An epidemic is the rapid spread of infectious disease to a large number of people in a given population within a short period of time two weeks or less. For example, in meningococcal infections, an attack rate in excess of 15 cases per 100,000 people for two consecutive weeks is considered an epidemic. Epidemics of infectious disease are caused by several factors including a change in the ecology of the host population, a genetic change in the pathogen reservoir or the introduction of an emerging pathogen to a host population. An epidemic occurs when host immunity to either an established pathogen or newly emerging novel pathogen is reduced below that found in the endemic equilibrium and the transmission threshold is exceeded. An epidemic may be restricted to one location; the declaration of an epidemic requires a good understanding of a baseline rate of incidence. A few cases of a rare disease may be classified as an epidemic, while many cases of a common disease would not; the term epidemic derives from a word form attributed to Homer's Odyssey, which took its medical meaning from the Epidemics, a treatise by Hippocrates.

Before Hippocrates, epidemeo and other variants had meanings similar to the current definitions of "indigenous" or "endemic". Thucydides' description of the Plague of Athens is considered one of the earliest accounts of a disease epidemic. By the early 17th century, the terms endemic and epidemic referred to contrasting conditions of population-level disease, with the endemic condition at low rates of occurrence and the epidemic condition widespread; the term "epidemic" has become charged. The terms "epidemic" and "outbreak" have been used interchangeably. Researchers Manfred S. Green and colleagues propose that the latter term be restricted to smaller events, pointing out that Chambers Concise Dictionary and Stedman's Medical Dictionary acknowledge this distinction. There are several changes; these include: Increased virulence Introduction into a novel setting Changes in host susceptibility to the infectious agentAn epidemic disease is not required to be contagious, the term has been applied to West Nile fever and the obesity epidemic, among others.

The conditions which govern the outbreak of epidemics include infected food supplies such as contaminated drinking water and the migration of populations of certain animals, such as rats or mosquitoes, which can act as disease vectors. Certain epidemics occur at certain seasons. For example, whooping-cough occurs in spring, whereas measles produces two epidemics, one in winter and one in March. Influenza, the common cold, other infections of the upper respiratory tract, such as sore throat, occur predominantly in the winter. There is another variation, both as regards the number of people affected and the number who die in successive epidemics: the severity of successive epidemics rises and falls over periods of five or ten years. In a common source outbreak epidemic, the affected individuals had an exposure to a common agent. If the exposure is singular and all of the affected individuals develop the disease over a single exposure and incubation course, it can be termed a point source outbreak.

If the exposure was continuous or variable, it can be termed a continuous outbreak or intermittent outbreak, respectively. In a propagated outbreak, the disease spreads person-to-person. Affected individuals may become independent reservoirs leading to further exposures. Many epidemics will have characteristics of propagated outbreaks. For example, secondary person-to-person spread may occur after a common source exposure or an environmental vectors may spread a zoonotic diseases agent. Airborne transmission: Airborne transmission is the spread of infection by droplet nuclei or dust in the air. Without the intervention of winds or drafts the distance over which airborne infection takes place is short, say 10 to 20 feet. Arthropod transmission: Arthropod transmission takes place by an insect, either mechanically through a contaminated proboscis or feet, or biologically when there is growth or replication of an organism in the arthropod. Biological transmission: Involving a biological process, e.g. passing a stage of development of the infecting agent in an intermediate host.

Opposite to mechanical transmission. Contact transmission: The disease agent is transferred directly by biting, chewing or indirectly by inhalation of droplets, drinking of contaminated water, traveling in contaminated vehicles. Cyclopropagative transmission: The agent undergoes both development and multiplication in the transmitting vehicle. Developmental transmission: The agent undergoes some development in the transmission vehicle. Fecal-oral transmission: The infectious agent is shed by the infected host in feces and acquired by the susceptible host through ingestion of contaminated material. Horizontal transmission: Lateral spread to others in the same group and at the same time. Propagative transmission: The agent multiplies in the transmission vehicle. Vertical transmission: From one generation to the next transovarially or by intrauterine infection of the fetus; some retroviruses are transmitted in th

