1.
Philippines
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The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is a sovereign island country in Southeast Asia situated in the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. The Philippines has an area of 300,000 square kilometers, and it is the eighth-most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world. As of 2013, approximately 10 million additional Filipinos lived overseas, multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelagos earliest inhabitants and they were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Exchanges with Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Islamic nations occurred, then, various competing maritime states were established under the rule of Datus, Rajahs, Sultans or Lakans. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in Homonhon, Eastern Samar in 1521 marked the beginning of Hispanic colonization, in 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. With the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi from Mexico City, in 1565, the Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. This resulted in Roman Catholicism becoming the dominant religion, during this time, Manila became the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade connecting Asia with Acapulco in the Americas using Manila galleons. Aside from the period of Japanese occupation, the United States retained sovereignty over the islands until after World War II, since then, the Philippines has often had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a dictatorship by a non-violent revolution. It is a member of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. It also hosts the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank, the Philippines was named in honor of King Philip II of Spain. Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, during his expedition in 1542, named the islands of Leyte, eventually the name Las Islas Filipinas would be used to cover all the islands of the archipelago. Before that became commonplace, other such as Islas del Poniente. The official name of the Philippines has changed several times in the course of its history, during the Philippine Revolution, the Malolos Congress proclaimed the establishment of the República Filipina or the Philippine Republic. From the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the name Philippines began to appear, since the end of World War II, the official name of the country has been the Republic of the Philippines. The metatarsal of the Callao Man, reliably dated by uranium-series dating to 67,000 years ago is the oldest human remnant found in the archipelago to date and this distinction previously belonged to the Tabon Man of Palawan, carbon-dated to around 26,500 years ago. Negritos were also among the archipelagos earliest inhabitants, but their first settlement in the Philippines has not been reliably dated, there are several opposing theories regarding the origins of ancient Filipinos
2.
Guam
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Guam is an unincorporated and organized territory of the United States. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, Guam is one of five American territories with a civilian government. The capital city is Hagåtña and the most populous city is Dededo, in 2015,161,785 people resided on Guam. Guamanians are American citizens by birth, Guam has an area of 210 sq mi and a population density of 770/sq mi. It is the largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands and the largest island in Micronesia, among its municipalities, Mongmong-Toto-Maite has the highest density at 3, 691/sq mi, whereas Inarajan and Umatac have the lowest density at 119/sq mi. The highest point is Mount Lamlam at 406 meters above sea level, the Chamorros, Guams indigenous people, settled the island approximately 4,000 years ago. Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was the first European to visit the island on March 6,1521, Guam was colonized in 1668 with settlers, like Diego Luis de San Vitores, a Catholic missionary. Between the 16th century and the 18th century, Guam was an important stopover for the Spanish Manila Galleons, during the Spanish–American War, the United States captured Guam on June 21,1898. Under the Treaty of Paris, Spain ceded Guam to the United States on December 10,1898, Guam is among the seventeen Non-Self-Governing Territories of the United Nations. Before World War II, Guam and three other territories – American Samoa, Hawaii, and the Philippines – were the only American jurisdictions in the Pacific Ocean. On December 7,1941, hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Guam was captured by the Japanese, during the occupation, Guamanians were subjected to beheadings, forced labor, rape, and torture. Guam endured hostilities when American forces recaptured the island on July 21,1944, since the 1960s, the economy is supported by two industries, tourism and the United States Armed Forces. The original inhabitants of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands are believed to be descendants of Austronesian people originating from Southeast Asia as early as 2000 BC and they evolved into the Chamorro people. The ancient-Chamorro society had four classes, chamorri, matua, achaot, the matua were located in the coastal villages, which meant they had the best access to fishing grounds, whereas the manachang were located in the interior of the island. Matua and manachang rarely communicated with other, and matua often used achaot as intermediaries. There were also makåhna, skilled in healing and medicine, belief in spirits of ancient Chamorros called Taotao mona still persists as a remnant of pre-European culture. Their society was organized along matrilineal clans, Latte stones are stone pillars that are found only in the Mariana Islands, and, they are a recent development in Pre-Contact Chamorro society. The latte-stone was used as a foundation on which thatched huts were built, Latte stones consist of a base shaped from limestone called the haligi and with a capstone, or tåsa, made either from a large brain coral or limestone, placed on top
3.
