The Pearl Fishery Coast refers to a coastal area of southern India , extending along the Coromandel Coast from Tuticorin to Comorin ruled by Paravars and their rulers.
98-586: The coast took its name from the presence of pearls along the coast, and the numerous pearl fisheries that operated to harvest them. In a conflict between the Paravas and the Arabs in 1532, the Paravas sought protection from the Portuguese. In 1535, the Portuguese led an army under Pedro Vaz and expelled the Arabs. As a compensation, the Paravas accepted to convert to Christianity. The Portuguese conquered
196-542: A malacologist would still consider them to be pearls. Valueless pearls of this type are sometimes found in edible mussels , edible oysters , escargot snails, and so on. The GIA and CIBJO now simply use the term 'pearl' (or, where appropriate, the more descriptive term 'non-nacreous pearl') when referring to such items and, under Federal Trade Commission rules, various mollusk pearls may be referred to as 'pearls', without qualification. A few species produce pearls that can be of interest as gemstones. These species include
294-575: A Portuguese fleet at sea near al-Fahl . There were numerous conflicts between the Christian Paravas and the Muslims for control of the fisheries. Pearls A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle ) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids . Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carbonate (mainly aragonite or
392-478: A South Sea pearl – as described by CIBJO and GIA – is a pearl produced by the Pinctada maxima pearl oyster. South Sea pearls are the color of their host Pinctada maxima oyster – and can be white, silver, pink, gold, cream, and any combination of these basic colors, including overtones of the various colors of the rainbow displayed in the pearl nacre of the oyster shell itself. South Sea pearls are
490-415: A beaded cultured pearl is generally a polished sphere made from freshwater mussel shell. Along with a small piece of mantle tissue from another mollusk (donor shell) to serve as a catalyst for the pearl sac, it is surgically implanted into the gonad (reproductive organ) of a saltwater mollusk. In freshwater perliculture, only the piece of tissue is used in most cases, and is inserted into the fleshy mantle of
588-456: A body color that may be assessed as silver, silver blue, gold, brown-black, green-black, or black. Black cultured pearls from the black pearl oyster – Pinctada margaritifera – are not South Sea pearls, although they are often mistakenly described as black South Sea pearls. In the absence of an official definition for the pearl from the black all use to, these pearls are usually referred to as "black pearls". The correct definition of
686-581: A driver of inflation for grocery prices. In August 2024, it announced it would be probing grocery prices to look for anti-competitive behavior and price gouging at chain supermarkets. In 2023, the FTC proposed a new rule that would ensure that the cancellation process of subscription services is as easy as the process of signing up. On October 16, 2024, the FTC announced the new rule, dubbed "click to cancel", requiring companies to make subscription services "as easy for consumers to cancel their enrollment as it
784-450: A fact that was only disclosed in legalese, buried within the end user license agreement. The FTC secured a consent decree in the case. In In re Gateway Learning Corp. the FTC alleged that Gateway committed unfair and deceptive trade practices by making retroactive changes to its privacy policy without informing customers and by violating its own privacy policy by selling customer information when it had said it would not. Gateway settled
882-480: A fine of US$ 50.1 million on OMICS companies. OMICS' lawyer said that this was an unfair allegation and that OMICS would sue FTC for $ 3.11 billion in damages, saying it had caused loss of revenue and reputation. In In the Matter of Sears Holdings Management Corp. , the FTC alleged that a research software program provided by Sears was deceptive because it collected information about nearly all online behavior,
980-485: A mixture of aragonite and calcite ) in minute crystalline form, which has deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other shapes, known as baroque pearls , can occur. The finest quality of natural pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries. Because of this, pearl has become a metaphor for something rare, fine, admirable and valuable. The most valuable pearls occur spontaneously in
1078-414: A natural pearl shows a series of concentric growth rings. A beadless cultured pearl (whether of freshwater or saltwater origin) may show growth rings, but also a complex central cavity, witness of the first precipitation of the young pearl sac. Some imitation pearls (also called shell pearls) are simply made of mother-of-pearl , coral or conch shell, while others are made from glass and are coated with
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#17327755062391176-578: A review of the price lists, on-site training of the staff, and follow-up testing and certification on compliance with the Funeral Rule ." In the mid-1990s, the FTC launched the fraud sweeps concept where the agency and its federal, state, and local partners filed simultaneous legal actions against multiple telemarketing fraud targets. The first sweeps operation was Project Telesweep in July 1995 which cracked down on 100 business opportunity scams. In
1274-475: A solution containing fish scales called essence d'Orient . A well-equipped gem testing laboratory can distinguish natural pearls from cultured pearls by using gemological X-ray equipment to examine the center of a pearl. With X-rays it is possible to see the growth rings of the pearl, where the layers of calcium carbonate are separated by thin layers of conchiolin. The differentiation of natural pearls from non-beaded cultured pearls can be very difficult without
