The Virginia Regiment was formed in 1754 by Virginia's Royal Governor Robert Dinwiddie, as a provincial corps. The regiment served in the French and Indian War, with members participating in actions at Jumonville Glen and Fort Necessity in 1754, the Braddock expedition in 1755, the Forbes expedition in 1758. Small detachments of the regiment were involved in numerous minor actions along Virginia's extensive wilderness frontier; the conflict over the Ohio country led to raising of the first provincial regiment in Virginia. In 1754, the General Assembly of Virginia voted to raise a regiment of 300 men and send it to the confluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers. After the battle of Fort Necessity, the Assembly voted to increase the size of the regiment from five companies to ten; the Virginian provincial troops who participated in the Braddock Expedition of 1755 and suffered defeat at the Battle of the Monongahela were unregimented: at the behest of General Braddock, they had been organized into two companies of carpenters, six companies of rangers, one troop of mounted rangers, about 450 men in all.

The remaining 350 men from the original ten companies of the Virginia Regiment had been allocated to the two regular regiments of the expedition. After Braddock's defeat, the Virginia Regiment was reformed, with the Assembly voting in 1755 to increase its size again, to 1,500 men organized in 16 companies; the actual strength of the Regiment in 1756 was 1,400 men. In 1758, Virginia raised two additional regiments of a thousand men each for the Forbes Expedition; the enlistment period for the first regiment expired in May 1759, for the second in December 1758. After the fall of Fort Duquesne, the Assembly voted in 1759 to fill the one regiment still in service, to raise a force of another 500 men that would remain in the province for its immediate defense; the regiment would remain in service until May 1760. With the outbreak of the Cherokee War, the Assembly prolonged the Regiment's service, adding 300 men in three companies as frontier guards, it remained on the Cherokee frontier until early 1762.

When in 1762, the British government wished Virginia to raise a regiment which would be put on the regular British establishment, the General Assembly instead voted to re-raise the Virginia Regiment. This re-raised Regiment was disbanded in May 1763, just before the outbreak of Pontiac's War, as the province could not maintain it without a supply of paper money, which the Board of Trade had disallowed. Most recruits were characterized by Washington as "loose, Idle Persons... quite destitute of House, Home." Hampered by frequent desertions because of poor supplies low pay and hazardous duty, Virginia Regiment recruiters went to Pennsylvania and Maryland for men. Washington said of them, " and not a few... have Scarce a Coat, or Waistcoat, to their Backs..." Drafts pulled only those who could not provide a substitute or pay the £10 exemption fee, ensuring that only Virginia's poor would be drafted. White males between 16 and 50 were permitted to serve, although the regiment's size rolls report men as young as 15 and as old as 60 in the ranks, along with references to a small number of drafts with partial African and Native American ancestry.

1754 Colonel Joshua Fry 1754 Colonel George Washington. 1755-1757 Colonel George Washington. 1758: First Virginia Regiment, Colonel George Washington. 1759-1762 Colonel William Byrd III. 1762-1763 Colonel Adam Stephen. Source: When the colony of Virginia ordered the creation of multiple regiments in 1775 with the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, these were called the Virginia Line. Great Britain in the Seven Years War Bruce, Philip Alexander. History of Virginia. Vol. I. Chicago: The American Historical Society. Crozier, William Armstrong. Virginia Colonial Militia. Baltimore: Southern Book Co. Eckenrode, Hamilton James. List of the Colonial Soldiers of Virginia. Clearfield. Nichols, Franklin Thayer. "The Organization of Braddock's Army", The William and Mary Quarterly 4: 125–147. Washington, George; the Writings of George Washington, volume II. J. Sparks Boston: Russel and Metcalf, Hilliard, Co; the Virginians Who Fought in the Revolutionary War - Virginia Places The Virginia Regiment Uniform 1754-62 Recreated Waggener's Company of the Virginia Regiment and Indian War reenactors

Cerium oxide known as ceric oxide, ceric dioxide, cerium oxide or cerium dioxide, is an oxide of the rare-earth metal cerium. It is a pale yellow-white powder with the chemical formula CeO2, it is an important commercial product and an intermediate in the purification of the element from the ores. The distinctive property of this material is its reversible conversion to a nonstoichiometric oxide. Cerium occurs as a mixture with other rare-earth elements in its principal ores bastnaesite and monazite. After extraction of the metal ions into aqueous base, Ce is separated from that mixture by addition of an oxidant followed by adjustment of the pH; this step exploits the low solubility of CeO2 and the fact that other rare-earth elements resist oxidation. Cerium oxide is formed by the calcination of cerium cerium hydroxide. Cerium forms cerium oxide, Ce2O3, unstable and will oxidize to cerium oxide. Cerium oxide adopts the fluorite structure, space group Fm3m, #225 containing 8-coordinate Ce4+ and 4-coordinate O2−.