Water buffalo
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The water buffalo or domestic Asian water buffalo is a large bovid originating in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and China. Today, it is found in Europe, Australia, South America. The wild water buffalo native to Southeast Asia is considered a different species, Water buffalo were traded from the Indus Valley Civilisation to Mesopotamia, in modern Iraq,2500 BC by the Meluhhas. The seal of a scribe employed by an Akkadian king shows the sacrifice of water buffalo, at least 130 million domestic water buffalo exist, and more people depend on them than on any other domestic animal. They are especially suitable for tilling rice fields, and their milk is richer in fat, the large feral population of northern Australia became established in the late 19th century, and smaller feral herds are in New Guinea, Tunisia, and northeastern Argentina. Feral herds are present in New Britain, New Ireland, Irian Jaya, Papua New Guinea, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname, Brazil. The skin of buffalo is black, but some specimens may have dark. Swamp buffalo have a skin at birth, but become slate blue later. Albinoids are present in some populations, River buffalo have comparatively longer faces, smaller girths, and bigger limbs than swamp buffalo. Their dorsal ridges extend further back and taper off more gradually and their horns grow downward and backward, then curve upward in a spiral. Swamp buffalo are heavy-bodied and stockily built, the body is short, the forehead is flat, the eyes prominent, the face short, and the muzzle wide. The neck is long, and the withers and croup are prominent. A dorsal ridge extends backward and ends abruptly just before the end of the chest and their horns grow outward, and curve in a semicircle, but always remain more or less on the plane of the forehead. The tail is short, reaching only to the hocks, height at withers is 129–133 cm for males, and 120–127 cm for females. They range in weight from 300–550 kg, but weights of over 1,000 kg have also been observed, Tedong bonga is a black pied buffalo featuring a unique black and white colouration that is favoured by the Toraja of Sulawesi. The swamp buffalo has 48 chromosomes, the buffalo has 50 chromosomes. The two types do not readily interbreed, but fertile offspring can occur, buffalo-cattle hybrids have not been observed to occur, but the embryos of such hybrids reach maturity in laboratory experiments, albeit at lower rates than non-hybrids. The rumen of the buffalo has important differences from that of other ruminants
4.
Reindeer
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This includes both sedentary and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare, for this reason, it is considered to be vulnerable by the IUCN. Reindeer vary considerably in colour and size, both sexes can grow antlers annually, although the proportion of females that grow antlers varies greatly between population and season. Antlers are typically larger on males, hunting of wild reindeer and herding of semi-domesticated reindeer are important to several Arctic and Subarctic peoples. In traditional festive legend, Santa Clauss reindeer pull a sleigh through the sky to help Santa Claus deliver gifts to children on Christmas Eve. The name Rangifer, which Carl Linnaeus chose for the genus, was used by Albertus Magnus in his De animalibus. This word may go back to a Saami word raingo, for the origin of the word tarandus, which Linnaeus chose as the specific epithet, he made reference to Ulisse Aldrovandis Quadrupedum omnium bisulcorum historia fol. However, Aldrovandi – and before him Konrad Gesner – thought that rangifer, in any case, the tarandos name goes back to Aristotle and Theophrastus – see In history below. Because of its importance to many cultures, Rangifer tarandus and some of its subspecies have names in many languages, the name rein is of Norse origin. The Finnish name poro may also stem from the same, the word deer was originally broader in meaning, but became more specific over time. In Middle English, der meant a wild animal of any kind. Cognates of Old English dēor in other dead Germanic languages have the sense of animal, such as Old High German tior, Old Norse djúr or dýr, Gothic dius, Old Saxon dier. The name caribou comes, through French, from Mikmaq qalipu, meaning snow shoveler, in Inuktitut, spoken in eastern Arctic North America, the caribou is known by the name tuktu. In the western North American Arctic, the used by the Iñupiat is tuttu. Across the range of a species, individuals may display considerable morphological, genetic, COSEWIC developed Designated Unit attribution to add to classifications already in use. The species taxonomic name Rangifer tarandus was defined by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, the subspecies taxonomic name, Rangifer tarandus caribou was defined by Gmelin in 1788. Based on Banfields often-cited A Revision of the Reindeer and Caribou, Genus Rangifer, R. t. caboti, R. t. osborni and R. t. terraenovae were considered invalid and included in R. t. caribou. Some recent authorities have considered them all valid, even suggesting that they are quite distinct and he affirms that true woodland caribou is very rare, in very great difficulties and requires the most urgent of attention
5.
