document_title: Major Tom

question_text: who wrote and sang ground control to major tom

text: Major Tom

text: Major Tom in Bowie's work[edit]

text: In "Space Oddity", from the album David Bowie (1969, later retitled Space Oddity), Major Tom's departure from Earth is successful and everything goes according to plan. At a certain point during the travel ('past one hundred thousand miles'), he claims that "he feels very still" and thinks that "my spaceship knows which way to go" and proceeds to say "Tell my wife I love her very much." Control then informs him, "Ground Control to Major Tom: your circuit's dead, there's something wrong" and attempts to reestablish contact with Major Tom. Tom's final words in the song (possibly not heard by Ground Control) are: "Here am I floating 'round my tin can, far above the moon. Planet Earth is blue, and there's nothing I can do."

text: In the promotional film from 1969, David Bowie plays as Major Tom, Ground Control (GC), and the Countdown Announcer. When the lyrics "And the stars look very different today" are said, two lovely women appear, portraying either angels or aliens, or perhaps both. The moment "Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles, I'm feeling very still" are said, the two women can be seen removing Major Tom's helmet and spacesuit. Later a still fully outfitted Major Tom can be seen spinning around in space, with a panicked Ground Control attempting to contact him; the spinning Major Tom is either the reality of the situation, or Ground Control's imagination. The music video ends with Major Tom sitting in his tin can, far above the world, with the two women by his side in a ménage à trois style.[3]

text: Bowie created a sequel entitled "Ashes to Ashes" (1980). The song, which peaked at Number 1 on the Billboard charts, was featured on his Number 1 LP Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps). The song actually says little about Major Tom, except to call him a "junkie," slang for a person with a heroin addiction or other compulsive habit. The context of the lyrics seems to indicate that the song is mainly about Bowie's own soul searching, rather than a literal continuation of the Major Tom story. There is an inclusion saying "strung out in heaven's high, hitting an all time low" referring to him getting high on cocaine, while his life is low. Given Bowie's own history of drug problems, it is quite possible that the "Major Tom" line could also be autobiographical.

text: Alternatively, the song can be interpreted to provide detailed information on Tom's story. The song refers an event happening much later, after "Space Oddity." Ground control receives a message from the "Action Man," referring to Tom, and he says "I've loved all I've needed to love. Sordid details following...".[4] He talks about how the shrieking of nothing is killing him, how all he has are his pictures of women to keep him company, and how he now has neither money nor hair. He wants to kick the habit but the planet is "glowing;" essentially he cannot quit whatever is influencing him—and killing him—because the feeling is too pleasurable and addictive. The exact source of the influence is not defined. The later verses seem to reflect more on Bowie's literal battle with addiction, specifically about wanting to stay clean but being stuck with a "valuable friend." The song again refers directly to Tom toward the end, where he has become more of a legend, but not for his heroics. He has become a nursery rhyme in the minds of the public, with mothers warning against drug use by telling their children if they want "to get things done, you'd better not mess with Major Tom." [4]

text: Bowie released a song entitled "Hallo Spaceboy" on his album Outside (1995). While this song itself does not directly reference Major Tom, references to Major Tom do appear in the remixed version that Bowie released with the Pet Shop Boys in 1996. This remix contains lyrics from "Space Oddity" that are sung by Pet Shop Boys vocalist Neil Tennant.

text: Although never mentioned in the song, an astronaut, possibly Major Tom, does make an appearance in the music video for the song "Slow Burn" on Bowie's 2002 album Heathen.

text: In the music video of Bowie's 2015 song "Blackstar" (on the album of the same name, released in 2016 two days prior to the artist's death), a dead astronaut is depicted. His skull is retrieved by an alien female who takes it back to what could be considered a cult which subsequently worships the relic. This astronaut was speculated to be a depiction of Major Tom's final fate.[5][6][7] Video director Johan Renck said on a BBC documentary "to me, it was 100% Major Tom."[8]

text: Appearances in songs by other artists[edit]

text: In Peter Schilling's song "Major Tom (Coming Home)" (1983) Tom sends a final message, "Give my wife my love...", after which transmission ceases. People on Earth mourn Tom, not realising that he is still alive. He then declares "Now the light commands / This is my home / I'm coming home", possibly referring to the afterlife. The associated music video shows an object falling back through the atmosphere, presumably either Major Tom or his ship. In this song the word "light" in "now the light commands" is often heard or transcribed as "life" but the liner notes of the LP Error in the System (and the original German) confirm the word "light." The German-language version "Völlig losgelöst" is contained in Schilling's German LP Fehler im System (1983). Both albums also contain a different song without lyrics entitled "Major Tom, Part II". Schilling's song was recorded in French by Plastic Bertrand in 1983, but with slightly altered lyrics, in which Major Tom prefers to stay away from Earth and its selfishness and danger of nuclear war.

text: At the Drive-In's song "Cosmonaut" (2000) was sometimes introduced at live shows by a recorded "final message" from Major Tom before he dies in space. The message does not appear in the recorded version of "Cosmonaut", which itself has no apparent connection to Major Tom.

text: K.I.A. created a song entitled "Mrs. Major Tom" (2002) on his Adieu Shinjuku Zulu album, where the song is sung by Larissa Gomes. Here the story is told from the perspective of Major Tom's wife left at home. "Mrs. Major Tom" was covered by Sheryl Crow on William Shatner's album Seeking Major Tom (2011).

text: The Tea Party created a song entitled "Empty Glass" on its album Seven Circles (2004). The song is written from the perspective of an unnamed person who is questioning Major Tom intensely about the purpose of life. The song also references Ground Control and the Bowie phrases "star man" and "diamond dogs".

text: The New Zealand comedic folk duo Flight of the Conchords allude to the character in their tribute song "Bowie" (2008) where they place Bowie himself in space, and give him the rank of Lieutenant.

text: In 2011, Jimmy Fallon appeared on the Piers Morgan Tonight television program, playing the guitar and singing a broad parody of "Space Oddity" along the lines of: "This is Tim Tebow to Jesus Christ", using a Bowie-esque vocal style. He also performed the song on his late night talk show Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in the character of an amalgamation of Tim Tebow and David Bowie called "Tebowie".

text: Major Tom also has had and continues to have passing references in other popular songs, such as: Five Star's "Rain or Shine" (1986), Def Leppard's "Rocket" (1987), Marilyn Manson's "Apple of Sodom" (1997), Lorraine Bowen's "Space" (2002), The Mars Volta's live rendition of the song "Cicatriz" (2005) featuring a lengthy jam which would evolve into the song "Cassandra Gemini", Cold's "Happens All The Time" (2005), Alphabeat's "Fantastic 6" (2007), Shiny Toy Guns' cover of Schilling's "Major Tom" (2009), The Cab's "Angel with a Shotgun" (2011), Lana Del Rey's "Terrence Loves You" (2015) which is interpreted by many fans to be a homage to Bowie and his brother Terrence, and Stephen Pearcy's "Ten Miles Wide" (2017).

text: Other references in popular culture[edit]

text: During his tour of duty on board the International Space Station, British astronaut Timothy Peake was regularly referred to by the media as "Major Tim", in a direct reference to Bowie's fictional astronaut.[9][10][11] Peake was on the ISS at the time of Bowie's death and tweeted a tribute to him from there.[12]  In 2017, author Clive Gifford wrote a book aimed at children about Peake's time on board the ISS, titled "Ground Control to Major Tim: The Space Adventures of Major Tim Peake".[13] Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield had previously performed a version of "Space Oddity" on board the ISS in 2013, creating one of the first music videos to be made in space.[12]

text: In the first mission of Metal Gear Solid 3 Major Zero codenames himself Major Tom. This is in reference to series creator Hideo Kojima’s love for David Bowie.


document_title: List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 1995

question_text: what was the number one song on july 10 1995

root

text: Chart history

text:
Key

The yellow background indicates the #1 song on Billboard's 1995 Year-End Chart of Pop Singles.

tag: table

text:
Issue Date

Song

Artist(s)

Reference(s)

January 7

"On Bended Knee"

Boyz II Men

[1]

January 14

[2]

January 21

[3]

January 28

"Creep"

TLC

[4]

February 4

[5]

February 11

[6]

February 18

[7]

February 25

"Take a Bow"

Madonna

[8]

March 4

[9]

March 11

[10]

March 18

[11]

March 25

[12]

April 1

[13]

April 8

[14]

April 15

"This Is How We Do It"

Montell Jordan

[15]

April 22

[16]

April 29

[17]

May 6

[18]

May 13

[19]

May 20

[20]

May 27

[21]

June 3

"Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?"

Bryan Adams

[22]

June 10

[23]

June 17

[24]

June 24

[25]

July 1

[26]

July 8

"Waterfalls"

TLC

[27]

July 15

[28]

July 22

[29]

July 29

[30]

August 5

[31]

August 12

[32]

August 19

[33]

August 26

"Kiss from a Rose"

Seal

[34]

September 2

"You Are Not Alone"

Michael Jackson

[35]

September 9

"Gangsta's Paradise"

Coolio featuring L.V.

[36]

September 16

[37]

September 23

[38]

September 30

"Fantasy"

Mariah Carey

[39]

October 7

[40]

October 14

[41]

October 21

[42]

October 28

[43]

November 4

[44]

November 11

[45]

November 18

[46]

November 25

"Exhale (Shoop Shoop)"

Whitney Houston

[47]

December 2

"One Sweet Day"

Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men

[48]

December 9

[49]

December 16

[50]

December 23

[51]

December 30

[52]


document_title: The General's Daughter (film)

question_text: where did they film the general's daughter

question_tokens: where did they film the general 's daughter

text: The General's Daughter (film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (March 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: Chief Warrant Officer CW4 Paul Brenner (John Travolta), a Vietnam War veteran of the 196th LIB, is in Georgia, masquerading as First Sergeant Frank White, at a local Army base, to broker an illegal arms trade with a self-proclaimed freedom fighter. Brenner is actually an undercover agent of the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command.

tag: p

text: While on the base, his car gets a flat tire and a young officer arrives and helps him change it. The officer is Captain Elisabeth Campbell (Leslie Stefanson), the base commanding general's daughter and an Army captain in psychological operations. The next evening, she is found murdered. Brenner and another warrant officer, CW2 Sara Sunhill (Madeleine Stowe), who is also a rape specialist, are brought in to investigate. At the scene, the base Provost Marshal, Colonel William Kent (Timothy Hutton) has secured the area. He informs Captain Campbell's father, Lieutenant General Joseph "Fighting Joe" Campbell (James Cromwell), a highly decorated West Point graduate who is preparing to run for Vice President immediately after his impending retirement from the Army.