At high temperatures it releases oxygen to give a non-stoichiometric, anion deficient form that retains the fluorite lattice. This material has the formula CeO, where 0 < x < 0.28. The value of x depends on surface termination and the oxygen partial pressure; the equation x 0.35 − x = 0.217 exp ⁡ has been shown to predict the equilibrium non stoichiometry x over a wide range of oxygen partial pressures and temperatures. The non stoichiometric form has a blue to black color, exhibits both ionic and electronic conduction with ionic being the most significant at temperatures > 500 °C. The number of oxygen vacancies is measured by using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to compare the ratios of Ce3+to Ce4+. In the most stable fluorite phase of ceria, it exhibits several defects depending on partial pressure of oxygen or stress state of the material; the primary defects of concern are small polarons. Increasing the concentration of oxygen defects increases the diffusion rate of oxide anions in the lattice as reflected in an increase in ionic conductivity.

These factors give ceria favourable performance in applications as a solid electrolyte in solid-oxide fuel cells. Undoped and doped ceria exhibit high electronic conductivity at low partial pressures of oxygen due to reduction of the cerium ion leading to the formation of small polarons. Since the oxygen atoms in a ceria crystal occur in planes, diffusion of these anions is facile; the diffusion rate increases. The presence of oxygen vacancies at terminating ceria planes governs the energetics of ceria interactions with adsorbate molecules, its wettability. Controlling such surface interactions is key to harnessing ceria in catalytic applications; the primary emerging application of applied CeO2 materials is in the field of catalysis. Surfaces of ceria, in its most stable fluorite phase, are dominated by the lower energy planes, which tend to exhibit lower surface energy; the reaction most catalysed by cerium is the water gas shift reaction, involving the oxidation of carbon monoxide. Ceria has been explored towards the catalysis of various hydrocarbon conversion reactions including CO2 methanation and the catalytic oxidation of hydrocarbons such as toluene.

The surface functionality of CeO2 stems from its intrinsic hydrophobicity, a trait, common among rare earth oxides. Hydrophobicity tends to impart resistance to water-deactivation at the surfaces of catalysts and thus enhances the adsorption of organic compounds. Hydrophobicity, which can be conversely seen as organophilicity, is associated with higher catalytic performance and is desired in applications involving organic compounds and selective synthesis; the interconvertibility of CeOx materials is the basis of the use of ceria for an oxidation catalyst. One small but illustrative use is its use in the walls of self-cleaning ovens as a hydrocarbon oxidation catalyst during the high-temperature cleaning process. Another small scale but famous example is its role in oxidation of natural gas in gas mantles. Building on its distinct surface interactions, ceria finds further use as a sensor in catalytic converters in automotive applications, controlling the air-exhaust ratio to reduce NOx and carbon monoxide.

The principal industrial application of ceria is for polishing chemical-mechanical planarization. For this purpose, it has displaced many other oxides that were used, such as iron oxide and zirconia. For hobbyists, it is known as "opticians' rouge". CeO2 is used to decolorize glass by converting green-tinted ferrous impurities to nearly colorless ferric oxides. Cerium oxide has found use in infrared filters, as an oxidizing species in catalytic converters and as a replacement for thorium dioxide in incandescent mantles Due to the significant ionic and electronic conduction of cerium oxide, it is well suited to be used as a mixed conductor, with significant value in fuel cell research and development. Cerium oxide nanoparticles have been investigated for their antioxidant activity. Cer

Nyenschantz was a Swedish fortress at the confluence of the Neva River and Okhta River, the site of present-day Saint Petersburg, Russia. Nyenschantz was built in 1611 to establish Swedish rule in Ingria, annexed from the Tsardom of Russia during the Time of Troubles; the town of Nyen, which formed around Nyenschantz, became a wealthy trading center and a capital of Swedish Ingria during the 17th century. In 1702, Nyenschantz and Nyen were conquered by Russia during the Great Northern War, the new Russian capital of Saint Petersburg was established by Peter the Great in their place the following year. In 1609, the Vyborg Treaty was signed by Sweden and Tsardom of Russia as a package of military agreements that were supposed to be mutually beneficial to both countries, it was signed by King Charles IX of Sweden and Vasili IV of Russia in the Swedish city of Vyborg, located on the Karelian Isthmus close to Russian territory. The treaty came at an unstable period in Russian history known as the Time of Troubles, where the death of Tsar Feodor I in 1598 led to decades of civil war.