Withers
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The withers is the ridge between the shoulder blades of an animal, typically a quadruped. In many species it is the tallest point of the body, the withers in horses are formed by the dorsal spinal processes of roughly the 3rd through 11th thoracic vertebrae, which are unusually long in this area. The processes at the withers can be more than 12 inches long, since they do not move relative to the ground, the withers are used as the measuring point for the height of a horse. Horses are commonly measured in hands – one hand is 4 inches, horse heights are extremely variable, from small pony breeds to large draft breeds. The height at the withers of an average Thoroughbred is 16 hands, the withers of the horse are considered in evaluating conformation. Generally, a horse should have well-defined withers, as they are considered an important attachment point for the muscles of the torso, more importantly, the dorsal spinal processes provide an attachment for the muscles that support the shoulder and neck. Horses do not have a clavicle, so the shoulder can freely rotate backwards, if the vertebrae of the withers are long, the shoulder is more free to move backwards. This allows for an increase of stride length, therefore, the withers have a direct impact on one of the most important points of conformation, the shoulder. In dogs, the height of the withers is often used to determine the dogs jump height in various dog sports and it is also often a determining factor in whether the dog conforms to the show-quality standards for its breed. Zebras have very low withers, making it far more difficult for a saddle to stay in place, inflammation of the bursae in this region is called fistulous withers
6.
Cambodia
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Cambodia, officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is 181,035 square kilometres in area, bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the northeast, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia has a population of over 15 million. The official religion is Theravada Buddhism, practiced by approximately 95 percent of the population, the countrys minority groups include Vietnamese, Chinese, Chams, and 30 hill tribes. The capital and largest city is Phnom Penh, the political, economic, the kingdom is a constitutional monarchy with Norodom Sihamoni, a monarch chosen by the Royal Throne Council, as head of state. The head of government is Hun Sen, who is currently the longest serving leader in South East Asia and has ruled Cambodia for over 25 years. In 802 AD, Jayavarman II declared himself king, uniting the warring Khmer princes of Chenla under the name Kambuja. The Indianized kingdom built monumental temples including Angkor Wat, now a World Heritage Site, after the fall of Angkor to Ayutthaya in the 15th century, a reduced and weakened Cambodia was then ruled as a vassal state by its neighbours. In 1863 Cambodia became a protectorate of France which doubled the size of the country by reclaiming the north, the Vietnam War extended into the country with the US bombing of Cambodia from 1969 until 1973. Following the Cambodian coup of 1970, the king gave his support to his former enemies. Following the 1991 Paris Peace Accords, Cambodia was governed briefly by a United Nations mission, the UN withdrew after holding elections in which around 90 percent of the registered voters cast ballots. The 1997 coup placed power solely in the hands of Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Cambodian Peoples Party, important sociopolitical issues includes widespread poverty, pervasive corruption, lack of political freedoms, low human development, and a high rate of hunger. While per capita income remains low compared to most neighbouring countries, agriculture remains the dominant economic sector, with strong growth in textiles, construction, garments, and tourism leading to increased foreign investment and international trade. Cambodia scored dismally in an annual index ranking the rule of law in 102 countries, placing 99th overall, Cambodia also faces environmental destruction as an imminent problem. The most severe activity in this regard is considered to be the countrywide deforestation, the Kingdom of Cambodia is the official English name of the country. The English Cambodia is an anglicisation of the French Cambodge, which in turn is the French transliteration of the Khmer Kampuchea, Kampuchea is the shortened alternative to the countrys official name in Khmer, Preah Reacheanachak Kampuchea. The Khmer endonym Kampuchea derives from the Sanskrit name Kambujadeśa, composed of देश, desa and कम्बोज, Kambujas, colloquially, Cambodians refer to their country as either Srok Khmer, meaning Khmers Land, or the slightly more formal Prateh Kampuchea, literally Country of Kampuchea. The name Cambodia is used most often in the Western world while Kampuchea is more used in the East. Excavations in its lower layers produced a series of dates as of 6000 BC
7.
