History.

The Mumbai Suburban Railway is an offshoot of the first passenger railway to be built by the British East India Company, and is also the oldest railway system in Asia. The first train was run by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (now Central Railway) between Bori Bunder (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus) and Thane, a distance of 34 km, on 16 April 1853 at 15:35. The 14-coach train took 1.25 h to complete the 34 km journey, with a halt at Sion to refill the train's water tanks.  The next major train was run between Virar and Churchgate by the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway (now Western Railway), in April 1867. Colaba was also added as a station on this route, but later shut down. On 3 February 1925, the first EMU Service was started from Victoria Terminus (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus) to Coorla Harbour (now Kurla) on the Central line which was run on 1.5 kV DC traction and also started on the Western line from Churchgate to Borivali on 5 January 1928. By 2016, the entire network had been converted to 25 kV 50 Hz AC traction.  The "Bombay Railway History Group" has been striving to document railway heritage along these lines.

Rolling stock.

The suburban services are run by electric multiple units (EMUs) in 191 rakes (train sets) of 12-car and 15-car composition. To alleviate the problems of overcrowding, the nine-car trains have been phased out and replaced with 12-car ones. 15-coach trains were introduced on 21 November 2009. However, these are few in number. Equipment makers include DMU(Direct Multiple Unit), Jessop, Siemens, Bombardier, and Medha. The trains are manufactured at the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. All routes are electrified at power supply from overhead lines. The Indian Railways plans to build a 700 MW gas-based plant in Thakurli to generate electricity to run the Mumbai trains.

Manufacturing.

The current fleet of both the Western and Central railways features increasingly fewer old rakes built by BEML, BHEL, ICF (Perambur) which are capable of a maximum speed of 85 km/h, MRVC Siemens Rakes which are capable of and 100 km/h and ICF built Bombardier rakes capable of running at speeds of 120 km/h under light traffic conditions. The actual average speed of the rakes on the slow lines is about 35 km/h, while rakes on fast lines average about 45–50 km/h on a typical run.  On 12 November 2007, the first of 129 new 12-coach rakes with upgraded facilities was inducted into the fleet of the Western Railways under the MUTP project. The coaches are built of stainless steel, and have non-cushioned seats, emergency fluorescent lights, bigger windows with polycarbonate panes, better suspension systems, roof-mounted forced ventilation to reduce carbon dioxide levels in packed trains, and GPS based passenger information systems in all coaches. The new rakes are much cooler and airy than the old EMUs. The motors of the new rakes also make less noise than the older ones. Since 2010 the front of the EMUs is painted yellow so that the maintenance workers on the tracks can see the train easily. These rakes have been procured under the project at a total cost of 19 billion (US$431.0 million). Five Siemens rakes that had to be delivered as part of the first phase were sent to the city in early January 2014.  New EMUs with Bombardier Electrical procured under the World Bank-funded Mumbai Urban Transport Project-2 built at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai started arriving into Mumbai by April 2014. The first of these trains, to be run on Western Railway, was, however, flagged off by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Kurla on Central Railway on Sunday, 27 October 2013. However, a delay of two years was anticipated due to the demands of automatic sliding doors on the trains. Under the Make in India initiative, the first Indian-made rake was made by Medha. Nine-car trains have a capacity of 2,628 (876 seated and 1,752 standing). Twelve-car trains have a capacity of 3,504 (1,168 seated and 2,336 standing). In fall 2013, brand new 12-car rakes were introduced on the railway. Recently new UTTAM RAKES Were manufactured by ICF.

Air-conditioned rakes.

Discussion on AC Coaches first began in 2002 and was planned to be introduced in 2013. However, major delays in finalizing the rakes' design and procurement of material deferred the project.  The first air-conditioned rake for use on the suburban system was built by the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai-BHEL EMU at a cost of over, and arrived in Mumbai on 5 April 2016. The rake has a seating capacity of 1,028 passengers, and standing room for up to 6,000 passengers. The 12 coach rake is configured as two sets of six interconnected bogies, meaning passengers can walk between coaches but only up to a maximum of 6 coaches. The train is also equipped with a new electrical system and software, automatic doors with emergency opening features, and GPS-based destination display on LED indicators. The old system of pulling a chain to halt the train was replaced by four intercoms per coach that enable commuters to communicate with the driver.  Both CR and WR competed to acquire the rake, with WR even announcing a time table for operating the air-conditioned rake. Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu announced that the rake would be transferred to CR on 16 March 2016. However, at a height of 4.335 metres the rake exceeds the maximum clearance height of 4.270 metres for EMU coaches on the Central Line. In particular, the rake cannot clear some of the low height British-era bridges between CST and Kurla. Then Central Railway general manager Sunil Kumar Sood insisted that CR was conduct trials and operate the rake on the Harbour Line. After acquiring the rake, CR conducted tests, safety, and mobility checks, and trial runs under the supervision of the RDSO. However, following Sood's retirement, CR abandoned plans to operate the rake in December 2016. CR informed the Railway Board that it could not operate the rake due to the clearance issue, and the Railway Board directed them to transfer the rake to WR. The rake was transferred to WR on 12 May 2017. WR General Manager Anil Kumar Gupta stated that rake would begin commercial operations on the Western Line after WR conducted its own tests and trial runs and receiving regulatory approvals. Although there are some clearance issues on the Western Line as well, Gupta stated that these could be rectified.  The First AC EMU was Flagged off on 25 December 2017. The first and only AC local train in Mumbai so far began operation in December 2017 and crossed the 10 lakh passenger mark within the first five months. The summer months of March and April saw over 3 lakh passengers take the AC local each month. The train, operated by Western Railway (WR), currently plies between Churchgate and Virar. It has a seating capacity of 1,028 seats and can carry 5,964 passengers. The monthly pass on the AC local train will cost between Rs570 to Rs820 (till Bandra) to Rs1,240 (till Andheri) to Rs1,640 (till Borivali), capping at Rs2,040 till Virar. Seven new halts were introduced after commuters demand at Marine Lines, Charni Road, Grant Road, Dahisar, Mira Road. Data shows that among all the stations between Churchgate and Virar. Borivali was the highest earner for the Ac train. Monthly earning of Ac train is approximately 71 lakhs per month after adding seven new halts.  Second Air – conditioned rake on Mumbai Suburban Rail Network & first for Central Railway has been commissioned on Transharbour line from Thane to Panvel / Vashi from 31 January 2020.

Network.

The Mumbai Suburban Railway system is operated by Indian Railways' two zonal divisions Western Railways (WR) and Central Railways (CR). The fast commuter rail corridors on Central Railway as well as Western Railway are shared with long-distance and freight trains, while inner suburban services operate on exclusive parallel tracks. WR operates the Western Line and CR operates the Central Line, Harbour Line, Trans-Harbour Line as well as the Vasai Road-Bhiwandi-Diva-Panvel line.

Central Line.

The Central Line in Mumbai consists of 3 major corridors, which bifurcate as they run into suburban satellite towns. Two corridors (one local and other through) follow the Central Railway run from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) to Kalyan (54 km), from where it bifurcates into two lines – one to Kasara (65 km) in the north-east and the other to Khopoli (61 km) in the south-east. These two corridors constitute the'main' Central Line. There is also an 18-km corridor between Kurla and Thane stations for use of outstation and cargo trains. The outstation corridor is being extended further from Thane to Kalyan now as a part of the main line, but is halted because of the costs of tunnelling the parsik hills.  The Central Line has two interchange stations with the Western Line at Parel and Dadar and the Harbour line at Masjid, Sandhurst Road and Kurla. Rolling stock consists of a fleet of AC and Alternate Current new Bombardier and Siemens EMUs. The major car sheds on this line are at Kurla and Kalwa. There are fast and slow locals here for suburban service. Slow locals halt at every station, while fast locals halts vary between Byculla, Dadar, Kurla, Ghatkopar, Vikhroli, Bhandup, Mulund, Thane, Diva, Dombivali and Kalyan. All services plying beyond Kalyan run as slow service (halting at every station).

