Signaling within the parasympathetic nervous system (one branch of the autonomic nervous system) is predominantly mediated by the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Dysfunction of the parasympathetic nervous system appears to be involved in the pathophysiology of long COVID. There are indications that cholinergic medications such as nicotine may have some utility in alleviating long COVID symptoms, but anecdotal reports thus far demonstrate mixed results. Nevertheless, the apparent increase in sensitivity to these medications is suggestive of differences in cholinergic/parasympathetic activity in these patients. Comprehensive autonomic evaluations concur with this initial hypothesis. Additional research is urgently needed to determine the exact nature of the pathology.
It may be necessary to modify existing diagnostic criteria in order to effectively identify long COVID dysautonomia across the sprectrum of disease severity.
​

We then hypothesized that the test sensitivity could differ between long-COVID patients and other diseases classically associated with dysautonomia (e.g. diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases) and therefore that the threshold for abnormal values might not be appropriate. To answer this question, we compared mean values between long-COVID patients and healthy subjects. We found a significant lower mean value in the Valsalva test in long-COVID patients, despite the fact that only one of them had abnormal values as defined by a value below ≤ 1.1.

​
Parasympathetic autonomic dysfunction is more often evidenced than sympathetic autonomic dysfunction in fluctuating and polymorphic symptoms of "long-COVID" patients
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-35086-8
The following summary was generated using GPT4 and checked for accuracy.
TLDR
This study investigates the potential dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system in patients with long-COVID, a condition where symptoms persist long after the acute phase of COVID-19. The researchers found that 37.5% of the patients had at least one abnormal test result, indicating a mild to moderate failure of the autonomic system, primarily affecting the cardiovascular system and sweating control. Parasympathetic tests, which evaluate the part of the autonomic nervous system involved in rest and digestion, were more often abnormal. The study concludes that a comprehensive evaluation can reveal probable involvement of the autonomic nervous system in patients with long-COVID, potentially accounting for their observed disabilities. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings and to further investigate the impact of long-COVID on the autonomic nervous system.
Full Summary
This comprehensive study investigates the potential dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system in patients suffering from long-COVID. Long-COVID refers to a condition where patients continue to experience symptoms long after the acute phase of the COVID-19 infection has subsided. The autonomic nervous system, which controls many of the body's automatic functions such as heart rate, digestion, and sweating, was found to be potentially impaired in these patients.
The researchers found that 37.5% of the patients in the study had at least one abnormal test result, indicating a mild to moderate failure of the autonomic system. This failure was primarily seen in the cardiovascular system and the sudomotor function, which is the body's system for controlling sweating.
The study used a variety of tests to evaluate the function of the autonomic nervous system. These included the Sudoscan, which measures sweat gland function, and the quantitative sudomotor axon reflex test, which evaluates the integrity of the nerves controlling sweating. They also performed parasympathetic tests, which evaluate the part of the autonomic nervous system involved in rest and digestion functions.
Interestingly, the researchers found that parasympathetic tests were more often abnormal in this population, suggesting that the parasympathetic part of the autonomic nervous system might be more affected in long-COVID patients.
In addition to these tests, the researchers also used a type of positron emission tomography (PET) scan called 18F-FDG PET-TDM to examine metabolic activity and cellular function in the body. They found abnormal results in 87% of the patients, with hypometabolism (lower than normal metabolic activity) being the predominant feature.
The study included patients with long-COVID and severe disabling long-term manifestations, including effort intolerance and possibly related to dysautonomia. They were consecutively referred by the Infectious Diseases and Immunology Department to the Clinical Physiology Department for evaluations of autonomic function. All patients who presented symptoms severely affecting quality of life, with prolonged sick leave, who had not recovered or had not improved by the time of inclusion and accepted the one-day hospitalization for the autonomic evaluation were included from February to October 2020.
The control group consisted of age-matched healthy volunteers who had been infected by the SARS-CoV-2 and had recovered without residual symptoms. They had no past medical history and took no medications.
The study concludes that a comprehensive evaluation of autonomic function can reveal probable involvement of the autonomic nervous system in patients with long-COVID. This could potentially account for the observed disabilities of these patients. The researchers suggest that further studies are needed to confirm these findings and to further investigate the impact of long-COVID on the autonomic nervous system.
See also: Asarcikli, L.D., Hayiroglu, M.İ., Osken, A. et al. Heart rate variability and cardiac autonomic functions in post-COVID period. J Interv Card Electrophysiol 63, 715–721 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10840-022-01138-8

Advantages of In Vitro Fertilization

IVF helps patients World Health Organization would be otherwise unable to conceive. the last word advantage of IVF is achieving a booming physiological condition and healthy baby. IVF will build this reality for people that would be unable to possess a baby otherwise.

1.Blocked Tubes;

For women with blocked or broken fallopian tubes.IVF provides the most effective chance of getting a baby exploitation their own eggs.
Advantages and Disadvantages of In Vitro Fertilization ( IVF )

2.Older Patient/Patient with a coffee sex gland reserve;

IVF is accustomed maximize the prospect of older patients conceiving.

3.Male Infertility;

Couples with the male sterility like Impotency or physiological condition drawback can have a way higher likelihood of conceiving with IVF than conceiving naturally.

4.Unexplained Infertility;

1 in six couples can suffer sterility issues and generally these stay unknown once investigation. These patients could have the benefit of intervention.

Hi Everyone,
I’m new here and am looking for some advice on potentially starting a nursing career “later in life”. I’m currently 32 years old with a previous Associate’s degree in Human Services and I work full-time in one of the local county government offices. I’m also a single mom to a 2 year old which I know will come with its own set of challenges but I don’t feel like my situation is that much different than anyone else’s/hasn’t been done before. The community college that I graduated from in 2016 has an RN program which I am planning to apply to once I get the pre-reqs done and out of the way. I already met with an advisor and they suggested I enroll in the Health Studies certificate program so I can get Financial Aid while I do my pre-reqs and they were super generous in my opinion with transfer credit given that I already have a degree from them. They are requiring me to take Chemistry 151, Biology 151, and to have a passing score on the TEAS test before they’ll let me apply for the RN program. I also have to take Anatomy and Physiology 1 & 2 and General Microbiology but I think I can wait to do those once I start the program? I have read so many differing opinions about nursing in general especially now after the pandemic and I guess I’m just nervous because I truly don’t know what to expect. I would love to hear any advice that you all have for maintaining the work, life, school balance as well as your experiences and where you are in your journey. Thank you in advance! 😊

Respiratory System

Your system is that the network of organs and tissues that assist you breathe. this method helps your body absorb O from the air thus your organs will work. It conjointly cleans waste gases, like greenhouse gas, from your blood. Common issues embody allergies, diseases or infections.
Respiratory System

FUNCTION

The system has several functions. Besides serving to you inhale (breathe in) and exhale (breathe out), it:

• Allows you to speak and to smell.
• Warms air to match your blood heat and moisturizes it to the wetness level your body wants.
• Delivers O to the cells in your body.
• Removes waste gases, as well as greenhouse gas, from the body once you exhale.

ANATOMY

The system has many alternative components that job along to assist you breathe. every cluster of components has several separate elements.
Your airways deliver air to your lungs. Your airways area unit a sophisticated system that features your:

Mouth and nose

Openings that pull air from outside your body into your system.

Sinuses

Hollow areas between the bones in your head that facilitate regulate the temperature and wetness of the air you inhale.

Windpipe

Trachea

Passage connecting your throat and lungs.

Sexual Response Cycle

The sexual response cycle is one model of physical and emotional changes that happens after you square measure collaborating in sexual intercourse. There square measure four phases during this cycle. coming is that the shortest section.What is the sexual response cycle?
The sexual response cycle refers to the sequence of physical and emotional changes that occur as someone becomes sexually aroused and participates in sexually stimulating activities, as well as intercourse and onanism.
​
Sexual Response Cycle
Knowing however your body responds throughout every section of the cycle will enhance your relationship and assist you pinpoint the reason for sexual disfunction. There square measure many totally different planned models of a sexual response cycle. The one that's reviewed here is one in all the a lot of ordinarily quoted.
What square measure the phases of the sexual response cycle?
The sexual response cycle has been represented as having four phases:1.Desire (libido).2.Arousal (excitement).3.Orgasm.4.Resolution.Both men and girls will expertise these phases, though the temporal order could also be totally different. for instance, it's extremely unlikely that each partners can reach coming at identical time. additionally, the intensity of the response and therefore the time spent in every section varies from person to person. many ladies will not undergo the sexual phases during this order.
Need for intimacy
A need for intimacy could also be a motivation for sexual intercourse in some people. Understanding these variations could facilitate partners higher perceive one another’s bodies and responses, and enhance the sexual expertise.
Several physiological changes could occur throughout totally different stages of sexual intercourse. people could expertise some, all or none of those changes.

Phase 1: Need

General characteristics of this section, which might last from a couple of minutes to many hours, and should embody any of the following:
• Muscle tension will increase.
• Heart rate quickens and respiration gets quicker.

• Bold means the film received at least 1 Oscar nomination (47)
• Bold and italic means the film was only nominated in the Best International Feature category (17)
• Coin means the film won Best International Feature (7)
• Trophy means the film won Best Picture (1)

Year	Palme d'Or	Grand Prix	Jury Prize
1975	Chronicle of the Years of Fire	The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
1976	Taxi Driver	Cría Cuervos 🪢 The Marquise of O
1977	Padre Padrone
1978	The Tree of Wooden Clogs	Bye Bye Monkey 🪢 The Shout
1979	Apocalypse Now 🪢 🪙The Tin Drum🪙	Siberiade
1980	All That Jazz 🪢 Kagemusha	My American Uncle	The Constant Factor
1981	Man of Iron	Light Years Away
1982	Missing 🪢 Yol	The Night of the Shooting Stars
1983	The Ballad of Narayama	Monty Python's The Meaning of Life	Kharij
1984	Paris, Texas	Diary for My Children
1985	When Father Was Away on Business	Birdy	Colonel Redl
1986	The Mission	The Sacrifice	Thérèse
1987	Under the Sun of Satan	Repentance	Shinran: Path to Purity 🪢 Yeelen
1988	Pelle the Conqueror	A World Apart	A Short Film About Killing
1989	Sex, Lies, and Videotape	🪙Cinema Paradiso🪙 🪢 Too Beautiful for You	Jesus of Montreal
1990	Wild at Heart	The Sting of Death 🪢 Tilaï	Hidden Agenda
1991	Barton Fink	La Belle Noiseuse	Europa 🪢 Out of Life
1992	The Best Intentions	The Stolen Children	Dream of Light 🪢 An Independent Life
1993	Farewell My Concubine 🪢 The Piano	Faraway, So Close!	The Puppetmaster 🪢 Raining Stones
1994	Pulp Fiction	🪙Burnt by the Sun🪙 🪢 To Live	La Reine Margot
1995	Underground	Ulysses' Gaze	Don't Forget You're Going to Die 🪢 Carrington
1996	Secrets & Lies	Breaking the Waves	Crash
1997	The Eel 🪢 Taste of Cherry	The Sweet Hereafter	Western
1998	Eternity and a Day	🪙Life Is Beautiful🪙	Class Trip
1999	Rosetta	Humanité	The Letter
2000	Dancer in the Dark	Devils on the Doorstep	Blackboards 🪢 Songs from the Second Floor
2001	The Son's Room	The Piano Teacher
2002	The Pianist	The Man Without a Past	Divine Intervention
2003	Elephant	Distant	At Five in the Afternoon
2004	Fahrenheit 9/11	Oldboy	The Ladykillers 🪢 Tropical Malady
2005	L'Enfant	Broken Flowers	Shanghai Dreams
2006	The Wind That Shakes the Barley	Flanders	Red Road
2007	4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days	The Mourning Forest	Persepolis 🪢 Silent Light
2008	The Class	Gomorrah	Il divo
2009	The White Ribbon	A Prophet	Fish Tank 🪢 Thirst
2010	Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives	Of Gods and Men	A Screaming Man
2011	The Tree of Life	The Kid with a Bike 🪢 Once Upon a Time in Anatolia	Polisse
2012	🪙Amour🪙	Reality	The Angels' Share
2013	Blue Is the Warmest Colour	Inside Llewyn Davis	Like Father, Like Son
2014	Winter Sleep	The Wonders	Goodbye to Language 🪢 Mommy
2015	Dheepan	🪙Son of Saul🪙	The Lobster
2016	I, Daniel Blake	It's Only the End of the World	American Honey
2017	The Square	BPM (Beats per Minute)	Loveless
2018	Shoplifters	BlacKkKlansman	Capernaum
2019	🪙🏆Parasite🏆🪙	Atlantics	Bacurau 🪢 Les Misérables
2021	Titane	Compartment No. 6 🪢 A Hero	Ahed's Knee 🪢 Memoria
2022	Triangle of Sadness	Stars at Noon 🪢 Close	The Eight Mountains 🪢 EO
2023	Anatomy of a Fall	The Zone of Interest	Fallen Leaves