text: Brenner and Sunhill search Elisabeth's home off base and find it typical of a career Army officer, with one exception: through a false door in the basement, they find what appears to be a sexual dungeon of sorts. Later Brenner questions Elisabeth's close confidante, Colonel Robert Moore (James Woods). Though cordial and somewhat cooperative, Moore is evasive when questioned, and gives an alibi, which proves false when Moore's fingerprints are found on Elisabeth's dog tags, which are found in a plastic trash bag several yards from her corpse, along with her clothing. Brenner arrests Moore on charges of conduct unbecoming an officer and impeding a criminal investigation and has him jailed.

text: Whilst Brenner is arresting Moore, Sunhill is knocked to the ground by four men who verbally threaten her and Brenner. They dash off as quickly as they arrive, but Sunhill notices that the main assailant was wearing a silver claddagh ring. It turns out to be Captain Elby. In an effort to avoid prosecution, he confesses that Elisabeth was sexually promiscuous with virtually all the officers that made up her father's staff as part of an extensive "psychological warfare experiment" targeting her father, something he had previously failed to mention.

text: Back at the jail, Colonel Kent releases Moore, confining him to quarters at his home on-base. When Brenner, Sunhill, and Kent later return to Moore's home, they find Moore dead on his couch with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. But Brenner is not convinced that Moore's death was a suicide. General Campbell's adjutant, Colonel George Fowler (Clarence Williams III), attempts to close the investigation at the crime scene, stating that Moore killed himself out of guilt because he killed Elisabeth, but Brenner refuses to accept this- even after being reprimanded by Fowler, who sternly warns him to accept this version of events and drop any further investigation into the case.

text: Later it is revealed that Elisabeth was an honor student at West Point until her sophomore year, after which her class standing plummeted and she barely managed to graduate. Brenner and Sunhill visit Colonel Donald Slesinger (John Beasley), the Academy's psychiatrist, who explains that Captain Campbell had been brutally gang raped by fellow cadets at West Point during a training exercise and left to die in an isolated area—staked down in exactly the same manner in which she was found murdered. Luckily, another cadet group had found Elisabeth in time and rescued her. Elisabeth never knew the names of her assailants, but Sunhill tracks down one of the attackers through Colonel Slesinger, staying at Fort Benning and engineers a confession. They then swiftly arrest the other assailants, all of whom face 20 years imprisonment each for their crime.

text: The agents then pay a visit to the general, who corroborates the story. Fearing that the assailants would never be caught, Campbell had acted upon the advice of another general and decided to cover up the incident since such a scandal could have destroyed the United States Military Academy. This denial of justice severely traumatized Elisabeth, causing her to partake in various violent sexual activities and wage a years-long war of psychological revenge against her father behind the scenes. He also is forced to reveal that he did encounter his daughter the night of her murder and that Elisabeth herself, with the aid of Moore, staged the reenactment of her rape at West Point in an attempt to force him to face what he did. But Campbell was unmoved, and instead, harshly rebuked his daughter and left her tied to the stakes.

text: Realizing that Kent is the only suspect left, Brenner decides to question him. He calls Sunhill but learns that she was returning to the murder scene with Kent, who also wants to see Brenner. Brenner arrives and confronts Kent, who admits that he killed Elisabeth after she rejected him and threatened to tell his family about the affair. He also admits he murdered Moore and made it appear as suicide in an attempt to get away with it. Kent himself then commits suicide by deliberately stepping on an anti-personnel mine.

text: As General Campbell prepares to get on the plane to accompany Elisabeth's body to the funeral, he is confronted by Brenner, who lays the burden of his daughter's death on the general. Disgusted at what General Campbell did years before- choosing his Army career over his daughter at the moment she needed him the most- Brenner tells Campbell that his betrayal of Elisabeth was what had really killed her and that Kent had just put her out of her misery. Though General Campbell coldly threatens Brenner to keep silent or else be run out of the Army, Brenner promises to have him court-martialed for conspiracy to conceal a crime, thus ruining the general's public image and military career.

text: A written epilogue explains that Campbell is indeed court-martialed for the crime and found guilty, disappearing from public life soon after.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
John Travolta as Chief Warrant Officer W-4 Paul Brenner (alias First Sergeant Frank White)
Madeleine Stowe as Chief Warrant Officer W-2 Sarah Sunhill
James Cromwell as Lieutenant General Joseph Campbell
Timothy Hutton as Colonel William Kent
Leslie Stefanson as Captain Elisabeth Campbell
Daniel von Bargen as Police Chief Yardley
Clarence Williams III as Colonel George Fowler
James Woods as Colonel Dr. Robert Moore, MD
Mark Boone Jr. as Staff Sergeant Dalbert Elkins
John Beasley as Colonel Dr. Donald Slesinger, MD
Boyd Kestner as Captain Jake Elby
Brad Beyer as Captain Bransford
John Benjamin Hickey as Captain Goodson

tag: ul

text: Production[edit]

text: The General's Daughter was directed by Simon West and produced by Mace Neufeld. It was an adaptation of the best-selling book of the same name, written by Nelson DeMille and published in 1992. William Goldman did some work on the script. Michael Douglas was originally attached to star.[1]

text: Much of the film was filmed in various locations in and around Savannah, Georgia.

text: A love scene between Travolta and Stowe was cut from the final film.[2]

text: Two key changes were made after test screenings: Travolta's character made a stronger moral stand at the end, and it became clearer at the beginning that he was a military investigator working undercover.[3]

text: Deviations from the book[edit]

text: The plot of the film is significantly different from that of the novel, although the outcome is the same. For instance, in the novel Brenner never meets Elisabeth Campbell. The first time he sees her is at the murder scene. Notably, the first name of the general's daughter was changed from Ann to Elisabeth, and the ending took a slightly different turn.

text: Release[edit]

text: Box office[edit]

text: With a $95 million budget, the film grossed almost $103 million at the domestical box office and $150 million worldwide.[4]

text: Critical reception[edit]

text: The film had generally negative reviews with 22% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 89 reviews with an average rating of 4.3/10. The consensus is "Contrived performances and over-the-top sequences offer little real drama".[5] Roger Ebert gave the film a mixed 2.5 stars out a possible 4, describing The General's Daughter as well-made and with credible performances, but marred by a death scene that was "so unnecessarily graphic and gruesome that by the end I felt sort of unclean."[6]


document_title: Consonant

question_text: when does the letter w have the characteristics of a consonant

text: Consonant

text: Terminology[edit]

text: The word consonant comes from Latin oblique stem cōnsonant-, from cōnsonāns (littera) "sounding-together (letter)", a calque of Greek σύμφωνον sýmphōnon (plural sýmphōna).[2][3]

text: Dionysius Thrax calls consonants sýmphōna "pronounced with" because they can only be pronounced with a vowel.[4] He divides them into two subcategories: hēmíphōna, semivowels ("half-pronounced"),[5] which correspond to continuants, not semivowels,[6] and áphōna, mute or silent consonants ("unvoiced"),[7] which correspond to stops, not voiceless consonants.[8]

text: This description does not apply to some human languages, such as the Salishan languages, in which stops sometimes occur without vowels (see Nuxálk), and the modern conception of consonant does not require co-occurrence with vowels.

text: Letters[edit]

text: The word consonant is also used to refer to a letter of an alphabet that denotes a consonant sound. The 21 consonant letters in the English alphabet are B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, X, Z, and usually W and Y. The letter Y stands for the consonant /j/ in yoke, the vowel /ɪ/ in myth, the vowel /i/ in funny, and the diphthong /aɪ/ in my. W always represents a consonant except in combination with a vowel letter, as in growth, raw, and how, and in a few loanwords from Welsh, like crwth or cwm.

text: In some other languages, such as Finnish, y only represents a vowel sound.

text: Consonants versus vowels[edit]

text: Consonants and vowels correspond to distinct parts of a syllable: The most sonorous part of the syllable (that is, the part that's easiest to sing), called the syllabic peak or nucleus, is typically a vowel, while the less sonorous margins (called the onset and coda) are typically consonants. Such syllables may be abbreviated CV, V, and CVC, where C stands for consonant and V stands for vowel. This can be argued to be the only pattern found in most of the world's languages, and perhaps the primary pattern in all of them. However, the distinction between consonant and vowel is not always clear cut: there are syllabic consonants and non-syllabic vowels in many of the world's languages.

text: One blurry area is in segments variously called semivowels, semiconsonants, or glides. On one side, there are vowel-like segments that are not in themselves syllabic,but form diphthongs as part of the syllable nucleus, as the i in English boil [ˈbɔɪ̯l]. On the other, there are approximants that behave like consonants in forming onsets, but are articulated very much like vowels, as the y in English yes [ˈjɛs]. Some phonologists model these as both being the underlying vowel /i/, so that the English word bit would phonemically be /bit/, beet would be /bii̯t/, and yield would be phonemically /i̯ii̯ld/. Likewise, foot would be /fut/, food would be /fuu̯d/, wood would be /u̯ud/, and wooed would be /u̯uu̯d/. However, there is a (perhaps allophonic) difference in articulation between these segments, with the [j] in [ˈjɛs] yes and [ˈjiʲld] yield and the [w] of [ˈwuʷd] wooed having more constriction and a more definite place of articulation than the [ɪ] in [ˈbɔɪ̯l] boil or [ˈbɪt] bit or the [ʊ] of [ˈfʊt] foot.

text: The other problematic area is that of syllabic consonants, segments articulated as consonants but occupying the nucleus of a syllable. This may be the case for words such as church in rhotic dialects of English, although phoneticians differ in whether they consider this to be a syllabic consonant, /ˈtʃɹ̩tʃ/, or a rhotic vowel, /ˈtʃɝtʃ/: Some distinguish an approximant /ɹ/ that corresponds to a vowel /ɝ/, for rural as /ˈɹɝl/ or [ˈɹʷɝːl̩]; others see these as a single phoneme, /ˈɹɹ̩l/.

text: Other languages use fricative and often trilled segments as syllabic nuclei, as in Czech and several languages in Democratic Republic of the Congo, and China, including Mandarin Chinese.[which?] In Mandarin, they are historically allophones of /i/, and spelled that way in Pinyin. Ladefoged and Maddieson[9] call these "fricative vowels" and say that "they can usually be thought of as syllabic fricatives that are allophones of vowels". That is, phonetically they are consonants, but phonemically they behave as vowels.

text: Many Slavic languages allow the trill [r̩] and the lateral [l̩] as syllabic nuclei (see Words without vowels). In languages like Nuxalk, it is difficult to know what the nucleus of a syllable is, or if all syllables even have nuclei. If the concept of 'syllable' applies in Nuxalk, there are syllabic consonants in words like /sx̩s/ (/s̩xs̩/?) 'seal fat'. Miyako in Japan is similar, with /f̩ks̩/ 'to build' and /ps̩ks̩/ 'to pull'.

text: Features[edit]

text: This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text:
Manners of articulation