In anatomy, the second cervical vertebra of the spine is named the axis or epistropheus. By the atlanto-axial joint, it forms the pivot upon which the first cervical vertebra, which carries the head, rotates; the most distinctive characteristic of this bone is the strong odontoid process known as the dens, which rises perpendicularly from the upper surface of the body. That peculiar feature gives to the vertebra a used third name: vertebra dentata. In some judicial hangings, the odontoid process may break and hit the medulla oblongata, causing death; the body is deeper in front than behind, prolonged downward anteriorly so as to overlap the upper and front part of the third vertebra. It presents in front a median longitudinal ridge, separating two lateral depressions for the attachment of the Longus colli muscles, its under surface is concave from convex from side to side. The dens odontoid process or peg, is the most pronounced projecting feature of the axis, exhibits a slight constriction or neck where it joins the main body of the vertebra.

The condition, where the dens is separated from the body of the axis, is called os odontoideum and may cause nerve and circulation compression syndrome. On its anterior surface is an oval or nearly circular facet for articulation with that on the anterior arch of the atlas. On the back of the neck, extending on to its lateral surfaces, is a shallow groove for the transverse atlantal ligament which retains the process in position; the apex gives attachment to the apical odontoid ligament. Below the apex, the process is somewhat enlarged and presents on either side a rough impression for the attachment of the alar ligament; the internal structure of the odontoid process is more compact than that of the body. The odontoid peg is the ascension of the atlas fused to the ascension of the axis; the peg has an articular facet at its front and forms part of a joint with the anterior arch of the atlas. It is a non-weight bearing joint; the alar ligaments, together with the apical ligaments, are attached from the sloping upper edge of the odontoid peg to the margins of the foramen magnum.

The inner ligaments limit rotation of the head and are strong. The weak apical ligament lies in front of the upper longitudinal bone of the cruciform ligament, joins the apex of the deltoid peg to the anterior margin of the foramen magnum, it is the fibrous remnant of the notochord. The pedicles are broad and strong in front, where they coalesce with the sides of the body and the root of the odontoid process, they are covered above by the superior articular surfaces. The laminae are thick and strong, the vertebral foramen large, but smaller than that of the atlas; the transverse processes are small, each ends in a single tubercle. The superior articular surfaces are round convex, directed upward and laterally, are supported on the body and transverse processes; the inferior articular surfaces have the same direction as those of the other cervical vertebrae. The superior vertebral notches are shallow, lie behind the articular processes. Contact sports are contraindicated for individuals with an anomalous dens, as any violent impact may result in a catastrophic injury.

This is because a malformed odontoid process may lead to instability between the axis. The axis is ossified from two secondary centers; the body and vertebral arch are ossified in the same manner as the corresponding parts in the other vertebrae, viz. one center for the body, two for the vertebral arch. The centers for the arch appear about the seventh or eighth week of fetal life, while the centers for the body appear in about the fourth or fifth month; the dens, or odontoid process, consists of a continuation upward of the cartilaginous mass, in which the lower part of the body is formed. About the sixth month of fetal life, two centers make their appearance in the base of this process: they are placed laterally, join before birth to form a conical bilobed mass cleft above; the base of the process is separated from the body by a cartilaginous disk, which becomes ossified at its circumference, but remains cartilaginous in its center until advanced age. In this cartilage, rudiments of the lower epiphysial lamella of the atlas and the upper epiphysial lamella of the axis may sometimes be found.

The apex of the odontoid process has a separate center that appears in the second and joins about the twelfth year. In addition to these there is a secondary center for a thin epiphysial plate on the under surface of the body of the bone. Fractures of the dens, not to be confused with Hangman's fractures, are classified into three categories according to the Anderson–D'Alonso system: Type I Fracture - Extends through the tip of the dens; this type is stable. Type II Fracture - Extends through the base of the dens, it is the most encountered fracture for this region of the axis. This type has a high rate of non-union. Type III Fracture - Extends through the vertebral body of the axis; this type may require surgery. This article incorporates text in the pu