Western Line.

The Western Line follows the Western Railway northwards from Churchgate parallel to the west coast. Local services by electric multiple units (EMUs) ply between Churchgate and Dahanu (124 km) on exclusive parallel tracks up to Virar (60 km) while Mainline Electrical Multiple Units (MEMUs) service the section beyond Virar to Dahanu Road (64 km). On 16 April 2013 EMU has extended up to Dahanu Road. MEMUs also operate between Dahanu Road and Panvel via a branch line from Bhiwandi road-Vasai Road. There are EMU carsheds at Mumbai Central, Kandivali and Virar. The largest EMU car shed in Asia is located at Virar. A repair shop for EMUs is situated at Mahalaxmi.  Western Railway's EMU fleet consists of EMUs completely powered by alternating current (25 kV) power. EMUs are 12 car or 15 car formations and are differentiated as slow and fast locals. Slow trains halt at all stations, while fast ones halt at important stations only and are preferable over longer distances.

Harbour Line.

The Harbour Line is part of the Central Railway, and runs from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSTM) to Goregaon and Panvel. All Harbour Line services operate as slow services. The line operates from two separate platforms at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSTM), and the tracks cross over the main line at Sandhurst Road, to head towards stations along Mumbai's eastern dock area. A branch line from Wadala Road joins the Western Line at Mahim and continues towards Goregaon.  The Harbour Line has an interchange station with the main line at Kurla, where it turns east towards Navi Mumbai. The Harbour Line further bifurcates at Vashi into two lines – one rejoins the main lines at Thane, while the other continues to Panvel. The shed for these trains is in Sanpada. A partial section of the Harbour Line is elevated.

Trans-Harbour Line.

The Trans-Harbour Line connects Navi Mumbai to Thane. It runs from Thane to Vashi, Nerul and Panvel.

Nerul–Uran Line.

The Nerul-Uran Line connects Navi Mumbai to Uran. It runs from Nerul and Seawoods Darave to Uran.

Services.

Mumbai Suburban Railway services have trains with three main designations:

Travel classes.

The suburban fleet consists of 12 and 15-coach rakes. There are two main classes of travel; the First and Second classes. The first class fare is approximately 8 times more expensive than second class, and therefore tends to be less crowded during the non rush hours, though at times it is equally or more crowded than the general compartments during rush hour, due to most office employees having a first class transport pass provided by their employer. First class and Senior Citizen compartments also have cushioned seating, while the rest are typically plastic. There are following classes of travel:  There are also women-only cars (termed "ladies"), and since 1992, "Ladies Special" trains with the entire trainset reserved for women passengers. A semi ladies special is a train with a few (e.g., 3) coaches reserved for women. These designations can be combined with "fast", "slow", etc., with terms such as "Slow Ladies Special".

Air-Conditioning.

The Mumbai Suburban Railways are known for their open doors and windows. This is because there is no ventilation system on the trains, and the train relies on natural air ventilation. This was introduced as a cost-saving measure, as an Air-Conditioning system would be rendered useless during rush hour. Leaving the doors open also allows for a fast boarding process, as the trains stop for only 10 seconds, to combat overcrowding. In 2016, the Indian Railways manufactured first local train for journey (particularly for hot and humid summer season). This rake is manufactured at Integral Coach factory, Chennai. It has several new facilities, such as connected vestibules, cushioned seats and sliding doors. It runs from Virar to Churchgate, AC trains are fast locals and started their run at 1 January 2018.

Ticketing.

The Mumbai Suburban Railway uses a proof-of-payment fare collection system. Tickets can be purchased at every train station. Travelling without a valid ticket is an offence and if caught can result in a penalty. The penalty is steeper for passengers travelling in first class without a valid ticket.  Tickets can be bought for a single journey (one way) or a return journey. A return ticket is valid till the next day on weekdays and till Monday if purchased on a Friday. The ticket counters usually have long queues.  Tourist tickets are valid for one, three, or five days that can be purchased up to three days in advance.  Platform Tickets are required to be purchased by those members of the public not boarding trains, but who wish to access the platforms at all stations, perhaps for the purpose of receiving or seeing off a passenger and also to use footbridges. These cost. A person can be penalised for non-possession of this ticket.  To save time, a Coupon Booklet can be purchased and the coupons can be punched for the designated fare at Coupon Validating Machines (CVMs) at every station. The ticket fares matrix is pasted above the CVM. As of October 2012, there are approximately 575 CVMs on Mumbai Suburban Railway stations. The Central Railway network has 350 and the Western Line has 225.  In early 2015, the authorities decided to discontinue CVMs w.e.f 1 April 2015. This decision was taken due to extensive duplication of the coupons, and the lack of transparency. The coupons were also lacking a way to trace them.  There are also Smart Cards available that can be topped up (recharged with some amount) and one can use it to print tickets for themselves from an Automatic Ticket Vending Machine (ATVMs). A Season Ticket can be purchased if one is commuting regularly. One can choose the validity of these tickets from 1-month, 3 months to a year. Season Tickets are the most cost-effective and time-efficient option for regular commuters.  The ticket counters usually have long queues. In order to bring a solution to this problem, the UTSOnMobile app was launched by railways minister Suresh Prabhu at Dadar railway station in December 2014. This app was launched initially for Android and Windows Phone, with the iOS version developed later.  To use this app, the user has to sign up with his/her mobile number. After signing up, the user has the option to load the prepaid RWallet built in the app, using credit/debit cards, net banking, IMPS or private mobile based apps. After the RWallet is loaded, the app can be used to book tickets on the entire network. Alternatively, the user may book tickets directly using credit/debit cards, net banking, IMPS, UPI, or various digital wallets such as PayTM, MobiKwik etc. for payments within the app without having to load the prepaid RWallet.  Initially, the ticket booked on the app had to be printed from the ATVMs. This step was found tedious by the commuters and was criticised. Later, in July 2015, an update for the app was launched, which made e-tickets acceptable. The update also brought technical changes, like, the tickets could be booked only within a radius of 30m to 5 km of the origin station, and not from the platform. This move was well-received by commuters, which resulted in over 50,000 downloads on the launch day.

Security.

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) and the Government Railway Police (GRP) are responsible for the Security of the Mumbai Suburban Railway.  The RPF is a security force under the authority of the Indian Ministry of Railways established by the Railway Protection Force Act, 1957 has the power to search, arrest, investigate and prosecute, though the ultimate power rests in the hands of the GRP.  The GRP is the main police force established by the "Railways Act, 1989". The GRP's responsibility is to observe law and order on all railway property. The force is under joint-control of the Indian Ministry of Railways and the Maharashtra Police. Its duties correspond to those of the District Police in the areas under their jurisdiction, such as patrolling, but only on railway property. It also aids and provides assistance to the Railway Protection Force

Safety issues.

Doors.

The Mumbai Suburban Railway is known for its open doors and windows. This is because there is no ventilation system on the trains and the train relies on natural air ventilation. This was introduced as a cost-saving measure, as an Air-Conditioning system would be rendered useless during rush hour. Leaving the doors open also allows for a fast boarding process and turnaround time, as the trains stop for only 10 seconds, and are at most 5 minutes apart, to combat overcrowding. Passengers often end up hanging off the edge of the footboard, off door ledges and during rush hour can lose balance and fall to their death. Teenagers and adults also attempt to perform stunts off the doorway and door ladders, thus risking their life. Windows also have a wired grill on them, to prevent theft and chain snatching. However, passengers frequently spit "paan", mava and gutka while hanging off doors, which ends up entering through the open window grills. There are also numerous records of people tripping and falling down everyday while getting on and off the train, when the train is in motion, thus resulting in injury.