Obstruent

    Stop
    Affricate
    Fricative

        Sibilant

Sonorant

    Nasal
    Flap/Tap
    Approximant

        Liquid

    Vowel

        Semivowel

Lateral
Trill

Airstreams

Pulmonic
Ejective
Implosive
Nonplosive
Lingual (clicks)
Linguo-pulmonic
Linguo-ejective
Percussive

Related

Alliteration
Assonance
Consonance

v
t
e

text: Each spoken consonant can be distinguished by several phonetic features:

text:
The manner of articulation is how air escapes from the vocal tract when the consonant or approximant (vowel-like) sound is made. Manners include stops, fricatives, and nasals.
The place of articulation is where in the vocal tract the obstruction of the consonant occurs, and which speech organs are involved. Places include bilabial (both lips), alveolar (tongue against the gum ridge), and velar (tongue against soft palate). In addition, there may be a simultaneous narrowing at another place of articulation, such as palatalisation or pharyngealisation.
The phonation of a consonant is how the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation. When the vocal cords vibrate fully, the consonant is called voiced; when they do not vibrate at all, it is voiceless.
The voice onset time (VOT) indicates the timing of the phonation. Aspiration is a feature of VOT.
The airstream mechanism is how the air moving through the vocal tract is powered. Most languages have exclusively pulmonic egressive consonants, which use the lungs and diaphragm, but ejectives, clicks, and implosives use different mechanisms.
The length is how long the obstruction of a consonant lasts. This feature is borderline distinctive in English, as in "wholly" [hoʊlli] vs. "holy" [hoʊli], but cases are limited to morpheme boundaries. Unrelated roots are differentiated in various languages such as Italian, Japanese, and Finnish, with two length levels, "single" and "geminate". Estonian and some Sami languages have three phonemic lengths: short, geminate, and long geminate, although the distinction between the geminate and overlong geminate includes suprasegmental features.
The articulatory force is how much muscular energy is involved. This has been proposed many times, but no distinction relying exclusively on force has ever been demonstrated.

text: All English consonants can be classified by a combination of these features, such as "voiceless alveolar stop" [t]. In this case, the airstream mechanism is omitted.

text: Some pairs of consonants like p::b, t::d are sometimes called fortis and lenis, but this is a phonological rather than phonetic distinction.

text: Consonants are scheduled by their features in a number of IPA charts:

text:
IPA: pulmonic consonants

Place  →
Labial
Coronal
Dorsal
Laryngeal

Manner  ↓
Bilabial
Labiodental
Linguolabial
Dental
Alveolar
Palato-alveolar
Retroflex
Alveolo-palatal
Palatal
Velar
Uvular
Pharyngeal
Epiglottal
Glottal

Nasal
m̥
m

ɱ

n̼

n̥
n

ɳ̊
ɳ

ɲ̊
ɲ
ŋ̊
ŋ

ɴ

Stop
p
b
p̪
b̪
t̼
d̼

t
d

ʈ
ɖ

c
ɟ
k
g
q
ɢ

ʡ

ʔ

Sibilant affricate

ts
dz
tʃ
dʒ
ʈʂ
ɖʐ
tɕ
dʑ

Non‑sibilant affricate
pɸ
bβ
p̪f
b̪v

tθ
dð
t͡θ̠
d͡ð̠
t̠͡ɹ̠̊˔
d̠͡ɹ̠˔

cç
ɟʝ
kx
ɡɣ
qχ

ʡħ

ʔh

Sibilant fricative

s
z
ʃ
ʒ
ʂ
ʐ
ɕ
ʑ

Non‑sibilant fricative
ɸ
β
f
v
θ̼
ð̼
θ
ð
θ̠
ð̠
ɹ̠̊˔
ɹ̠˔

ç
ʝ
x
ɣ
χ
ʁ
ħ
ʕ

ʢ
h
ɦ

Approximant

ʋ̥
ʋ

ɹ̥
ɹ

ɻ̊
ɻ

j̊
j
ɰ̊
ɰ

ʔ̞

Flap/tap

ⱱ̟

ⱱ

ɾ̼

ɾ̥
ɾ

ɽ̊
ɽ

ɢ̆

ʡ̮

Trill
ʙ̥
ʙ

r̼

r̥
r

ɽ͡r̥
ɽ͡r

ʀ̥
ʀ

ʜ
ʢ

Lateral  affricate

tɬ
dɮ

ʈɭ̊˔

c͡ʎ̥˔

kʟ̝̊
ɡʟ̝

Lateral  fricative

ɬ
ɮ

ɭ˔̊

ʎ̥˔
ʎ̝
ʟ̝̊
ʟ̝

Lateral  approximant

l̥
l

ɭ̊
ɭ

ʎ̥
ʎ
ʟ̥
ʟ

ʟ̠

Lateral  flap/tap

ɺ

ɺ̢

ʎ̮

ʟ̆

Help – This box:

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Where symbols appear in pairs, the leftmost represents a voiceless consonant, and the rightmost represents a voiced consonant.
Shaded areas denote articulations judged to be impossible or indistinct.

text:
IPA: non-pulmonic consonants

Bilabial
Labiodental
Dental
Alveolar
Palato-alveolar
Retroflex
Alveolo-palatal
Palatal
Velar
Uvular
Epiglottal
Glottal

Ejectives
Stop
pʼ

tʼ

ʈʼ

cʼ

kʼ

qʼ

ʡʼ

Affricate

tsʼ

tʃʼ

ʈʂʼ

kxʼ

qχʼ

Lateral affricate

tɬʼ

cʎ̝̥ʼ

kʟ̝̊ʼ

Fricative

fʼ

θʼ

sʼ

ʃʼ

ʂʼ

ɕʼ

xʼ

χʼ

Lateral fricative

ɬʼ

Clicks
Nasal

ʘ̃

ǀ̃

ǃ̃

ǃ̃˞

ǂ̃

◌̃ˀ

Stop
ʘ
ʘ̬

ǀ
ǀ̬
ǃ
ǃ̬

ǃ˞
ǃ̬˞

ǂ
ǂ̬
ʞ

◌ˀ

Lateral nasal

ǁ̃

Lateral fricative

ǁ
ǁ̬

Implosive
Stop
ɓ̥
ɓ

ɗ̥
ɗ

ᶑ̥
ᶑ

ʄ̊
ʄ
ɠ̊
ɠ
ʛ̥
ʛ

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Where symbols appear in pairs, the leftmost represents a voiceless consonant, and the rightmost represents a voiced consonant.
Shaded areas denote articulations judged to be impossible or indistinct.

text:
IPA: Co-articulated consonants

Nasal

n͡m

ŋ͡m

Stop

t͡p
d͡b
k͡p
ɡ͡b
q͡ʡ

Fricative

ɧ

Approximant
ʍ
w

ɫ
ɥ̊
ɥ

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text: Examples[edit]

text: The recently extinct Ubykh language had only 2 or 3 vowels but 84 consonants;[10] the Taa language has 87 consonants under one analysis, 164 under another, plus some 30 vowels and tone.[11] The types of consonants used in various languages are by no means universal. For instance, nearly all Australian languages lack fricatives; a large percentage of the world's languages lack voiced stops as phonemes, such as [b], [d], and [ɡ]. Most languages, however, do include one or more fricatives, with [s] being the most common, and a liquid consonant or two, with [l] the most common. The approximant [w] is also widespread, and virtually all languages have one or more nasals, though a very few, such as the Central dialect of Rotokas, lack even these. This last language has the smallest number of consonants in the world, with just six.

text: Most common[edit]

text: The most common consonants around the world are the three voiceless stops [p], [t], [k], and the two nasals [m], [n]. However, even these common five are not universal. Several languages in the vicinity of the Sahara Desert, including Arabic, lack [p]. Several languages of North America, such as Mohawk, lack both of the labials [p] and [m]. The Wichita language of Oklahoma and some West African languages, such as Ijo, lack the consonant /n/ on a phonemic level, but do use it as an allophone of another consonant (of /l/ in the case of Ijo, and of /ɾ/ in Wichita). A few languages on Bougainville Island and around Puget Sound, such as Makah, lack both of the nasals [m] and [n]. The 'click language' Nǁng lacks [t],[12] and colloquial Samoan lacks both alveolars, [t] and [n].[13] Despite the 80-odd consonants of Ubykh, it lacks the plain velar /k/ in native words, as do the related Adyghe and Kabardian languages. But with a few striking exceptions, such as Xavante and Tahitian—which have no dorsal consonants whatsoever—nearly all other languages have at least one velar consonant: the few languages that do not have a simple [k] usually have a consonant that is very similar.[14] For instance, an areal feature of the Pacific Northwest coast is that historical *[k] has become palatalized in many languages, so that Saanich for example has [tʃ] and [kʷ] but no plain [k];[15][16] similarly, historical *[k] in the Northwest Caucasian languages became palatalized to /kʲ/ in Ubykh and /tʃ/ in most Circassian dialects.[17]

text: The most frequent consonant (that is, the one appearing most often in speech) in many languages is [k].[citation needed]

text: Audio samples[edit]

text: The following are consonant charts with links to audio samples.

text:
IPA chart pulmonic consonants with audio - (requires browser with JavaScript)
IPA chart non-pulmonic consonants with audio - (requires browser with JavaScript)
IPA chart affricate consonants with audio - (requires browser with JavaScript)
IPA chart co-articulated consonants with audio - (requires browser with JavaScript)


document_title: Paul (film)

question_text: who does paul's voice in the movie paul

question_tokens: who does paul 's voice in the movie paul

text: Paul (film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: Graeme Willy and Clive Gollings are British comic book enthusiasts and best friends who travel to the United States to attend the annual San Diego Comic-Con International, and to take a road trip through the American Southwest to visit sites significant to UFO lore. While driving on a remote desert highway at night, after a tense situation with some rednecks in a diner, Graeme and Clive observe a car driving erratically and then crash. They stop to investigate and offer assistance to the driver, who turns out to be an alien named Paul. Clive faints, but Graeme agrees to assist Paul and gives him a ride.

text: Later, Special Agent Zoil of the FBI arrives at the car crash site and informs his unseen female superior, "the Big Guy", that he is closing in on Paul. She sends two inept rookies, Haggard and O'Reilly, to assist Zoil.

text: Graeme, Clive and Paul camp at an RV park run by two Christian fundamentalists; one-eyed Ruth Buggs and her father, Moses. The next day, when Ruth discovers Paul, the three are forced to take her with them. During an argument, Paul convinces Ruth to question her beliefs. Paul later uses his healing power to cure Ruth's blinded eye. The fugitives stop at a bar and Ruth tries to call Moses, but Zoil intercepts the call. She is accosted by the rednecks from the diner, and a bar fight ensues as a result. The group escapes when Paul terrifies the rednecks into fainting. Later, at another RV park, Ruth is questioned by Agent Zoil, but claims to know nothing about "a one-eyed girl" or "two British nerds". Released, she and Graeme retrieve Clive and Paul, who narrowly escape Haggard and O'Reilly. Frustrated, Zoil orders Haggard and O'Reilly to return to base, but they go behind his back and insist on catching the alien on their own.