1372-454: A species of small pearl oyster, Pinctada fucata martensii , which is no bigger than 6 to 8 cm (2.4 to 3.1 in) in size, hence akoya pearls larger than 10 mm in diameter are extremely rare and highly priced. Today, a hybrid mollusk is used in both Japan and China in the production of akoya pearls. Cultured Pearls were sold in cans for the export market. These were packed in Japan by
1470-513: A spherical bead as a nucleus. Most saltwater cultured pearls are grown with beads. Trade names of cultured pearls are Akoya ( 阿古屋 ), white or golden South sea, and black Tahitian . Most beadless cultured pearls are mantle-grown in freshwater shells in China, and are known as freshwater cultured pearls. Cultured pearls can be distinguished from natural pearls by X-ray examination. Nucleated cultured pearls are often 'preformed' as they tend to follow
1568-532: Is a particularly large one weighing 14 lb (6.4 kg). The largest known pearl (also from a giant clam) is the Pearl of Puerto , also found in the Philippines by a fisherman from Puerto Princesa , Palawan Island . The enormous pearl is 30 cm wide (1 ft), 67 cm long (2.2 ft) and weighs 75 lb (34 kg). The ancient chronicle Mahavamsa mentions the thriving pearl industry in
1666-694: Is composed of five commissioners, who each serve seven-year terms. Members of the commission are nominated by the President and subject to Senate confirmation, and no more than three FTC members can be of the same party . One member of the body serves as FTC Chair at the President's pleasure, with Commissioner Lina Khan having served as chair since June 2021. Following the Supreme Court decisions against Standard Oil and American Tobacco in May 1911,
1764-464: Is grown at a time. This limits the number of pearls at a harvest period. The pearls are usually harvested after one year for akoya, 2–4 years for Tahitian and South Sea, and 2–7 years for freshwater. This perliculture process was first developed by the British biologist William Saville-Kent who passed the information along to Tatsuhei Mise and Tokichi Nishikawa from Japan . The second category includes
1862-554: Is more valuable than these pearls. However, it is more abundant than the South Sea pearl, which is more valuable than the black cultured pearl. This is simply because the black pearl oyster Pinctada margaritifera is far more abundant than the elusive, rare, and larger south sea pearl oyster Pinctada maxima , which cannot be found in lagoons, but which must be dived for in a rare number of deep ocean habitats or grown in hatcheries. Natural black pearls are rare, with black pearls having
1960-415: Is required to positively verify natural pearls found today. A keshi pearl is a pearl composed entirely of nacre and results from mishaps in the culturing process. Most are quite small, typically only a few millimeters in diameter, and are often irregular in shape. In seeding a cultured pearl, a piece of mantle muscle from a sacrificed oyster is placed with a bead of mother of pearl within a host oyster. If
2058-925: Is susceptible to even a weak acid solution because the crystals react with the acetic acid in the vinegar to form calcium acetate and carbon dioxide . Freshwater and saltwater pearls may sometimes look quite similar, but they come from different sources. Freshwater pearls form in various species of freshwater mussels, family Unionidae , which live in lakes, rivers, ponds and other bodies of fresh water. These freshwater pearl mussels occur not only in hotter climates, but also in colder, more temperate areas such as Scotland (where they are protected under law). Most freshwater cultured pearls sold today come from China. Saltwater pearls grow within pearl oysters, family Pteriidae , which live in oceans. Saltwater pearl oysters are usually cultivated in protected lagoons or volcanic atolls. The mollusk's mantle (protective membrane) deposits layers of calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ) in
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#17327755062392156-625: Is the conch pearl (sometimes referred to simply as the 'pink pearl'), which is found very rarely growing between the mantle and the shell of the queen conch or pink conch, Strombus gigas , a large sea snail or marine gastropod from the Caribbean Sea . These pearls, which are often pink in color, are a by-product of the conch fishing industry, and the best of them display a shimmering optical effect related to chatoyance known as 'flame structure'. Somewhat similar gastropod pearls, this time more orange in hue, are (again very rarely) found in
2254-502: Is thought that natural pearls form under a set of accidental conditions when a microscopic intruder or parasite enters a bivalve mollusk and settles inside the shell. The mollusk, irritated by the intruder, forms a pearl sac of external mantle tissue cells and secretes the calcium carbonate and conchiolin to cover the irritant. This secretion process is repeated many times, thus producing a pearl. Natural pearls come in many shapes, with perfectly round ones being comparatively rare. Typically,
2352-677: Is to be denied a written, retainable copy of the GPL. In 1996, the FTC instituted the Funeral Rule Offenders Program (FROP), under which "funeral homes make a voluntary payment to the U.S. Treasury or appropriate state fund for an amount less than what would likely be sought if the Commission authorized filing a lawsuit for civil penalties. In addition, the funeral homes participate in the NFDA compliance program, which includes
2450-524: The Broome area of Australia, while golden colored ones are more prevalent in the Philippines and Indonesia. A farm in the Gulf of California , Mexico, is culturing pearls from the black lipped Pinctada mazatlanica oysters and the rainbow lipped Pteria sterna oysters. Also called Concha Nácar, the pearls from these rainbow lipped oysters fluoresce red under ultraviolet light. Biologically speaking, under