Overcrowding.

Due to its extensive reach across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, and its intensive use by the local urban population, the Mumbai Suburban Railway suffers from the most severe overcrowding in the world. Over 4,500 passengers are packed into a 12-car or 15-car rake during peak hours, as against the rated carrying capacity of around 2,000. This has resulted in what is known as "Super-Dense Crush Load" of 14 to 16 standing passengers per square metre of floor space.

Fatalities.

On average, about 2,000 people die annually on the Mumbai Suburban Rail network; between 2002 and 2012, more than 36,152 people died and 36,688 people were injured. A record 17 people died every weekday on the city's suburban railway network in 2008. One of the reason for accidents and deaths is overcrowding (see above). Another cause of death is passengers crossing the tracks on foot to avoid footbridges. Some passengers die when they sit on train roofs to avoid the crowds and are electrocuted by overhead electric cables, or fall while hanging from doors and window bars. However, the fatality rates have declined recently. To reduce the risk of such fatalities, longer platforms and more frequent trains are being implemented.  Central Railways in association with a behaviour architecture firm deployed neuroscience based interventions at the Wadala station, reducing fatalities by about 75%. Times of India carried a news item regarding the success of this experiment.  In 2010, Western Railway has pledged that its trains will stop running if "even a single person" is seen travelling on the roof.  In mid-2011 a viral video depicted a youth performing stunts while dangling from the compartment of a Harbour Line train. Following this, a boy was killed while imitating the actions performed in the video.  The Western and Central Railways have been using the Auxiliary Warning System (AWS), a type of Train Protection & Warning System (TPWS), since 1996.  The Central Railway and Western Railway introduced a Blue Light (Virtual Gate) concept, The Blue beam light unit which will be mounted on the top of each Gate, which Guide the Commuter for Safe Boarding, avoid overcrowding and Safe clearance in the Platforms. It also helps to create a Cultural Transformation in the Behavior of the Commuter.

Terrorism.

The Mumbai Suburban Railway has suffered 8 blasts and around 368 people are believed to have died as a result.

Tourism.

Tourist usage of the Mumbai Suburban Railways has seen popularity as a way to explore the day-to-day life of the city, and as such, the Central Railway has issued circulars advising tourists not to travel in the trains from 07:00 to 11:00 and 17:00 to 22:00 during weekdays because of overcrowding.

Employment.

The Mumbai Suburban railway in addition to being such a huge part of the commuters life provides huge employment opportunities for people. Apart from the government jobs provided it also provides an opportunity for people who own small businesses to test out their products in these railways.

Expansion.

To enable the Mumbai Suburban Railway to meet the demands of the ever-growing passenger traffic, the federal Government of India's Ministry of Railways and the state Government of Maharashtra have jointly envisioned the constitution of a separate corporate entity to operate the system.  The Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation Ltd (MRVC), a public sector unit of the Government of India under the Ministry of Railways, was incorporated under the (Indian) Companies Act, 1956 on 12 July 1999, with an equity capital of to implement the rail component of an integrated rail-cum-road urban transport project, called Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP). The cost of the rail component of the project is to be shared equally by the Ministry of Railways and the Government of Maharashtra.  Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project-II is extending the Harbour Line up to Goregaon. Service began as of 29 March 2018. Further extension of this line has been accepted under MUTP III till Borivali.  CR has proposed constructing a 22.5 km line linking Seawoods Darave with Uran. The proposed line would have 10 stations.  CR has proposed a service from to, giving a boost to commuters to and from Nasik, since there are currently only three Intercity trains to Manmad (Godavari Express, Panchvati Express and Manmad Rajya Rani Express) operating from Mumbai. This distance is 132 km regular, meeting the Indian Railways criteria for EMU services CR has announced that it will carry out trial runs, however it has difficulty due to the Kasara ghat tunnels.

In popular culture.

Film.

The Mumbai Suburban Railway has regularly been used for film shoots. Some movies that have used the Mumbai Suburban Railway for filming are:

The Mumbai Suburban Railway (colloquially called local trains or simply locals) consists of exclusive inner suburban railway lines augmented by commuter rail on main lines serving outlying suburbs to serve the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Spread over, the suburban railway operates 2,342 train services and carries more than 7.5 million commuters daily. By annual ridership (2.64 billion), the Mumbai Suburban Railway is one of the busiest commuter rail systems in the world. Trains run from 04:00 until 01:00, and some trains also run up to 02:30. It is the second largest suburban rail network in terms of route length after the Kolkata Suburban Railway.

Le Chemin de fer suburbain de Bombay est un réseau de quatre lignes ferroviaires desservant l'agglomération de Bombay et qui constitue le principal système de transport en commun lourd de cette ville. D'une longueur totale de 451 kilomètres il transporte quotidiennement 8 millions de passagers par jour ce qui en fait l'un des systèmes de transport au commun les plus fréquentés au monde.


Early life and career.

Hoàng was born in Cót, in the Từ Liêm District of Vietnam, one of seven children of fabric merchant Hoàng Thuc Tan. Her mother died when she was eight years old, and she was raised by a stepmother. She has also frequently been said to be the granddaughter of Vietnamese mathematician Hoàng Xuân Hãn. She completed a bachelor's degree in 1951 in Hanoi, studying English and French, and then traveled to Paris for a second baccalaureate in mathematics. She stayed in France to study for an "agrégation" at the University of Toulouse, which she completed in 1959, before returning to Vietnam to become a mathematics teacher at the Hanoi National University of Education. Hoàng became the first female mathematician in Vietnam and at that time was one of a very small number of mathematicians there with a foreign education.

Work with Grothendieck.

The French mathematician and pacifist Alexander Grothendieck visited North Vietnam in late 1967, during the Vietnam War, and spent a month teaching mathematics to the Hanoi University mathematics department staff, including Hoàng, who took the notes for the lectures. Because of the war, Grothendieck's lectures were held away from Hanoi, first in the nearby countryside and later in Đại Từ. After Grothendieck returned to France, he continued to teach Hoàng as a correspondence student. She earned her doctorate under Grothendieck's supervision from Paris Diderot University in 1975, with a handwritten thesis. Her thesis research, on algebraic structures based on categorical groups but with a group law that holds only up to isomorphism, prefigured much of the modern theory of 2-groups.

Later accomplishments.

When she was promoted to full professor Hoàng became the first female full professor in Vietnam in any scientific or technical field. In 1988 she founded the first private university in Vietnam, Thang Long University in Hanoi, and became the president of its board of directors.

Recognition.

In 2003 she was awarded France's "Ordre des Palmes Académiques" for her "contributions to boosting cooperation in culture and science between the two nations" of France and Vietnam.

Hoàng Xuân Sính (born September 8, 1933) is a Vietnamese mathematician, a student of Grothendieck, the first female mathematician in Vietnam, the founder of Thang Long University, and the recipient of the "Ordre des Palmes Académiques".

Hoàng Xuân Sính (née en 1933) est une mathématicienne vietnamienne, titulaire des Palmes académiques françaises. Elle est la première femme à devenir mathématicienne au Vietnam et la fondatrice de l'Université privée Thang Long.


Biography.

Early years (1943–1960).

