Parish

A parish is a church territorial unit constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or more curates, and who operates from a parish church. Historically, a parish often covered the same geographical area as a manor (its association with the parish church remaining paramount).

By extension the term parish refers not only to the territorial unit but to the people of its community or congregation as well as to church property within it. In England this church property was technically in ownership of the parish priest ex-officio, vested in him on his institution to that parish.

Etymology and use

First attested in English in the late 13th century, the word parish comes from the Old French paroisse, in turn from Latin: paroecia, the latinisation of the Ancient Greek: παροικία paroikia, "sojourning in a foreign land", itself from πάροικος (paroikos), "dwelling beside, stranger, sojourner", which is a compound of παρά (pará), "beside, by, near" and οἶκος (oîkos), "house".

Parroquia (Spain)

A parroquia (Spanish: [paˈroki̯a], Galician: [paˈrɔkia], Asturian: [paˈrokja]) is a population entity or parish found in Galicia and Asturias in north-west Spain. The term may have its origins in Roman Catholic Church usage, similar to the British term parish. The concept forms a very settled part of the popular consciousness, but it has never become an official political division. They are equivalent to freguesias in Portugal.

Some say that it constitutes an attempt, as originally created, to more or less match up with tribes predating the Roman presence.

In Galicia there are 3781 parroquias, each comprising between three and fifteen or more villages. They developed over time as de facto entities, although the Galician Statute of Autonomy of 1981 recognises them as territorial entities below the concello (municipality) and above villages.

In Asturias there are 857 parishes (parroquias) integrating the 78 concejos or concellos (municipalities) in the region, and they usually coincide with the ecclesiastic divisions.

Parish (Denmark)

A parish (sogn) in Denmark is an ecclesiastical community (parish). Danish parishes originated in the Middle Ages. Beginning in 1645, Danish pastors were required to maintain a parish register, which in modern times has become a valuable tool for genealogical research.

Until the municipal reform of 1970, sogns were an administrative territorial unit of Denmark. In 1870, there were 1097 parish communities (sognekommuner). In 1970, there were more than 1300, and this number was reduced by the municipal reforms to 277 communities. After 1970, a community often comprised multiple parishes.

Even in the present day, the original parish boundaries still play a significant role, for example in determining community boundaries and school districts.

Hierarchy

Until 1970, a parish made up part of a hundred, which was part of a county.

References

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Quartz

Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. Its crystal structure is a continuous framework of SiO₄silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical formula of SiO₂.

There are many different varieties of quartz, several of which are semi-precious gemstones. Since antiquity, varieties of quartz have been the most commonly used minerals in the making of jewelry and hardstone carvings, especially in Europe and the Middle East.

Etymology

The word "quartz" is derived from the German word "Quarz" and its Middle High German ancestor "twarc", which probably originated in Slavic, cf. Czech tvrdý ("hard"), Polish twardy ("hard"), Serbian and Croatian tvrd ("hard").

The Ancient Greeks referred to quartz as κρύσταλλος (krustallos) derived from the Ancient Greek κρύος (kruos) meaning "icy cold", because some philosophers (including Theophrastus) apparently believed the mineral to be a form of supercooled ice. Today, the term rock crystal is sometimes used as an alternative name for the purest form of quartz.

Quartz (graphics layer)

In Apple computer's OS X operating system, Quartz is the Quartz 2D and Quartz Compositor part of the Core Graphics framework. Quartz includes both a 2D renderer in Core Graphics and the composition engine that sends instructions to the graphics card. Because of this vertical nature, Quartz is often synonymous with Core Graphics.

In a general sense, Quartz or Quartz technologies can refer to almost every part of the Mac OS X graphics model from the rendering layer down to the compositor including Core Image and Core Video. Other Apple graphics technologies that use the "Quartz" prefix include:

Quartz 2D & Quartz Compositor

Quartz 2D is the primary two-dimensional (2D) text and graphics rendering library: It directly supports Aqua by displaying two-dimensional graphics to create the user interface, including on-the-fly rendering and anti-aliasing. Quartz can render text with sub-pixel precision; graphics are limited to more traditional anti-aliasing, which is the default mode of operation but can be turned off. In Mac OS X v10.4, Apple introduced Quartz 2D Extreme, which allows Quartz 2D to use supported GPUs for rendering. In Mac OS X 10.4, Quartz 2D Extreme is not enabled by default, because it may lead to video redraw issues or kernel panics. As of Mac OS X v10.5 Quartz 2D Extreme has been renamed to QuartzGL. However, it still remains disabled by default, as there are some situations where it can degrade performance, or experience visual glitches; it is a per-application setting which can be turned on if the developer wishes.

Crystal oscillator

A crystal oscillator is an electronic oscillator circuit that uses the mechanical resonance of a vibrating crystal of piezoelectric material to create an electrical signal with a precise frequency. This frequency is commonly used to keep track of time, as in quartz wristwatches, to provide a stable clock signal for digital integrated circuits, and to stabilize frequencies for radio transmitters and receivers. The most common type of piezoelectric resonator used is the quartz crystal, so oscillator circuits incorporating them became known as crystal oscillators, but other piezoelectric materials including polycrystalline ceramics are used in similar circuits.

Quartz crystals are manufactured for frequencies from a few tens of kilohertz to hundreds of megahertz. More than two billion crystals are manufactured annually. Most are used for consumer devices such as wristwatches, clocks, radios, computers, and cellphones. Quartz crystals are also found inside test and measurement equipment, such as counters, signal generators, and oscilloscopes.