2548-757: The Department of Justice Antitrust Division . The agency is headquartered in the Federal Trade Commission Building in Washington, DC . The FTC was established in 1914 with the passage of the Federal Trade Commission Act , signed in response to the 19th-century monopolistic trust crisis. Since its inception, the FTC has enforced the provisions of the Clayton Act , a key antitrust statute, as well as
2646-708: The French perle , originally from the Latin perna ' leg ' , after the ham- or mutton leg-shaped bivalve . The scientific name for the family of pearl-bearing oysters, Margaritiferidae comes from the Old Persian word for pearl * margārīta- which is the source of the English name Margaret . All shelled mollusks can, by natural processes, produce some kind of "pearl" when an irritating microscopic object becomes trapped within its mantle folds, but
2744-878: The Indian Ocean in areas such as the Persian Gulf , the Red Sea and the Gulf of Mannar . Evidence also suggest a prehistoric origin to pearl diving in these regions. Starting in the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), the Chinese hunted extensively for seawater pearls in the South China Sea , particularly in what is now Tolo Harbour in Hong Kong . Tanka pearl divers of twelfth century China attached ropes to their waists in order to be safely brought back up to
2842-403: The freshwater pearl mussel . Saltwater pearls can grow in several species of marine pearl oysters in the family Pteriidae . Freshwater pearls grow within certain (but by no means all) species of freshwater mussels in the order Unionida, the families Unionidae and Margaritiferidae . The unique luster of pearls depends upon the reflection , refraction , and diffraction of light from
2940-543: The translucent layers. The thinner and more numerous the layers in the pearl, the finer the luster. The iridescence that pearls display is caused by the overlapping of successive layers, which breaks up light falling on the surface. In addition, pearls (especially cultured freshwater pearls ) can be dyed yellow, green, blue, brown, pink, purple, or black. The most valuable pearls have a metallic, highly reflective luster. Because pearls are made primarily of calcium carbonate, they can be dissolved in vinegar . Calcium carbonate
3038-628: The 2021 United States Supreme Court case, AMG Capital Management, LLC v. FTC , the Court found unanimously that the FTC did not have power under 15 U.S.C. § 53(b) of the FTC Act, amended in 1973, to seek equitable relief in courts; it had the power to seek only injunctive relief. In 2023, Project 2025 suggested that an administration could abolish the FTC. In November 2024, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta agreed with Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter and FTC Chair Khan, ruling
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3136-657: The Bureau of Competition, the Bureau of Consumer Protection, and the Bureau of Economics. The Bureau of Competition is the division of the FTC charged with elimination and prevention of "anticompetitive" business practices. It accomplishes this through the enforcement of antitrust laws, review of proposed mergers , and investigation into other non-merger business practices that may impair competition. Such non-merger practices include horizontal restraints, involving agreements between direct competitors, and vertical restraints , involving agreements among businesses at different levels in
3234-665: The FTC Act on September 26, 1914, with additional tightening of regulations in the Clayton Antitrust Act three weeks later. The new FTC would absorb the staff and duties of Bureau of Corporations , previously established under the Department of Commerce and Labor in 1903. The FTC could additionally challenge "unfair methods of competition" and enforce the Clayton Act's more specific prohibitions against certain price discrimination, vertical arrangements, interlocking directorates , and stock acquisitions. In 1984,
3332-637: The FTC authorized an administrative complaint against the merger between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard , Inc. The FTC alleged the deal would suppress competitors from accessing future content/games developed by Activision once the deal goes through. The FTC dropped its lawsuit on July 20, 2023. Microsoft had to restructure its deal to appease UK regulators. Microsoft reneged on promises it made in court filings by laying off 1900 employees in January 2024, signaling that it did not plan to let Activision Blizzard remain as independent as it had promised and leading
3430-438: The FTC began to regulate the funeral home industry in order to protect consumers from deceptive practices. The FTC Funeral Rule requires funeral homes to provide all customers (and potential customers) with a General Price List (GPL), specifically outlining goods and services in the funeral industry, as defined by the FTC, and a listing of their prices. By law, the GPL must be presented on request to all individuals, and no one
3528-517: The FTC sued Meta (formally known as Facebook) for anticompetitive conduct under Section 2 of the Sherman Act , which prohibits improper monopolization of a market. The FTC accused Meta of buying up its competitors to stifle competition which reduced the range of services available to consumers and by creating fewer social media platforms for advertisers to target. In September 2013, a federal court closed an elusive business opportunity scheme on
