janjaweed militias, allowed by elements of the Sudanese government, committed violence against an indigenous population, killing thousands of civilians. In the Srebrenica massacre, Serbian troops committed genocide against Bosniaks, although Srebrenica had been declared a UN safe area, protected by 400 armed Dutch peacekeepers.[124]

text: The UN Charter gives all three powers of the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches to the Security Council.[125]

text: In his inaugural speech at the 16th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in August 2012, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticized the United Nations Security Council as having an "illogical, unjust and completely undemocratic structure and mechanism" and called for a complete reform of the body.[126]

text:
The Security Council has been criticized for failure in resolving many conflicts, including Cyprus, Sri Lanka, Syria, Kosovo and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, reflecting the wider short-comings of the UN.
For example; At the 68th Session of the UN General Assembly, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key heavily criticized the UN's inaction on Syria, more than two years after the Syrian civil war began.[127]

text: Membership reform[edit]

text: Proposals to reform the Security Council began with the conference that wrote the UN Charter and have continued to the present day. As British historian Paul Kennedy writes, "Everyone agrees that the present structure is flawed. But consensus on how to fix it remains out of reach."[128]

text: There has been discussion of increasing the number of permanent members. The countries who have made the strongest demands for permanent seats are Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan. Japan and Germany, the main defeated powers in WWII, are now the UN's second- and third-largest funders respectively, while Brazil and India are two of the largest contributors of troops to UN-mandated peace-keeping missions.

text: Italy, the third main defeated power in WWII and now the UN's sixth-largest funder, leads a movement known as the Uniting for Consensus in opposition to the possible expansion of permanent seats. Core members of the group include Canada, South Korea, Spain, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Turkey, Argentina and Colombia. Their proposal is to create a new category of seats, still non-permanent, but elected for an extended duration (semi-permanent seats). As far as traditional categories of seats are concerned, the UfC proposal does not imply any change, but only the introduction of small and medium size states among groups eligible for regular seats. This proposal includes even the question of veto, giving a range of options that goes from abolition to limitation of the application of the veto only to Chapter VII matters.

text: Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked a team of advisers to come up with recommendations for reforming the United Nations by the end of 2004. One proposed measure is to increase the number of permanent members by five, which, in most proposals, would include Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan (known as the G4 nations), one seat from Africa (most likely between Egypt, Nigeria or South Africa), and/or one seat from the Arab League.[129] On 21 September 2004, the G4 nations issued a joint statement mutually backing each other's claim to permanent status, together with two African countries. Currently the proposal has to be accepted by two-thirds of the General Assembly (128 votes).

text: The permanent members, each holding the right of veto, announced their positions on Security Council reform reluctantly. The United States has unequivocally supported the permanent membership of Japan and lent its support to India and a small number of additional non-permanent members. The United Kingdom and France essentially supported the G4 position, with the expansion of permanent and non-permanent members and the accession of Germany, Brazil, India and Japan to permanent member status, as well as an increase in the presence by African countries on the Council. China has supported the stronger representation of developing countries and firmly opposed Japan's membership.[130]

text: In 2017, it was reported that the G4 nations were willing to temporarily forgo veto power if granted permanent UNSC seats.[131] In September 2017, U.S. Representatives Ami Bera and Frank Pallone introduced a resolution (H.Res.535) in the US House of Representatives (115th United States Congress), seeking support for India for a permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council.[132]