• Bold means the actor received an Oscar nomination (23)
• Bold and italic means the actor was nominated in a non-acting category (1)
• Trophy means the actor won the Oscar (6)

Year	Best Actor	Best Actress
1975	Vittorio Gassman – Scent of a Woman	Valérie Perrine – Lenny
1976	José Luis Gómez – Pascual Duarte	Dominique Sanda – The Inheritance 🪢 Mari Törőcsik – Mrs. Dery Where Are You?
1977	Fernando Rey – Elisa, My Life	Shelley Duvall – 3 Women 🪢 Monique Mercure – J.A. Martin Photographer
1978	🏆Jon Voight – Coming Home🏆	Jill Clayburgh – An Unmarried Woman 🪢 Isabelle Huppert – Violette Nozière
1979	Jack Lemmon – The China Syndrome 🪢 Stefano Madia – Dear Father	🏆Sally Field – Norma Rae🏆 🪢 Eva Mattes – Woyzeck
1980	Michel Piccoli – A Leap in the Dark 🪢 Jack Thompson – Breaker Morant	Anouk Aimée – A Leap in the Dark 🪢 Milena Dravić – Special Treatment 🪢 Carla Gravina – La terrazza
1981	Ugo Tognazzi – Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man 🪢 Ian Holm – Chariots of Fire	Isabelle Adjani – Possession 🪢 Qaurtet 🪢 Elena Solovey – Faktas
1982	Jack Lemmon – Missing	Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieślak – Another Way
1983	Gian Maria Volonté – The Death of Mario Ricci	Hanna Schygulla – The Story of Piera
1984	Alfredo Landa 🪢 Francisco Rabal – The Holy Innocents	Helen Mirren – Cal
1985	🏆William Hurt – Kiss of the Spider Woman🏆	Norma Aleandro – The Official Story 🪢 Cher – Mask
1986	Michel Blanc – Ménage 🪢 Bob Hoskins – Mona Lisa	Barbara Sukowa – Rosa Luxemburg
1987	Marcello Mastroianni – Dark Eyes	Barbara Hershey – Shy People
1988	Forest Whitaker – Bird	Barbara Hershey 🪢 Jodhi May 🪢 Linda Mvusi – A World Apart
1989	James Spader – Sex, Lies, and Videotape	Meryl Streep – A Cry in the Dark
1990	Gérard Depardieu – Cyrano de Bergerac	Krystyna Janda – Interrogation
1991	John Turturro – Barton Fink 🪢 Samuel L. Jackson – Jungle Fever	Irène Jacob – The Double Life of Veronique
1992	Tim Robbins – The Player	Pernilla August – The Best Intentions
1993	David Thewlis – Naked	🏆Holly Hunter – The Piano🏆
1994	Ge You – To Live	Virna Lisi – La Reine Margot
1995	Jonathan Pryce – Carrington	Helen Mirren – The Madness of King George
1996	Daniel Auteuil 🪢 Pascal Duquenne – The Eighth Day	Brenda Blethyn – Secrets & Lies
1997	Sean Penn – She's So Lovely	Kathy Burke – Nil by Mouth
1998	Peter Mullan – My Name Is Joe	Élodie Bouchez 🪢 Natacha Régnier – The Dreamlife of Angels
1999	Emmanuel Schotté – Humanité	Séverine Caneele – Humanité 🪢 Émilie Dequenne – Rosetta
2000	Tony Leung Chiu-wai – In the Mood for Love	Björk – Dancer in the Dark
2001	Benoît Magimel – The Piano Teacher	Isabelle Huppert – The Piano Teacher
2002	Olivier Gourmet – The Son	Kati Outinen – The Man Without a Past
2003	Muzaffer Özdemir 🪢 Mehmet Emin Toprak – Distant	Marie-Josée Croze – The Barbarian Invasions
2004	Yūya Yagira – Nobody Knows	Maggie Cheung – Clean
2005	Tommy Lee Jones – The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada	Hanna Laslo – Free Zone
2006	Roschdy Zem 🪢 Bernard Blancan 🪢 Jamel Debbouze 🪢 Samy Naceri 🪢 Sami Bouajila – Days of Glory	Carmen Maura 🪢 Lola Dueñas 🪢 Blanca Portillo 🪢 Yohana Cobo 🪢 Chus Lampreave 🪢 Penélope Cruz – Volver
2007	Konstantin Lavronenko – The Banishment	Jeon Do-yeon – Secret Sunshine
2008	Benicio del Toro – Che	Sandra Corveloni – Linha de Passe
2009	🏆Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds🏆	Charlotte Gainsbourg – Antichrist
2010	Javier Bardem – Biutiful 🪢 Elio Germano – Our Life	Juliette Binoche – Certified Copy
2011	🏆Jean Dujardin – The Artist🏆	Kirsten Dunst – Melancholia
2012	Mads Mikkelsen – The Hunt	Cristina Flutur 🪢 Cosmina Stratan – Beyond the Hills
2013	Bruce Dern – Nebraska	Bérénice Bejo – The Past
2014	Timothy Spall – Mr. Turner	Julianne Moore – Maps to the Stars
2015	Vincent Lindon – The Measure of a Man	Emmanuelle Bercot – Mon Roi 🪢 Rooney Mara – Carol
2016	Shahab Hosseini – The Salesman	Jaclyn Jose – Ma' Rosa
2017	Joaquin Phoenix – You Were Never Really Here	Diane Kruger – In the Fade
2018	Marcello Fonte – Dogman	Samal Yeslyamova – Ayka
2019	Antonio Banderas – Pain and Glory	Emily Beecham – Little Joe
2021	Caleb Landry Jones – Nitram	Renate Reinsve – The Worst Person in the World
2022	Song Kang-ho – Broker	Zar Amir Ebrahimi – Holy Spider
2023	Kōji Yakusho – Perfect Days	Merve Dizdar – About Dry Grasses

• Bold means the film received at least 1 Oscar nomination in a corresponding category (9)
• Bold and italic means only the film was nominated, but the awarded filmmaker wasn't (8)
• Coin means the film won Best International Feature (4)

Year	Best Director	Best Screenplay
1975	Michel Brault – Orders 🪢 Costa-Gavras – Special Section
1976	Ettore Scola – Down and Dirty
1977
1978	Nagisa Ōshima – Empire of Passion
1979	Terrence Malick – Days of Heaven
1980		La Terrazza – Furio Scarpelli, Agenore Incrocci, Ettore Scola
1981		🪙Mephisto🪙 – István Szabó
1982	Werner Herzog – Fitzcarraldo	Moonlighting – Jerzy Skolimowski
1983	Robert Bresson – L'Argent 🪢 Andrei Tarkovsky – Nostalgia	Voyage to Cythera – Thanassis Valtinos, Theo Angelopoulos, Tonino Guerra
1984	Bertrand Tavernier – A Sunday in the Country
1985	André Téchiné – Rendez-vous
1986	Martin Scorsese – After Hours
1987	Wim Wenders – Wings of Desire
1988	Fernando Solanas – Sur
1989	Emir Kusturica – Time of the Gypsies
1990	Pavel Lungin – Taxi Blues
1991	Joel Coen – Barton Fink
1992	Robert Altman – The Player
1993	Mike Leigh – Naked
1994	Nanni Moretti – Dear Diary	Dead Tired – Michel Blanc
1995	Mathieu Kassovitz – La Haine
1996	Joel Coen – Fargo	A Self Made Hero – Jacques Audiard, Alain Le Henry
1997	Wong Kar-wai – Happy Together	The Ice Storm – James Schamus
1998	John Boorman – The General	Henry Fool – Hal Hartley
1999	Pedro Almodóvar – All About My Mother	Moloch – Yuri Arabov
2000	Edward Yang – Yi Yi	Nurse Betty – James Flamberg, John C. Richards
2001	Joel Coen – The Man Who Wasn't There 🪢 David Lynch – Mulholland Drive	No Man's Land – Danis Tanović
2002	Paul Thomas Anderson – Punch-Drunk Love 🪢 Im Kwon-taek – Painted Fire	Sweet Sixteen – Paul Laverty
2003	Gus Van Sant – Elephant	🪙The Barbarian Invasions🪙 – Denys Arcand
2004	Tony Gatlif – Exils	Look at Me – Agnès Jaoui, Jean-Pierre Bacri
2005	Michael Haneke – Caché	The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada – Guillermo Arriaga
2006	Alejandro González Iñárritu – Babel	Volver – Pedro Almodóvar
2007	Julian Schnabel – The Diving Bell and the Butterfly	The Edge of Heaven – Fatih Akin
2008	Nuri Bilge Ceylan – Three Monkeys	Lorna's Silence – Jean-Pierre, Luc Dardenne
2009	Brillante Mendoza – Butchered	Spring Fever – Mei Feng
2010	Mathieu Amalric – On Tour	Poetry – Lee Chang-dong
2011	Nicolas Winding Refn – Drive	Footnote – Joseph Cedar
2012	Carlos Reygadas – Post Tenebras Lux	Beyond the Hills – Cristian Mungiu, Tatiana Niculescu Bran
2013	Amat Escalante – Heli	A Touch of Sin – Jia Zhangke
2014	Bennett Miller – Foxcatcher	Leviathan – Andrey Zvyagintsev, Oleg Negin
2015	Hou Hsiao-hsien – The Assassin	Chronic – Michel Franco
2016	Olivier Assayas – Personal Shopper 🪢 Cristian Mungiu – Graduation	🪙The Salesman🪙 – Asghar Farhadi
2017	Sofia Coppola – The Beguiled	The Killing of a Sacred Deer – Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthymis Filippou 🪢 You Were Never Really Here – Lynne Ramsay
2018	Paweł Pawlikowski – Cold War	3 Faces – Jafar Panahi, Nader Saeivar 🪢 Happy as Lazzaro – Alice Rohrwacher
2019	Jean-Pierre 🪢 Luc Dardenne – Young Ahmed	Portrait of a Lady on Fire – Céline Sciamma
2021	Leos Carax – Annette	🪙Drive My Car🪙 – Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Takamasa Oe
2022	Park Chan-wook – Decision to Leave	Boy from Heaven – Tarik Saleh
2023	Tran Anh Hung – The Pot-au-Feu	Monster – Yuji Sakamoto