Danko was born on December 29, 1943 in Blayney, Ontario, a farming community outside the town of Simcoe, the third of four sons in a musical family of Ukrainian descent. He grew up listening to live music at family gatherings and to country music, blues and R&B on the radio. He especially liked country music, and often his mother would let him stay up late to listen to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio.  His musical influences included Hank Williams, the Carter Family and, later, Sam Cooke. He also drew inspiration from the music of his eldest brother, Junior. Danko's second-eldest brother, Dennis, was an accomplished songwriter, and his younger brother, Terry, also became a musician.  He made his musical debut playing a four-string tenor banjo for his first-grade classmates, and while various sources differ slightly, all suggest he was headed to a professional career early. One report has him forming his first "Rick Danko Band" at age 12 or 13, another reference mentions that by age 14 he was putting on country & western shows with his brothers, Maruice Jr., Dennis and Terry, using various group names. It is also written that he started a band at that age with his eldest brother, Maurice Junior and a local high school teacher on drums. This trio performed country music and R & B at local dance halls, sometimes rented themselves, weddings, and other events. The group, "The Starlights", expanded to included accordion, second guitar and "a girl singer", expanded their repertoire to include polkas for newer European immigrants.  By age 17, already a five-year music veteran and having already left the Simcoe Composite School and working by day as a butcher, booked his band The Starlights as the opening act for Ronnie Hawkins, an American rockabilly singer whose group, the Hawks, was considered one of the best in Canada.

The Hawks (1960–1964).

Hawkins invited Danko to join the Hawks as rhythm guitarist. Around this time, Hawks bassist Rebel Paine was fired by Hawkins, who, wasting no time, ordered Danko to learn to play the bass, with help from other members of the band. By September 1960, he was Hawkins's bassist.  In 1961, Danko with drummer Levon Helm backed guitarist Lenny Breau on several tracks recorded at Hallmark Studios in Toronto. These tracks are included on the 2003 release The Hallmark Sessions.  Soon joined by pianist Richard Manuel and multi-instrumentalist Garth Hudson, the Hawks played with Hawkins through mid-1963. An altercation that year between Danko and Hawkins led Danko, Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Manuel, and Hudson to give two-weeks' notice in early 1964, and they parted ways with Hawkins on reasonably amicable terms. The group had been planning to leave Hawkins and strike out together as a band without a frontman, as a team of equal members.

Pre-Band (1964–1968).

Danko and the former Hawks initially performed as the Levon Helm Sextet, with saxophonist Jerry Penfound, later became the Canadian Squires, after Penfound left, and finally were billed as Levon and the Hawks. Playing a circuit that stretched in an arc from Ontario to Arkansas, they became known as "the best damn bar band in the land."  By 1965, with two singles under their belt, recorded as the Canadian Squires, they met the legendary blues harmonicist and vocalist Sonny Boy Williamson and planned a collaboration with him as soon as he returned to Chicago. The group went on to play a four-month stand of gigs in New Jersey immediately afterward, but Williamson died two months after their meeting, and the collaboration never happened.  In August 1965, Mary Martin, an assistant to Bob Dylan's manager Albert Grossman, heard the music of the group, then known as Levon and the Hawks. Grossman introduced the band's music to Dylan, who was impressed. The group was performing at Tony Mart's, a popular club in Somers Point, New Jersey, and Grossman's office called the club to speak with Levon and the group about touring with Dylan.  Helm was not happy to be backing a "strummer" but reluctantly agreed, and the band became Dylan's backup group for a tour beginning in September. The tour, however, became too much for Helm, who departed in November. Through May 1966, Dylan and the remaining foursome (together with pick-up drummers, including the actor and musician Mickey Jones) traveled across America, Australia, and Europe. After the final shows in England, Dylan retreated to his new home in Woodstock, New York, and the Hawks joined him there shortly thereafter.

The Band (1968–1977).

It was Danko who found the pink house on Parnassus Lane in Saugerties, New York, which became known as Big Pink. Danko, Hudson, and Manuel moved in, and Robertson lived nearby. The Band's musical sessions with Dylan took place in the basement of Big Pink, between June and October 1967, generating recordings that were officially released in 1975 as "The Basement Tapes". In October, the Hawks began demo recordings for their first album, with Helm rejoining the group in that month. Their manager, Albert Grossman, secured them a recording deal with Capitol Records in late 1967.  From January to March 1968, the Band recorded their debut album, "Music from Big Pink", in recording studios in New York and Los Angeles. On this album, Danko sang lead vocal on three songs: "Caledonia Mission", "Long Black Veil" and "This Wheel's on Fire."  Before the Band could promote the album by touring, Danko was severely injured in a car accident, breaking his neck and back in six places, which put him in traction for months. While he was in traction, Danko's girlfriend, Grace Seldner, informed him that she was pregnant, and he proposed from his hospital bed. When they married, Danko was still in a neck brace. Rick and Grace divorced in October 1980.  The Band finally made their concert debut at Bill Graham's Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco in April 1969. By this time, they were already hard at work on their eponymous second album. On that record, sometimes known as the Brown Album, Danko sang what would become two of his signature songs—and two of the group's best-loved classics: "When You Awake" and "Unfaithful Servant." Both songs exemplified Danko's talents as a lead singer and demonstrated his naturally plaintive voice.  Danko is featured in the documentary film "Festival Express", about an all-star tour by train across Canada in 1970. On the train, he sings an impromptu version of "Ain't No More Cane" with Jerry Garcia and Janis Joplin. The Band's sound was defined by each member—Robertson's lyrics and guitar work, Helm's "bayou folk" drumming and Southern voice, Manuel's Ray Charles–like vocals and complex keyboard rhythms, Hudson's arrangements on an assortment of instruments and Danko's distinctive tenor voice, his on-top-of-the-melody harmonies, and his percussive, melodic bass-playing style were an integral part of the group's sound.  In an interview published in "Guitar Player", Danko cited bassists James Jamerson, Ron Carter, Edgar Willis, and Chuck Rainey as his musical influences. He eventually moved from the Fender Jazz Bass to an Ampeg fretless model and later a Gibson Ripper for "The Last Waltz".

Later years (1977–1999).

After the Band performed its farewell concert ("The Last Waltz") at Winterland in November 1976, Danko was offered a contract with Arista Records by Clive Davis, making him the first Band member to record a solo album. Issued in 1977, his self-titled début featured each of his former bandmates in addition to Ronnie Wood, Eric Clapton, Doug Sahm, Blondie Chaplin, and Danko's brother, Terry. The album was primarily recorded at the Band's California studio, Shangri-La. The poor sales of the album destined it for rarity status. After he recorded an unreleased follow-up album, Danko was dropped from Arista. The follow-up album was finally released as a part of "Cryin' Heart Blues" in 2005.  In early 1979 Danko opened shows for Boz Scaggs. Also in 1979, Danko and Paul Butterfield toured together as the Danko/Butterfield Band. Among the songs they covered was "Sail On, Sailor", originally recorded by the Beach Boys, with Blondie Chaplin, who toured with Danko/Butterfield, on guitar and vocals. From 1983-99, Danko alternated between a reformed version of the Band featuring Helm, Hudson, and guitarist Jim Weider (and, from 1983 to 1986, Manuel); a solo career; and collaborations including award-winning work with singer-songwriter Eric Andersen and Norway's Jonas Fjeld as Danko/Fjeld/Andersen.  In 1984, Danko joined members of the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers and others in a touring company called "The Byrds Twenty-Year Celebration." Several members of this band performed solo songs to start the show including Danko, who performed "Mystery Train". In 1989, he toured with Levon Helm and Garth Hudson as part of Ringo Starr's first All-Starr Band. Danko sang on the Pink Floyd songs "Comfortably Numb" and "Mother", the former with Van Morrison, Roger Waters, and Levon Helm, and the latter with Helm and Sinéad O'Connor on July 21, 1990, in Roger Waters's stage production of "The Wall Concert in Berlin". He recorded demos and made a number of appearances on albums by other artists throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and, in 1997, released "Rick Danko in Concert". Two years later, a third solo album ("Live on Breeze Hill") was released, and Danko was at work on a fourth ("Times Like These") at the time of his death.  In the meantime, the Band (without Robbie Robertson and Richard Manuel) recorded three more albums, and Danko teamed with Fjeld and Andersen for two trio albums, "Danko/Fjeld/Andersen" in 1991 and "Ridin' on the Blinds" in 1994. By this time, Danko had gained a lot of weight, and his addiction to alcohol and drugs had intensified. In 1996, Danko was found guilty of receiving a package of heroin mailed to him in Japan. He told the presiding judge that he had begun using the drug (together with prescription morphine) to fight lifelong pain resulting from his 1968 auto accident. He received a two-and-a-half-year suspended sentence.  In 1994, Danko was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Band.