Mile Markovski was a Bulgarian and Macedonian writer. Markovski is born on April 14, 1939 in Sofia, Kingdom of Bulgaria in the family of prominent Macedonian and Bulgarian writer and poet, anti-Nazi partisan and politician Venko Markovski. During the Second World War, Markovski was taken by his parents to the Yugoslav partisans at the age of 5. After the end of the war, he remained in Skopje, the capital of the newly founded People's Republic of Macedonia, where he graduated Slavic philology at the University of Skopje; until 1968 he lived and worked in Skopje, as an editor-in-chief of the "Nas svet" newspaper, published by Detska Radost publishing house. He was an active chess player, competing in Yugoslavia. Forced by the Yugoslav secret police UDBA, in 1968 he moved with his family to Bulgaria, where his father, Venko Markovski, was living in exile. In Bulgaria he was deputy editor-in-chief of the Septemvriiche newspaper, he was a member of the Union of Bulgarian Writers, where he developed close relationship with writers like Georgi Konstantinov, Atanas Dalchev, Boris Krumov and others.

His books include novels for children, satire and sci-fi. He has been awarded a number of literary awards in Bulgaria, has been engaged in public readings throughout the country. For many years, he was the writer of monthly comics in the Slaveiche magazine. Mile Markovski died in a car accident on April 12, 1975, in Sofia at the age of 35, he was married and had two children - Internet pioneer Veni Markovski and actor and journalist Igor Markovski. He was survived by Alexandra. Markovski's books, scanned by Google, free for download under Creative Commons License: Nepresahnali kandila Fairytale City Pyasachko

George Gardiner, sometimes spelled Gardner, was an early inhabitant of Newport in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, one of the original settlers of Aquidneck Island. He held some minor offices within the colony in the early 1640s, shortly after which he began a common-law marriage with Herodias Hicks, who came to live with him after separating from her first husband; this relationship lasted for nearly 20 years, after which Herodias petitioned the court to have Gardiner leave her alone, she left Newport to go west of the Narragansett Bay and live with John Porter, a land-rich settler, one of the original purchasers of the Pettaquamscutt lands. Gardiner had seven children with Herodias, after her departure, five more with subsequent wife Lydia Ballou, his family produced a large number of descendants. A grandson, John Gardner served as Deputy Governor of the Rhode Island colony. George Gardiner was one of the earliest settlers of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, first appears in the public record in 1638, when he was admitted as an inhabitant of Portsmouth, on Aquidneck Island.

A genealogy published in 1937 identified him with the George Gardner, baptized in 1599/1600 at Great Greenford, England, son of Michael and Margaret Gardiner. They further identify George with the groom in a 1630 marriage at St. James, London to Sara Slaughter. However, prominent genealogist G. Andrews Moriarty demonstrated that evidence for this identification was lacking, that the identification was unlikely. Moriarty's strongest evidence against this arrangement is that Gardiner would have sired five children while between the age of 67 and 74, though possible, is improbable, that "no critical genealogist can accept the identification" unless supporting evidence were to be found, he gives a birth date in the range of 1608 to 1615 as being far more for the New England George Gardiner, concludes that there is no evidence for an earlier marriage of this man, nor to assign his oldest children to a spouse other than Herodias Hicks. Gardiner followed William Coddington to Newport in 1639, but his name was not on the list of the nine men who signed an agreement to establish the new government there.

He was a Newport freeman in December 1639 and a land owner there the following year when he had 58 acres recorded. He was named as Constable and Senior Sergeant in 1642, was an Ensign two years later. At about this time he commenced a relationship with Herodias Hicks, a woman, referred to as his common-law wife. John Hicks, the previous husband of Herodias, was in the process of obtaining a divorce from her in Rhode Island in December 1643, when he sent a letter from Flushing, New Netherland to Rhode Island magistrate John Coggeshall. Hicks eventually obtained a divorce from her in New Netherland, charging her with adultery. During the next two decades Gardiner and Herodias had many children, in the mid-1650s Herodias became a Quaker convert. In May 1658, Herodias, "with her babe at her breast" traveled from Newport to her former residence in Weymouth in the Massachusetts Bay Colony to deliver her religious testimony, accompanied by her friend Mary Stanton; the women had made a difficult journey through a wilderness of more than 60 miles, made all the more perilous by the fact that Massachusetts had banished any known Quakers living within the colony, had forbidden others from entering as missionaries.