• Bold means the film received at least 1 Oscar nomination (47)
• Bold and italic means the film was only nominated in the Best International Feature category (17)
• Coin means the film won Best International Feature (7)
• Trophy means the film won Best Picture (1)

Year	Palme d'Or	Grand Prix	Jury Prize
1975	Chronicle of the Years of Fire	The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
1976	Taxi Driver	Cría Cuervos 🪢 The Marquise of O
1977	Padre Padrone
1978	The Tree of Wooden Clogs	Bye Bye Monkey 🪢 The Shout
1979	Apocalypse Now 🪢 🪙The Tin Drum🪙	Siberiade
1980	All That Jazz 🪢 Kagemusha	My American Uncle	The Constant Factor
1981	Man of Iron	Light Years Away
1982	Missing 🪢 Yol	The Night of the Shooting Stars
1983	The Ballad of Narayama	Monty Python's The Meaning of Life	Kharij
1984	Paris, Texas	Diary for My Children
1985	When Father Was Away on Business	Birdy	Colonel Redl
1986	The Mission	The Sacrifice	Thérèse
1987	Under the Sun of Satan	Repentance	Shinran: Path to Purity 🪢 Yeelen
1988	Pelle the Conqueror	A World Apart	A Short Film About Killing
1989	Sex, Lies, and Videotape	🪙Cinema Paradiso🪙 🪢 Too Beautiful for You	Jesus of Montreal
1990	Wild at Heart	The Sting of Death 🪢 Tilaï	Hidden Agenda
1991	Barton Fink	La Belle Noiseuse	Europa 🪢 Out of Life
1992	The Best Intentions	The Stolen Children	Dream of Light 🪢 An Independent Life
1993	Farewell My Concubine 🪢 The Piano	Faraway, So Close!	The Puppetmaster 🪢 Raining Stones
1994	Pulp Fiction	🪙Burnt by the Sun🪙 🪢 To Live	La Reine Margot
1995	Underground	Ulysses' Gaze	Don't Forget You're Going to Die 🪢 Carrington
1996	Secrets & Lies	Breaking the Waves	Crash
1997	The Eel 🪢 Taste of Cherry	The Sweet Hereafter	Western
1998	Eternity and a Day	🪙Life Is Beautiful🪙	Class Trip
1999	Rosetta	Humanité	The Letter
2000	Dancer in the Dark	Devils on the Doorstep	Blackboards 🪢 Songs from the Second Floor
2001	The Son's Room	The Piano Teacher
2002	The Pianist	The Man Without a Past	Divine Intervention
2003	Elephant	Distant	At Five in the Afternoon
2004	Fahrenheit 9/11	Oldboy	The Ladykillers 🪢 Tropical Malady
2005	L'Enfant	Broken Flowers	Shanghai Dreams
2006	The Wind That Shakes the Barley	Flanders	Red Road
2007	4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days	The Mourning Forest	Persepolis 🪢 Silent Light
2008	The Class	Gomorrah	Il divo
2009	The White Ribbon	A Prophet	Fish Tank 🪢 Thirst
2010	Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives	Of Gods and Men	A Screaming Man
2011	The Tree of Life	The Kid with a Bike 🪢 Once Upon a Time in Anatolia	Polisse
2012	🪙Amour🪙	Reality	The Angels' Share
2013	Blue Is the Warmest Colour	Inside Llewyn Davis	Like Father, Like Son
2014	Winter Sleep	The Wonders	Goodbye to Language 🪢 Mommy
2015	Dheepan	🪙Son of Saul🪙	The Lobster
2016	I, Daniel Blake	It's Only the End of the World	American Honey
2017	The Square	BPM (Beats per Minute)	Loveless
2018	Shoplifters	BlacKkKlansman	Capernaum
2019	🪙🏆Parasite🏆🪙	Atlantics	Bacurau 🪢 Les Misérables
2021	Titane	Compartment No. 6 🪢 A Hero	Ahed's Knee 🪢 Memoria
2022	Triangle of Sadness	Stars at Noon 🪢 Close	The Eight Mountains 🪢 EO
2023	Anatomy of a Fall	The Zone of Interest	Fallen Leaves

• Bold means the actor received an Oscar nomination (23)
• Bold and italic means the actor was nominated in a non-acting category (1)
• Trophy means the actor won the Oscar (6)

Year	Best Actor	Best Actress
1975	Vittorio Gassman – Scent of a Woman	Valérie Perrine – Lenny
1976	José Luis Gómez – Pascual Duarte	Dominique Sanda – The Inheritance 🪢 Mari Törőcsik – Mrs. Dery Where Are You?
1977	Fernando Rey – Elisa, My Life	Shelley Duvall – 3 Women 🪢 Monique Mercure – J.A. Martin Photographer
1978	🏆Jon Voight – Coming Home🏆	Jill Clayburgh – An Unmarried Woman 🪢 Isabelle Huppert – Violette Nozière
1979	Jack Lemmon – The China Syndrome 🪢 Stefano Madia – Dear Father	🏆Sally Field – Norma Rae🏆 🪢 Eva Mattes – Woyzeck
1980	Michel Piccoli – A Leap in the Dark 🪢 Jack Thompson – Breaker Morant	Anouk Aimée – A Leap in the Dark 🪢 Milena Dravić – Special Treatment 🪢 Carla Gravina – La terrazza
1981	Ugo Tognazzi – Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man 🪢 Ian Holm – Chariots of Fire	Isabelle Adjani – Possession 🪢 Qaurtet 🪢 Elena Solovey – Faktas
1982	Jack Lemmon – Missing	Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieślak – Another Way
1983	Gian Maria Volonté – The Death of Mario Ricci	Hanna Schygulla – The Story of Piera
1984	Alfredo Landa 🪢 Francisco Rabal – The Holy Innocents	Helen Mirren – Cal
1985	🏆William Hurt – Kiss of the Spider Woman🏆	Norma Aleandro – The Official Story 🪢 Cher – Mask
1986	Michel Blanc – Ménage 🪢 Bob Hoskins – Mona Lisa	Barbara Sukowa – Rosa Luxemburg
1987	Marcello Mastroianni – Dark Eyes	Barbara Hershey – Shy People
1988	Forest Whitaker – Bird	Barbara Hershey 🪢 Jodhi May 🪢 Linda Mvusi – A World Apart
1989	James Spader – Sex, Lies, and Videotape	Meryl Streep – A Cry in the Dark
1990	Gérard Depardieu – Cyrano de Bergerac	Krystyna Janda – Interrogation
1991	John Turturro – Barton Fink 🪢 Samuel L. Jackson – Jungle Fever	Irène Jacob – The Double Life of Veronique
1992	Tim Robbins – The Player	Pernilla August – The Best Intentions
1993	David Thewlis – Naked	🏆Holly Hunter – The Piano🏆
1994	Ge You – To Live	Virna Lisi – La Reine Margot
1995	Jonathan Pryce – Carrington	Helen Mirren – The Madness of King George
1996	Daniel Auteuil 🪢 Pascal Duquenne – The Eighth Day	Brenda Blethyn – Secrets & Lies
1997	Sean Penn – She's So Lovely	Kathy Burke – Nil by Mouth
1998	Peter Mullan – My Name Is Joe	Élodie Bouchez 🪢 Natacha Régnier – The Dreamlife of Angels
1999	Emmanuel Schotté – Humanité	Séverine Caneele – Humanité 🪢 Émilie Dequenne – Rosetta
2000	Tony Leung Chiu-wai – In the Mood for Love	Björk – Dancer in the Dark
2001	Benoît Magimel – The Piano Teacher	Isabelle Huppert – The Piano Teacher
2002	Olivier Gourmet – The Son	Kati Outinen – The Man Without a Past
2003	Muzaffer Özdemir 🪢 Mehmet Emin Toprak – Distant	Marie-Josée Croze – The Barbarian Invasions
2004	Yūya Yagira – Nobody Knows	Maggie Cheung – Clean
2005	Tommy Lee Jones – The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada	Hanna Laslo – Free Zone
2006	Roschdy Zem 🪢 Bernard Blancan 🪢 Jamel Debbouze 🪢 Samy Naceri 🪢 Sami Bouajila – Days of Glory	Carmen Maura 🪢 Lola Dueñas 🪢 Blanca Portillo 🪢 Yohana Cobo 🪢 Chus Lampreave 🪢 Penélope Cruz – Volver
2007	Konstantin Lavronenko – The Banishment	Jeon Do-yeon – Secret Sunshine
2008	Benicio del Toro – Che	Sandra Corveloni – Linha de Passe
2009	🏆Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds🏆	Charlotte Gainsbourg – Antichrist
2010	Javier Bardem – Biutiful 🪢 Elio Germano – Our Life	Juliette Binoche – Certified Copy
2011	🏆Jean Dujardin – The Artist🏆	Kirsten Dunst – Melancholia
2012	Mads Mikkelsen – The Hunt	Cristina Flutur 🪢 Cosmina Stratan – Beyond the Hills
2013	Bruce Dern – Nebraska	Bérénice Bejo – The Past
2014	Timothy Spall – Mr. Turner	Julianne Moore – Maps to the Stars
2015	Vincent Lindon – The Measure of a Man	Emmanuelle Bercot – Mon Roi 🪢 Rooney Mara – Carol
2016	Shahab Hosseini – The Salesman	Jaclyn Jose – Ma' Rosa
2017	Joaquin Phoenix – You Were Never Really Here	Diane Kruger – In the Fade
2018	Marcello Fonte – Dogman	Samal Yeslyamova – Ayka
2019	Antonio Banderas – Pain and Glory	Emily Beecham – Little Joe
2021	Caleb Landry Jones – Nitram	Renate Reinsve – The Worst Person in the World
2022	Song Kang-ho – Broker	Zar Amir Ebrahimi – Holy Spider
2023	Kōji Yakusho – Perfect Days	Merve Dizdar – About Dry Grasses

• Bold means the film received at least 1 Oscar nomination in a corresponding category (9)
• Bold and italic means only the film was nominated, but the awarded filmmaker wasn't (8)