3626-555: The FTC to continue to appeal the decision. In July 2021, the FTC voted unanimously to enforce the right to repair as policy and to look to take action against companies that limit the type of repair work that can be done at independent repair shops. In October 2024, following a comment by the FTC to the US Copyright Office , an exemption was granted allowing for repair of retail-level food preparation equipment, such as McDonald's ice cream machines . In December 2020
3724-597: The FTC's success in blocking or unwinding of hospital consolidations or affiliations: In 2011, the FTC successfully challenged in court the $ 195 million acquisition of Palmyra Medical Center by Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital. The FTC alleged that the transaction would create a monopoly as it would "reduce competition significantly and allow the combined Phoebe/Palmyra to raise prices for general acute-care hospital services charged to commercial health plans, substantially harming patients and local employers and employees". The Supreme Court on February 19, 2013, ruled in favor of
3822-469: The FTC. Similarly, court attempts by ProMedica health system in Ohio to overturn an order by the FTC to the company to unwind its 2010 acquisition of St. Luke's hospital were unsuccessful. The FTC claimed that the acquisition would hurt consumers through higher premiums because insurance companies would be required to pay more. In December 2011, an administrative judge upheld the FTC's decision, noting that
3920-408: The FTC. They were banned from processing credit card transactions, though the initial monetary judgment of $ 5.8 million was suspended due to the defendant's inability to pay. In 2016, the FTC launched action against the academic journal publisher OMICS Publishing Group for producing predatory journals and organizing predatory conferences . This action, partly in response to ongoing pressure from
4018-590: The Fifth Avenue mansion that is now the New York Cartier store in exchange for a matched double strand of natural pearls Cartier had been collecting for years; at the time, it was valued at US$ 1 million.) The introduction and advance of the cultured pearl hit the pearl industry hard. Pearl dealers publicly disputed the authenticity of these new cultured products, and left many consumers uneasy and confused about their much lower prices. Essentially,
Pearl Fishery Coast - Misplaced Pages Continue
4116-557: The I.C.P. Canning Factory (International Pearl Company L.T.D.) in Nagasaki Pref. Japan. Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission ( FTC ) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection . The FTC shares jurisdiction over federal civil antitrust law enforcement with
4214-532: The King found it so beautiful that he kept it for himself. Later, he elevated it to be part of the Spanish Crown Jewel. From then on, the pearl was recorded in every royal inventory for more than 200 years. According to Garcilasso de la Vega , who says that he saw La Peregrina at Seville in 1607, this was found at Panama in 1560 by a slave worker who was rewarded with his liberty, and his owner with
4312-650: The Pearl Fishery Coast from the Muslims of Kayalpattanam in 1525. They restored the rights of the Paravas to exploit their fisheries in exchange for a considerable annual tribute. The Paravas, who lived along the Pearl Fishery Coast adopted Christianity in 1535–1536, becoming an important Christian region, and succeeded the first introduction of Christianity in Mylapore with the Thomas Christians . The Portuguese derived considerable profit from
4410-547: The Rockford area and would have a market share of 64%. Later in 2012, OSF announced that it had abandoned its plans to acquire Rockford Health System. The commission is headed by five commissioners, who each serve seven-year terms. Commissioners are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate . No more than three commissioners can be of the same political party . In practice, this means that two commissioners are of
4508-849: The academic community, is the first action taken by the FTC against an academic journal publisher. The complaint alleges that the defendants have been "deceiving academics and researchers about the nature of its publications and hiding publication fees ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars". It additionally notes that "OMICS regularly advertises conferences featuring academic experts who were never scheduled to appear in order to attract registrants" and that attendees "spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on registration fees and travel costs to attend these scientific conferences." Manuscripts are also sometimes held hostage, with OMICS refusing to allow submissions to be withdrawn and thereby preventing resubmission to another journal for consideration. Library scientist Jeffrey Beall has described OMICS as among
4606-553: The agency also alleged that the companies created a rebate system that prioritized high rebates from drug manufacturers, among other factors. The agency stated that several PBMs failed to provide documents in a timely manner and warned that it could take the companies to court to force them to comply, during the announcment in the preliminary findings. In September 2024, the FTC sued the three largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) for allegedly engaging in anti-competitive practices that increased their profits while artificially inflating
4704-473: The agency requested documents from the six largest PBMs as part of its investigation. The three largest – UnitedHealth Group's OptumRx , Cigna's Express Scripts and CVS Health's Caremark – manage about 80% of U.S. prescriptions. The top three PBMs share a parent company with a large medical insurance company . The FTC accused these companies of raising drug prices through conflicts of interest , vertical integration , concentration, and exclusivity provisions;