Upon her arrival in the Bay Colony, Herodias was taken before Governor John Endicott, who sentenced the two women to be whipped with ten lashes from a threefold knotted whip of cords. Following the whipping, Herodias spent 14 days in jail. In August 1662, Gardiner and Robert Stanton of Newport, purchased a large tract of land in the "Narragansett country," just west of the Pettaquamscutt Purchase. A few years after living together for nearly 20 years, a rift developed between Gardiner and Herodias, in May 1665 he appeared before the General Assembly upon the petition of Herodias, who "now desired...that the estate and labor he had of mine, he may allow it me, house upon my land I may enjoy without molestation and that he may allow me my child to bring up, with maintenance for her, that he be restrained from troubling me more." By this time she had left Gardiner, was living in Pettaquamscutt with John Porter. Gardiner soon thereafter married Lydia Ballou, his wife in June 1668 when he was made one of the overseers of the will of his father-in-law, Robert Ballou.

While Gardiner remained in Newport, his children by Herodias went with their mother. He died about 1677, but was dead by 14 June 1678 when his widow married William Hawkins. According to a Providence record, Gardiner left a will in Newport, but it was lost as were most Newport records following the British occupation of the city during the American Revolutionary War. Gardiner had seven children by Herodias, an additional five children with his subsequent wife Lydia. Following Gardiner's separation from Herodias, his children by her went with her to the Narragansett country and received many parcels of land from her last husband John Porter, who had substantial land holdings, their descendants were numerous in South Kingstown. George's children by his second wife, Lydia Ballou, remained in Newport, his grandson John Gardner, the son of Joseph, served as Deputy Governor of the colony for eight years between 1754 and 1764. List of early settlers of Rhode Island Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations Austin, John Osborne.

Genealogical D

Anatoly Arsenievich Kuzmin was a zemstvo clerk, a chairman of an uyezd congress and a deputy of the Third Imperial Duma from the Vologda Governorate between 1907 and 1912. In the Duma he was a member of the Right faction. Кузьмин Анатолий Арсеньевич // Государственная дума Российской империи: 1906—1917 / Б. Ю. Иванов, А. А. Комзолова, И. С. Ряховская. — Москва: РОССПЭН, 2008. — P. 307. — 735 p. — ISBN 978-5-8243-1031-3. Кузьмин // Члены Государственной Думы. Третий созыв. 1907—1912 гг. / Сост. М. М. Боиович. — Москва, 1913. — P. 36. — 526 p

A death threat is a threat made anonymously, by one person or a group of people to kill another person or group of people. These threats are designed to intimidate victims in order to manipulate their behaviour, thus a death threat can be a form of coercion. For example, a death threat could be used to dissuade a public figure from pursuing a criminal investigation or an advocacy campaign. In most jurisdictions, death threats are a serious type of criminal offence. Death threats are covered by coercion statutes. For instance, the coercion statute in Alaska says: A person commits the crime of coercion if the person compels another to engage in conduct from which there is a legal right to abstain or abstain from conduct in which there is a legal right to engage, by means of instilling in the person, compelled a fear that, if the demand is not complied with, the person who makes the demand or another may inflict physical injury on anyone.... A death threat can be communicated via a wide range of media, among these letters, newspaper publications, telephone calls, internet blogs and e-mail.

If the threat is made against a political figure, it can be considered treason. If a threat is against a non-living location that contains living individuals, it could be a terrorist threat. Sometimes, death threats are part of a wider campaign of abuse targeting a person or a group of people. In some monarchies and republics, both democratic and authoritarian, threatening to kill the head of state and/or head of government, is considered a crime, for which punishments vary; the United States law provides for up to five years in prison for threatening any type of government official. In the United Kingdom, under the Treason Felony Act 1848, it is illegal to attempt to kill or deprive the monarch of his/her throne. Named after a high-profile case, Osman v United Kingdom, these are warnings of death threat or high risk of murder that are issued by British police or legal authorities to the possible victim, they are used when there is intelligence of the threat, but there is not enough evidence to justify the police arresting the potential murderer.

Assassination Bomb threat Coercion Contract killing Extortion Terroristic threat Witness intimidation Judiciary Criminal Charges The Forensic Linguistics Institute