Year	Best Director	Best Screenplay
1975	Michel Brault – Orders 🪢 Costa-Gavras – Special Section
1976	Ettore Scola – Down and Dirty
1977
1978	Nagisa Ōshima – Empire of Passion
1979	Terrence Malick – Days of Heaven
1980		La Terrazza – Furio Scarpelli, Agenore Incrocci, Ettore Scola
1981		🪙Mephisto🪙 – István Szabó
1982	Werner Herzog – Fitzcarraldo	Moonlighting – Jerzy Skolimowski
1983	Robert Bresson – L'Argent 🪢 Andrei Tarkovsky – Nostalgia	Voyage to Cythera – Thanassis Valtinos, Theo Angelopoulos, Tonino Guerra
1984	Bertrand Tavernier – A Sunday in the Country
1985	André Téchiné – Rendez-vous
1986	Martin Scorsese – After Hours
1987	Wim Wenders – Wings of Desire
1988	Fernando Solanas – Sur
1989	Emir Kusturica – Time of the Gypsies
1990	Pavel Lungin – Taxi Blues
1991	Joel Coen – Barton Fink
1992	Robert Altman – The Player
1993	Mike Leigh – Naked
1994	Nanni Moretti – Dear Diary	Dead Tired – Michel Blanc
1995	Mathieu Kassovitz – La Haine
1996	Joel Coen – Fargo	A Self Made Hero – Jacques Audiard, Alain Le Henry
1997	Wong Kar-wai – Happy Together	The Ice Storm – James Schamus
1998	John Boorman – The General	Henry Fool – Hal Hartley
1999	Pedro Almodóvar – All About My Mother	Moloch – Yuri Arabov
2000	Edward Yang – Yi Yi	Nurse Betty – James Flamberg, John C. Richards
2001	Joel Coen – The Man Who Wasn't There 🪢 David Lynch – Mulholland Drive	No Man's Land – Danis Tanović
2002	Paul Thomas Anderson – Punch-Drunk Love 🪢 Im Kwon-taek – Painted Fire	Sweet Sixteen – Paul Laverty
2003	Gus Van Sant – Elephant	🪙The Barbarian Invasions🪙 – Denys Arcand
2004	Tony Gatlif – Exils	Look at Me – Agnès Jaoui, Jean-Pierre Bacri
2005	Michael Haneke – Caché	The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada – Guillermo Arriaga
2006	Alejandro González Iñárritu – Babel	Volver – Pedro Almodóvar
2007	Julian Schnabel – The Diving Bell and the Butterfly	The Edge of Heaven – Fatih Akin
2008	Nuri Bilge Ceylan – Three Monkeys	Lorna's Silence – Jean-Pierre, Luc Dardenne
2009	Brillante Mendoza – Butchered	Spring Fever – Mei Feng
2010	Mathieu Amalric – On Tour	Poetry – Lee Chang-dong
2011	Nicolas Winding Refn – Drive	Footnote – Joseph Cedar
2012	Carlos Reygadas – Post Tenebras Lux	Beyond the Hills – Cristian Mungiu, Tatiana Niculescu Bran
2013	Amat Escalante – Heli	A Touch of Sin – Jia Zhangke
2014	Bennett Miller – Foxcatcher	Leviathan – Andrey Zvyagintsev, Oleg Negin
2015	Hou Hsiao-hsien – The Assassin	Chronic – Michel Franco
2016	Olivier Assayas – Personal Shopper 🪢 Cristian Mungiu – Graduation	🪙The Salesman🪙 – Asghar Farhadi
2017	Sofia Coppola – The Beguiled	The Killing of a Sacred Deer – Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthymis Filippou 🪢 You Were Never Really Here – Lynne Ramsay
2018	Paweł Pawlikowski – Cold War	3 Faces – Jafar Panahi, Nader Saeivar 🪢 Happy as Lazzaro – Alice Rohrwacher
2019	Jean-Pierre 🪢 Luc Dardenne – Young Ahmed	Portrait of a Lady on Fire – Céline Sciamma
2021	Leos Carax – Annette	🪙Drive My Car🪙 – Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Takamasa Oe
2022	Park Chan-wook – Decision to Leave	Boy from Heaven – Tarik Saleh
2023	Tran Anh Hung – The Pot-au-Feu	Monster – Yuji Sakamoto

hey i’m going to be a soph next year and I was wondering what the course load would be for anatomy (PAS 313) and human physiology (PGY 300). i’ve heard that it’s a lot of studying so I was wondering if anyone has taken the two classes in the same semester and how it was. thank you!

Hi everyone,
I worked in a vet clinic for about a year and bought two textbooks on my own initiative, before moving on to another job. I wanted to ask if anyone has good suggestions where to try reselling them. I have a McCurnin's, 10th edition, and Clinical Anatomy/Physiology, 3rd edition. Both are like new.
I thought about trying eBay, but wasn't sure how well they'd sell on that platform. Any ideas?

Activation of Egg

Although fertilization is commonly considered solely the suggests that to mix 2 haploid nuclei, however it's AN equally necessary role in initiating the processes that begin development.

Definition:

A series of morphological, physiological, and molecular changes that occur within the egg in response to fusion of the spermatozoon with the egg is named is named Activation.
Activation of Egg Metabolism

Mechanism of Egg Activation:

All the activation events happen within the protoplasm and occur while not the involvement of the nuclei. The mature egg may be a metabolically inactive cell that's activated by the spermatozoon.The spermatozoon act sort of a massive secretion, binding to receptors on the egg membrane in all probability via G macromolecule that activate Srckinas, that activate PLC, that via IP3 and DAG increase animate thing factor IV add increase hydrogen ion concentration (alkaline) severally that activate egg.This flux of Ca across the eggs starts a programmed set of metabolic events.

G Protein:

G macromolecule conjointly called G ester binding macromolecule, ar a family of macromolecule that acts as a molecular switches within cell and ar concerned in transmittal signal from a spread of stimuli outside the cell to its interior.

Srckinase Function;

It is non receptor macromolecule amino acid enzyme,that ar concerned within the management of a spread of cellular method like,Proliferation,Differentiation,Motility andAdhesion.

Advantages of In Vitro Fertilization

IVF helps patients World Health Organization would be otherwise unable to conceive. the last word advantage of IVF is achieving a booming physiological condition and healthy baby. IVF will build this reality for people that would be unable to possess a baby otherwise.

1.Blocked Tubes;

For women with blocked or broken fallopian tubes.IVF provides the most effective chance of getting a baby exploitation their own eggs.
Advantages and Disadvantages of In Vitro Fertilization ( IVF )

2.Older Patient/Patient with a coffee sex gland reserve;

IVF is accustomed maximize the prospect of older patients conceiving.

3.Male Infertility;

Couples with the male sterility like Impotency or physiological condition drawback can have a way higher likelihood of conceiving with IVF than conceiving naturally.

4.Unexplained Infertility;

1 in six couples can suffer sterility issues and generally these stay unknown once investigation. These patients could have the benefit of intervention.

Hooks African American, Very Low income, Son of third world Country immigrants, Oldest of 4 boys/siblings
Education - Private School (Downtown Manhattan)
GPA: 3.6/4.0 (rank 18/48) - All honor courses (my school doesn't offer that many aps, so I took the most difficult courses i could, which is honors
Professional Experience
Columbia University Immunology : Part-time Visiting Student November 2022 - Present

• Participating in the laboratory of Laura Pasqualucci and Riccardo Dalla-Favera (World Renowned Oncology Researchers', very well known ranked 20th worldwide)
• Studying the principles of PCR amplification and DNA gel electrophoresis. Assisted technician in performing genotyping of mouse models of lymphoma
• Acquiring fundamentals of the adaptive immune response and its relationship with the pathogenesis of human B-cell lymphoma

Columbia University S-PREP, Intern December 2022 - Present

• Participating in a 7-month program to gain in-depth knowledge of Anatomy and Neurology. Selected as one of 30 individuals amongst 250 applicants (for application cycle)
• Forming connections with alumni, professors, surgeons, and physicians, and engaging in weekly check-ins with mentors
• Presented monthly PowerPoint lectures to over 30 SPREP attendees, including students, Columbia University alumni, and professors, emphasizing the anatomical components of the brain and the important role each part plays in our individual lives

Montefiore Medical Center, Neurosurgery Receptionist December 2022 - Present

• Assisting patients with their personal needs such as (consulting, delivering medication, providing meals, and so on), this particularly includes those with Neurological Diseases such as Epilepsy, Huntington's Disease, Sclerosis, and many more
• Managing a healthcare database that oversees the whole Neurosurgery department, consisting of over 40 patients in terms of their current medical status, surgical status, and personal needs
• Consulting with Physician Assistants, and Nurse Practitioners on the well-being of patients as well as notifying surgeons when particular patients were ready for surgery

Greeting new incoming patients, and assisting them to their rooms.
Consulting with family members of those who were in critical condition, as well as took phone calls for those concerned about their family.
​
Borough of Manhattan Community College, Intern June 2021 - August 2021

• Competitively selected to participate in a five-week intensive summer program
• Conducted dissections learning anatomical and physiological principles through laboratory lead anatomy courses
• Completed pre-med courses in anatomy, immunology, and physiology

Conducted research in these fields, and eventually presented my findings to a faculty group of over 20 individuals
Leadership Activities
Cross Country - Student Athlete September 2021 - January 2022
Practiced five times a week as well as participated in seasonal races across New York City

• Junior Varsity Basketball - Student Athlete January 2022 - March 2022

Attended practice 4 times a week as well as participated in games in locations in all across New York City and upstate
Student Government - Junior Senator March 2021 - Present

• Attended weekly meetings to discuss improvements to school activities and operations

Responsible for keeping student body informed in regards to essential announcements and events on a daily basis
​
Essay- Growing up amidst the harsh realities of poverty, in a neighborhood defined by its challenges, I discovered a greater purpose that extended far beyond my own circumstances. It was during a life-altering trip to Africa that I was confronted with the profound socio-economic disparities plaguing third-world countries and the injustices that permeate their healthcare systems. These eye-opening experiences, coupled with the personal ordeal of witnessing my brother's near-fatal battle with malaria, became the catalysts for my unwavering commitment to study medicine and return to help those in need.
​

Patients with androgenetic alopecia demonstrated improvements in hair follicle growth and density after treatment with topical melatonin, according to a study.
“Melatonin, a pleiotropic hormone, affects the physiological processes including that of the hair follicle,” Arash Babadjouni, MS, of the department of dermatology at the University of California, Irvine, and of Midwestern University Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine, and colleagues wrote. “We seek to identify the scientific evidence to support the potential benefits of melatonin in human hair growth.”
The researchers reviewed PubMed, Google Scholar and Cochrane databases for studies investigating associations between melatonin and hair loss through 2022. The team included two independent reviewers that evaluated the data sets for inclusion criteria. Demographics underwent assessment, as did the type of melatonin intervention, study type and, ultimately, the impacts on hair.
Eleven studies which detailed evidence of melatonin use in patients with alopecia were included. Overall, data for 2,267 patients — including 1,140 men — made the final analysis.
Results showed that eight studies demonstrated positive outcomes for patients with androgenetic alopecia who were treated with topical melatonin.
In addition, eight studies also showed an improvement in scalp hair growth with melatonin treatment, whereas four studies demonstrated that melatonin improved scalp hair density compared with controls. An additional two studies showed that melatonin bested controls in terms of hair shaft thickness.
The range for an optimal melatonin dose may be 0.0033% or 0.1% applied as a once-daily regimen for a duration of 90 to 180 days. Additionally, optimizing the vehicle for topical melatonin — for example, with nanostructured lipid carriers — may further improve the hormone’s impact on hair growth.
The researchers also noted that a 1.5 mg twice-daily oral dose for 180 days may also have utility, but said there was “limited evidence” for this dosage.
“There is evidence to support melatonin use to facilitate scalp hair growth, particularly in men with AGA,” the researchers concluded.
They added that future research should explore the mechanism of action of this benefit.
Read the Full Article