Stress (mechanics)
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For example, when a solid vertical bar is supporting a weight, each particle in the bar pushes on the particles immediately below it. When a liquid is in a container under pressure, each particle gets pushed against by all the surrounding particles. The container walls and the pressure-inducing surface push against them in reaction and these macroscopic forces are actually the net result of a very large number of intermolecular forces and collisions between the particles in those molecules. Strain inside a material may arise by various mechanisms, such as stress as applied by external forces to the material or to its surface. Any strain of a material generates an internal elastic stress, analogous to the reaction force of a spring. In liquids and gases, only deformations that change the volume generate persistent elastic stress, however, if the deformation is gradually changing with time, even in fluids there will usually be some viscous stress, opposing that change. Elastic and viscous stresses are usually combined under the mechanical stress. Significant stress may exist even when deformation is negligible or non-existent, stress may exist in the absence of external forces, such built-in stress is important, for example, in prestressed concrete and tempered glass. Stress may also be imposed on a material without the application of net forces, for example by changes in temperature or chemical composition, stress that exceeds certain strength limits of the material will result in permanent deformation or even change its crystal structure and chemical composition. In some branches of engineering, the stress is occasionally used in a looser sense as a synonym of internal force. For example, in the analysis of trusses, it may refer to the total traction or compression force acting on a beam, since ancient times humans have been consciously aware of stress inside materials. Until the 17th century the understanding of stress was largely intuitive and empirical, with those tools, Augustin-Louis Cauchy was able to give the first rigorous and general mathematical model for stress in a homogeneous medium. Cauchy observed that the force across a surface was a linear function of its normal vector, and, moreover. The understanding of stress in liquids started with Newton, who provided a formula for friction forces in parallel laminar flow. Stress is defined as the force across a small boundary per unit area of that boundary, following the basic premises of continuum mechanics, stress is a macroscopic concept. In a fluid at rest the force is perpendicular to the surface, in a solid, or in a flow of viscous liquid, the force F may not be perpendicular to S, hence the stress across a surface must be regarded a vector quantity, not a scalar. Moreover, the direction and magnitude depend on the orientation of S. Thus the stress state of the material must be described by a tensor, called the stress tensor, with respect to any chosen coordinate system, the Cauchy stress tensor can be represented as a symmetric matrix of 3×3 real numbers
8.
Aquatic plant
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Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments. They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes and these plants require special adaptations for living submerged in water, or at the waters surface. The most common adaptation is aerenchyma, but floating leaves and finely dissected leaves are also common, aquatic plants can only grow in water or in soil that is permanently saturated with water. They are therefore a component of wetlands. The principal factor controlling the distribution of plants is the depth. However, other factors may also control their distribution, abundance, and growth form, including nutrients, disturbance from waves, grazing, aquatic vascular plants have originated on multiple occasions in different plant families, they can be ferns or angiosperms. Seaweeds are not vascular plants, rather they are marine algae. A few aquatic plants are able to survive in brackish, saline, examples are found in genera such as Thalassia and Zostera. Although most aquatic plants can reproduce by flowering and setting seed, many also have extensive asexual reproduction by means of rhizomes, turions, one of the largest aquatic plants in the world is the Amazon water lily, one of the smallest is the minute duckweed. Many small aquatic animals use plants like duckweed for a home, or for protection from predators, some other familiar examples of aquatic plants might include floating heart, water lily, lotus, and water hyacinth. Some aquatic plants are used by humans as a food source, examples include wild rice, water caltrop, Chinese water chestnut, Indian lotus, water spinach, and watercress. The many possible classifications of plants are based upon morphology. org http
9.
Reed (plant)
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Reed is a common name for several tall, grass-like plants of wetlands. Thatching reed, another restio species originating from the geographic region. Phragmites australis, the reed, is used in many areas for thatching roofs. In the United Kingdom, common reed used for purpose is known as Norfolk reed or water reed. However, wheat reed and Devon reed are not in fact reed at all, constructed wetland Reed bed Reed boat Reed fields Thatching
10.