Death.

On December 10, 1999, days after the end of a brief tour of the Midwest that included two shows in the Chicago area and a final gig at the Ark in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Danko died in his sleep at his home in Marbletown, New York. The cause of death was heart failure, likely arising from years of alcoholism and drug addiction. He was 55.  He was survived by his second wife, Elizabeth (died 2013), whom he had married in 1989; a stepson, Justin and a daughter Lisa, from his first marriage. His son Eli, from Danko's first marriage, died in 1989 at age 18 from asphyxiation after heavy drinking while studying at the State University of New York at Albany. Danko was buried next to Eli at Woodstock Cemetery, Woodstock, New York.

Legacy.

For the April 2012 edition of "Bass Musician: Bass Magazine for Bass Players and the Bass Industry", Rob Collier wrote an article titled "How to Danko: A Lesson in the Style of Rick Danko".  On the Irishtimes.com blogsite, Laurence Mackin wrote that Together with bass player Rick Danko, [Levon] Helm formed one of the finest rhythm sections to ever put a groove to a beat, and a partnership that formed the backbone of The Band. In Danko, he had the perfect complementary player, one of the finest bassists and one of the gentlest souls. His music was subtle, his instinct for just the right note unwavering – he could play one beat in four bars, but lord could he make it count. Their subtle, intense rhythmic conversation brought shape and distinction to the Band's music – it gave it heart and soul.  The Drive-By Truckers' song "Danko/Manuel," written by Jason Isbell, was released on their album "The Dirty South" in 2004. Steve Forbert released "Wild as the Wind (A Tribute to Rick Danko)" on "Just Like There's Nothin' To It" in 2004.. Martin Hagfors honored Danko on the Home Groan song "You Made a Difference" in 2000.  A number of musical artists have cited Danko as an influence, including Elvis Costello, John Doe, Mumford & Sons, Lucinda Williams, Jay Farrar, Neko Case, Robbie Fulks, Cindy Cashdollar, Craig Finn of The Hold Steady, Chris Tomson of Vampire Weekend, Mike Watt, and Eric Clapton who said "Rick's singing has had a tremendous influence on me... you have to be a great musician before you can sing like that."

Notable instruments.

Danko used various basses throughout his career. He played a mid-sixties sunburst Fender Jazz Bass on the 1966 World Tour with Bob Dylan, and on the recording of "Music from Big Pink" and "The Band", as well as early live shows by The Band, including Woodstock and the Isle of Wight Festival. In late 1969, the Band was given some equipment by Ampeg, which included a fretted Ampeg AEB, a fretless Ampeg AMUB and an Ampeg "Baby Bass", a fiberglass-made electric upright bass. The fretless AMUB, modified with jazz pickups, was his bass of choice for the next years to come, and can be heard prominently on "Stage Fright" and "Cahoots", and was used live, as can be seen in the film Festival Express also in video footage included in the "Live at the Academy of Music 1971" release. This fretless bass was sold on eBay from a private collection in early 2012 for US$35,000.00. Danko owned four Gibson Rippers, and would change out the pickups to experiment with different tones. Photos and video show him often playing a blonde one and also a sunburst, which was featured in "The Last Waltz".  Throughout the 1990s, Danko played a custom-built hollow-body electric bass by luthier Mark Dan, with Alembic pickups, which he referred to as "One of the greatest basses that I've ever had". His other main bass throughout the 1990s was a red electric hollowbody bass from the Norwegian Workshop Guitar Company with two types of Olympic Pickups. His amp of choice was a blueline Ampeg SVT, and he also used a 1959 Fender Bassman.

Discography.

With Danko/Fjeld/Andersen  With Richard Manuel

Richard Clare Danko (December 29, 1943 – December 10, 1999) was a Canadian musician, bassist, songwriter and singer, best known as a member of The Band.

Richard Clare « Rick » Danko ( – ) était un musicien canadien, bassiste, auteur, compositeur et chanteur, mieux connu comme membre de The Band.


Gameplay.

The player's goal in each level is to search for notes and logs from the hospital's past, referred to as "remnants", by looking for markings using glow sticks. Once all remnants in a level have been collected, the player is able to acquire a "sigil", an item of significance to the hospital's past, such as a teddy bear and a Bible. Bringing the sigil to "the Seal of Shadows" will unlock the next part of the building, allowing the player to advance further into the hospital and, possibly, to freedom.  Discovering remnants can cause a marking on her arm, which attracts the dangerous "shadow people". The player can either make them disappear by using flares or lose them by running away. The player cannot access any weapons; the only tools available are glowsticks, flares, and a cell phone. The environment layout is randomly generated. The enemies and other antagonists are procedurally spawned.  The game's interface includes the number of remnants the player has to find and the threat level in the hospital. As threat level increases, monsters are more likely to appear.

Plot.

The plot is centered around a woman named Sarah who regains consciousness in an abandoned hospital with no memory of how she got there. A mysterious voice tells her to find the secrets of the hospital. With a cell phone, which is her map, she must explore the haunted hospital and its criminal past in order to escape.

Reception.

"Daylight" received mixed reviews from critics. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the PC version 51/100, and the PlayStation 4 version 48/100. "GameZone" Joe Donato opined ""Daylight" accomplishes nothing. Its attempt to expand on the "" formula is only enjoyable for as long as you'd ever want to play Slender anyway, and it isn't nearly as effective."

Daylight is a survival horror video game developed by Zombie Studios and published by Atlus for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4. It was the first game to be powered by Unreal Engine 4.

Daylight est un jeu vidéo de type "survival horror" développé par Zombie Studios et édité par Atlus, sorti en 2014 sur Windows et PlayStation 4.


Discovery.

The text was found in tomb M247 of the burial grounds near Zhangjiashan, Jiangling County, in Hubei province, excavated in December–January 1983–1984. This tomb belonged to an anonymous civil servant in early West Han dynasty. In the tomb were 1200 bamboo strips written in ink. Originally the strips were bound together with string, but the string had rotted away and it took Chinese scholars 17 years to piece together the strips. As well as the mathematical work the strips covered government statutes, law reports and therapeutic gymnastics.  On the back of the sixth strip, the top has a black square mark, followed by the three characters <unk>數書, which serve as the title of the rolled up book.

Content.

The Suàn shù shū consists of 200 strips of bamboo written in ink, 180 strips are intact, the others have rotted. They consist of 69 mathematical problems from a variety of sources, two names Mr Wáng and Mr Yáng were found, probably two of the writers. Each problem has a question, an answer, followed by a method. The problems cover elementary arithmetic; fractions; inverse proportion; factorization of numbers; geometric progressions, in particular interest rate calculations and handling of errors; conversion between different units; the false position method for finding roots and the extraction of approximate square roots; calculation of the volume of various 3-dimensional shapes; relative dimensions of a square and its inscribed circle; calculation of unknown side of rectangle, given area and one side. All the calculations about circumference and area of circle are approximate, equivalent to taking π = 3. Calculations of pi were made more accurate with the work of Liu Xin (c. 46 BC – 23 AD), Zhang Heng (78–139 AD), Liu Hui (fl. 3rd century AD), and Zu Chongzhi (429–500).  Prior to discovery the oldest Chinese mathematical text were the Zhoubi Suanjing and "The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art" which dates from around 100 CE. Many topics are covered in both texts, however, error correction problems only appear in the Suàn shù shū, and the last two chapter of the nine chapters have no corresponding material in the Suàn shù shū.  The text has been translated to English by Christopher Cullen, director of the Needham Research Institute.