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[Wiki] - [First] - [Prev] - [Next]
This story assumes a passing knowledge of the [LF Friends, Will Travel] universe.
Bartholomew was last seen here:
The Dunwilians were last seen here:
General Bolhut was last here here:
—----------------------------
Date: 72 PST
This was the first time that Daniela had felt proud of the uniform she wore, of being in the Hatil military. The little cream furred mammal in her military uniform would have also been called “adorable” by any Terrans, but pride was her current feeling. It wasn’t like Daniela hadn’t had a successful career, rising to the rank of Admiral and in command of her own warship after doing her duty willingly. But the simple act of being in the Hatil military was shameful enough on its own.
60 years ago they had launched an unneeded war of shame and idiocy onto their now Terran allies, 60 years ago they had been roundly defeated by the newcomers to the galactic community. Since then the Hatil would have been more than willing to leave the act of having a military to their would be conquerors, as they believed they deserved, but the Terrans were seemingly uninterested in the act of actually conquering others. This had forced the Hatil to have some method of defending themselves: a functioning military.
This required that someone fill these positions. Legally being a member of the Hatil military was like any other job, but culturally it was considered "tainted". The societal solution for this had been simple: the sins of the father.
Daniela had joined the military because her father had, and her father had joined because his mother had been part of that original shameful fleet which had through ignorance and fear attacked their now Terran friends.
Generation after generation of cultural shame, held and remembered. Until now.
The Estorian empire was a collection of five slaving species, all as evil and terrible as the last. Conflict between them and the Terran alliance had been slowly brewing for years, with many Terrans advocating for full military intervention. That had been granted after the Estorians had done one incursion too far, one terrible act too many.
Practically every member of the Terran alliance had pledged some form of military support. The Terran Alliance had every single type of culture and species imaginable, each and every one of them were connected through their friendship with the strange primates of Terra, each and every one of them reacting with the same anger:
How dare they attack our Terran friends.
The Hatil had been part of this. Gone were the days of every single monetary purchase being scrutinised and limited to the barest minimums required to keep pirates and the occasional Tritian warship at bay. The adorable little furred mammals had entered a full war economy, in little under a year boosting their military might to levels not seen since the Hatil - Terran war. If anything considering the major technological advancements the Terrans had provided since then, it was a far greater force.
This time the Hatil wouldn't make the same mistake. This time they wouldn't be against the Terrans, but fighting alongside them. Not a war of ignorance and fear, but for justice and righteousness.
Daniela was the captain of The H.T Remembrance, which was currently part of the Terran alliance’s 2nd joint fleet. Over a hundred dreadnought class warships, all carrying their own support fleets along for the ride. While the vast majority of the forces were of Ritilian, Terran and Hatil make, over 31 different species were in attendance in this particular military endeavour.
Over the past year there had been a multitude of skirmishes and conflicts as both sides rapidly attempted to collate their forces, but this would be the first major engagement of the war. And the Terran Alliance was already on the back foot.
“So we believe the Lelzoil fleet is heading straight towards the Dunwilian cradleworld with an ETA of around about seven hours. We got this intel late, so we are currently 5 standardised hours behind them, at a current projected ETA of 12 standardised hours.”
Daniela spoke to her crew, hundreds of faces looking up at her as she explained the situation to them, the sombre mood apparent as she spoke to new and old members alike.
The Estorians had been the ones to make the first major move, an advantage of having less moving parts to contend with. The Avian Lelzoil were known as the brains of the Estorian Empire, with an affinity for gathering information and technology at any cost, and the move they were making was calculated: Attack an destroy a smaller member of the Alliance, put the fear of god into the rest of the smaller members and break apart untested bonds.
“The Dunwilians have no serious defences, having never been part of any alliances or diplomatic endeavours before the Terran Alliance. It has very little military importance, which is why we weren't expecting a full on assault there. The Lelzoil have enough firepower to glass the entire planet within a few hours. The Dunwilian's reaction was 'You will get here when you can, and we will be witnessed by our deities' "
The mood dropped even further at that. You didn't need a translator to understand that this was a universal statement of 'we are fucked and we know it'.
"We will not let such harm happen to our allies. We might be caught off guard, but we're not out of it. The Olgro scouting guard are already making use of their superior speed to intercept the Lelzoil fleet, while the main fleet hauls ass."
She took a moment to point towards the engineering department as Daniela continued.
"This means until we arrive, I want engineering to be doing everything they can to increase the speed we've got., That means until further notice engineering tasks get the highest priority and are the ones in charge. If someone from engineering says clapping will make us go faster, I expect you all to show that you’re happy and you know it!”
Daniela looked around, at the seat of hopeful faces, those new and old looking up to her.
“We all know our history, what we did, the guilt we share as a species. We all know that the Terran’s had more than enough justification to take their revenge, to destroy us. But instead they provided us mercy, provided us with technology, and most of all provided us with their friendship. They say they saw something in us, something worth keeping around. This is our chance to prove them right.”
—----------------
This had not been what Bolhut had been expecting. He’d been expecting a great many possibilities: being extradited back to Kur space, maybe a reversion of the verdict and back to jail he would go.
“Not Guilty”.
That really had been the strangest thing. Bolhut Tacorg had just over a year ago been a general in the Kur military, during the little “spat” the Terrans and Kur had had. During this period Bolhut had things demanded of him from Kur leadership, things that had seen him placed on the defending side of a war crimes trial.
He had expected the entire thing to be nothing more than a formality: He had fought against the Terrans, it would be a perfectly reasonable thing to humiliate him and get their revenge in one way or another, especially as he had technically done the crime. But instead the strange little primates were continuing to surprise him. Even more surprising had been their acceptance of his asylum claim. The Kur were not happy with the trick he had played on them.
And now… this. A request for aid, a long range message from the Terran Alliance military themselves. An Estorian fleet was heading towards a Terran ally, and he just so happened to be in their path. They wanted them to meet up with some Olgro scouts and work with them to slow their approach. They were offering exceptional pay, and had specifically stated that they were not to directly engage with the enemy, just harass and delay.
In fact they had gone over that detail so many times, that Bolhut knew exactly what they actually wanted.
“So what do you think?”
The insect-like clicking of the Raha’s mandibles interrupted his thoughts, bringing him back to the present. He looked around him for a moment, at the sea of faces and species. “Odds and Ends Security Ltd” was… for lack of a better term, a mercenary group, although the term mercenary was a dirty word. If you needed escorting through pirate infested routes, a show of force or just needed a little extra firepower in order to ensure justice, you could hire them at reasonable rates.
They even had an entire warship, manned by over 400 trained and experienced fighters, each and every one of them a non-Terran Alliance species that now called the Terran space their home. Raha, Kur, Tagaran, they all had similar stories. Seeking Asylum, seeking better lives then whatever their homes had given them, or even just wanting a new arena to test their skills, each had found themselves connected by the friendly demeanour of the Terran’s ever encompassing desire for friendship.
“I say we go for it. Good pay and pissing on some Estorian bastards is always a good shout, no offence.”
Bolhut stood towered over the rest of the members in the room at 9ft tall, white fur covered by his traditional military dress of twisting primal leather which accentuated his ferocious canine teeth and claws. He was not technically the leader of this group, since it was a cooperative of individuals, but by capturing prisoners during the Kur - Terran incursions Bolhut had been one of the few people alive who could claim some sort of victory, no matter how minor, over the Terran forces. That gave his opinion quite a bit of weight amongst this group of misfits and individuals.
“You know there’s no love lost over here. What’s the plan then?”
Kat’Letch’s mandibles clicked and clacked as the young Raha responded. There were three things everyone on the warship knew: Kat’Letch was a decent shot, even better with technology, and had an absolute hatred for his species government.
“We follow the instructions: meet up with the Olgro, then prepare to board and destroy as many Lelzoil war ships as we can.”
The response was simple, but caused a flurry of confused looks from some of the other members of the mercenary band, as well as a flurry of antenna twitching from Kat’Letch.
“Didn’t the message specifically state, repeatedly, not to engage them?”
Bolhut couldn’t help but chuckle at the naive little Raha. Of course Kat’Letch had never actually been in his species military, he didn’t know how the game was played.
“Stating not to do something once is an order, twice is confirmation, five times is simply hinting that’s what they actually want you to do.”
He could see the general agreement from the others around him. Anyone in the military knew that half of your orders would be ‘off the book’ so to say. Hints, power struggles, illegal actions that you couldn’t really say no too without ‘disappearing’. If it worked out whoever gave the order could take credit, and if it didn’t they could point to the obvious trail where they had told them not to do said thing.
That was just how military orders worked, how they had and always would. Why else would the Terran Alliance be so adamant that they don’t directly engage the enemy if that wasn’t what they actually wanted?
—------------
Nothing
The captain of the Olgro scouting fleet had expected to be staring at the Lelzoil fleet. They had expected to immediately be thrust into a delaying action, as every single member aboard the 15 ships were on high alert and ready to do their jobs.
The aquatic based lifeform swam in place nervously, gills and brightly coloured fins flashing as he did so. Like all Olgro ships the entire vessel was filled entirely with the salt water that they naturally lived in.
<>
The captain desperately asked his crew for information, the Olgro’s standard method of sonar communication travelling through the water outside the range of most species hearing.
<>
Communications responded back with the negative, causing the captain’s stress to increase. While the Olgro were well known for the speed of their vessels, this would be the first major conflict the Olgro army had been part of, and it was already not going to plan.
<>
Nobody had really cared too much about the Olgro. Entirely aquatic sapient lifeforms were a rarity in the galaxy and most people didn’t want to deal with the hassle of interacting with a species that needed to be submerged in water at all times.
<>
Apart from the Terrans, who had started a friendship with the Olgro nearly thirty years ago, one that they cherished deeply. Which was why this was so important to get right, which was why the captain was already flaring his gills in panic at this already seemingly going wrong.
<>
The captain started to get a literal sinking feeling in his gallbladder, a terrible idea had just crossed his mind.
<>
Most species tended to think in 2d when mapmaking due to the importance of information. Even Avians have very little need to represent the world on anything other than a flat plane. If you are a species who spends their entire time in water however, depth is suddenly also important
<>
This meant that the Olgro had a different method of calculating the angles and latitudes needed to traverse the universe than most others. Normally this wasn’t a problem as the Olgro didn’t have many diplomatic ties and tended to stick to themselves.
Apart from in right this moment, as the captain of the Olgro scouting fleet realised with a crushing despair that they were literally in the complete opposite location then they should be.
<
—-----------------------------------
Bartholomew looked down at the schematics to the warp engine in front of him. Sure it wasn’t a clockwork toy, but engineering was engineering. Surrounding him was the rest of the Engineering department of the H.T Remembrance, along with various screens showing video feeds of every other engineering team in the fleet.
"The problem is you can't just increase the range, you've got to keep each pulse within range of the sensors, unless you want to warp into something."
The Hatil kept silent as a Ritilian spoke, paying attention but still realising how out of his depth he was. Having a degree in engineering and building clockwork toys was one thing, trying to push a warp core past manufacturing limits in a room of engineers with decades of experience was another.
"It would take a bit of doing, but network the fleet's calculation matrices together, then you get to add the length of the fleet into each jump."
Bartholomew wondered what Rosa and Tim were doing. He knew both of them had also re-enlisted, although he hadn’t managed to keep in regular contact with the two Terrans since then considering that they had gone into the Terran military.
“Nah ain’t gonna work, would take too long to hook everyone up for less than 10% increase”
The difference in both of their reactions had been the most stark. Bartholomew had felt, for possibly the first time, a sense of patriotic pride. Along with practically the entire Hatil culture the concept of not joining the war effort had been unthinkable. The Terrans had done so much for them, it was now their chance to return the favour, to make up for the sins of their fathers.
The Terrans however, their reaction had been different. When the news of what the Raha and by extension the Estorians had done, the difference among Terrans had been stark.
Anger, pure unbridled anger.
“What about the pulse rate?”
If anything, seeing the difference in demeanour had been scary for Bartholomew. The death of the uplift Spot had been said to launch a thousand ships, but in reality it had actually lit a thousand pyres of hate. Before this Bartholomew could never actually understand how Terrans could have done any of the supposed “wrongs” in their history, the crazy primates seemed too goofy and adorable, too friendly and empathetic to do much of anything. But the anger that had been unleashed since then… suddenly he could see a species who were able to crack a planet open with fury alone.
“Theoretically it would work, but each of you would have to deal with the extra heat somehow.”
The groups of engineers from around the fleet each continued to interject and provide suggestions, each ship presumably filled with the same groups of experienced and intelligent people all trying to work out if they could dissipate the additional heat.
It was then that a Terran engineer made a mistake, and said something she probably shouldn’t have.
“Really it’s going to be an individual effort from each ship, but increasing the pulse rate would theoretically work, at the risk of literally setting fire to your ship.”
Because Terrans and non-Terrans heard two different meanings to that sentence. Terrans heard something like “This is a terrible idea that would probably make you blow up” and dismissed the idea, choosing instead to follow other avenues of thought. Every non-Terran heard that as “Yea this is one of those crazy Terran ideas that sets fire to everything but always works for some reason, let's do this!”
Over the next hour every non-Terran ship in the fleet went through the same calculations, the same jury rigged cooling solutions and came to the same conclusion: Like all Terran insanity, it might work.
And much to the horror of every single Terran engineer, the non-Terran ships started to pick up speed as they each enacted this crazy plan.
—-----------------
"So did you know? That caffeine isn't poisonous to Terrans?!"
Kat’Letch screamed out the question as the Raha sheltered behind the console, pausing his furious inputting of commands only to fire back a flurry of plasma from his own pistol.
"Really?! Now is not the time for that!"
Bolhut had just responded with the understatement of the year. Everything had, to put it simply, gone to shit. The Olgro reinforcements they were supposed to have met with never appeared, not that this had surprised the canine. It wasn’t the first time Bolhut had been promised reinforcements that had never come, and it wouldn't be the last. That was just the nature of militaries: sketchy orders and unfulfilled promises.
It had initially gone well, the sheer surprise of a single warship knocking them out of warp and charging an entire fleet had allowed the initial boarding process to go on surprisingly well, the three different groups hitting the three different warships with a practised precision, with surprisingly minimal casualties. The plan had been simple: Infiltrate, take over the navigation and weapons for each ship, use those to cause as much damage to the wider fleet as possible.
Like all plans, it had been going well, until it hadn’t.
“Look, if I’m going to die I want to know. There’s a betting pool on whether you actually knew or not, and I got 50 credits on you knowing caffeine was harmless.”
It had quickly turned into a mess after a “lucky shot” had forced their warship to retreat, which had also taken their main communications network with them. Theoretically their local communications should still work, but something about the Lelzoil was blocking their communications, causing what should have been a synchronised endeavour to devolve into individual teams trying to accomplish whatever individual objectives they had boarded the vessel with.
“Just set this thing to blow so we can get out of here!”
Bolhut’s original team of five was now just him and Kat’Letch, both of them having made it to navigation, where the Raha was attempting to lock out of the rest of the ship’s controls and setting it on a kamikaze path through the rest of the fleet.
The canine gave a another burst of fire, watching the Terran bullets ricochet harmlessly off the doorframe before one finally found their target, splattering a red feathered Avian skull in a plume of orange blood and brain matter before a barrage of return fire forced him back into cover. Still, he had something for that: quickly loading the underbarrel grenade launcher and firing it into the corridor where the attackers were coming from, the sound of screams suggesting a solid hit.
"OK we are done, and need to get the Srek out of here!"
Further explosions and gunfire could be heard as the Raha screamed out the confirmation, signs of the other boarding teams accomplishing their tasks as the Lelzoilwarship surged forwards on its final journey.
"Attention all squads. Main objective has been accomplished, you've got twenty minutes to get the hell off the vessel!"
Bolhut wasn't sure if anyone could even hear him on their communication network anymore, and hoped those still around had enough sense to realise what was happening. Not that the canine could spend the time worrying about that: they had their own escape to make.
Bolhut started setting up the explosive devices along the wall, stepping over avian bodies and plasma scorch marks as Kat’Letch provided covering fire. The entrance they had originally entered from had now been completely locked down under a torrent of Lelzoilwelded weaponry, but in the short amount of time Bolhut had spent fighting with and against Terrans, he'd learnt an important rule.
Everything could be solved with enough application of explosives.
The wall disappeared in a ball of fire, both of them rushing through the new exit while dispensing a hail of gunfire at anything that moved, any unfortunate Lelzoilwho had been caught in the unexpected ship renovation were no match for the pair
“I mean everyone knows that Terrans aren’t affected by caffeine, there’s no way you couldn’t have known.”
The Raha continued to speak as they fired off blasts of plasma to cover their movement down the corridor, generating an exasperated response from Bolhut.
“Still not the time!”
Still they were almost home free, the amount of resistance they were facing had decreased significantly as the Lelzoil realized what was happening to their ship, not that the red feathered birds could do anything to stop the now suicidal charge of their warship.
“You’re just worried that someone will see past your hard exterior to your soft lovable- AHHHH!”
Kat’Letch cried out as a blast of superheated plasma caused the Raha to drop to the floor, Bolhut returning fire at the overachieving Lelzoil before dropping to check on his partner as he screamed in agony. It didn’t look good, the leg was just flat out gone, the stump now spurting the translucent white blood of the insectoid race.
The canine didn’t have time to do anything else other than grab the arms of the Raha and start to drag him along, trying to make his way to the closest escape pod. Making it back to his original fighter was no longer something he had time for.
“Hey Kat, I'm gonna need you to stay awake for this.”
There was a lot of blood and the Raha had started to go silent, worrying Bolhut as he continued to drag him along.
“I’ll tell you what happened if you stay awake, the fact is I got lucky.”
At the sound of this the attention of Kat’Letch seemed to focus on Bolhut as he continued to drag him to hopeful safety.
“When I got the ‘order’ to commit a war crime, I immediately contacted the Terrans because frankly I’m not doing some higher ups dirty work.”
Bolhut dropped to one knee, firing two accurate bursts into the chests of two Lelzoil who turned the corner at the wrong time, both of them slumping to the ground before they knew what had happened. The canine continued on, dragging the Raha longside him, the trail of blood getting thinner. Whether that was a good or a bad thing was anyone’s guess: he was not an expert on the anatomy of other species.
Another splatter of orange blood was added to the wall as one of the Lelzoil had the same idea as Bolhut, attempting to exit the soon to be destroyed vessel via one of the many escape pods that lined the warship. Unfortunately for the avian they had chosen the same exit path as the Kur general.
“But I knew I had to give them something while I waited, otherwise they’d just get someone else to do it. I knew Terrans were immune to some poisons, but I couldn’t remember which one would be safe.”
The doors to the pod opened with a hiss, allowing Bolhut the time to drag his injured partner into the small enclosed space. Moments later the small capsule had launched itself into space, allowing the ex Kur general to actually look at the damage. Kat’Letch was completely out of it at this point, the amount of lost blood clearly having its effect.
Bolhut ripped the medical kit off the wall, opening it up with a grimace as he looked down at the Raha. While every single medical kit in the known galaxy was different, due to differences in physiology, there were certain things that everyone had, that worked for everyone in an emergency. The Kur gave a small silent apology before pressing the item against the wound.
The smell of cooking flesh mixed with Kat’Letch screams as he snapped awake, the wound sealing up as heat was applied, the flow of blood slowing to a trickle then disappearing. The Raha slowly slumped back over as the device was removed, a few moments of heavy breathing followed by the insect compound eyes becoming unfocused once more.
“In the end it came down to Caffeine or Digoxin, both of them destroy the heart, but I couldn’t remember which one was safe. So I flipped a coin. In the end I just got lucky”
Bolhut knew that Kat’Letch was no longer really able to listen, the Kur deciding to take a glance out of the viewport, now that there was really nothing they could do anymore. He could see escape pods and fighters he recognised launching from the Lelzoilwarship as the colossal mass crashed into the rest of the fleet, the explosion lighting up the area.
That had been a mess, pure and simple, one that Bolhut hoped the rest of the mercenaries hadn't paid too dearly for. All the ex-Kur general could do now was wait and see if anyone would pick him up, and hope they had done enough damage to delay them.
____________
"Fuck! fuck! fuck! move! move! move! fuck! move out of the way!"
Bartholomew raced down the corridor as fast as his feet could take him, the other Hatil driving out of the way as he barrelled through the ship with the container of coolant in tow.
He barged his way through anyone too slow to move out of the way. Bartholomew vaguely felt himself knock someone with a far higher rank on their ass, uncaring to anything other than stopping the ship from exploding into flames.
It turned out "dealing with the heat" was a far bigger problem than expected. While the remainder of the fleet still travelling with them were going at a blistering speed, the extra strain on the warp cores were quite literally cooking the vessel. Ambient temperature was sitting at nearly 40 degrees as everything the ship had was being diverted into keeping the warp core from exploding.
Bartholomew skidded around the last corner, practically slamming into the wall as the Hatil frantically unscrewed the seal, ignoring the burns on his paws as he did so. The jury rigged cooling system in front of him was not within official specifications, the metres of hastily assembled piping and heat sinks whistled and gurgled as Bartholomew dumped the entire container of coolant into the system before sealing it back up.
It broke every single piece of safety legislation and good practice, but somehow it worked as Bartholomew and the rest of the Engineering department watched the heat from the warp core reduce from dangerously hot to just hot. Before it started to tick back up again.
Just another hour of this.
—---------------
The power went out, plunging the ship into darkness, before lights began to flicker back on as Daniela once again could see the rest of the bridge again. They were here. It had taken everything they had, warning lights flickered and alarms blared as the ship screamed its protests at what they had done. But they had made it, that was all that matters.
"Status report, now!"
There was a pause as her second in command took a moment to look through all the bad information being relayed to him.
"The Lelzoilfleet is already here and approaching the Dunwilians, we have a quarter of our original fleet, although the R.A Broken Egg seems to be on fire. Due to heat damage our shields are at 53%, weapon capacity 27% and impulse engines at 11%."
Daniela took a moment to take in just how messed up the situation was.
"So a standard Monday. Full speed ahead to intercept. We've got to delay for the rest of the fleet."
The mood turned sombre as everyone realised what such an action would entail. It was basically a suicidal charge to do nothing but buy time. It was then that the communications officer looked up.
“We’re being hailed by the Dunwilians, putting them on the main screen now.”
The Dunwilians were unofficially known as a “Horror” species. Most species around the galaxy follow certain rules, convergent evolution means there’s only so many ways to do something. Occasionally however, evolution decides to ignore the rules and throw shit at the wall and see what sticks.
A Dunwilian stands at 8ft tall, a mass of writhing wiggling blue-purple strings tied and wound together into an egg-like shape, punctuated by eyes of varying sizes burning a deep red. All of this is held up with twenty trunk like appendages, each ending in a maw of teeth and slime.
Their appearance caused them to be shunned and ignored, an unfortunate situation as they enjoyed company and despised being alone. Until the Terrans came along they had no friends amongst the galaxy.
Five of them were shown on the screen, each suspended in midair allowing every trunk to access the control panels that surrounded them. Each of them were also wearing a hat of some kind. Early in their interactions with the Terrans they had been taught a single rule which their entire society had taken on board. “Everyone looks more friendly in a hat”. Each of them wore some kind of head covering: a soft woollen beanie, a giant baseball cap. One over enthusiastic individual had stapled three top hats together to form one giant contraption that they wore, clearly taking the logical conclusion that if one hat makes you seem friendlier, three hats would do the same.
“F̷r̴i̷e̵n̸d̴s̵!̷ ̴W̶e̴ ̴w̷e̷r̴e̴ ̴n̴o̵t̶ ̷e̷x̸p̴e̴c̵t̶i̶n̵g̵ ̵t̵o̶ ̴s̸e̸e̵ ̴y̵o̷u̵ ̶s̴o̴ ̸s̶o̸o̷n̴,̷ ̶w̷h̸y̸ ̴a̸r̷e̵ ̷y̷o̸u̸ ̵h̵e̸r̶e̷”
The Dunwilian closest to the screen spoke, the sound of worrying squelches and bone tingling cracks sounding out as they talked. Daniela gave a confused frown before responding.
“We’re here to help defend. Please send an operation plan and we’ll integrate.”
“N̵e̸g̷a̴t̶i̴v̴e̵ ̸o̷u̸r̴ ̸f̷r̴i̴e̷n̴d̷s̷.̴ ̴Y̴o̸u̷ ̴a̸r̵e̸ ̸i̵n̴ ̵n̷o̴ ̶s̴t̸a̶t̸e̴ ̷t̶o̸ ̸p̷r̴o̷v̸i̸d̸e̴ ̵a̴i̶d̶.̴ ̴W̶e̷ ̶a̴r̴e̴ ̷u̷n̸d̶e̷r̷ ̴t̵h̸e̴ ̸w̵a̴t̷c̸h̵f̶u̴l̶ ̴p̸r̸o̶t̸e̸c̵t̵i̷o̶n̸ ̷o̷f̸ {{_̷̩́͑̕_̷̙̮̈́͝_̴̰̦̘̐̅̔_̴͍́̍̚}} (Deity) ̸w̸h̴o̶ ̶s̴h̵a̶l̶l̵ ̶w̶i̶t̴n̷e̸s̶s̶ ̷u̴s̸ ̷a̵n̷d̷ ̶w̴e̴ ̶w̶i̵t̸n̵e̷s̵s̶ ̶t̷h̸e̴m̷ ̶i̸n̶ ̵r̴e̵t̸u̴r̷n̵.̸”
Daniela couldn’t help but feel confused, feeling as if she was having a completely different conversation.
“Regardless, the Terran Alliance does not abandon our allies, we’re coming to help.”
“T̴h̶e̷r̷e̶ ̸i̵s̵ ̷n̷o̸ ̷n̵e̸e̷d̶,̶ ̸p̵l̷e̵a̷s̶e̴ ̸j̸u̸s̸t̴ ̷w̵i̷t̴n̶e̶s̴s̴ {{_̷̩́͑̕_̷̙̮̈́͝_̴̰̦̘̐̅̔_̴͍́̍̚}} (Deity) ̶a̴n̴d̵ ̵t̶h̶e̴y̸ ̵s̴h̵a̷l̴l̴ ̷w̶i̶t̶n̷e̸s̶s̶ ̵y̵o̶u̵.̴”
It was then that something strange started to happen. Right next to the Lelzoil fleet, a point in space appeared, a grey smudge, as if someone was looking upon the world from a monitor with a little bit of dirt on it. Nothing appeared on any sensors, and it could only be seen visually, the entire anomaly being around about a mile long.
It was then with a bang that a seam in space was ripped open. This event would later be analysed by every single scientist, military mind and witch doctor in existence, all of whom would immediately point out that sound cannot travel through space. Yet the bang still appeared, rattling and shaking every surface of every ship in the vicinity.
For a moment there was silence, there was nothing but the emptiness of this tear in space next to the Lelzoil fleet. Then, dwarfing even the largest of warships, a single giant eye opened, containing a fractal purple pupil. It blinked, once, twice, before seeming to focus on the invading fleet. An ear piercing screech could be heard, then the devastation started.
Grasping impossible swirling tentacles containing non-euclidean geometric shapes reached out, plucking warships out of formation as if they were toys, snapping them in half one by one or pulling them into the tear never to be seen again.
A few of the Lelzoil tried to fight back, firing weapons of destruction at their impossible attacker, anti-matter and nuclear rounds alike having no effect on the impossible masses of… of whatever they were made of. It lasted less than ten minutes, ten minutes of an impossible horror, then, with a final screeching bang, the tear closed again. As if it had never happened, everything how it was apart from the lack of a Lelzoil.
“What in the ever living fuck was that!”
Daniela felt all sense of professionalism leave her at what she had just seen, demanding an answer from the Dunwilians who answered simply.
“W̴e̵ ̷d̵o̸ ̴n̴o̸t̶ ̸u̶n̸d̵e̸r̴s̷t̸a̸n̴d̵ ̶t̶h̵i̴s̸ ̴s̶u̸r̶p̷r̴i̶s̵e̶ ̷a̵n̴d̸ ̷c̸o̴n̷f̸u̸s̷i̶o̶n̴,̴ ̷o̴u̵r̸ ̸f̶r̸i̸e̵n̸d̸s̷.̵ ̶W̴e̷ ̸c̴o̶m̵m̴u̸n̸i̷c̴a̷t̷e̶d̸ ̵t̸o̶ ̴y̷o̶u̷ ̷t̷h̶a̵t̷ {{_̷̩́͑̕_̷̙̮̈́͝_̴̰̦̘̐̅̔_̴͍́̍̚}} (Deity) s̷h̴a̷l̵l̸ ̸w̴i̷t̵n̴e̴s̷s̷ ̵u̸s̷”
—-----------------------
[Top Secret]
Analysis of the defence of the Dunwilian homeworld.
This was an unmitigated disaster. Communication issues plagued this entire operation, and without the Dunwilians having what scientists are still calling “Scary lovecraft powers”, we predict the state of the Terran forces would have at best given the Terrans a Pyrrhic victory, with a defeat far more likely.
Continual cultural misunderstandings caused non-Terran forces to implement unsafe ship operating parameters due to an overestimation on Terran risk taking, causing the fleet to both split up and not be in operational condition when arriving.
The external security company the Terran Alliance military attempted to gain aid from took our clear instructions to not directly engage the enemy as a “wink wink nudge nudge” set of instructions, resulting in unacceptable operating casualties of 31%
A mistranslation of coordinates caused the Olgro scouting fleet to go to the wrong location, which would have caused the lelzoil fleet to end up at our defences far too early had the previously mentioned external security company not misunderstood Terran Alliance orders.
Even the entire engagement was the result of a miscommunication: It turns out our Dunwilian allies “worship” several deities that, at least to some extent, seem to actually exist and come to their aid in times of need. We are still working with them to figure out exactly the nature of these defences, and whether they could be replicated anywhere else.
This had not been noted in any records due to the Dunwilians complete lack of diplomatic contact before the Terran Alliance accepted them, meaning they had not been involved in any major military actions. There was mention of a Zyngoill warfleet that went missing around 300 years ago, but we cannot be certain whether this is related.
Overall this bodes badly for the Terran Alliance military as a whole, and major changes need to be implemented to ensure such a thing cannot happen again.
We will not get a second chance.
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When I first started my path to med school, I turned to Reddit, Facebook Groups, Discord, Instagram... you name it, for inspiration. I used any and every avenue possible to determine if I was crazy for turning my life upside down to pursue my dreams of medicine as an older applicant who had some really terrible grades in the past. I vowed to share my story if I ever got into medicine in the hopes that it would help anyone else who might feel scared to take the leap for a career change, or perhaps help those who are close to giving up on their dreams.
I am here to say "YOU GOT THIS, DO NOT GIVE UP" if you believe that medicine is for you.
Before continuing, I want to acknowledge that everyone's experiences are unique. My life circumstances and my amazing support system significantly influenced the choices and decisions I made along the way, but may not work for others. In any case, I found it helpful to read other people's stories of successes and failures at different points on my journey, so here are some of mine.