text: The group soon arrive at a house owned by Tara, who rescued Paul when he crashed on Earth 60 years ago and, as a result of no one believing her story, has spent her life as a pariah. As she makes tea for her visitors, Haggard, O'Reilly and Zoil surround the house. The fugitives flee, but O'Reilly shoots at them, igniting gas from Tara's stove and destroying her house. O'Reilly is apparently killed in the explosion. Haggard pursues and catches up to the RV. Due to an error in judgement, Haggard drives off a cliff and is killed. Zoil reassures the Big Guy that he will have Paul within the hour, but she is tired of waiting and informs Zoil that she has ordered a "military response".

text: Paul, Graeme, Clive, Ruth and Tara arrive at Devils Tower National Monument, where they set off fireworks as a signal to Paul's mothership. A helicopter suddenly arrives with agents and The Big Guy. Zoil then appears and initiates a stand-off, disabling the agents, but is then wounded by The Big Guy. Secretly, Zoil is Paul's friend and was attempting to aid his escape under the guise of capturing the alien. The group fights The Big Guy and Tara knocks her out. Moses arrives unexpectedly and fires his shotgun, intending to kill Paul, but Graeme jumps in front of Paul and Ruth and is fatally wounded. Paul once again uses his healing powers, reviving Graeme in spite of the danger to himself. Graeme and Ruth admit their feelings for each other and kiss, but then The Big Guy regains consciousness and holds the group at gunpoint. Just as The Big Guy is about to kill them, she is crushed by a suddenly arriving spaceship. Paul says goodbye to his friends before he leaves in the ship with Tara, promising to give her a new life after ruining her childhood. Two years later, Graeme, Clive, Ruth, Zoil and O'Reilly (who survived the explosion) are at another Comic-Con, where Graeme and Clive are promoting Paul, their best-selling novel.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Simon Pegg as Graeme Willy
Nick Frost as Clive Gollings
Seth Rogen as Paul (voice and motion capture)[6]
Jason Bateman as Special Agent Lorenzo Zoil. Bateman described his character as an "exaggerated nasty guy". Bateman also stated that he based Zoil on Yaphet Kotto in Midnight Run and Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive.[7]
Kristen Wiig as Ruth Buggs
Bill Hader as Agent Haggard
Blythe Danner as Tara Walton
Joe Lo Truglio as Agent O'Reilly
John Carroll Lynch as Moses Buggs, Ruth's father
Jane Lynch as Pat Stevens
David Koechner as Gus, a hillbilly whom Graeme and Clive first encounter in a Nevada gas station.
Jesse Plemons as Jake, Gus's friend.
Sigourney Weaver as "The Big Guy". In an interview with Graham Norton, Weaver stated: "It's a love letter to sci-fi fans. I jumped at the chance to be in it. To find a comedy that also pays homage to sci-fi is a dream come true."[8]
Syd Masters as himself, singing cowboy on stage
Jeffrey Tambor as Adam Shadowchild, a famous science fiction writer
Steven Spielberg as Himself (voice)

text: In an interview for the DVD release of Paul, Pegg and Frost said they made the film to demonstrate their love for Steven Spielberg's films Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, as well as their favorite science fiction films.[9] After they mentioned the project to Spielberg, he suggested he might make a cameo appearance, and a scene was added to include him as a voice on a speakerphone in 1980 discussing ideas with Paul for his soon to become box office hit E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.[10][11] According to Robert Kirkman, he, along with Invincible co-creator Cory Walker and Invincible artist Ryan Ottley, had a cameo in the film as The Big Guy's henchmen.[12]

text: Production[edit]

text: The premise for Paul came from Pegg and Frost in 2003, while they were filming Shaun of the Dead.[1] To help with the script, Pegg and Frost went on their own road trip across America and used ideas from it to add to the script.[13] According to Mottola, the film was given the green-light shortly before the late 2000s recession; if it had been delayed, "they probably wouldn’t have made the movie."[1] The budget for the film was around $40 million.[1] Principal photography, including 50 days in the New Mexico desert,[1] wrapped on 9 September 2009,[14] with additional scenes filmed in July 2010 at the Albuquerque Convention Center, which was designed to look like the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con.[15] During filming, Joe Lo Truglio was a stand-in for the character Paul, the only character who was created by CGI. Seth Rogen did some motion capture in pre-production and voice work during post-production.[16] The cover art for the fictional comic book Encounter Briefs was drawn by alternative comics artist Daniel Clowes.[17]

text: Release[edit]

text: A teaser trailer was released on 18 October 2010.[18] The film had its world premiere in London on 7 February 2011.[19]

text: Home media[edit]

text: The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on 13 June 2011 and was released in North America on 9 August 2011. There are three versions of the film.[20] The DVD release features an audio commentary with director Greg Mottola, stars Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Bill Hader, and producer Nira Park; two featurettes; "Simon's Silly Faces"; photo galleries; storyboards and posters; and a blooper reel. The United States Blu-ray release features all the DVD supplements with nine more featurettes and a digital copy.[21]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Critical reception[edit]

text: Paul received generally positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 71% approval rating with an average rating of 6.3/10 based on 196 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "It doesn't measure up to Pegg and Frost's best work, but Paul is an amiably entertaining — albeit uneven — road trip comedy with an intergalactic twist". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 57 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[22]

text: Empire rated the film "excellent" (four stars out of five) stating, "Broader and more accessible than either Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, Paul is pure Pegg and Frost —– clever, cheeky and very, very funny. You'll never look at E.T. in the same way again."[23] SFX also gives the film four stars out of five, saying "the film veers dangerously close to alienating (no pun intended) all but its geek core audience, [though] the more obvious concessions to a mainstream crowd [are] never enough to derail the film's laugh-a-minute ride"; SFX also calls it a "triumph of visual effects, convincing characterisation and bad taste humour."[24] Peter Bradshaw gave the film two stars out of five and called it a "goofy, amiable piece of silliness" exhibiting "self-indulgence" and possessing a "distinct shortage of real gags".[25] On the same scale Nigel Andrews gave the film only one star, calling it a "faltering extraterrestrial knockabout".[19] The Independent grades the film two stars out of five, saying "Pegg is likeable as usual, Frost more doltish than usual, and Kristen Wiig an appealing convert from Bible thumper to ladette", and notes that "from time to time, clever ideas rear their heads – like the idea that 'Paul' has been the brains behind all science fiction and UFO initiatives for the last 30 years, including Close Encounters and The X-Files – but they soon return to the film's default setting of laddish japes and a conviction that the word 'cocksucker' will always get a laugh."[26] Common Sense Media gave the film three stars and an iffy rating for ages 16–17. Saying "Cheerfully dumb sci-fi comedy has sex, drug humor."[27] IGN provided Paul with three reviews. The first gave the film three stars, stating, "Simon Pegg and Nick Frost send up everything from Star Wars to E.T. in this sci-fi comedy ... As with Pegg and Frost's previous films together, it's derivative stuff, the plot similar to countless sci-fi flicks of the past; paying homage to the good and gently ribbing the bad."[28] Less excited was their review for the British Blu-ray version, which said, "But unlike previous Pegg and Frost collaborations – Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz – Paul does not generously reward repeat viewing. That's not to say it's a bad film at all; it has a strong central premise, which carries much of the film, loveable central characters, the odd neat idea (it turns out that Paul inspired all major works of SF post-1950, from Close Encounters to The X-Files, and has a direct line to Steven Spielberg), and a couple of genuine laughs, but it never feels more than a rough sketch of a bigger, much funnier movie."[29] In a second review for the American Blu-ray version, IGN compared the movie with Galaxy Quest and wrote that it is "richly layered with clever homage, a refreshingly original alien hero, delightfully entertaining characters and great performances from our leads and their supporting players."[20]

text: Upon its release in the United States, Roger Ebert gave Paul a mixed review of two and a half stars out of four, saying it's a "movie that teeters on the edge of being really pretty good and loses its way. I'm not sure quite what goes wrong, but you can see that it might have gone right."[30] According to Manohla Dargis, "As genial, foolish and demographically engineered as it sounds (hailing all fan boys and girls), Paul is at once a buddy flick and a classic American road movie of self- (and other) discovery, interspersed with buckets of expletives and some startling (especially for a big-studio release) pokes at Christian fundamentalism ... The movie has its attractions, notably Mr. Pegg and Mr. Frost (and of course Mr. Bateman), whose ductile, (noncomputer) animated and open faces were made for comedy ... Paul proves the weak link. One problem is that Mr. Rogen, however comically inclined, has become overexposed, and there’s just something too familiar and predictable about this voice coming out of that body. Yet while Paul seems great conceptually, he’s not particularly interesting or surprising, despite a funny recap of what he’s been doing on his time on Earth. With his vibe and vocabulary, shorts and weed, juvenilia and sentimentality, Paul turns out to be not much different from a lot of guys who have wreaked comedy havoc on American screens lately, even if this one only wants to beam up, not knock up."[31]

text: Box office[edit]

text: The film has grossed $97,984,015 worldwide. In North America, Paul opened in March 2011 with $13,043,310.[32] The film closed after 63 days in theaters, grossing $37,412,945.[3]

text: Accolades[edit]

text:
Year
Award
Category
Nominee
Result

2011
National Movie Award
Best Comedy

Won

2012
Annie Award
Character Animation in a Live Action Production
Michael Hull
David Lowry
Nominated

2012
Visual Effects Society Award
Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture

Nominated

text: Soundtrack[edit]

text: Paul: Music from the Original Motion Picture was released on 21 February 2011 by Universal Music.[33] It intersperses David Arnold's score with the rock songs appearing in the film.

text: All tracks written by David Arnold, except as noted.

text:
No.
Title
Writer(s)
Performer(s)
Length

1.
"Paul Opening Title"

David Arnold
1:56

2.
"Another Girl, Another Planet" (from The Only Ones, 1978)
Peter Perrett
The Only Ones
3:00

3.
"Road Trip Number 1"

David Arnold
0:57

4.
"Just the Two of Us"
Withers, Ralph MacDonald, William Salter
Bill Withers and Grover Washington, Jr.
3:57

5.
"Passport"

David Arnold
1:18

6.
"Road Trip Number 2"

David Arnold
1:34

7.
"Flying Saucers Rock 'N' Roll" (single, 1957)
Harold Ray Scott
Billy Lee Riley
2:02

8.
"Window Shopping"