The Book on Numbers and Computation (), or the Writings on Reckoning, is one of the earliest known Chinese mathematical treatises. It was written during the early Western Han dynasty, sometime between 202 BC and 186 BC.

Le Livre sur les nombres et le calcul (), ou "" est l'un des premiers traités chinois de mathématiques. Il a été écrit durant le début de la dynastie Han de l'Ouest, entre et


History.

As a consequence of the result of the December 2016 constitutional referendum, in which the Senate reform was rejected, the two chambers of the Italian Parliament ended up with two different electoral laws, which lacked uniformity. As a matter of fact, the electoral law for the Chamber of Deputies passed by Matteo Renzi's government, the so-called "Italicum", based on a strong winner-take-all principle, was still in effect, whereas in the Senate a pure proportional system (the remnants of the so-called "Porcellum", the electoral law approved by the cabinet of Silvio Berlusconi in 2005 and then declared extensively unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court in January 2014) was in force. The two systems differed on several aspects, among which the possibility of forming coalitions before the elections (only allowed at the Senate) and the election thresholds.  In June 2017, the Democratic Party together with the Five Star Movement, Forza Italia and Lega Nord agreed on a law, known as "Tedeschellum", which was based on a similar system to the one used in Germany. However, the agreement among the four parties did not survive a secret-ballot vote during the first reading at the Chamber of Deputies and the bill was put aside.  After few weeks Ettore Rosato, the leader of the group of the Democratic Party at the Chamber of Deputies, proposed a new bill based on a mixed system, with half of the seats allocated using the first-past-the-post and the other half using a proportional allocation. The bill was not popular in its original version, since several opposition parties considered the number of seats allocated with the FPTP system too high.  A later and revised version of the "Rosatellum", known as "Rosatellum bis" was approved by PD, FI, LN, AP and ALA in October 2017, becoming the new electoral law for both the houses of the Parliament.

Main characteristics and operation.

The national elections use a parallel voting system, with 36.% of seats allocated using a first-past-the-post electoral system and 63.% using a proportional method (the latter including the seats allocated to Italians abroad), with one round of voting. The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies did not differ in the way they allocated the proportional seats, both using the largest remainder method of allocating seats.  The Senate of the Republic included 315 elected members, of whom:  The Senate is elected on a single ballot. The ballot includes the district's member, on a purely plurality basis and the parties and party-lists were listed that supported him, which was used to determine the proportional seats, allocated within one single national constituency, with a 3% minimum threshold for party representation.  The Chamber of Deputies had 630 members, of whom  As the Senate, the Chamber of Deputies is elected on a single ballot.  The complicated mechanism known as scorporo, which was used to tabulate PR votes in the "Mattarellum", was abolished in the new electoral law.  The law also re-introduced a closed list system for the party lists on the second ballot, i.e., excluding voters from the decision as to which members of that party would enter parliament, thereby guaranteeing reelection of party leaders whose popular support was rapidly declining (new elections were to be held once the new electoral law was fully implemented).

Voting paper.

The voting paper, which is a single one for the first-past-the-post and the proportional systems, shows the names of the candidates to single-member constituencies and, in close conjunction with them, the symbols of the linked lists for the proportional part, each one with a list of the relative candidates.  The voter will be able to cast his vote in three different ways:  In an effort to mitigate fragmentation, split-ticket voting is not allowed.

Adaptation to constitutional reform.

Law 51/2019 was meant to adapt the "Rosatellum" to a reduction of the number of seats in both houses of the Italian Parliament. It became law on 26 June 2019. It has been called a "riformina electorale", or little electoral reform.  A constitutional amendment procedure was initiated during the 18th legislature by the Five Stars Movement, to cut the size of both houses by more than a third (from 630 and 315 members, to 400 and 200). To avoid incompatibility with the proposed amendment, the 2019 law adapts the "Rosatellum" law, and sets fractions for each type of seat (proportional or majoritary) instead of exact numbers. The ratio of single-winner districts over the total number of seats in "Rosatellum" was equal to 3/8 in both houses, and the law 51/2019 retains those proportions.  Besides the Five Stars Movement, the law was supported by the League and was opposed by the Democratic Party, until it joined the Conte II Cabinet in August 2019.

Previous systems.

Italicum (2015–2017).

The Italian electoral law of 2015, better known as "Italicum", a name given to it in 2014 by the Democratic Party secretary and subsequently head of government Matteo Renzi, who was its main proponent (until the end of January 2015 with the support of Forza Italia's leader Silvio Berlusconi) provides for a two-round system based on party-list proportional representation (the former being ruled out as unconstitutional), corrected by a majority bonus and a 3% election threshold. Candidates run for election in 100 multi-member constituencies with open lists, except for a single candidate chosen by each party who is the first to be elected.  The law, which came into force on 1 July 2016, regulates the election of the Chamber of Deputies, replacing the previous electoral law of 2005, modified by the Constitutional Court in December 2013 after judging it partly unconstitutional.  The law was written under the assumption that, by the time it came into force, the upper house would have become an indirectly-elected body representing regions, with greatly reduced powers, thus making a reform of its electoral system unnecessary. The upper-house reform, rejected in the 4 December 2016 Constitutional Referendum, was originally assumed to be adopted without a Referendum by 1 July 2016.  It is the first electoral law approved by the Italian Parliament but never used in a general election.

History.

The electoral law passed by the centre-right government in 2005 immediately received widespread criticism: among other things, critics called into question the use of long closed lists of candidates (which gave party executives great power in deciding the composition of the Parliament), and the regional mechanism of allocation of seats in the Senate (which made the existence of a "clear winner" of the elections less likely).  After two unsuccessful attempts at repealing the law by referendum, in the 2013 general election the law failed to produce a majority in the Senate; as a consequence, the only way to form a government was by means of a grand coalition between left-wing and right-wing parties that had harshly fought each other in the election. The resulting Letta Cabinet was perceived by many people as the second "unelected government" in a row (after the Monti Cabinet).  While the coalition agreed that a new electoral law was needed, it failed to agree on a specific model. The Democratic Party executive and prime minister Enrico Letta even went as far as requesting that his party vote against a parliamentary initiative by fellow democrat Roberto Giachetti to restore the previous Mattarella law. This was probably done out of concern that the grand coalition supporting his government would not hold.  On 4 December 2013, the Constitutional Court judged the electoral law of 2005 partly unconstitutional: in particular, its unlimited majority bonus was repealed. This made an electoral reform ever more urgent, since proportional representation without majoritarian correction is thought to be incompatible with the competitive party system of Italy.  A few days after, on 8 December 2013, Matteo Renzi became the new leader of the Democratic Party. In his victory speech, he vowed to change the electoral law against the risk of ""stabilized grand coalitions"". Renzi's initiative ultimately led to him taking Letta's place as the prime minister. Finally, Renzi made a deal with Silvio Berlusconi for a set of institutional reforms, including a new majority-assuring law based on a two-round system, conceived to make the event of a forced Grand Coalition impossible.  The bill still faced harsh opposition, even from members of the proposing parties: however it was approved by the Chamber of Deputies on 12 March 2014 and, in an amended form, by the Senate on 27 January 2015 with the support of a large majority.  After the election of Sergio Mattarella as the new President of Italy on 31 January 2015, Berlusconi withdrew his support of the bill. In order for it to receive its final approval by the Chamber of Deputies, the government decided to link it to a confidence vote (hinting at a snap election in case of a negative outcome). The bill was finally approved on 4 May 2015 and signed by President Mattarella two days later.

Main characteristics and operation.