• I grew up in Alberta until I was 17, moved to UBC-Vancouver for my first undergrad and have lived in Vancouver since then (13 years). This means I am considered an in-province applicant in both BC and Alberta.
• Started a BSc at UBC at 17 because I originally wanted to pursue medicine. The med dream quickly died, and I switched faculties to UBC Land & Food Systems (LFS) after I failed organic chemistry and many other science classes.
• While my grades were extremely low, I poured my passion and drive into a lot of extracurriculars on campus and enjoyed the non-academic student experience.
• Graduated at 22 from UBC LFS with a CGPA of 2.55 (65.9%).
• Right after graduation, I got my first full-time job at a not-for-profit. I put in A LOT of hours, but ultimately I didn't perform up to the standards of my manager and did not communicate well with them in hindsight. I was fired 6 months into this role.
• After this early-in-my-career-low-point, I was fortunate to gain experience in recreation/sport management, marketing, event management, business operations, and sales at two different organizations from age 23-27. During this time, my desire to pursue med was rekindled after a childhood friend of mine passed away. It took me 5 years to gain the courage I needed to take the leap because I was scared and nervous for a variety of reasons: not smart enough, too old, a large financial investment to go back to school, going against societal norms, had a fear of failing, feeling "behind in life" because my friends were succeeding in their careers, getting married, having kids, etc... the list goes on. But I knew all of this would pale in comparison to the regret I was going to feel when I was older if I didn't at least try for med school. At age 26/27, after talking to some friends, and consulting Google, Facebook, Reddit and other sources: "is 27 too old to go back to school", "am I too old to apply for med school", and "Canada med school requirements" - I finally made my decision to start the path to medicine.
• I did extensive research on different schools and programs in Canada and spent a lot of time Excel-spreadsheet strategizing. Eventually, I landed on applying to UBC and UofC as my top schools. UBC because I was living in Vancouver, considered in-province, was my alma mater, and there was a rural program. UofC because I was still considered an in-province applicant, there was no minimum MCAT score for in-province applicants, and also there is a 10-Year Exclusion Rule (highly recommend looking this up if you are an older applicant and have very low grades in your first undergraduate degree).
• At age 27 I began a second undergraduate degree in Kinesiology because my grades were going to be my biggest barrier to applying for medicine. I started with the Kinesiology Diploma Program at Langara College (a community college in Vancouver) because I knew that I could transfer courses seamlessly to UBC's bachelor program (ps. make sure you read the med application manuals for the schools you are applying to. There are certain requirements for where you should take classes. Some institutions' grades will/will not be counted toward your GPA). I completed 1-year at Langara College Sept 2020 - April 2021 and transferred to UBC Kinesiology in Sept 2021. Unlike my first degree, I actually really loved the academic part of schooling, spent a lot of time studying, but also got more involved in research. I started as a volunteer in a lab and then became a part-time student employee. I also took non-academic volunteer positions in organizations that aligned with my interests and were opportunities for me to continue learning from others while sharing my skillsets. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to do things that you like/love, and not to simply pad a resume.
• In the summer of 2021 between my time at Langara and UBC, I made my first attempt to write the MCAT. I thought I could work 20-30 hours per week and also study for the MCAT from May-August using the Kaplan books set, MileDown's MCAT Anki Cards, and Kahn Academy videos with very little science background. I failed organic chemistry, never took biochemistry or psychology, but had taken first-year chemistry, biology, math, and physics... 11 years prior. This was a huge bust. I was so overwhelmed, I couldn't even remember how to read a periodic table. I had to look at grade 11/12 textbook PDFs to try and remember concepts from high school. Also, do not get me started with CARS. I kept a spreadsheet of my daily CARS practice from Jack Westin and I never exceeded 50% from May-June (except once). I finished 1 chapter each of the bio, behaviour sci, gen chem, phys/math, biochem, and o-chem Kaplan books before giving up because Reddit/Google had told me "it will take me 2 hours to read a chapter"... LOL it took me 5-8 hours for one chapter. I did not write the MCAT. I was upset with myself, but I was getting so stressed and overwhelmed that I got shingles haha. Talk about the physical manifestation of accumulated stress. So that was the end of that attempt. I told myself I would write it the next summer and be more realistic with my time and also try to use my courses during the school year to set me up for success (ex. I took one psychology course, anatomy, physiology, etc... The anatomy and physiology don't transfer exactly to the MCAT, but it definitely helped me in my opinion).
• At 29, I told myself I had to write the MCAT and at least submit an application to UBC and UofC for the 2023 application cycle; this meant I had to write the MCAT by late August. I wanted to just try applying, to test out the process but had no expectations of making it very far. In the summer of 2022, after 2nd year of my second undergraduate degree, I started studying for the MCAT again. However, to complicate things for myself, I had the opportunity to move to Northern BC to implement kinesiology programs in primary care in a rural Indigenous community. Because it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up, I decided to take the position, work 20-35 hours per week and study for the MCAT. As you can imagine... history repeated itself and I had very little time to study for a variety of reasons (work, bad wifi, no data, driving between communities took way longer than I expected, I lived in an area where the closest grocery store was in another city 1.25 hours away, etc...). As well, because I was in a unique environment, I wanted to use my time outside of work to learn from the people, take extra time to build relationships with community members, and immerse myself in their culture and traditional practices. So with what time I had in the evenings and on weekends (probably a total of 5-12 hours per week at best), I used a modified strategy from the summer before, from the end of May to mid August: (attempted) daily Jack Westin CARS, read the Kaplan books when I could / focused on doing the end of chapter questions and actively learn, studied someone's pre-made Anki deck of just Amino Acids (sorry I don't remember which one I used), and listened to the MedSchoolCoach MCAT podcast on spotify when I was commuting. There were COUNTLESS times I felt like giving up again, but some of my closest friends often reminded me that if I wanted to apply, I had to write the darn thing. I only had time to complete 1-2 Kaplan chapters of the bio, gen chem, o-chem, bio chem, phys/math and only did one Kaplan full-length test. I wrote the MCAT in August 2022 (CPBS/CARS/BBLS/PSBB) = 122/125/124/125; total of 496. This did not meet the UBC cut-off so my application was voided. But luckily I was still able to submit an application to UofC. I'd like to recognize that the MCAT is really hard, if I could have/had more time I would have absolutely wanted to study more, but I couldn't with the circumstances I was in. So please take this approach with a grain of salt.
• UofC app and interview: with the 10-Year Exclusion Rule and 2 full-time years of my second undergrad, I had an application GPA of 3.95, MCAT score 496, and a fairly well-rounded 'Top Ten Experiences' given that I was 29 when I submitted the application. I chose my top-ten experiences very carefully (I had reflected and curated a spreadsheet of all my experiences over 2-3 years before writing my application) and ensured that the ones I wanted to include really exemplified who I was, what I was proud of accomplishing, and more importantly what I had learned / how I had grown as a person in my experiences. I also utilized the "tell us more" boxes where I could explain why I had low grades in my first degree (different type of student at age 17 vs. 29, didn't really know what I was doing with my life in my first degree, was injured a lot and didn't seek the appropriate help/support, etc...), and why my MCAT scores were so low (explained the challenges of living in a rural area, how it was a tough balance between choosing to learn from a textbook and excel on the mcat vs. learning from a community about their culture and practices, and why I ultimately chose to learn from the community > textbooks, etc...). I was very honest in these sections and didn't try to make excuses. I took responsibility for my choices but was also fair in my own judgements of myself. I was very fortunate to receive an interview at UofC and found that practicing for the MMI really benefitted me. I originally thought it was something that I would excel in naturally, so I procrastinated on preparing. But it wasn't until I did a mock interview with a friend that I realized I was terrible at talking about myself and expressing my thoughts intelligently in such a constrained time frame. So I went into hyper-mode and joined the UAlberta and UofC Facebook Groups/Discords to find people to practice with. It was really helpful to see other people's styles and ways of expressing themselves when the prep groups were larger in the beginning. But closer to the interview, I gravitated towards a couple of people from the MMI groups that I trusted to give me honest, constructive, and meaningful feedback and practiced more often with them. In addition, I also did a couple of mock MMIs with those applying for Physio/OT at UBC which I thought was refreshing, and a couple times with my family/friends. I think I spent around 4 weeks doing practice sessions at least 2-3 times a week.