David Arnold
0:51

9.
"Hello It's Me" (from Something/Anything?, 1972)
Rundgren
Todd Rundgren
4:20

10.
"End of the Road Trip"

David Arnold
1:38

11.
"Dancing in the Moonlight" (from Dancing In The Moonlight, 1973)
Sherman Kelly
King Harvest
2:56

12.
"Campfire Confession"

David Arnold
1:24

13.
"Got to Give It Up" (from Live at the London Palladium, 1977)
Gaye
Marvin Gaye
6:01

14.
"A Little Talk with Paul"

David Arnold
1:21

15.
"I Chase the Devil" (from War Ina Babylon, 1976)
Lee Perry, Romeo
Max Romeo
3:22

16.
"Chase"

David Arnold
1:18

17.
"Cantina Band"
John Williams
Syd Masters & The Swing Riders
3:42

18.
"You Gotta Try"

David Arnold
2:51

19.
"1st Contact"

David Arnold
1:17

20.
"Planet Claire" (from The B-52's, 1979)
Fred Schneider, Keith Strickland
The B-52's
4:33

21.
"Goodbye (It's a Little Awkward)"

David Arnold
4:42

22.
"All Over the World" (from Xanadu, 1980)
Jeff Lynne
Electric Light Orchestra
4:05

text: Possible sequel[edit]

text: Simon Pegg has stated that he would like to film a sequel to Paul, called Pauls.[34] However, Pegg says the time and expense it would take means it is unlikely to happen unless costs decrease.[35]


document_title: Mutation

question_text: name the type of mutation that does not effect protein synthesis

text: Mutation

text: Description

text: Mutations can involve the duplication of large sections of DNA, usually through genetic recombination.[8] These duplications are a major source of raw material for evolving new genes, with tens to hundreds of genes duplicated in animal genomes every million years.[9] Most genes belong to larger gene families of shared ancestry, known as homology.[10] Novel genes are produced by several methods, commonly through the duplication and mutation of an ancestral gene, or by recombining parts of different genes to form new combinations with new functions.[11][12]

text: Here, protein domains act as modules, each with a particular and independent function, that can be mixed together to produce genes encoding new proteins with novel properties.[13] For example, the human eye uses four genes to make structures that sense light: three for cone cell or color vision and one for rod cell or night vision; all four arose from a single ancestral gene.[14] Another advantage of duplicating a gene (or even an entire genome) is that this increases engineering redundancy; this allows one gene in the pair to acquire a new function while the other copy performs the original function.[15][16] Other types of mutation occasionally create new genes from previously noncoding DNA.[17][18]

text: Changes in chromosome number may involve even larger mutations, where segments of the DNA within chromosomes break and then rearrange. For example, in the Homininae, two chromosomes fused to produce human chromosome 2; this fusion did not occur in the lineage of the other apes, and they retain these separate chromosomes.[19] In evolution, the most important role of such chromosomal rearrangements may be to accelerate the divergence of a population into new species by making populations less likely to interbreed, thereby preserving genetic differences between these populations.[20]

text: Sequences of DNA that can move about the genome, such as transposons, make up a major fraction of the genetic material of plants and animals, and may have been important in the evolution of genomes.[21] For example, more than a million copies of the Alu sequence are present in the human genome, and these sequences have now been recruited to perform functions such as regulating gene expression.[22] Another effect of these mobile DNA sequences is that when they move within a genome, they can mutate or delete existing genes and thereby produce genetic diversity.[5]

text: Nonlethal mutations accumulate within the gene pool and increase the amount of genetic variation.[23] The abundance of some genetic changes within the gene pool can be reduced by natural selection, while other "more favorable" mutations may accumulate and result in adaptive changes.

text: For example, a butterfly may produce offspring with new mutations. The majority of these mutations will have no effect; but one might change the color of one of the butterfly's offspring, making it harder (or easier) for predators to see. If this color change is advantageous, the chance of this butterfly's surviving and producing its own offspring are a little better, and over time the number of butterflies with this mutation may form a larger percentage of the population.

text: Neutral mutations are defined as mutations whose effects do not influence the fitness of an individual. These can accumulate over time due to genetic drift. It is believed that the overwhelming majority of mutations have no significant effect on an organism's fitness.[24][better source needed] Also, DNA repair mechanisms are able to mend most changes before they become permanent mutations, and many organisms have mechanisms for eliminating otherwise-permanently mutated somatic cells.

text: Beneficial mutations can improve reproductive success.

text: History

text: Causes

text: Four classes of mutations are (1) spontaneous mutations (molecular decay), (2) mutations due to error-prone replication bypass of naturally occurring DNA damage (also called error-prone translesion synthesis), (3) errors introduced during DNA repair, and (4) induced mutations caused by mutagens. Scientists may also deliberately introduce mutant sequences through DNA manipulation for the sake of scientific experimentation.

text: One 2017 study claimed that 66% of cancer-causing mutations are random, 29% are due to the environment (the studied population spanned 69 countries), and 5% are inherited.[25]

text: Spontaneous mutation

text: Spontaneous mutations occur with non-zero probability even given a healthy, uncontaminated cell. They can be characterized by the specific change:[26]

text:
Tautomerism — A base is changed by the repositioning of a hydrogen atom, altering the hydrogen bonding pattern of that base, resulting in incorrect base pairing during replication.
Depurination — Loss of a purine base (A or G) to form an apurinic site (AP site).
Deamination — Hydrolysis changes a normal base to an atypical base containing a keto group in place of the original amine group. Examples include C → U and A → HX (hypoxanthine), which can be corrected by DNA repair mechanisms; and 5MeC (5-methylcytosine) → T, which is less likely to be detected as a mutation because thymine is a normal DNA base.
Slipped strand mispairing — Denaturation of the new strand from the template during replication, followed by renaturation in a different spot ("slipping"). This can lead to insertions or deletions.

text: Error-prone replication bypass

text: There is increasing evidence that the majority of spontaneously arising mutations are due to error-prone replication (translesion synthesis) past DNA damage in the template strand. Naturally occurring oxidative DNA damages arise at least 10,000 times per cell per day in humans and 50,000 times or more per cell per day in rats.[27] In mice, the majority of mutations are caused by translesion synthesis.[28] Likewise, in yeast, Kunz et al.[29] found that more than 60% of the spontaneous single base pair substitutions and deletions were caused by translesion synthesis.

text: Errors introduced during DNA repair

text: Although naturally occurring double-strand breaks occur at a relatively low frequency in DNA, their repair often causes mutation. Non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) is a major pathway for repairing double-strand breaks. NHEJ involves removal of a few nucleotides to allow somewhat inaccurate alignment of the two ends for rejoining followed by addition of nucleotides to fill in gaps. As a consequence, NHEJ often introduces mutations.[30]

text: Induced mutation

text: Induced mutations are alterations in the gene after it has come in contact with mutagens and environmental causes.

text: Induced mutations on the molecular level can be caused by:

text:
Chemicals

Hydroxylamine
Base analogs (e.g., Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU))
Alkylating agents (e.g., N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU)). These agents can mutate both replicating and non-replicating DNA. In contrast, a base analog can mutate the DNA only when the analog is incorporated in replicating the DNA. Each of these classes of chemical mutagens has certain effects that then lead to transitions, transversions, or deletions.
Agents that form DNA adducts (e.g., ochratoxin A)[32]
DNA intercalating agents (e.g., ethidium bromide)
DNA crosslinkers

This figure depicts the following processes of transcription, splicing, and translation of a eukaryotic gene.

Oxidative damage
Nitrous acid converts amine groups on A and C to diazo groups, altering their hydrogen bonding patterns, which leads to incorrect base pairing during replication.

Radiation

Ultraviolet light (UV) (non-ionizing radiation). Two nucleotide bases in DNA—cytosine and thymine—are most vulnerable to radiation that can change their properties. UV light can induce adjacent pyrimidine bases in a DNA strand to become covalently joined as a pyrimidine dimer. UV radiation, in particular longer-wave UVA, can also cause oxidative damage to DNA.[33]
Ionizing radiation. Exposure to ionizing radiation, such as gamma radiation, can result in mutation, possibly resulting in cancer or death.

text: Classification of types

text: By effect on structure

text: The sequence of a gene can be altered in a number of ways.[35] Gene mutations have varying effects on health depending on where they occur and whether they alter the function of essential proteins. Mutations in the structure of genes can be classified as:

text:
Small-scale mutations, such as those affecting a small gene in one or a few nucleotides, including:

Substitution mutations, often caused by chemicals or malfunction of DNA replication, exchange a single nucleotide for another.[36] These changes are classified as transitions or transversions.[37] Most common is the transition that exchanges a purine for a purine (A ↔ G) or a pyrimidine for a pyrimidine, (C ↔ T). A transition can be caused by nitrous acid, base mis-pairing, or mutagenic base analogs such as BrdU. Less common is a transversion, which exchanges a purine for a pyrimidine or a pyrimidine for a purine (C/T ↔ A/G). An example of a transversion is the conversion of adenine (A) into a cytosine (C). A point mutation are modifications of single base pairs of DNA or other small base pairs within a gene. A point mutation can be reversed by another point mutation, in which the nucleotide is changed back to its original state (true reversion) or by second-site reversion (a complementary mutation elsewhere that results in regained gene functionality). Point mutations that occur within the protein coding region of a gene may be classified into three kinds, depending upon what the erroneous codon codes for:

Silent mutations, which code for the same (or a sufficiently similar) amino acid.
Missense mutations, which code for a different amino acid.
Nonsense mutations, which code for a stop codon and can truncate the protein.

Insertions add one or more extra nucleotides into the DNA. They are usually caused by transposable elements, or errors during replication of repeating elements. Insertions in the coding region of a gene may alter splicing of the mRNA (splice site mutation), or cause a shift in the reading frame (frameshift), both of which can significantly alter the gene product. Insertions can be reversed by excision of the transposable element.
Deletions remove one or more nucleotides from the DNA. Like insertions, these mutations can alter the reading frame of the gene. In general, they are irreversible: Though exactly the same sequence might in theory be restored by an insertion, transposable elements able to revert a very short deletion (say 1–2 bases) in any location either are highly unlikely to exist or do not exist at all.

Large-scale mutations in chromosomal structure, including:

Amplifications (or gene duplications) leading to multiple copies of all chromosomal regions, increasing the dosage of the genes located within them.
Deletions of large chromosomal regions, leading to loss of the genes within those regions.
Mutations whose effect is to juxtapose previously separate pieces of DNA, potentially bringing together separate genes to form functionally distinct fusion genes (e.g., bcr-abl). These include:

Chromosomal translocations: interchange of genetic parts from nonhomologous chromosomes.
Interstitial deletions: an intra-chromosomal deletion that removes a segment of DNA from a single chromosome, thereby apposing previously distant genes. For example, cells isolated from a human astrocytoma, a type of brain tumor, were found to have a chromosomal deletion removing sequences between the Fused in Glioblastoma (FIG) gene and the receptor tyrosine kinase (ROS), producing a fusion protein (FIG-ROS). The abnormal FIG-ROS fusion protein has constitutively active kinase activity that causes oncogenic transformation (a transformation from normal cells to cancer cells).
Chromosomal inversions: reversing the orientation of a chromosomal segment.