In 1605, following the death of de facto ruler Boris Godunov, Vasily Shuisky came to power, triggering a conflict with a pretender to the Russian throne, False Dmitry II. Additionally, Russia began fighting the Polish–Muscovite War following invasion of the country by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth the same year. Sweden themselves were fighting against the Poles in the Polish–Swedish War, viewed their eastward expansion into Russian lands as a security threat; the terms of the Vyborg Treaty stipulated that Sweden would supply a corps of mercenaries to Shuisky to fight False Dmitry II and the Poles, in exchange for Swedish control of the nearby strategic Korela Fortress, as well as its town Kexholm and the respective county. Shuisky was an unpopular ruler with little power. Shortly after signing the Vyborg Treaty, Russia's fortunes began to rise, Shuisky was forced out of power in 1610. A coalition between Swedish general Jacob de la Gardie and Russian princes launched the De la Gardie Campaign defeating False Dmitry II.

The Ingrian War was triggered in 1610 as the new stability of Russia led to increased resistance to Polish occupation and Swedish influence in the country. As the Poles were defeated in Moscow, Russia began to resist the Swedish influence as they sought to regain control over occupied territories, including the province of Ingria, which Sweden insisted on keeping based on Russia violating conditions in the Vyborg Treaty. Sweden constructed a fortress in Ingria at a strategic position at the confluence of the prominent Neva River and one of its tributaries, the Okhta River; the new fort was named Nyenskans, derived from the Swedish terms Nyen-, the name for the Neva, -skans meaning "bastion", was capable of housing 500 people. The Ingrian War ended in Swedish victory in 1617 after the signing of the Treaty of Stolbovo, resulting in Russia ceding the territories to Sweden. In 1632, the settlement of Nyen was developed across the Okhta from Nyenskans, granted town privileges and became the administrative centre of Swedish Ingria in 1642.

By the mid-17th century, Nyen had prospered as a trading hub and had a population of around 2,000 people, making it much larger and wealthier than Swedish Ingria's new capital, Nöteborg. According to church records, the town's population was made up of Finns, secondarily Swedes, some Germans. Around this time, Nyen's governor, John Geselia the Younger, banned Orthodox Christian Swedish subjects from settling in or near the town following tensions with Lutherans; the ban of Orthodox residents cleansed Nyen of ethnic Russian and Karelian inhabitants. In 1656, Nyenskans was attacked by Russia during an invasion led by Pyotr Potemkin; the attack was repelled, but Nyen was badly damaged by the attack and Sweden moved the administrative centre of Swedish Ingria from Nöteborg to Narva. In 1677, the defences of Nyenskans and Nyen were enforced by a ring of new fortifications consisting of lunettes with batteries and moats. By the end of the 17th century, Nyenskans entered its final form after it had been modernized by an extensive project led by engineer Heinrich von Soylenberg.

The fort was expanded to house 600 people, converted into a star fort featuring five wooden and earthen bastions, two additional ravelins, crownworks along the bastions not pointing towards the rivers, a smaller accompanying half-fort built on the opposite bank of the Neva. Upon the completion of the project, Nyenskans was thought by Sweden to be the most modern fortress in the world at the time. By the turn of the 18th century, numerous Swedish and Finnish suburban manors were built outside of the Nyen fortification ring. Most were along the Neva. In 1700, danger of Russian invasion increased following the beginning of the Great Northern War, which resumed formal hostilities between Sweden and Russia. In October 1702, Sweden feared an imminent Russian invasion of Nyen, evacuating the city's population and burning it down to prevent the Russians from taking it. On May 1, 1703, Sweden lost Nyenskans to the Russians when the fortress was taken by Peter the Great during the Ingrian campaign of the Great Northern War.

The site of Nyenskans and Nyen was reformed by Peter into the new city of Schlötburg, meaning "Neck-town" in German, a reference to the long narrow section of the Neva where it was located, with "Schlöt" corresponding to " neck, chimney". Schlötburg stood in contrast to Shlisselburg, the new name for Nöteborg at the other end of the N