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Topic Review
Building-Integrated Photovoltaics in Singapore
Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPVs) represent an effective technology to attain zero energy buildings (ZEBs) via solar energy use. A BIPV system can seamlessly integrate PV modules into external building surfaces, such as walls, roofs, shading devices, and decorative components. Moreover, it can generate clean energy. From an environmental and economic perspective, PV energy generation provides more advantages than fossil fuel-based energy generation. First, in contrast to the limited storage of fossil fuels, the solar radiation reaching the Earth’s surface every day contains 10,000 times the energy requirements of humans on a daily basis. Second, the manufacturing process of PV modules produces only a small amount of carbon dioxide (20–30 g carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e/kWh)).
  • 4.5K
  • 30 Aug 2022
Topic Review
The Festival of Diwali: Its Origins and History
Diwali, the Festival of Lights, is one of India's most celebrated festivals, marked by joy, light, and a spirit of togetherness. Originating in ancient India, Diwali has grown beyond its religious roots to become a global celebration symbolizing victory over darkness, ignorance, and evil. While traditionally associated with Hinduism and stories from the Ramayana, Diwali is also celebrated by Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists, each community attaching its own significance and narratives to the festivities. This article traces the historical evolution of Diwali from its origins in agrarian societies to its current standing as a multicultural and global festival. It examines the religious and cultural stories associated with Diwali, the rituals and customs observed across different communities, and the festival’s role in fostering social cohesion. As Diwali has spread globally, it has taken on new meanings and variations, demonstrating the enduring appeal of this ancient festival in modern times.
  • 4.5K
  • 01 Nov 2024
Topic Review
Dimensionality of materials
As generally known dimensionality of materials is a crucial factor to determine functions and properties of the materials. In addition to zero-dimensional, one-dimensional, three-dimensional, and further integrated functional materials, various two-dimensional materials have been paid special attention. Two-dimensional materials have their unique electronic propertiesand play important roles in interfacial sciences.
  • 4.5K
  • 12 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Saudi Arabian Plants
The kingdom of Saudi Arabia (SA) ranks fifth in Asia in terms of area. It features broad biodiversity, including interesting flora, and was the historical origin of Islam. It is endowed with a large variety of plants, including many herbs, shrubs, and trees. Many of these plants have a long history of use in traditional medicine.
  • 4.5K
  • 13 Jan 2023
Topic Review
Social Closure
Social closure refers to the process by which groups or social categories seek to establish and maintain boundaries to protect their privileged position and restrict access to resources, opportunities, or social status. This phenomenon involves mechanisms such as exclusion, discrimination, or credentialism, aimed at preserving the advantages of certain groups while limiting the mobility and opportunities of others. Social closure can manifest in various domains, including education, employment, and social institutions, contributing to social stratification and inequality within societies.
  • 4.5K
  • 08 Feb 2024
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Inhabited Institutionalism
Inhabited Institutionalism is a meso-level theoretical approach for evaluating the recursive relationships among institutions, social interactions, and organizations. This theoretical framework offers organizational scholars a multi-faceted consideration of coupling configurations that highlight how institutional processes are maintained, challenged, and transformed without reverting to nested yet binary arguments about individual agency and structural conditions.
  • 4.5K
  • 18 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Sadhu
A sadhu (IAST: sādhu (male), sādhvī or sādhvīne (female)), also spelled saddhu, is a religious ascetic, mendicant (monk) or any holy person in Hinduism and Jainism who has renounced the worldly life. They are sometimes alternatively referred to as jogi, sannyasi or vairagi. It literally means one who practises a ″sadhana″ or keenly follows a path of spiritual discipline. Although the vast majority of sādhus are yogīs, not all yogīs are sādhus. The sādhu is solely dedicated to achieving mokṣa (liberation), the fourth and final aśrama (stage of life), through meditation and contemplation of Brahman. Sādhus often wear simple clothing, such saffron-coloured clothing in Hinduism, white or nothing in Jainism, symbolising their sannyāsa (renunciation of worldly possessions). A female mendicant in Hinduism and Jainism is often called a sadhvi, or in some texts as aryika.
  • 4.5K
  • 10 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Mean Field Theory
In physics and probability theory, mean-field theory (aka MFT or rarely self-consistent field theory) studies the behavior of high-dimensional random (stochastic) models by studying a simpler model that approximates the original by averaging over degrees of freedom. Such models consider many individual components that interact with each other. In MFT, the effect of all the other individuals on any given individual is approximated by a single averaged effect, thus reducing a many-body problem to a one-body problem. The main idea of MFT is to replace all interactions to any one body with an average or effective interaction, sometimes called a molecular field. This reduces any multi-body problem into an effective one-body problem. The ease of solving MFT problems means that some insight into the behavior of the system can be obtained at a lower computational cost. MFT has since been applied to a wide range of fields outside of physics, including statistical inference, graphical models, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, epidemic models, queueing theory, computer network performance and game theory, as in the Quantal response equilibrium.
  • 4.4K
  • 03 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Life Cycle Assessment of State-of-the-Art Steel Production Routes
Using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, the impacts of the primary steel production via the blast furnace route and the scrap-based secondary steel production via the electric arc furance (EAF) route are assessed. Methodological as well as technical differences are analysed and their impacts on the results.