The Italicum system regulates the attribution of 617 of the 630 seats of the Chamber of Deputies, excluding 12 seats attributed to representatives of Italians living abroad, and one seat for the Aosta Valley region. An uncommon feature of this system is that it is "majority assuring", thanks to a jackpot that is assigned to the winning party, possibly after a second electoral round.  The territory of Italy is divided into 100 constituencies electing between 3 and 9 deputies depending on their size. For each constituency, the parties designate a list of candidates: "head of list" candidates can run in up to 10 constituencies, while other candidates are limited to a single constituency. Gender balance is promoted by requiring that, in each region, head of lists of either sex for the same party should not exceed 60% of the total; additionally, candidates in all lists must be in a sequence alternating by gender.  At the first round, electors receive a ballot allowing them to vote for a single party and for its head of list candidate (pre-printed on the ballot), and are given the option to express up to two additional preference votes for other candidates of that party, by writing their name next to the party symbol. If two preference votes are expressed, they must be of a different sex: otherwise, the second preference is discarded.  Only parties passing a 3% minimum threshold in the first round are assigned seats. If the party receiving the plurality of the votes passes a 40% threshold, it is attributed a minimum of 340 seats (54%). The remaining seats are allocated to the other parties in a proportional fashion, and no second round takes place.  If no party has been able to pass the 40% threshold, a second round takes place two weeks after the first one: this time electors receive a ballot where they are allowed to choose between the two parties that received most votes in the first round. The party winning the second round is attributed 340 seats, and the remaining 277 seats are allocated to the other parties in a proportional fashion, according to the results of the first round.  The proportional allocation of seats follows the largest remainder method. Each party receives a certain number of seats depending on its national result: these seats are then projected onto the 100 constituencies and attributed to the candidates of that constituency, starting from the head of list and then according to the number of preference votes.  An amendment, known as "Erasmus amendment", makes sure Italians studying abroad in the Erasmus programme can vote.

Constitutional review.

On February 24, 2016 a court in Messina sent the election law for review to the Constitutional Court: declaring admissible the application by petitioners, the judges called for the Constitutional Court to decide whether eight out of the petitioners' 13 claims that the Italicum breached the Italian Constitution. The Constitutional Court might still decide that the unconstitutionality hypothesis is not founded, and even refuse to examine it. The court's decision is not expecting until after 2017 January.  A constitutional reform bill passed by the Italian Parliament in April 2016, which is still awaiting popular confirmation by referendum, will require the Constitutional Court to decide on the consititutional legitimacy of the electoral law even if the aforementioned application is rejected. This extraordinary procedure will only take place if the referendum confirms the bill.

Porcellum (2005–2015).

The previous electoral law had a series of thresholds to encourage parties to form coalitions. It replaced an Additional Member electoral system which had been introduced in the 1990s. The attempt to change the law with the referendum failed and was the Constitutional Court, the judgment no. 1 of 2014, to eliminate various unconstitutional elements that were part of the law.  The block voting system is nationwide-based for the House, and regional-based for the Senate. Italy is divided into a certain number of districts for the Chamber of Deputies, whereas each Region elects its senators. Each district is assigned a number of seats proportionate to its total of the population of Italy. The winning coalition receives at least 55% of the seats on national level in the House, and on regional level in the Senate, while the remaining seats are proportionally divided between minority parties. For the House, seats won by each party are then allocated at district level to decide the elected candidates. Candidates on the lists are ranked in order of priority, so if a party wins for example ten seats, the first ten candidates on its list receive seats in parliament.  The law officially recognized coalitions of parties: to be part of a coalition, a party must sign its official program and indicate its support for the coalition's candidate to the prime-ministership.

Chamber of Deputies.

For the Chamber of Deputies, Italy is divided into 26 constituencies: Lombardy has three constituencies, Piedmont, Veneto, Lazio, Campania, and Sicily each have two, and all other regions have one. These constituencies jointly elect 617 MPs. Additionally one MP is elected from the Aosta Valley and 12 are elected by a constituency consisting of Italians living abroad. Seats are allocated among the parties that pass thresholds of the total vote on a "national basis":  Also, parties representing regional linguistic minorities obtain seats if they receive at least 20% of the ballots in their constituency.  In order to guarantee a working majority, a coalition or party which obtains a plurality of the vote, but less than 340 seats, is assigned additional seats to reach that number, corresponding roughly to a 54% majority.  Inside each coalition, seats are divided between parties with a Hare method, and consequently assigned to each constituency to elect single candidates.

Senate of the Republic.

For the Senate, the constituencies correspond to the 20 regions of Italy, with 6 senators allocated for Italians living abroad. The electoral system is partly similar to the one for the lower house, but is in many ways transferred to regional basis. After judgment 1/2014 of the Constitutional Court, the voting system for the Senate aims at party-list proportional representation without majority bonus. The thresholds are different, and applied on a "regional basis":  The electoral system for the senate, proportional representation without majority bonus, does not guarantee a clear majority for any party-list in the Senate, unlike the national super-assignment system in the Chamber of Deputies.

Criticism.

The new electoral law has come under wide criticism from the centre-left opposition since its introduction for a series of reasons:

Mattarellum (1993–2005).

Between 1991 and 1993, resulting from two referendums and legislation, Italian electoral law was altered substantially. Electoral law in Italy is determined by Parliament, not by the constitution. This, along with the concurrent collapse of the Italian party system, marks the transition between the First and Second Italian Republics.

Two referendums.

The nearly pure proportional representation system of the First Republic had resulted not only in party fragmentation and therefore governmental instability, but also insulation of the parties from the electorate and civil society. This was known in Italian as "partitocrazia", in contrast to democracy, and resulted in corruption and pork-barrel politics. The Italian constitution allows, with substantial hurdles, "abrogative referendums", enabling citizens to delete laws or parts of laws passed by Parliament (with exceptions).  A reform movement known as "COREL" (Committee to Promote Referendums on Elections), led by maverick DC-member Mario Segni, proposed three referendums, one of which was allowed by the Constitutional Court (at that time packed with members of the PSI and hostile to the movement). The June 1991 referendum therefore asked voters if they wanted to reduce the number of preferences, from three or four to one, in the Chamber of Deputies, to reduce the abuse of the open-list system by party elites and ensure accurate delegation of parliamentary seats to candidates popular with voters. With 62.5% of the Italian electorate voting, the referendum passed with 95% of those voting in favor. This was seen as a vote against the "partitocrazia", which had campaigned against the referendum.  Emboldened by their victory in 1991, and encouraged by the unfolding Mani pulite scandals and the substantial loss of votes for the traditional parties in the 1992 general elections, the reformers pushed forward with another referendum, abolishing the proportional representation system of the Italian Senate, implicitly supporting a plurality system that would theoretically force parties to come together around two ideological poles, thereby providing governmental stability. This referendum was held in April 1993, and passed with the support of 80% of those voting. This caused the Amato government to collapse three days later. Municipal elections were held in June 1993, further illustrating the lack of legitimacy the sitting parliament held. The President of Italy, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, thereupon appointed a technocratic government, led by former head of the Bank of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, with the sole task of writing a new electoral law.  As it was under no constitutional obligation to enact a purely majoritarian system (nor were they under obligation to promulgate a new electoral law for the Chamber of Deputies), and cognizant of its declining popular support, the sitting parliament enacted a new electoral law in August 1993 that provided for single-member districts while reflecting their own interests. Despite this, many of them would be voted out of office in the national election in March 1994.

The electoral law.

