The 2023 Houston Astros season is the 62nd season for the Houston Astros, a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located in Houston, Texas, their 59th as the Astros, 11th in both the American League (AL) and AL West division, and 24th at Minute Maid Park. They entered the season as defending World Series champions, their second title, as well both the defending AL and AL West champions. Offseason November—December 2022 The Houston Astros finished the 2022 season as World Series champions, their second title overall, and first since 2017. Their 106 regular-season wins represented the second-highest total in franchise history, to the 2019 club, and the fifth 100-win season in team history. They clinched their fifth AL West division title, and 13th overall, and fifth league pennant, including four AL pennants. Further, their entrance into the 2022 American League Championship Series (ALCS) was their sixth consecutive, representing the longest streak for an AL club. It trailed only the Atlanta Braves...

Asteroseismology is the study of oscillations in stars. Stars have many resonant modes and frequencies, and the path of sound waves passing through a star depends on the speed of sound, which in turn depends on local temperature and chemical composition. Because the resulting oscillation modes are sensitive to different parts of the star, they inform astronomers about the internal structure of the star, which is otherwise not directly possible from overall properties like brightness and surface temperature. Asteroseismology is closely related to helioseismology, the study of stellar pulsation specifically in the Sun. Though both are based on the same underlying physics, more and qualitatively different information is available for the Sun because its surface can be resolved. Theoretical background By linearly perturbing the equations defining the mechanical equilibrium of a star (i.e. mass conservation and hydrostatic equilibrium) and assuming that the perturbations are adiabatic, one can derive a system of four differential equations whose solutions give the frequency and structure of a star's modes of oscillation...

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (1792), written by British philosopher and women's rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797), is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy. In it, Wollstonecraft responds to those educational and political theorists of the eighteenth century who did not believe women should receive a rational education. She argues that women ought to have an education commensurate with their position in society, claiming that women are essential to the nation because they educate its children and because they could be "companions" to their husbands, rather than mere wives. Instead of viewing women as ornaments to society or property to be traded in marriage, Wollstonecraft maintains that they are human beings deserving of the same fundamental rights as men. Wollstonecraft was prompted to write the Rights of Woman after reading Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord's 1791 report to the French National Assembly, which stated that women should only receive domestic education. From her reaction to this specific event, she launched a broad attack...

Pulp is a lignocellulosic fibrous material prepared by chemically or mechanically separating cellulose fibers from wood, fiber crops, waste paper, or rags. Mixed with water and other chemical or plant-based additives, pulp is the major raw material used in papermaking and the industrial production of other paper products. History Before the widely acknowledged invention of papermaking by Cai Lun in China around 105 AD, paper-like writing materials such as papyrus and amate were produced by ancient civilizations using plant materials which were largely unprocessed. Strips of bark or bast material were woven together, beaten into rough sheets, dried, and polished by hand. Pulp used in modern and traditional papermaking is distinguished by the maceration process which produces a finer, more regular slurry of cellulose fibers which are pulled out of solution by a screen and dried to form sheets or rolls. The earliest paper produced in China consisted of bast fibers from the paper mulberry (kozo) plant along with hemp rag and net scraps. By the 6th century, the mulberry tree was domesticated by farmers in China specifically for the purpose...