  • 4.4K
  • 08 Nov 2022
Topic Review
ICT Healthcare Solutions
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions facilitate the monitoring and management of older people’s health to improve quality of life and physical activity with a decline in caregivers’ burden.
  • 4.4K
  • 22 Mar 2021
Topic Review
Photon
A photon (from grc φῶς, φωτός  'light') is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless,[lower-alpha 1] so they always move at the speed of light in vacuum, 299792458 m/s (or about 186,282 mi/s). The photon belongs to the class of bosons. Like all elementary particles, photons are currently best explained by quantum mechanics, and exhibit wave–particle duality, their behavior featuring properties of both waves and particles. The modern photon concept originated during the first two decades of the 20th century with the work of Albert Einstein, who built upon the research of Max Planck. While trying to explain how matter and electromagnetic radiation could be in thermal equilibrium with one another, Planck proposed that the energy stored within a material object should be regarded as composed of an integer number of discrete, equal-sized parts. To explain the photoelectric effect, Einstein introduced the idea that light itself is made of discrete units of energy. In 1926, Gilbert N. Lewis popularized the term photon for these energy units. Subsequently, many other experiments validated Einstein's approach. In the Standard Model of particle physics, photons and other elementary particles are described as a necessary consequence of physical laws having a certain symmetry at every point in spacetime. The intrinsic properties of particles, such as charge, mass, and spin, are determined by gauge symmetry. The photon concept has led to momentous advances in experimental and theoretical physics, including lasers, Bose–Einstein condensation, quantum field theory, and the probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics. It has been applied to photochemistry, high-resolution microscopy, and measurements of molecular distances. Moreover, photons have been studied as elements of quantum computers, and for applications in optical imaging and optical communication such as quantum cryptography.
  • 4.4K
  • 23 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Techniques Involved in Plantlet Generation
Ornamentals come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors to suit a wide range of climates, landscapes, and gardening needs. Compared to demand, a shortage of plant materials and diversity force the search for solutions for their constant acquisition and improvement to increase their commercial value, respectively. In vitro cultures are a suitable solution to meet expectations using callus culture, somatic embryogenesis, protoplast culture, and the organogenesis of protocorm-like bodies; many of these techniques are commercially practiced. Factors such as culture media, explants, carbohydrates, plant growth regulators, and light are associated with the success of in vitro propagation. Techniques, especially embryo rescue and somatic hybridization, are widely used to improve ornamentals. The development of synthetic seed allows season-independent seed production and preservation in the long term. Despite the advantages of propagation and the improvement of ornamentals, many barriers still need to be resolved. In contrast to propagation and crop developmental studies, there is also a high scope for molecular studies, especially epigenetic changes caused by plant tissue culture of ornamentals. 
  • 4.4K
  • 07 Dec 2022
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Fungal Secondary Metabolism
Fungal secondary metabolites (SMs) comprise a vast collection of compounds expendable for these organisms under laboratory conditions. They exhibit enormous chemical diversity, and usually belong to four major families: terpenoids, polyketides, non-ribosomal peptides, or a combination of the last two. Their functions are very diverse and are normally associated with a greater fitness of the producing fungi in their environment, which often compete with other microorganisms or interact with host plants. Many SMs have beneficial applications, e.g., as antibiotics or medical drugs, but others, known as mycotoxins, are harmful to health.
  • 4.4K
  • 13 Apr 2022
Topic Review
BlackBerry Messenger
BlackBerry Messenger, also known as BBM, is a proprietary Internet-based instant messenger and videotelephony application included on BlackBerry devices that allows messaging and voice calls between BlackBerry, iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile users. The consumer edition is currently developed by Emtek under license from BlackBerry Limited (formerly known as Research In Motion), and was first released in August 2005. Messages sent via BlackBerry Messenger are sent over the Internet and use the BlackBerry PIN system. Many service providers allow sign-in to BlackBerry Messenger using a dedicated BlackBerry data plan. Exchanging messages is possible to a single person or via dedicated discussion or chat groups, which allow multiple BlackBerry devices to communicate in a single session. In addition to offering text-based instant messages, BlackBerry Messenger also allows users to send pictures, voicenotes (audio recordings), files (up to 16 MB), share real time location on a map, stickers and a wide selection of emoticons. Communication was only possible between BlackBerry devices until late 2013 when BBM was released on iOS and Android systems. 300 million Stickers have been shared. Daily, 150,000 BBM Voice Calls are placed. There are more than 190 million BBM users worldwide as of 2015, and BlackBerry infrastructure handled 30 petabytes of data traffic each month by early 2013. BBM was very popular in the late 2000s and the break of the decade, before it started to lose out to rivals like Apple's iMessage and the cross-platform service WhatsApp. As of April 2016, Indonesia is the only country where BBM is the most popular messaging app - installed on 87.5% of Android devices in the country.