Loss of heterozygosity: loss of one allele, either by a deletion or a genetic recombination event, in an organism that previously had two different alleles.

text: By effect on function

text:
Loss-of-function mutations, also called inactivating mutations, result in the gene product having less or no function (being partially or wholly inactivated). When the allele has a complete loss of function (null allele), it is often called an amorph or amorphic mutation in the Muller's morphs schema. Phenotypes associated with such mutations are most often recessive. Exceptions are when the organism is haploid, or when the reduced dosage of a normal gene product is not enough for a normal phenotype (this is called haploinsufficiency).
Gain-of-function mutations, also called activating mutations, change the gene product such that its effect gets stronger (enhanced activation) or even is superseded by a different and abnormal function. When the new allele is created, a heterozygote containing the newly created allele as well as the original will express the new allele; genetically this defines the mutations as dominant phenotypes. Several of Muller's morphs correspond to gain of function, including hypermorph and neomorph.
Dominant negative mutations (also called antimorphic mutations) have an altered gene product that acts antagonistically to the wild-type allele. These mutations usually result in an altered molecular function (often inactive) and are characterized by a dominant or semi-dominant phenotype. In humans, dominant negative mutations have been implicated in cancer (e.g., mutations in genes p53,[38] ATM,[39] CEBPA[40] and PPARgamma[41]). Marfan syndrome is caused by mutations in the FBN1 gene, located on chromosome 15, which encodes fibrillin-1, a glycoprotein component of the extracellular matrix.[42] Marfan syndrome is also an example of dominant negative mutation and haploinsufficiency.[43][44]
Hypomorph, after Mullarian classification is altered gene product that acts with decreased gene expression compared to wild type allele.
Neomorph is characterized by the control of new protein product synthesis.
Lethal mutations are mutations that lead to the death of the organisms that carry the mutations.
A back mutation or reversion is a point mutation that restores the original sequence and hence the original phenotype.[45]

text: By effect on fitness

text: In applied genetics, it is usual to speak of mutations as either harmful or beneficial.

text:
A harmful, or deleterious, mutation decreases the fitness of the organism.
A beneficial, or advantageous mutation increases the fitness of the organism. Mutations that promotes traits that are desirable, are also called beneficial. In theoretical population genetics, it is more usual to speak of mutations as deleterious or advantageous than harmful or beneficial.
A neutral mutation has no harmful or beneficial effect on the organism. Such mutations occur at a steady rate, forming the basis for the molecular clock. In the neutral theory of molecular evolution, neutral mutations provide genetic drift as the basis for most variation at the molecular level.
A nearly neutral mutation is a mutation that may be slightly deleterious or advantageous, although most nearly neutral mutations are slightly deleterious.

text: Distribution of fitness effects

text: Attempts have been made to infer the distribution of fitness effects (DFE) using mutagenesis experiments and theoretical models applied to molecular sequence data. DFE, as used to determine the relative abundance of different types of mutations (i.e., strongly deleterious, nearly neutral or advantageous), is relevant to many evolutionary questions, such as the maintenance of genetic variation,[46] the rate of genomic decay,[47] the maintenance of outcrossing sexual reproduction as opposed to inbreeding[48] and the evolution of sex and genetic recombination.[49] In summary, the DFE plays an important role in predicting evolutionary dynamics.[50][51] A variety of approaches have been used to study the DFE, including theoretical, experimental and analytical methods.

text: Mutagenesis experiment: The direct method to investigate the DFE is to induce mutations and then measure the mutational fitness effects, which has already been done in viruses, bacteria, yeast, and Drosophila. For example, most studies of the DFE in viruses used site-directed mutagenesis to create point mutations and measure relative fitness of each mutant.[52][53][54][55] In Escherichia coli, one study used transposon mutagenesis to directly measure the fitness of a random insertion of a derivative of Tn10.[56] In yeast, a combined mutagenesis and deep sequencing approach has been developed to generate high-quality systematic mutant libraries and measure fitness in high throughput.[57] However, given that many mutations have effects too small to be detected[58] and that mutagenesis experiments can detect only mutations of moderately large effect; DNA sequence data analysis can provide valuable information about these mutations.

text: Molecular sequence analysis: With rapid development of DNA sequencing technology, an enormous amount of DNA sequence data is available and even more is forthcoming in the future. Various methods have been developed to infer the DFE from DNA sequence data.[59][60][61][62] By examining DNA sequence differences within and between species, we are able to infer various characteristics of the DFE for neutral, deleterious and advantageous mutations.[23] To be specific, the DNA sequence analysis approach allows us to estimate the effects of mutations with very small effects, which are hardly detectable through mutagenesis experiments.

text: One of the earliest theoretical studies of the distribution of fitness effects was done by Motoo Kimura, an influential theoretical population geneticist. His neutral theory of molecular evolution proposes that most novel mutations will be highly deleterious, with a small fraction being neutral.[63][64] Hiroshi Akashi more recently proposed a bimodal model for the DFE, with modes centered around highly deleterious and neutral mutations.[65] Both theories agree that the vast majority of novel mutations are neutral or deleterious and that advantageous mutations are rare, which has been supported by experimental results. One example is a study done on the DFE of random mutations in vesicular stomatitis virus.[52] Out of all mutations, 39.6% were lethal, 31.2% were non-lethal deleterious, and 27.1% were neutral. Another example comes from a high throughput mutagenesis experiment with yeast.[57] In this experiment it was shown that the overall DFE is bimodal, with a cluster of neutral mutations, and a broad distribution of deleterious mutations.

text: Though relatively few mutations are advantageous, those that are play an important role in evolutionary changes.[66] Like neutral mutations, weakly selected advantageous mutations can be lost due to random genetic drift, but strongly selected advantageous mutations are more likely to be fixed. Knowing the DFE of advantageous mutations may lead to increased ability to predict the evolutionary dynamics. Theoretical work on the DFE for advantageous mutations has been done by John H. Gillespie[67] and H. Allen Orr.[68] They proposed that the distribution for advantageous mutations should be exponential under a wide range of conditions, which, in general, has been supported by experimental studies, at least for strongly selected advantageous mutations.[69][70][71]

text: In general, it is accepted that the majority of mutations are neutral or deleterious, with rare mutations being advantageous; however, the proportion of types of mutations varies between species. This indicates two important points: first, the proportion of effectively neutral mutations is likely to vary between species, resulting from dependence on effective population size; second, the average effect of deleterious mutations varies dramatically between species.[23] In addition, the DFE also differs between coding regions and noncoding regions, with the DFE of noncoding DNA containing more weakly selected mutations.[23]

text: By impact on protein sequence

text:
A frameshift mutation is a mutation caused by insertion or deletion of a number of nucleotides that is not evenly divisible by three from a DNA sequence. Due to the triplet nature of gene expression by codons, the insertion or deletion can disrupt the reading frame, or the grouping of the codons, resulting in a completely different translation from the original.[72] The earlier in the sequence the deletion or insertion occurs, the more altered the protein produced is.

For example, the code CCU GAC UAC CUA codes for the amino acids Proline, Aspartic, Tyrosine, and Leucine. If the U in CCU was deleted, the resulting sequence would be CCG ACU ACC UA, which would instead code for Proline, Threonine, and Threonine.

text:
A nonsense mutation is a point mutation in a sequence of DNA that results in a premature stop codon, or a nonsense codon in the transcribed mRNA, and possibly a truncated, and often nonfunctional protein product. This sort of mutation has been linked to different mutations, such as congenital adrenal hyperplasia. (See Stop codon.)
Missense mutations or nonsynonymous mutations are types of point mutations where a single nucleotide is changed to cause substitution of a different amino acid. This in turn can render the resulting protein nonfunctional. Such mutations are responsible for diseases such as Epidermolysis bullosa, sickle-cell disease, and SOD1-mediated ALS.[73]
A neutral mutation is a mutation that occurs in an amino acid codon that results in the use of a different, but chemically similar, amino acid. The similarity between the two is enough that little or no change is often rendered in the protein. For example, a change from AAA to AGA will encode arginine, a chemically similar molecule to the intended lysine.
Silent mutations are mutations that do not result in a change to the amino acid sequence of a protein but do change the nucleotide sequence, unless the changed amino acid is sufficiently similar to the original. They may occur in a region that does not code for a protein, or they may occur within a codon in a manner that does not alter the final amino acid sequence. Silent mutations are also called silent substitutions, since they are not palpable changes as the changes in phenotype. The phrase silent mutation is often used interchangeably with the phrase synonymous mutation; however, synonymous mutations are a subcategory of the former, occurring only within exons (and necessarily exactly preserving the amino acid sequence of the protein). Synonymous mutations occur due to the degenerate nature of the genetic code. There can also be silent mutations in nucleotides outside of the coding regions, such as the introns, because the exact nucleotide sequence is not as crucial as it is in the coding regions.

text: By inheritance

text: In multicellular organisms with dedicated reproductive cells, mutations can be subdivided into germline mutations, which can be passed on to descendants through their reproductive cells, and somatic mutations (also called acquired mutations),[74] which involve cells outside the dedicated reproductive group and which are not usually transmitted to descendants.

text: A germline mutation gives rise to a constitutional mutation in the offspring, that is, a mutation that is present in every cell. A constitutional mutation can also occur very soon after fertilisation, or continue from a previous constitutional mutation in a parent.[75]

text: The distinction between germline and somatic mutations is important in animals that have a dedicated germline to produce reproductive cells. However, it is of little value in understanding the effects of mutations in plants, which lack dedicated germline. The distinction is also blurred in those animals that reproduce asexually through mechanisms such as budding, because the cells that give rise to the daughter organisms also give rise to that organism's germline. A new germline mutation that was not inherited from either parent is called a de novo mutation.

text: Diploid organisms (e.g., humans) contain two copies of each gene—a paternal and a maternal allele. Based on the occurrence of mutation on each chromosome, we may classify mutations into three types.

text:
A heterozygous mutation is a mutation of only one allele.
A homozygous mutation is an identical mutation of both the paternal and maternal alleles.
Compound heterozygous mutations or a genetic compound consists of two different mutations in the paternal and maternal alleles.[76]

text: A wild type or homozygous non-mutated organism is one in which neither allele is mutated.

