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Proserpine is a figure in Roman mythology, equivalent to the Greek goddess Persephone. She is known as the goddess of the underworld, springtime, flowers, and vegetation. She is also recognized as the daughter of the harvest goddess Ceres and Jupiter, the king of the gods. The myth surrounding her involves her abduction by Pluto, the god of the underworld, and her mothers subsequent grief causing the seasons. Proserpine is also the name of a town in Queensland, Australia.

The Ruby-crowned Kinglet is a very small passerine bird found throughout North America. It is a member of the kinglet family. The bird has olive-green plumage with two white wing bars and a white eye-ring. Males have a red crown patch, which is usually concealed. The sexes are identical, and juveniles are similar in plumage to adults. It is one of the smallest songbirds in North America. The Ruby-crowned Kinglet is not closely related to other kinglets, and is put in its own subgenus, Corthylio. Three subspecies are currently recognized.
The kinglet is migratory, and its range extends from northwest Canada and Alaska south to Mexico. Its breeding habitat is spruce-fir forests in the northern, mountainous, United States and Canada. The Ruby-crowned Kinglet builds a cup-shaped nest, which may be pensile or placed on a tree branch and is often hidden. It lays up to 12 eggs, and has the largest clutch of any North American passerine for its size. It is mainly insectivorous, but also eats fruits and seeds.

George Westinghouse Jr. (October 6, 1846 – March 12, 1914) was an American entrepreneur and engineer based in Pennsylvania who created the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry, receiving his first patent at the age of 19. Westinghouse saw the potential of using alternating current for electric power distribution in the early 1880s and put all his resources into developing and marketing it. This put Westinghouses business in direct competition with Thomas Edison, who marketed direct current for electric power distribution. In 1911 Westinghouse received the American Institute of Electrical Engineerss (AIEE) Edison Medal For meritorious achievement in connection with the development of the alternating current system. He founded the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1886.

Genus Myroxylon is a botanical classification of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. This genus is native to Central and South America and produces aromatic resins such as balsam or tolu balsam. These plants are typically medium to large-sized trees with pinnate leaves.

Acrylic paint is a type of fast-drying and water-soluble paint that artists commonly use for various crafts and fine arts. It is made of pigment suspended in acrylic polymer emulsion, which can be diluted with water or other mediums. It can also be made to resemble other types of paints such as oil or watercolor. Acrylic paints are known for their flexibility, durability and resistance to fading, making them ideal for both indoor and outdoor artwork. They are available in a variety of colors and finishes.

Genus Spalax, commonly known as blind mole rats, make up a group of rodent species primarily found in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and parts of Asia. These rodents are known for their highly adapted subterranean lifestyle, characterized by features such as a cylindrical body shape, reduced eyes covered by skin, strong forelimbs for digging, and absence of externally visible ears. They primarily feed on plant roots. Interestingly, species within the Spalax genus have unusually high resistance to cancer.

Robert Falcon Scott was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition (1901–1904) and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition (1910–1913). During the latter, Scott led a party of five to reach the South Pole in January 1912, only to find that they had been preceded by the Norwegian expedition led by Roald Amundsen. On their return journey, Scott and his four comrades all died from a combination of exhaustion, hunger, and extreme cold.