  • 4.4K
  • 25 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Plant-Based Milk Production
Growing concerns about the environmental impacts, healthiness, and ethical implications of eating animal-based products, such as meat, eggs, and milk, has led to an increase in demand for plant-based alternatives.  Plant-based milk substitutes can be created using two main approaches. First, certain oil-rich plant tissues (such as almonds, cashews, coconut flesh, flaxseeds, or soy beans) can be converted into colloidal suspensions using size-reduction and isolation techniques (such as soaking, grinding, enzyme-treatment, filtration, and centrifugation).  Second, plant-based oils (such as corn, flaxseed soybean, or sunflower oil) can be homogenized with water in the presence of plant-based proteins (such as pea, legume, or soy proteins), polysaccharides (gum arabic or beet pectin), phospholipids (such as soy or sunflower lecithin), or saponins (such as quillaja saponin) to create an oil-in-water emulsion with similar characteristics to bovine milk.   
  • 4.4K
  • 28 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Dowel-Type Joints in Timber Structures
Dowel-type joints are one of the most common connectors. They basically consist of one or more cylindrical steel dowels inserted into aligned holes of different elements. The dowels transmit loads between the elements, being subjected to opposite compressive forces on the contact area with each element. This causes the dowels to work under bending moments and shear forces. There is an almost infinite number of possible configurations for dowel-type joints.
  • 4.4K
  • 09 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Raksha Bandhan
Raksha Bandhan, also Rakshabandhan, or Rakhi, is a popular, traditionally Hindu, annual rite, or ceremony, which is central to a festival of the same name, celebrated in parts of South Asia, and among people influenced by South Asian culture around the world. On this day, sisters of all ages tie a talisman, or amulet, called the rakhi, around the wrists of their brothers, symbolically protecting them, receiving a gift in return, and traditionally investing the brothers with a share of the responsibility of their potential care. Raksha Bandhan is observed on the last day of the Hindu lunar calendar month of Shraavana, which typically falls in August. The expression "Raksha Bandhan," Sanskrit, literally, "the bond of protection, obligation, or care," is now principally applied to this ritual. Until the mid-20th-century, the expression was more commonly applied to a similar ritual, also held on the same day, with precedence in ancient Hindu texts, in which a domestic priest ties amulets, charms, or threads on the wrists of his patrons, or changes their sacred thread, and receives gifts of money; in some places, this is still the case. In contrast, the sister-brother festival, with origins in folk culture, had names which varied with location, with some rendered as Saluno, Silono, and Rakri. A ritual associated with Saluno included the sisters placing shoots of barley behind the ears of their brothers. Of special significance to married women, Raksha Bandhan is rooted in the practice of territorial or village exogamy, in which a bride marries out of her natal village or town, and her parents, by custom, do not visit her in her married home. In rural north India, where village exogamy is strongly prevalent, large numbers of married Hindu women travel back to their parents' homes every year for the ceremony. Their brothers, who typically live with the parents or nearby, sometimes travel to their sisters' married home to escort them back. Many younger married women arrive a few weeks earlier at their natal homes and stay until the ceremony. The brothers serve as lifelong intermediaries between their sisters' married and parental homes, as well as potential stewards of their security. In urban India, where families are increasingly nuclear, the festival has become more symbolic, but continues to be highly popular. The rituals associated with this festival have spread beyond their traditional regions and have been transformed through technology and migration, the movies, social interaction, and promotion by politicized Hinduism, as well as by the nation state. Among women and men who are not blood relatives, there is also a transformed tradition of voluntary kin relations, achieved through the tying of rakhi amulets, which have cut across caste and class lines, and Hindu and Muslim divisions. In some communities or contexts, other figures, such as a matriarch, or a person in authority, can be included in the ceremony in ritual acknowledgement of their benefaction.
  • 4.4K
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Leprechaun
A leprechaun (Irish: leipreachán/luchorpán) is a type of fairy of the Aos Sí in Irish folklore. They are usually depicted as little bearded men, wearing a coat and hat, who partake in mischief. They are solitary creatures who spend their time making and mending shoes and have a hidden pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. If captured by a human, they often grant three wishes in exchange for their freedom. Like other Irish fairies, leprechauns may be derived from the Tuatha Dé Danann. Leprechaun-like creatures rarely appear in Irish mythology and only became prominent in later folklore.
  • 4.4K
  • 04 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Flow-Induced Vibration
Flow-induced vibration (FIV) of bluff body structures is a classical bidirectional flow–structure interaction problem, which is linked to various fluid dynamics phenomena (e.g., boundary-layer separation, vortex formation and shedding, hydrodynamic loading on the structures) as well as structure vibrations.
  • 4.4K
  • 01 Dec 2022
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Organizational Justice: Typology, Antecedents and Consequences
Organizational Justice is an individual’s perception that events, actions, or decisions within an organization adhere to a standard of fairness. Justice researchers have categorized justice into four types, differentiated by how fairness is evaluated by employees: distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational justice. Organizational justice perceptions have consequences for the employee and the organization: increasing job satisfaction, commitment, and trust; and decreasing turnover, counterproductive work behaviors, and even workplace violence. Contemporary organizational justice research seeks to understand how to restore justice after an injustice has occurred. 
  • 4.4K
  • 08 Jul 2022
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