text: Special classes

text:
Conditional mutation is a mutation that has wild-type (or less severe) phenotype under certain "permissive" environmental conditions and a mutant phenotype under certain "restrictive" conditions. For example, a temperature-sensitive mutation can cause cell death at high temperature (restrictive condition), but might have no deleterious consequences at a lower temperature (permissive condition).[77] These mutations are non-autonomous, as their manifestation depends upon presence of certain conditions, as opposed to other mutations which appear autonomously.[78] The permissive conditions may be temperature,[79] certain chemicals,[80] light[80] or mutations in other parts of the genome.[78] In vivo mechanisms like transcriptional switches can create conditional mutations. For instance, association of Steroid Binding Domain can create a transcriptional switch that can change the expression of a gene based on the presence of a steroid ligand.[81] Conditional mutations have applications in research as they allow control over gene expression. This is especially useful studying diseases in adults by allowing expression after a certain period of growth, thus eliminating the deleterious effect of gene expression seen during stages of development in model organisms.[80] DNA Recombinase systems like Cre-Lox Recombination used in association with promoters that are activated under certain conditions can generate conditional mutations. Dual Recombinase technology can be used to induce multiple conditional mutations to study the diseases which manifest as a result of simultaneous mutations in multiple genes.[80] Certain inteins have been identified which splice only at certain permissive temperatures, leading to improper protein synthesis and thus, loss of function mutations at other temperatures.[82] Conditional mutations may also be used in genetic studies associated with ageing, as the expression can be changed after a certain time period in the organism's lifespan.[79]
Replication timing quantitative trait loci affects DNA replication.

text: Nomenclature

text: In order to categorize a mutation as such, the "normal" sequence must be obtained from the DNA of a "normal" or "healthy" organism (as opposed to a "mutant" or "sick" one), it should be identified and reported; ideally, it should be made publicly available for a straightforward nucleotide-by-nucleotide comparison, and agreed upon by the scientific community or by a group of expert geneticists and biologists, who have the responsibility of establishing the standard or so-called "consensus" sequence. This step requires a tremendous scientific effort. Once the consensus sequence is known, the mutations in a genome can be pinpointed, described, and classified. The committee of the Human Genome Variation Society (HGVS) has developed the standard human sequence variant nomenclature,[83] which should be used by researchers and DNA diagnostic centers to generate unambiguous mutation descriptions. In principle, this nomenclature can also be used to describe mutations in other organisms. The nomenclature specifies the type of mutation and base or amino acid changes.

text:
Nucleotide substitution (e.g., 76A>T) — The number is the position of the nucleotide from the 5' end; the first letter represents the wild-type nucleotide, and the second letter represents the nucleotide that replaced the wild type. In the given example, the adenine at the 76th position was replaced by a thymine.

If it becomes necessary to differentiate between mutations in genomic DNA, mitochondrial DNA, and RNA, a simple convention is used. For example, if the 100th base of a nucleotide sequence mutated from G to C, then it would be written as g.100G>C if the mutation occurred in genomic DNA, m.100G>C if the mutation occurred in mitochondrial DNA, or r.100g>c if the mutation occurred in RNA. Note that, for mutations in RNA, the nucleotide code is written in lower case.

Amino acid substitution (e.g., D111E) — The first letter is the one letter code of the wild-type amino acid, the number is the position of the amino acid from the N-terminus, and the second letter is the one letter code of the amino acid present in the mutation. Nonsense mutations are represented with an X for the second amino acid (e.g. D111X).
Amino acid deletion (e.g., ΔF508) — The Greek letter Δ (delta) indicates a deletion. The letter refers to the amino acid present in the wild type and the number is the position from the N terminus of the amino acid were it to be present as in the wild type.

text: Mutation rates

text: Mutation rates vary substantially across species, and the evolutionary forces that generally determine mutation are the subject of ongoing investigation.Normaly the rate of shifts is based on the planets composition.

tag: ol

text: Harmful mutations

text: Changes in DNA caused by mutation can cause errors in protein sequence, creating partially or completely non-functional proteins. Each cell, in order to function correctly, depends on thousands of proteins to function in the right places at the right times. When a mutation alters a protein that plays a critical role in the body, a medical condition can result. Some mutations alter a gene's DNA base sequence but do not change the function of the protein made by the gene. One study on the comparison of genes between different species of Drosophila suggests that if a mutation does change a protein, this will probably be harmful, with an estimated 70 percent of amino acid polymorphisms having damaging effects, and the remainder being either neutral or weakly beneficial.[7] Studies have shown that only 7% of point mutations in noncoding DNA of yeast are deleterious and 12% in coding DNA are deleterious. The rest of the mutations are either neutral or slightly beneficial.[84]

text: If a mutation is present in a germ cell, it can give rise to offspring that carries the mutation in all of its cells. This is the case in hereditary diseases. In particular, if there is a mutation in a DNA repair gene within a germ cell, humans carrying such germline mutations may have an increased risk of cancer. A list of 34 such germline mutations is given in the article DNA repair-deficiency disorder. An example of one is albinism, a mutation that occurs in the OCA1 or OCA2 gene. Individuals with this disorder are more prone to many types of cancers, other disorders and have impaired vision. On the other hand, a mutation may occur in a somatic cell of an organism. Such mutations will be present in all descendants of this cell within the same organism, and certain mutations can cause the cell to become malignant, and, thus, cause cancer.[85]

text: A DNA damage can cause an error when the DNA is replicated, and this error of replication can cause a gene mutation that, in turn, could cause a genetic disorder. DNA damages are repaired by the DNA repair system of the cell. Each cell has a number of pathways through which enzymes recognize and repair damages in DNA. Because DNA can be damaged in many ways, the process of DNA repair is an important way in which the body protects itself from disease. Once DNA damage has given rise to a mutation, the mutation cannot be repaired. DNA repair pathways can only recognize and act on "abnormal" structures in the DNA. Once a mutation occurs in a gene sequence it then has normal DNA structure and cannot be repaired.

text: Beneficial mutations

text: Although mutations that cause changes in protein sequences can be harmful to an organism, on occasions the effect may be positive in a given environment. In this case, the mutation may enable the mutant organism to withstand particular environmental stresses better than wild-type organisms, or reproduce more quickly. In these cases a mutation will tend to become more common in a population through natural selection.

text: For example, a specific 32 base pair deletion in human CCR5 (CCR5-Δ32) confers HIV resistance to homozygotes and delays AIDS onset in heterozygotes.[86] One possible explanation of the etiology of the relatively high frequency of CCR5-Δ32 in the European population is that it conferred resistance to the bubonic plague in mid-14th century Europe. People with this mutation were more likely to survive infection; thus its frequency in the population increased.[87] This theory could explain why this mutation is not found in Southern Africa, which remained untouched by bubonic plague. A newer theory suggests that the selective pressure on the CCR5 Delta 32 mutation was caused by smallpox instead of the bubonic plague.[88]

text: An example of a harmful mutation is sickle-cell disease, a blood disorder in which the body produces an abnormal type of the oxygen-carrying substance hemoglobin in the red blood cells. One-third of all indigenous inhabitants of Sub-Saharan Africa carry the gene, because, in areas where malaria is common, there is a survival value in carrying only a single sickle-cell gene (sickle cell trait).[89] Those with only one of the two alleles of the sickle-cell disease are more resistant to malaria, since the infestation of the malaria Plasmodium is halted by the sickling of the cells that it infests.

text: Prion mutations

text: Prions are proteins and do not contain genetic material. However, prion replication has been shown to be subject to mutation and natural selection just like other forms of replication.[90] The human gene PRNP codes for the major prion protein, PrP, and is subject to mutations that can give rise to disease-causing prions.

text: Somatic mutations

text: A change in the genetic structure that is not inherited from a parent, and also not passed to offspring, is called a somatic cell genetic mutation or acquired mutation.[74] Somatic mutations are not inherited because this type of mutation does not affect the reproductive cells (sperm and egg) but it can affect any other type of cell. These types of mutations are usually prompted by environmental causes, such as ultraviolet radiation or any exposure to certain harmful chemicals. This type of mutation can cause various diseases; a common one is cancer.[91]

text: With plants it is another case since some of the somatic mutations can be bred without the need of the seed production, for example, grafting and stem cuttings. These type of mutations in plants have brought new specimen of fruits, such as the "Delicious" apple and the "Washington" navel orange.[92]

text: Amorphic mutations

text: An Amorph (gene), a term utilized by Muller in 1932, is a mutated allele, which has lost the ability of the parent (whether wild type or any other type) allele to encode any functional protein. An amorphic mutation may be caused by the replacement of an amino acid that deactivates an enzyme or by the deletion of part of a gene that produces the enzyme.

text: Cells with heterozygous mutations (one good copy of gene and one mutated copy) may function normally with the unmutated copy until the good copy has been spontaneously somatically mutated. This kind of mutation happens all the time in living organisms, but it is difficult to measure the rate. Measuring this rate is important in predicting the rate at which people may develop cancer.[93]

text: Point mutations may arise from spontaneous mutations that occur during DNA replication. The rate of mutation may be increased by mutagens. Mutagens can be physical, such as radiation from UV rays, X-rays or extreme heat, or chemical (molecules that misplace base pairs or disrupt the helical shape of DNA). Mutagens associated with cancers are often studied to learn about cancer and its prevention.

text: Hypomorphic and hypermorphic mutations

text: A hypomorphic mutation is a replacement of amino acids that would hinder enzyme activity, which would reduce the enzyme level but not to the point of complete loss. Usually, hypomorphic mutations are recessive, but haploinsufficiency causes some alleles to be dominant.

text: A hypermorphic mutation changes the regulation of the gene and causes it to overproduce the gene produce causing a greater than normal enzyme levels. These type of alleles are dominant gain of function type of alleles.


document_title: Amazon Echo

question_text: when did the amazon echo plus come out

question_tokens: when did the amazon echo plus come out

text: Amazon Echo

text: Features[edit]

text: Overview of operation[edit]

text: In the default mode, the device continuously listens to all speech, monitoring for the wake word to be spoken, which is primarily set up as "Alexa" (derived from Alexa Internet, the Amazon-owned Internet indexing company). Echo's microphones can be manually disabled by pressing a mute button to turn off the audio processing circuit.[3]

text: Echo devices require a wireless Internet connection in order to work. Echo's voice recognition capability is based on Amazon Web Services and the voice platform Amazon acquired from Yap,[10] Evi, and IVONA[11] (a Polish-based specialist in voice technologies used in the Kindle Fire).[12]

text: The smart speakers perform well with a 'good' (low-latency) Internet connection which minimizes processing time due to minimal communication round trips, streamable responses and geo-distributed service endpoints. While the application is free, an Amazon account is required, and setup is not possible without one.