4802-528: The attractions which drew Julius Caesar to Britain. They are, for the most part, freshwater pearls from mussels. Pearling was banned in the U.K. in 1998 due to the endangered status of river mussels. Discovery and publicity about the sale for a substantial sum of the Abernethy pearl in the River Tay had resulted in heavy exploitation of mussel colonies during the 1970s and 80s by weekend warriors. When it
4900-464: The bailer shell Melo , the giant clam Tridacna , various scallop species, Pen shells Pinna , and the Haliotis iris species of abalone. Pearls of abalone are cultured pearls , or blister pearls, unique to New Zealand waters, and are commonly referred to as 'blue pearls'. They are admired for their luster and naturally bright vibrant colors that are often compared to opal . Another example
4998-459: The behavior of ProMedica health system and St. Luke's was indeed anticompetitive. The court ordered ProMedica to divest St. Luke's to a buyer that would be approved by the FTC within 180 days of the date of the order. In November 2011, the FTC filed a lawsuit alleging that the proposed acquisition of Rockford by OSF would drive up prices for general acute-care inpatient services as OSF would face only one competitor (SwedishAmerican health system) in
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#17327755062395096-488: The biggest pay raises. It also allows workers to leave abusive work environments and can prevent some doctors from having to leave medicine once they leave a practice. The ban was put on hold by U.S. District Judge Ada Brown on July 3, 2024, but then upheld on appeal by U.S. District Judge Kelley B. Hodge on July 23, 2024. On August 20, 2024, a federal court in Texas overturned the FTC's ban on non-compete agreements, which
5194-435: The build-up of a natural pearl consists of a brown central zone formed by columnar calcium carbonate (usually calcite, sometimes columnar aragonite) and a yellowish to white outer zone consisting of nacre (tabular aragonite). In a pearl cross-section such as the diagram, these two different materials can be seen. The presence of columnar calcium carbonate rich in organic material indicates juvenile mantle tissue that formed during
5292-487: The case. Typical stimuli include organic material, parasites, or even damage that displaces mantle tissue to another part of the mollusk's body. These small particles or organisms gain entry when the shell valves are open for feeding or respiration. In cultured pearls, the irritant is typically an introduced piece of the mantle epithelium, with or without a spherical bead (beaded or beadless cultured pearls). Natural pearls are nearly 100% calcium carbonate and conchiolin . It
5390-491: The company a monopoly, and ordering Google to sell its Chrome web browser. The FTC ruled to ban virtually all non-competes nationwide in April 2024. The agency estimates 30 million workers are bound by these clauses and only excludes senior executives from the ban on enforcing non-competes. The agency believes that this will allow workers to find better working conditions and pay, since switching companies, on average, provides
5488-542: The complaint by entering into a consent decree with the FTC that required it to surrender some profits and placed restrictions upon Gateway for the following 20 years. In addition to prospective analysis of the effects of mergers and acquisitions, the FTC has recently resorted to retrospective analysis and monitoring of consolidated hospitals. Thus, it also uses retroactive data to demonstrate that some hospital mergers and acquisitions are hurting consumers, particularly in terms of higher prices. Here are some recent examples of
5586-428: The conjunctive tissue of the mantle, these cells may survive and form a small pocket in which they continue to secrete calcium carbonate, their natural product. The pocket is called a pearl sac, and grows with time by cell division. The juvenile mantle tissue cells, according to their stage of growth, secrete columnar calcium carbonate from pearl sac's inner surface. In time, the pearl sac's external mantle cells proceed to
5684-458: The controversy damaged the images of both natural and cultured pearls. By the 1950s, when a significant number of women in developed countries could afford their own cultured pearl necklace, natural pearls were reduced to a small, exclusive niche in the pearl industry. Previously, natural pearls were found in many parts of the world. Present day natural pearling is confined mostly to the Persian Gulf , in seas off Bahrain . Australia also has one of
5782-503: The culturing process for them dictates a smaller volume output and they can never be mass-produced because, in common with most sea pearls, the oyster can only be nucleated with one pearl at a time, while freshwater mussels are capable of multiple pearl implants. Before the days of cultured pearls, black pearls were rare and highly valued for the simple reason that white pearl oysters rarely produced naturally black pearls, and black pearl oysters rarely produced any natural pearls at all. Since
5880-412: The defendants from falsely representing that their journals engage in peer review, that their journals are included in any academic journal indexing service or any measurement of the extent to which their journals are cited. It also requires that the defendants clearly and conspicuously disclose all costs associated with submitting or publishing articles in their journals." In April 2019, the court imposed
5978-559: The development of pearl culture technology, the black pearl oysters Pinctada margaritifera found in Tahiti and many other Pacific islands including the Cook Islands and Fiji are being extensively used for producing cultured pearls. The rarity of the black cultured pearl is now a "comparative" issue. The black cultured pearl is rare when compared to Chinese freshwater cultured pearls, and Japanese and Chinese akoya cultured pearls, and