the superior or presiding bishop of a country or province

Al-Qaeda (; Arabic: القاعدة, romanized: al-Qāʿida, lit. the Base, IPA: [ælqɑːʕɪdɐ]) is a Sunni pan-Islamist militant organization led by Salafi jihadists who self-identify as a vanguard spearheading a global Islamist revolution to unite the Muslim world under a supra-national Islamic state known as the Caliphate. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countries, including the 1998 United States embassy bombings, the 2001 September 11 attacks, and the 2002 Bali bombings; it has been designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations Security Council, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union, and various countries around the world.
The organization was founded in a series of meetings held in Peshawar during 1988, attended by Abdullah Azzam, Osama bin Laden, Muhammad Atef, Ayman al-Zawahiri and other veterans of the Soviet–Afghan War. Building upon the networks of Maktab al-Khidamat, the founding members decided to create an organization named Al-Qaeda to serve as a vanguard for jihad. Following the withdrawal of the Soviets in 1989, bin Laden offered mujahideen support to Saudi Arabia in the Gulf War in 1990–1991. His offer was rebuffed by the Saudi government, which instead sought the aid of the United States. The stationing of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia prompted bin Laden to declare a jihad against the House of Saud, whom he condemned as takfir (apostates from Islam), and against the US. During 1992–1996, al-Qaeda established its headquarters in Sudan until it was expelled in 1996. It shifted its base to the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and later expanded to other parts of the world, primarily in the Middle East and South Asia.
In 1996 and 1998, bin Laden issued two fatāwā calling for U.S. troops to leave Saudi Arabia. Al-Qaeda conducted the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people. The U.S. retaliated by launching Operation Infinite Reach, against al-Qaeda targets in Afghanistan and Sudan. In 2001, al-Qaeda carried out the September 11 attacks, resulting in nearly 3,000 fatalities, substantial long-term health consequences and damaging global economic markets. The U.S. launched the war on terror in response and invaded Afghanistan to depose the Taliban and destroy al-Qaeda. In 2003, a U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq, overthrowing the Baathist regime which it
wrongly accused of having ties with al-Qaeda. In 2004, al-Qaeda launched its Iraqi regional branch. After pursuing him for almost a decade, the U.S. military killed bin Laden in Pakistan in May 2011.
Al-Qaeda members believe a Judeo-Christian alliance (led by the United States) is conspiring to be at war against Islam and destroy Islam. As Salafist jihadists, members of Al-Qaeda believe that killing non-combatants is religiously sanctioned. Al-Qaeda also opposes what it regards as man-made laws, and wants to replace them exclusively with a strict form of sharīʿa (Islamic religious law, which is perceived as divine law). It characteristically organizes attacks such as suicide attacks and simultaneous bombing of several targets. Al-Qaeda has been responsible for numerous sectarian attacks against Shias. Al-Qaeda ideologues envision the violent removal of all foreign and secular influences in Muslim countries, which it denounces as corrupt deviations. Following the death of bin Laden in 2011, Al-Qaeda vowed to avenge his killing. The group was then led by Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri until his death in 2022. As of 2021, it has reportedly suffered from a deterioration of central command over its regional operations.

Catabolism () is the set of metabolic pathways that breaks down molecules into smaller units that are either oxidized to release energy or used in other anabolic reactions. Catabolism breaks down large molecules (such as polysaccharides, lipids, nucleic acids, and proteins) into smaller units (such as monosaccharides, fatty acids, nucleotides, and amino acids, respectively). Catabolism is the breaking-down aspect of metabolism, whereas anabolism is the building-up aspect.
Cells use the monomers released from breaking down polymers to either construct new polymer molecules or degrade the monomers further to simple waste products, releasing energy. Cellular wastes include lactic acid, acetic acid, carbon dioxide, ammonia, and urea. The formation of these wastes is usually an oxidation process involving a release of chemical free energy, some of which is lost as heat, but the rest of which is used to drive the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). This molecule acts as a way for the cell to transfer the energy released by catabolism to the energy-requiring reactions that make up anabolism.
Catabolism is a destructive metabolism and anabolism is a constructive metabolism. Catabolism, therefore, provides the chemical energy necessary for the maintenance and growth of cells. Examples of catabolic processes include glycolysis, the citric acid cycle, the breakdown of muscle protein in order to use amino acids as substrates for gluconeogenesis, the breakdown of fat in adipose tissue to fatty acids, and oxidative deamination of neurotransmitters by monoamine oxidase.

The family Hydrophyllaceae, commonly known as the waterleaf family, is a group of angiosperm plants typically characterized by hairy or sticky herbage, bell-shaped or funnel-shaped flowers, and alternate leaves. They are mostly native to North and South America, and consist of approximately 20 genera with about 300 known species. These plants may be annual or perennial herbs, as well as shrubs.

A sick berth is a place, often a specific room or area, in a ship or other maritime vessel, that is designated for the treatment and care of sick or injured crew members. It is essentially the ships equivalent to a hospital ward or infirmary.