text: Available services[edit]

text: Echo device offers weather from AccuWeather and news from a variety of sources, including local radio stations, iHeartRadio, NPR, and ESPN from TuneIn.[13] Echo can play music from the owner's Amazon Music accounts[14] and has built-in support for the Pandora and Spotify streaming music services[15] and has support for IFTTT and Nest thermostats.[16] Echo can also play music from streaming services such as Apple Music, and Google Play Music from a phone or tablet. Echo maintains voice-controlled alarms, timers, shopping and to-do lists and can access Wikipedia articles. Echo will respond to your questions about items in your Google calendar. It also integrates with Yonomi,[17] Philips Hue, Belkin Wemo, SmartThings, Insteon, and Wink.[18][19] Additionally, integration with the Echo is in the works for Countertop by Orange Chef, Sonos,[20] Scout Alarm, Garageio, Toymail, MARA, and Mojio.[21] Questions like "Who is Kim Kardashian?" are answered by reading the first few lines of the corresponding Wikipedia article.[22]

text: It does not appear to be capable of playing music streamed from a local UPnP/DLNA media server.[citation needed]

text: Echo devices also have access to 'skills' built with the Alexa Skills Kit. These are third-party-developed voice experiences that add to the capabilities of any Alexa-enabled device (such as the Echo). Examples of skills include the ability to play music, answer general questions, set an alarm, order a pizza, get an Uber, and more. Skills are continuously being added to increase the capabilities available to the user. The Alexa Skills Kit is a collection of self-service APIs, tools, documentation and code samples that make it fast and easy for any developer to add skills to Alexa. Developers can also use the "Smart Home Skill API",[23] a new addition to the Alexa Skills Kit, to easily teach Alexa how to control cloud-controlled lighting and thermostat devices. All of the code runs in the cloud – nothing is on any user device. A developer can follow tutorials to learn how to quickly build voice experiences for their new and existing applications.[24]

text: Voice system[edit]

text: The devices have natural lifelike voices resulting from speech-unit technology.[25][additional citation needed] High speech accuracy is achieved through sophisticated natural language processing (NLP) algorithms built into the Echo's text-to-speech (TTS) engine.[citation needed]

text: Software updates[edit]

text: As with all Alexa devices, the functionality of Echo smart speakers periodically evolves as Amazon releases new software for it. Most new releases will fix bugs in addition to including enhanced functionality. New releases are pushed to the devices on a gradual basis so it may take several days to a week or more for a particular device to be updated. Because much of Echo's intelligence lies in the cloud, significant functional enhancements can be made to Echo without updating the software version it is running. For example, in April 2015, the Echo added the ability to give live sports scores without updating the software version,[26] running on the device.

text: Products[edit]

text: Echo[edit]

text:
Amazon Echo (first generation)

Amazon Echo unpacked, January 2015

Release date

November 6, 2014 (2014-11-06) (Amazon Prime and invited members)
June 23, 2015 (2015-06-23) (released in the U.S.)
September 28, 2016 (2016-09-28) (released in the U.K.)
October 26, 2016 (2016-10-26) (released in Germany)

Introductory price
US$179.99
GB£149.99
EUR€179.99

Connectivity
WiFi and Bluetooth

Website
Amazon Echo (US)
Amazon Echo (UK)
Amazon Echo (Germany)

text:
Amazon Echo (second generation)

Release date

October 31, 2017 (2017-10-31) (released in the U.S.)

Introductory price
US$99.99

Connectivity
WiFi and Bluetooth

Website
Amazon Echo (US)
Amazon Echo (UK)
Amazon Echo (Germany)
Amazon Echo (India)
Amazon Echo (Canada)

text: The first-generation Amazon Echo consists of a 9.25 inch (23.5 cm) tall cylinder speaker with a seven-piece microphone array.[3] The Echo hardware complement includes a Texas Instruments DM3725 ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 256MB of LPDDR1 RAM and 4GB of storage space.[27] As of July 2017, the first-generation Echo maintained an 83% score on GearCaliber, a review aggregator.

text: Although the Echo is intended to be voice-controlled at the unit, a microphone-enabled remote control similar to the one bundled with the Fire TV is available for purchase. An action button on top of the unit is provided for user setup in a new location, and the mute button allows the microphones to be turned off.[28] The top half-inch of the unit rotates to increase or decrease the speaker volume. The Echo must be plugged in to operate since it has no internal battery.[29]

text: Echo provides dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) support for audio streaming and Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP) for voice control of connected mobile devices.[30]

text: Limited editions[edit]

text: As part of a holiday promotion, Seattle Seahawks player Marshawn Lynch drove the Treasure Truck around Seattle in December 2016 selling a limited-edition beast-mode Echo with a custom skin.[31] The beast-mode version was a first-gen Echo that responded to a user's commands with Marshawn Lynch's voice, instead of the Alexa voice.[32]

text: In November 2017, a Product Red version of the 2nd-gen Echo was announced as a limited edition item.[33]

text: Availability[edit]

text: As of December 2017, the second-generation Echo is available in 34 countries.

text:
Austria
 Belgium
 Bolivia
 Bulgaria
 Canada
 Chile
 Colombia
 Costa Rica
 Cyprus
 Czech Republic
 Ecuador
 El Salvador
 Estonia
 Finland
 Germany
 Greece
 Hungary
 Iceland
 India
 Latvia
 Liechtenstein
 Lithuania
 Luxembourg
 Malta
 Netherlands
 Panama
 Peru
 Poland
 Portugal
 Slovakia
 Sweden
 United Kingdom
 United States
 Uruguay

text: Echo Dot[edit]

text: In March 2016, Amazon unveiled the original Amazon Echo Dot,[34] which is a hockey puck-sized version of the Echo designed to be connected to external speakers due to size of the onboard speakers, or to be used in rooms such as the bedroom as an alternative to the full-sized Echo. Beyond these distinctions, the Amazon Echo Dot possesses the same functions as the original Amazon Echo.[35]

text: External portable batteries[36] have been developed for the Amazon Echo Dot by third parties.

text: The second generation of the Amazon Echo Dot was available on October 20, 2016. It is priced lower, has improved voice recognition, and is available in black and white. The Echo Spatial Perception (ESP) technology allows several Echo and Dot units to work together so that only one device answers the request.[citation needed] As of November 2017, the Echo Dot maintained a 78% score on GearCaliber, based on 23 reviews.[37]

text: Amazon Tap[edit]

text: The Amazon Tap is a smaller portable version of the Echo.[38] The Tap can do the same things as the Echo; however, as it is battery-powered, it is also portable.[39] Initially the user had to press an activation button on the front of the Tap to speak commands. However, a February 2017 software update allows the option of activating the Tap with an activation word, just like the Echo and the Dot.[40]

text: Echo Look[edit]

text: In April 2017, the Amazon Echo Look was introduced as a camera with Alexa built-in, for US$20 more than the first-generation Echo.[41] The device can provide artificial intelligence outfit recommendations, take photos, and record videos; in addition to the features available on the Echo.[42] It offers Amazon Alexa's key feature plus a camera to take full-length photos and 360-degree videos with built-in AI for fashion advice.[43][44] As a consumer product, it helps catalog your outfits and rates your look based on “machine learning algorithms with advice from fashion specialists.[45]

text: As of April 2017, the device is available for purchase by invitation-only in the U.S.[46]

text: Echo Show[edit]

text: In May 2017, Amazon introduced the Echo Show, which features a tactile 7-inch LCD screen that can be used for playing media, making video calls (5 MP front camera), and other features.[47] The Echo Show was offered for purchase at a price of $229.99 on June 28, 2017 and was initially only available in the U.S.[48]

text: Echo Spot[edit]

text: On 27 September 2017, Amazon launched the Echo Spot, a hemispherical device that has the same functions as an Echo Show.[49] The device has a 2.5-inch circular screen, and looks like an alarm clock. The device will be sold for $129.99.[50]

text: Echo Plus[edit]

text: On 27 September 2017, Amazon announced the Echo Plus, scheduled for release on 31 October 2017. It shares design similarities with the first-generation Echo, but also doubles as a smart home hub, connecting to most common wireless protocols to control connected smart devices within a home.[51] It incorporates 7 second-generation far field microphones and noise cancellation, while also supporting Dolby Sound.

text: Accessories[edit]

text: Along with the second-generation Echo, Amazon announced two new accessories. The Echo Buttons can be used while playing games on Echo devices, such as Jeopardy!.[52] The Echo Connect is a small adapter that plugs into any Echo and a home phone line, allowing the Echo to make voice calls through your home phone number.[53]

text: Privacy concerns[edit]

text: There are concerns about the access Echo has to private conversations in the home, or other non-verbal indications that can identify who is present in the home and who is not—based on audible cues such as footstep-cadence or radio/television programming.[54][55] Amazon responds to these concerns by stating that Echo only streams recordings from the user's home when the 'wake word' activates the device, though the device is technically capable of streaming voice recordings at all times, and in fact will always be listening to detect if a user has uttered the word.

text: Echo uses past voice recordings the user has sent to the cloud service to improve response to future questions the user may pose. To address privacy concerns, the user can delete voice recordings that are currently associated with the user's account, but doing so may degrade the user's experience using voice search. To delete these recordings, the user can visit the Manage My Device page on Amazon.com or contact Amazon customer service.

text: Echo uses an address set in the Alexa companion app when it needs a location.[56] Amazon and third-party apps and websites use location information to provide location-based services and store this information to provide voice services, the Maps app, Find Your Device, and to monitor the performance and accuracy of location services. For example, Echo voice services use the user's location to respond to the user's requests for nearby restaurants or stores. Similarly, Echo uses the user's location to process the user's mapping-related requests and improve the Maps experience. All information collected is subject to the Amazon.com Privacy Notice.[57]

text: Amazon retains digital recordings of users' audio spoken after the "wake up word", and while the audio recordings are subject to demands by law enforcement, government agents, and other entities via subpoena, Amazon publishes some information about the warrants it receives, the subpoenas it receives, and some of the warrant-less demands it receives, allowing customers some indication as to the percentage of illegal demands for customer information it receives.[58]

text: Echo as criminal evidence[edit]

text: During the course of the investigation into the November 22, 2015 death of Victor Collins in the home of James Andrew Bates in Bentonville, Arkansas, police sought the data stored on the Amazon Echo on the premises as evidence, but were refused by Amazon.[59][60] The conflict was resolved when Bates consented to the release of his personal information that was held by Amazon.[61][62]

text: Limitations[edit]

text: Purchasing merchandise in the categories of apparel, shoes, jewelry, and watches is not available.[63] In addition, Amazon Fresh, Amazon Prime Pantry, Prime Now, or Add-On items are not supported by Alexa's ordering function,[64] while, the shopping list function allows no more than one item to be added at a time.[65]

text: Echo has provided inconsistent responses when asked common questions to which users would expect better answers. Echo sometimes confuses certain homophones (words that sound the same but have different meanings, such as where/wear/ware).[66]