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#17327755062396076-490: The early stage of pearl development. Displaced living cells with a well-defined task may continue to perform their function in their new location, often resulting in a cyst . Such displacement may occur via an injury. The fragile rim of the shell is exposed and is prone to damage and injury. Crabs, other predators and parasites such as worm larvae may produce traumatic attacks and cause injuries in which some external mantle tissue cells are disconnected from their layer. Embedded in
6174-580: The establishment of a federal trade commission with its regulatory powers placed in the hands of an administrative board, as an alternative to functions previously and necessarily exercised so slowly through the courts. With the 1912 presidential election decided in favor of the Democrats and Woodrow Wilson , Morgan reintroduced a slightly amended version of his bill during the April 1913 special session. The national debate culminated in Wilson's signing of
6272-652: The favours that he promised them, and at times adding some threats of the harm that might come to them if the [Portuguese] captain deprived them of their fishing and seaborne trade'". In 1553, a fleet of the Ottoman Empire made a raid on the Pearl Fishery Coast around Tuticorin . They were assisted by the Marakkar Muslims of Malabar , and had the tacit agreement of Vittula Nayak of Madurai . 52 Portuguese were captured at Punnaikayal , and churches burnt down. The Ottomans failed however in 1553 against
6370-470: The first version of a bill to establish a commission to regulate interstate trade was introduced on January 25, 1912, by Oklahoma congressman Dick Thompson Morgan . He would make the first speech on the House floor advocating its creation on February 21, 1912. Though the initial bill did not pass, the questions of trusts and antitrust dominated the 1912 election. Most political party platforms in 1912 endorsed
6468-401: The form of the mineral aragonite or a mixture of aragonite and calcite (polymorphs with the same chemical formula, but different crystal structures) held together by an organic horn-like compound called conchiolin . The combination of aragonite and conchiolin is called nacre , which makes up mother-of-pearl. The commonly held belief that a grain of sand acts as the irritant is in fact rarely
6566-435: The formation of tabular aragonite. When the transition to nacre secretion occurs, the brown pebble becomes covered with a nacreous coating. During this process, the pearl sac seems to travel into the shell; however, the sac actually stays in its original relative position the mantle tissue while the shell itself grows. After a couple of years, a pearl forms and the shell may be found by a lucky pearl fisher. Cultured pearls are
6664-579: The great majority of these "pearls" are not valued as gemstones . Nacreous pearls, the best-known and most commercially significant, are primarily produced by two groups of molluskan bivalves or clams . A nacreous pearl is made from layers of nacre , by the same living process as is used in the secretion of the mother of pearl which lines the shell. Natural (or wild) pearls, formed without human intervention, are very rare. Many hundreds of pearl oysters or mussels must be gathered and opened, and thus killed, to find even one wild pearl; for many centuries, this
6762-526: The horse conch Triplofusus papillosus . The second largest pearl known was found in the Philippines in 1934 and is known as the Pearl of Lao Tzu . It is a naturally occurring, non-nacreous, calcareous concretion (pearl) from a giant clam . Because it did not grow in a pearl oyster it is not pearly; instead the surface is glossy like porcelain. Other pearls from giant clams are known to exist, but this
6860-454: The host mussel. South Sea and Tahitian pearl oysters, also known as Pinctada maxima and Pinctada margaritifera , which survive the subsequent surgery to remove the finished pearl, are often implanted with a new, larger beads as part of the same procedure and then returned to the water for another 2–3 years of growth. Despite the common misperception, Mikimoto did not discover the process of pearl culture. The accepted process of pearl culture
6958-466: The interior of the shell that produces them. However, almost all species of shelled mollusks are capable of producing pearls (technically "calcareous concretions") of lesser shine or less spherical shape. Although these may also be legitimately referred to as "pearls" by gemological labs and also under U.S. Federal Trade Commission rules, and are formed in the same way, most of them have no value except as curiosities. The English word pearl comes from
7056-435: The largest and rarest of the cultured pearls – making them the most valuable. Prized for their exquisitely beautiful 'orient' or lustre, South Sea pearls are now farmed in various parts of the world where the Pinctada maxima oysters can be found, with the finest South Sea pearls being produced by Paspaley along the remote coastline of North-Western Australia. White and silver colored South Sea pearls tend to come from
7154-530: The list price of insulin. The agency is seeking to prohibit the PBMs from favoring medicines because certain pharaceuticals make them more money. In February 2024, the FTC challenged the Kroger-Albertsons merger , arguing it would drive up grocery and pharmacy prices, worsen service, and lower wages and working conditions. In March 2024, the FTC released a report that found higher profit margins as
7252-513: The most egregious of predatory publishers . In November 2017, a federal court in the Court for the District of Nevada granted a preliminary injunction that: "prohibits the defendants from making misrepresentations regarding their academic journals and conferences, including that specific persons are editors of their journals or have agreed to participate in their conferences. It also prohibits