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After a long and winding road, at the age of 30, I was accepted to the UofC Medicine class of 2026.
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I think my story can be interpreted in many ways, but the takeaway I want to share is that I have had my fair share of learning experiences (or "failures") in my academics, career, and personal life that have shaped me. For those of you that this resonates with, there is hope. This path will, at times, feel more difficult for you than for others, and you will probably go through moments when you think that the application system is not made for older, non-traditional applicants. Don't be afraid to ask for help. I credit some of this success to asking those around me for support, whether that was asking academic advisors for advice, asking classmates to collab on notes/anki cards, having friends read med school applications or check in on you while studying for the mcat, or even accepting a home-cooked meal from someone that loves you; your community will make you stronger, I promise, accept the help. If you are someone who needs to do another degree or unclassified studies to bolster low grades, take courses you know you are going to enjoy and excel in. Also, if you do go back to school, sometimes it can be challenging having classmates who are a decade younger than you, but keep an open mind and find your core group in classes - it makes the experience more enjoyable and more successful, honestly. Also, it's kind of fun listening to Gen Z lingo, but it's less fun trying to explain Mean Girls quotes to classmates born in the same year the movie was released haha (just kidding... but actually).
You may have to make some sacrifices in life, but if the journey to medicine is one that feels right for you, keep going, don't give up on yourself, and trust the process. If anyone has questions, I will absolutely do my best to help as much as I can, feel free to send me a message. Good luck, and I sincerely hope this helps.