Arundo donax
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Arundo donax, giant cane, is a tall perennial cane growing in damp soils, either fresh or moderately saline. It is one of the species of the so-called reed. Other common names include Carrizo, Arundo, Spanish cane, Colorado river reed, wild cane, Arundo donax is native to the Mediterranean Basin and middle east Asia, and probably also parts of Africa and southern Arabian Peninsula. It forms dense stands on disturbed sites, sand dunes, in wetlands, Arundo donax generally grows to 6 metres, in ideal conditions it can exceed 10 metres, with hollow stems 2 to 3 centimetres diameter. The leaves are alternate,30 to 60 centimetres long and 2 to 6 centimetres wide with a tip, grey-green. Overall, it resembles an outsize common reed or a bamboo, Arundo donax flowers in late summer, bearing upright, feathery plumes 40 to 60 centimetres long, that are usually seedless or with seeds that are rarely fertile. Instead, it reproduces vegetatively, by underground rhizomes. The rhizomes are tough and fibrous and form knotty, spreading mats that penetrate deep into the soil up to 1 metre deep, stem and rhizome pieces less than 5 centimetres long and containing a single node readily sprouted under a variety of conditions. This vegetative growth appears to be adapted to floods, which may break up individual A. donax clumps, spreading the pieces. Arundo donax is a tall, perennial C3 grass species belongs to the subfamily Arundinoideae of the Poaceae family, the hollow stems,3 to 5 cm thick, have a cane-like appearance similar to bamboo. Mature stands can reach a height up to 8 m, stems produced during the first growing season are unbranched and photosynthetic. It is an asexually reproducing species due to seed sterility and it needs to be established by vegetative propagation, due to a lack of viable seed production. Underground it produces a network of large, but short rhizomes like bulbs. From late July the lower leaves start to dry, depending to seasonal temperature patterns, crop drying accelerates during autumn when anthesis occurs from the beginning of October to the end of November. In this phenological stage moisture contents fall significantly, in winter-time giant reed stops its growth because of low temperatures and regrowth occurs in the following springtime. In Central Europe giant reed behaves as an energy crop for the low soil temperatures. The base growth temperature reported for giant reed is 7 °C, and it has a high photosynthetic capacity, associated with absence of light saturation. Carbon dioxide exchange rates is high compared to other C3 and C4 species, under natural condition, the maximum CO2 uptake ranged between 19.8 and 36.7 µmol m−2 s−1, depending on irradiance, leaf age, and it is regulated by leaf conductance
11.
Cyperaceae
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The Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses and rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera and these species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group occurring in tropical Asia and tropical South America. While sedges may be growing in almost all environments, many are associated with wetlands. Ecological communities dominated by sedges are known as sedgelands, features distinguishing members of the sedge family from grasses or rushes are stems with triangular cross-sections and leaves that are spirally arranged in three ranks. Some well-known sedges include the chestnut and the papyrus sedge. This family also includes cotton-grass, spike-rush, sawgrass, nutsedge or nutgrass, and white star sedge
12.
Eichhornia crassipes
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Eichhornia crassipes, commonly known as water hyacinth, is an aquatic plant native to the Amazon basin, and is often a highly problematic invasive species outside its native range. Water hyacinth is a perennial aquatic plant native to tropical and sub-tropical South America. With broad, thick, glossy, ovate leaves, water hyacinth may rise above the surface of the water as much as 1 meter in height, the leaves are 10–20 cm across, and float above the water surface. They have long, spongy and bulbous stalks, the feathery, freely hanging roots are purple-black. An erect stalk supports a single spike of 8-15 conspicuously attractive flowers, when not in bloom, water hyacinth may be mistaken for frogs-bit. One of the fastest growing plants known, water hyacinth reproduces primarily by way of runners or stolons, each plant additionally can produce thousands of seeds each year, and these seeds can remain viable for more than 28 years. Some water hyacinths were found to grow up to 2 to 5 metres a day in some sites in Southeast Asia, the common water hyacinth are vigorous growers known to double their population in two weeks. In their native range these flowers are pollinated by long tongued bees, the invasiveness of the hyacinth is related to its ability to clone itself and large patches are likely to all be part of the same genetic form. There are three morphs of water hyacinth, long medium and short, however, the short morph is restricted to the native range due to founder events during its distribution. Its habitat ranges from desert to subtropical or warm temperate desert to rainforest zones.0 to 7.5. It does not tolerate water temperatures >35 °C, leaves are killed by frost and salt water, the latter trait being used to kill some of it by floating rafts of the cut weed to the sea. Water hyacinths do not grow when the salinity is greater than 15% that of sea water. In brackish water, its leaves show epinasty and chlorosis, because of E. Neochetina eichhorniae causes a substantial reduction in water hyacinth production, it reduces plant height, weight, root length, and makes the plant produce fewer daughter plants. N. eichhorniae was introduced from Argentina to Florida in 1972, a semi-aquatic grasshopper, Cornops aquaticum, is being investigated in South Africa as an additional control agent. Azotobacter chroococcum, an N-fixing bacteria, is concentrated around the bases of the petioles. But the bacteria do not fix nitrogen unless the plant is suffering extreme N-deficiency and this plant is reported to contain HCN, alkaloid, and triterpenoid, and may induce itching. Plants sprayed with 2, 4-D may accumulate lethal doses of nitrates, Water hyacinth has been widely introduced in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and New Zealand. In many areas it is has become an important and pernicious invasive species, in New Zealand it is listed on the National Pest Plant Accord which prevents it from being propagated, distributed or sold
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