7350-579: The non-beaded freshwater cultured pearls, like the Biwa or Chinese pearls. As they grow in the mantle, where on each wing up to 25 grafts can be implanted, these pearls are much more frequent and saturate the market completely. An impressive improvement in quality has taken place over ten years when the former rice-grain-shaped pebbles are compared with the near round pearls of today. Later, large near perfect round bead nucleated pearls up to 15mm in diameter have been produced with metallic luster. The nucleus bead in
7448-498: The office of alcalde of Panama. Margarita pearls are extremely difficult to find today and are known for their unique yellowish color. Before the beginning of the 20th century, pearl hunting was the most common way of harvesting pearls. Divers manually pulled oysters from ocean floors and river bottoms and checked them individually for pearls. Not all mussels and oysters produce pearls. In a haul of three tons, only three or four oysters will produce perfect pearls. Pearls were one of
7546-450: The opposition party. However, three members of the FTC throughout its history have been without party affiliation , with the most recent independent, Pamela Jones Harbour , serving from 2003 to 2009. (chair) Yale Law School ( JD ) Yale Law School (JD) Yale Law School (JD) University of Utah Law School (JD) University of Virginia School of Law (JD) Notes As of 2021, there have been: The FTC has three main bureaus:
7644-432: The pearl industry is making ongoing attempts to improve culturing technique so that keshi pearls do not occur. All-nacre pearls may one day be limited to natural found pearls. Today many "keshi" pearls are actually intentional, with post-harvest shells returned to the water to regenerate a pearl in the existing pearl sac. Tahitian pearls , frequently referred to as black pearls, are highly valued because of their rarity;
7742-563: The pearl trade, and strictly controlled the Pearl Fishery Coast through the Padroado system. The missionary Francis Xavier , coming from Goa , reached the Pearl Fishery Coast in 1542, where he was able to evangelize successfully the Paravars , converting an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 souls, although he is said to have accomplished this extraordinary achievement "largely due to his judicious mixture of threats and blandishments, 'and now with
7840-403: The piece of mantle should slip off the bead, a keshi pearl forms of baroque shape about the mantle piece. Therefore, while a keshi pearl could be considered superior to cultured pearls with a mother of pearl bead center, in the cultured pearl industry the oyster's resources used to create a mistaken all-nacre baroque pearl is a drain on the production of the intended round cultured pearl. Therefore,
7938-620: The port of Oruwella in the Gulf of Mannar in Sri Lanka . It also records that eight varieties of pearls accompanied Prince Vijaya 's embassy to the Pandyan king as well as king Devanampiya Tissa 's embassy to Emperor Ashoka . Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) praised the pearl fishery of the Gulf as most productive in the world. For thousands of years, seawater pearls were retrieved by divers in
8036-524: The provisions of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. § 41 et seq. Over time, the FTC has been delegated with the enforcement of additional business regulation statutes and has promulgated a number of regulations (codified in Title 16 of the Code of Federal Regulations ). The broad statutory authority granted to the FTC provides it with more surveillance and monitoring abilities than it actually uses. The FTC
8134-647: The request of the FTC, namely "Money Now Funding"/"Cash4Businesses". The FTC alleged that the defendants misrepresented potential earnings, violated the National Do Not Call Register , and violated the FTC's Business Opportunity Rule in preventing a fair consumer evaluation of the business. This was one of the first definitive actions taken by any regulator against a company engaging in transaction laundering, where almost US$ 6 million were processed illicitly. In December 2018, two defendants, Nikolas Mihilli and Dynasty Merchants, LLC, settled with
8232-404: The response of the shell to a tissue implant. A tiny piece of mantle tissue (called a graft ) from a donor shell is transplanted into a recipient shell, causing a pearl sac to form into which the tissue precipitates calcium carbonate. There are a number of methods for producing cultured pearls: using freshwater or seawater shells, transplanting the graft into the mantle or into the gonad, and adding
8330-486: The right set of circumstances, almost any shelled mollusk can produce some kind of pearl. However, most of these molluskan pearls have no luster or iridescence . The great majority of mollusk species produce pearls which are not attractive, and are sometimes not even very durable. Such pearls usually have no value at all, except perhaps to a scientist or collector, or as a curiosity. These objects used to be referred to as "calcareous concretions" by some gemologists, even though
8428-611: The same industry (such as suppliers and commercial buyers). The FTC shares enforcement of antitrust laws with the Department of Justice . However, while the FTC is responsible for civil enforcement of antitrust laws, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice has the power to bring both civil and criminal action in antitrust matters. The Bureau of Consumer Protection's mandate is to protect consumers against unfair or deceptive acts or practices in commerce. With