Respiratory System

Your system is that the network of organs and tissues that assist you breathe. this method helps your body absorb O from the air thus your organs will work. It conjointly cleans waste gases, like greenhouse gas, from your blood. Common issues embody allergies, diseases or infections.
Respiratory System

FUNCTION

The system has several functions. Besides serving to you inhale (breathe in) and exhale (breathe out), it:

• Allows you to speak and to smell.
• Warms air to match your blood heat and moisturizes it to the wetness level your body wants.
• Delivers O to the cells in your body.
• Removes waste gases, as well as greenhouse gas, from the body once you exhale.

ANATOMY

The system has many alternative components that job along to assist you breathe. every cluster of components has several separate elements.
Your airways deliver air to your lungs. Your airways area unit a sophisticated system that features your:

Mouth and nose

Openings that pull air from outside your body into your system.

Sinuses

Hollow areas between the bones in your head that facilitate regulate the temperature and wetness of the air you inhale.

Windpipe

Trachea

Passage connecting your throat and lungs.

Sexual Response Cycle

The sexual response cycle is one model of physical and emotional changes that happens after you square measure collaborating in sexual intercourse. There square measure four phases during this cycle. coming is that the shortest section.What is the sexual response cycle?
The sexual response cycle refers to the sequence of physical and emotional changes that occur as someone becomes sexually aroused and participates in sexually stimulating activities, as well as intercourse and onanism.
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Sexual Response Cycle
Knowing however your body responds throughout every section of the cycle will enhance your relationship and assist you pinpoint the reason for sexual disfunction. There square measure many totally different planned models of a sexual response cycle. The one that's reviewed here is one in all the a lot of ordinarily quoted.
What square measure the phases of the sexual response cycle?
The sexual response cycle has been represented as having four phases:1.Desire (libido).2.Arousal (excitement).3.Orgasm.4.Resolution.Both men and girls will expertise these phases, though the temporal order could also be totally different. for instance, it's extremely unlikely that each partners can reach coming at identical time. additionally, the intensity of the response and therefore the time spent in every section varies from person to person. many ladies will not undergo the sexual phases during this order.
Need for intimacy
A need for intimacy could also be a motivation for sexual intercourse in some people. Understanding these variations could facilitate partners higher perceive one another’s bodies and responses, and enhance the sexual expertise.
Several physiological changes could occur throughout totally different stages of sexual intercourse. people could expertise some, all or none of those changes.

Phase 1: Need

General characteristics of this section, which might last from a couple of minutes to many hours, and should embody any of the following:
• Muscle tension will increase.
• Heart rate quickens and respiration gets quicker.

Hi everyone! I'm currently a first year science student, but I've been struggling to think of what major(s) I would like to pick when the time comes! I will also be consulting with Monash Connect soon, but I just wanted to ask here as well :)
Background info (not exactly necessary to read): I originally planned on picking Human Pathology or Immunology but I've heard a few negative things about those majors. I kept thinking to myself that if I have enough motivation and passion about studying these kinds of things, it would make them worthwhile and maybe even easier. But knowing myself, the opposite will most likely be true – the toughness of the majors would cause me to lose motivation and passion and maybe even regret my decision. In the recent weeks, I've started thinking about maybe majoring in Anatomy and Dev Bio. I think I would find it really interesting, but I'll still have to do some research to find more information on what it's all about.
My main question is, what are some future pathways I can take that would lead me to a healthcare related future if I were to major in Anatomy and Dev Bio – future jobs or further studies? One option I have in mind is doing research, which I could do by taking an honors year and then maybe doing a Master's or PhD (but what are some specific research jobs I can do?). Another option that I have in mind is going into further studies for a Master of Nursing Science to become an RN, which I think I would really like. I'm not exactly sure about doing med school, but I'm aware that it's an option. One thing is for sure though, I'm most definitely going to minor in Physiology!
TLDR; Future pathways/jobs for people who major in Anatomy and Dev Bio?
Thank you :)