The national elections used an Additional Member System, which in Italy was a mixed system, with 75% of seats allocated using a First Past the Post electoral system and 25% using a proportional method, with one round of voting. The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies did not differ in the way they allocated the proportional seats, both using the D'Hondt method of allocating seats.  The Senate included 315 elected members, of whom:  The Senate was elected on a single ballot. All those votes not contributing to a winning candidate were thrown into a regional pool, where the seats were allocated proportionally. There was no electoral threshold for the Senate.  The Italian Chamber of Deputies had 630 members, of whom  The Chamber of Deputies used two ballots. The first ballot elected that district's member, on a purely plurality basis. The second ballot, in which only parties and party-lists were listed, was used to determine the proportional seats, allocated within one single national constituency, with a 4% minimum threshold for party representation.  A complicated mechanism known as scorporo, a previously unknown word in Italian politics, was used to tabulate PR votes. The number of votes cast for candidates coming in second place on the "first ballot (SMD)" would be subtracted from the number of votes earned on the "second ballot (PR)" by the party of the winning candidate in the first ballot. This would be repeated for each single-member district. This was developed – against the overwhelming opinion expressed in the referendums – to dampen the effect of the first-past-the-post system, which it was feared that it might promote the prevalence of one political party, especially parties that were strong in one geographical area.  The law also introduced a closed list system for the party lists on the second ballot, i.e., excluding voters from the decision as to which members of that party would enter parliament, thereby guaranteeing reelection of party leaders whose popular support was rapidly declining (new elections were to be held once the new electoral law was fully implemented). Ironically, that is what allowed Mario Segni, the leader of the reform movement, to enter parliament on the proportional ballot after the March 1994, elections, having broken with his party in March 1993, and then reunited with one of its shattered remnants that December.  The system did not accomplish the goals desired by the voters. The first parliament elected after the electoral reform produced Silvio Berlusconi's first government, which lasted eight months. Small parties still enter parliament and form unstable coalitions. On the other hand, political parties in Italy seem to be coalescing around two poles, if imperfectly so, and governments have lasted much longer, at least by Italian standards. On that level, the electoral reform can be seen as an improvement over the electoral law prior to it, even if Italy has now returned to a party-list system.

The 1946–1993 electoral system.

Between 1946 and 1993, Italy used an electoral system that was a nearly pure proportional representation system, which was subject to two insignificant thresholds:  Furthermore, voters were able to list their preferences for candidates on a party list, in order to prevent the parties from exploiting the power they acquired from being able to write their party lists. In practice, however, parties were able to manipulate these numbers so that preferred members, i.e., members loyal to one faction within a party, could enter parliament.  As neither of these thresholds was difficult to achieve, this system naturally benefitted the small parties. This was exacerbated by the fact that the Lower House has 630 seats. Because of the design of the electoral law did not provide for any mechanism to exclude small parties (indeed, it seemed designed to encourage them) or provide any incentives to avoid splintering, this resulted in highly unstable coalition governments (the average length was nine months) and political turbulence; and because voters had little control over which candidates entered parliament, political parties were insulated from the wishes of civil society. Relations between political elites and the masses therefore became clientelistic; voter behavior and politics in general became a contest as to which party could secure more pork-barrel investment for a specific region. It also allowed politicians to become corrupt.

The Italian Electoral law of 2017, colloquially known by the nickname Rosatellum bis or simply Rosatellum, after Ettore Rosato, the Democratic leader in the Chamber of Deputies who first proposed the new law, is a parallel voting system, which act as a mixed system, with 37% of seats allocated using a first past the post electoral system and 61% using a proportional method, with one round of voting. The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies did not differ in the way they allocated the proportional seats, both using the largest remainder method of allocating seats.

La loi électorale italienne de 2017, aussi connue sous le nom de Rosatellum bis est le système électoral de la République italienne actuellement en vigueur au niveau national.


Organization.

Headquartered outside Baltimore in Linthicum, Maryland near the BWI Airport, Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems was organized into the following divisions:  Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems provided airborne radar systems, secondary surveillance systems, inertial navigation systems and sensors, electronic warfare systems, precision weapons, air traffic control systems, air defense systems, communications systems, space systems, marine systems, naval systems, integrated avionics systems, and postal automation and information systems.  Key products included active electronically scanned array fire control radars for the F-16, F-22 and F-35 fighter aircraft, as well as the Longbow Fire Control Radar for the AH-64 Apache helicopter. Other principal products included the AWACS radar, the Boeing 737-based Wedgetail MESA airborne early warning and control system, E-8 Joint STARS air-to-ground surveillance radar sensor, the Longbow Hellfire missile, the ALQ-135 radar jammer for the F-15 Eagle, ALQ-218 Tactical Jamming Receiver for the EA-18G Growler and EA-6B ICAP III Prowler, tactical military radars, countrywide air defense systems, Directional Infrared Counter Measures, sophisticated undersea warfare systems, and naval propulsion and power generation systems.

History.

Electronic Systems' direct roots date to 1938, when Westinghouse Electric Corporation’s Radio Division moved to Baltimore, Maryland from Massachusetts and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  In 1939, Westinghouse more than doubled its manufacturing area in its Baltimore location to accommodate production of the then highly-secret SCR-270 aircraft warning radar. In 1941, an SCR-270 radar detected the December 7 attack on Pearl Harbor; its warnings went unheeded because of high-level uncertainty about the new technology's reliability. The first ground-based radar built for the Army Signal Corps, the SCR-270 proved to be the only model to stay in action throughout all of World War II. From 1941–1945 the Westinghouse Radio Division manufactured approximately 50 products during the war. Until 1942, most of this was radio equipment; later production shifted to radar products. Wartime production included ground-based and naval radio and radar, electronic fuses, and torpedoes.  In 1953, the unit patented key technologies for Pulse-Doppler radar, making possible airborne systems that can detect both stationary and moving targets, determine range, and distinguish targets from background "clutter." Pulse-Doppler is the basis for all airborne radars in use today. By 1966, the division designed and developed a miniaturized black-and-white camera that captured images from the Project Apollo Lunar Module that landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. In 1967, The world's first solid-state radar, the AN/APQ-120 for the F-4 Phantom II fighter, was produced by the division. In 1947, Westinghouse acquired Joshua Hendy Iron Works.  In 1974, the division began development of the AN/APG-66 radar for the F-16; the unit has produced over 6,000 radars for various versions of the F-16. In 1976, Westinghouse Electronic Systems delivered the first E-3 Sentry AWACS long-range airborne surveillance radar. In 1996, Westinghouse was selected to design, build and test the radar for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, what became the AN/APG-81.

Expansion within Northrop Grumman.

Electronic Systems was central to Northrop Grumman's aggressive merger and acquisition strategy since its own acquisition in 1996. Parts or all of the following companies or organizations were part of the sector: Westinghouse Electronic Systems, California Microwave, Litton Industries Advanced Electronics division, Solystic SA, Xetron Corporation, Aerojet Corporation Electronics & Information Systems, and Fibersense Technology Corp. During the period from 1996 to 2005, Electronic Systems' annual sales increased from US$2.3B to US$6.6B through organic growth as well as acquisitions.

References.

Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems (NGES) was a sector (business segment) of Northrop Grumman from 1996 to 2015 until a reorganization on January 1, 2016 merged other Northrop Grumman businesses into NGES to form a new sector called Mission Systems. NGES had originally been created by Northrop Grumman's acquisition of Westinghouse Electronic Systems Group in 1996. The Electronic Systems sector was a leading designer, developer, and manufacturer of a wide variety of advanced defense electronics and systems. The division had 120 locations worldwide, including 72 international offices, and approximately 24,000 employees. Accounting for 20% of company sales in 2005, it was the single largest sector (business unit) in the corporation.

La Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems est une branche de la société Northrop Grumman créée à la suite de l'acquisition par le groupe du Westinghouse Electronic Systems Group en 1996. Le secteur des systèmes électroniques conçoit, développe et construit une large variété de systèmes et électroniques avancés de défense. La branche dispose de à travers la monde dont internationaux et emploie environ. Les ventes de produits de cette branche compte pour 20 % des ventes totales du groupe, ce qui en fait le plus important secteur.