8526-433: The shape of the implanted shell bead nucleus. After a bead is inserted into the oyster, it secretes a few layers of nacre around the bead; the resulting cultured pearl can then be harvested in as few as twelve to eighteen months. When a cultured pearl with a bead nucleus is X-rayed, it reveals a different structure to that of a natural pearl. A beaded cultured pearl shows a solid center with no concentric growth rings, whereas
8624-555: The surface. When Spanish conquistadors arrived in the Western Hemisphere, they discovered that around the islands of Cubagua and Margarita , some 200 km north of the Venezuelan coast, was an extensive pearl bed (a bed of pearl oysters). One discovered and named pearl, La Peregrina pearl , was offered to Philip II of Spain who intended to give it as a gift for his daughter on the occasion of her marriage, but
8722-810: The use of this X-ray technique. Natural and cultured pearls can be distinguished from imitation pearls using a microscope . Another method of testing for imitations is to rub two pearls against each other. Imitation pearls are completely smooth, but natural and cultured pearls are composed of nacre platelets, making both feel slightly gritty. Fine quality natural pearls are very rare jewels. Their values are determined similarly to those of other precious gems, according to size, shape, color, quality of surface, orient and luster. Single natural pearls are often sold as collectors' items, or set as centerpieces in unique jewelry. Very few matched strands of natural pearls exist, and those that do often sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. (In 1917, jeweler Pierre Cartier purchased
8820-580: The wild, but are extremely rare. These wild pearls are referred to as natural pearls. Cultured or farmed pearls from pearl oysters and freshwater mussels make up the majority of those currently sold. Imitation pearls are also widely sold in inexpensive jewelry. Pearls have been harvested and cultivated primarily for use in jewelry , but in the past were also used to adorn clothing. They have also been crushed and used in cosmetics, medicines and paint formulations. Whether wild or cultured, gem-quality pearls are almost always nacreous and iridescent , like
8918-478: The world's last remaining fleets of pearl diving ships. Australian pearl divers dive for south sea pearl oysters to be used in the cultured south sea pearl industry. The catch of pearl oysters is similar to the numbers of oysters taken during the natural pearl days. Hence significant numbers of natural pearls are still found in the Australian Indian Ocean waters from wild oysters. X-ray examination
9016-420: The written consent of the commission, Bureau attorneys enforce federal laws related to consumer affairs and rules promulgated by the FTC. Its functions include investigations, enforcement actions, and consumer and business education. Areas of principal concern for this bureau are: advertising and marketing, financial products and practices, telemarketing fraud , privacy and identity protection, etc. The bureau also
9114-563: Was developed by the British Biologist William Saville-Kent in Australia and brought to Japan by Tokichi Nishikawa and Tatsuhei Mise. Nishikawa was granted the patent in 1916, and married the daughter of Mikimoto. Mikimoto was able to use Nishikawa's technology. After the patent was granted in 1916, the technology was immediately commercially applied to akoya pearl oysters in Japan in 1916. Mise's brother
9212-741: Was originally scheduled to take effect on September 4, 2024. U.S. District Judge Ada Brown said the FTC did not have the authority to issue the ban, which she said was "unreasonably overbroad without a reasonable explanation." Victoria Graham, an FTC spokeswoman responded to the ruling by stating "We are seriously considering a potential appeal..." The FTC successfully blocked Nvidia from purchasing ARM holdings in 2022. The FTC has pursued lawsuits against companies to lower drug prices, including for insulin and for inhalers. The FTC launched its investigation into pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in 2022. In July 2024, it released an interim report on its 2-year investigation into pharmacy benefit managers ,
9310-677: Was permitted it was carried on mainly by Scottish Travellers who found pearls varied from river to river with the River Oykel in the Highlands being noted for the finest rose-pink pearls. There are two firms in Scotland that are licensed to sell pre-1998 freshwater pearls. Today, the cultured pearls on the market can be divided into two categories. The first category covers the beaded cultured pearls, including akoya, South Sea and Tahiti. These pearls are gonad grown, and usually one pearl
9408-531: Was the first to produce a commercial crop of pearls in the akoya oyster. Mitsubishi's Baron Iwasaki immediately applied the technology to the south sea pearl oyster in 1917 in the Philippines, and later in Buton, and Palau. Mitsubishi was the first to produce a cultured south sea pearl – although it was not until 1928 that the first small commercial crop of pearls was successfully produced. The original Japanese cultured pearls, known as akoya pearls, are produced by
9506-418: Was the only way pearls were obtained, and why pearls fetched such extraordinary prices in the past. Cultured pearls are formed in pearl farms, using human intervention as well as natural processes. One family of nacreous pearl bivalves – the pearl oyster – lives in the sea, while the other – a very different group of bivalves – lives in freshwater; these are the river mussels such as
9604-468: Was to sign up." Khan said in a interview that the new rule is designed so that if consumers signed up online, they must also be able to cancel on the same website in the same number of steps. The rule’s final provisions will go into effect 180 days after it is published in the Federal Register . It also targeted airlines and credit card companies over junk fees and high prices. In 2023,
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