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Topic Review
Graphene, Graphene-Derivatives and Composites
Graphene has accomplished huge notoriety and interest from the universe of science considering its exceptional mechanical, physical and thermal properties. Graphene is an allotrope of carbon having one atom thick size and planar sheets thickly stuffed in a lattice structure resembling a honeycomb structure. Numerous methods to prepare graphene have been created throughout a limited span of time. Due to its fascinating properties, it has found some extensive applications to a wide variety of fields. So, we believe there is a necessity to produce a document of the outstanding methods and some of the novel applications of graphene. 
  • 4.2K
  • 09 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Sponge City Practices in China
In recent years, China has been committed to strengthening environmental governance and trying to build a sustainable society in which humans and nature develop in harmony. As a new urban construction concept, sponge city uses natural and ecological methods to retain rainwater, alleviate flooding problems, reduce the damage to the water environment, and gradually restore the hydrological balance of the construction area.
  • 4.2K
  • 17 May 2022
Topic Review
Open-Source Innovation
Open-source innovation is rarely included in the government’s innovation measures. Firms that take the lead in open-source have greater benefit losses and need to bear considerable risk. For open-source innovation participants with high knowledge and a technology spillover effect, innovation willingness is closely related to whether the spillover benefits can be moderately compensated. When the open-source model is not formed and the problem of the “free ride” is common, the government should give support to open-source enterprises, such as offering tax subsidies. In this way, enterprises’ open-source innovation power can be stimulated. Trust is an important factor for enterprises to build a good cooperative relationship and sustainable development. The spontaneous resistance to hitchhiking behavior and the enthusiasm for secondary innovation both depend on the construction of a trust relationship between enterprises. Strengthening enterprise interaction in the open-source community and building a smooth talent exchange and learning channel can better cultivate this trust.
  • 4.2K
  • 27 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Dagor Dagorath
The Dagor Dagorath (Sindarin for Battle of Battles) is a fictional battle described in the legendarium of J. R. R. Tolkien. As Tolkien's works were conceived as a fictional "forgotten history" of the world, the Dagor Dagorath represents the coming End of the World, and is often referred to as simply "The End". As Tolkien originally wrote it, The Silmarillion ends with a prophecy by Mandos about the end of the world. The published Silmarillion ends instead with the last paragraph of Valaquenta. This was because Tolkien had abandoned the idea of the "second prophecy of Mandos", and the Valaquenta text, much later, contradicted it openly. However, references to the final battle remain in the published Silmarillion, such as a statement at the end of the Akallabêth that Ar-Pharazôn and his mortal warriors who had set foot on Aman were buried by falling hills, imprisoned in the Caves of the Forgotten until the "Last Battle and Day of Doom". Christopher Tolkien sees the account as similar to the Nordic legend of Ragnarök and J. R. R. Tolkien also made this connection in some of his letters.
  • 4.2K
  • 14 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Usury
Usury (/ˈjuːʒəri/) is the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that unfairly enrich the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning, taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is charged in excess of the maximum rate that is allowed by law. A loan may be considered usurious because of excessive or abusive interest rates or other factors defined by a nation's laws. Someone who practices usury can be called a usurer, but in contemporary English may be called a loan shark. In many historical societies including ancient Christian, Jewish, and many modern Islamic societies, usury meant the charging of interest of any kind and was considered wrong, or was made illegal. During the Sutra period in India (7th to 2nd centuries BC) there were laws prohibiting the highest castes from practicing usury. Similar condemnations are found in religious texts from Buddhism, Judaism (ribbit in Hebrew), Christianity, and Islam (riba in Arabic). At times, many nations from ancient Greece to ancient Rome have outlawed loans with any interest. Though the Roman Empire eventually allowed loans with carefully restricted interest rates, the Catholic Church in medieval Europe, as well as the Reformed Churches, regarded the charging of interest at any rate as sinful (as well as charging a fee for the use of money, such as at a bureau de change). Religious prohibitions on usury are predicated upon the belief that charging interest on a loan is a sin.
  • 4.2K
  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Right Triangle
A right triangle (American English) or right-angled triangle (British English) is a triangle in which one angle is a right angle (that is, a 90-degree angle). The relation between the sides and angles of a right triangle is the basis for trigonometry. The side opposite the right angle is called the hypotenuse (side c in the figure). The sides adjacent to the right angle are called legs (or catheti, singular: cathetus). Side a may be identified as the side adjacent to angle B and opposed to (or opposite) angle A, while side b is the side adjacent to angle A and opposed to angle B. If the lengths of all three sides of a right triangle are integers, the triangle is said to be a Pythagorean triangle and its side lengths are collectively known as a Pythagorean triple.
  • 4.2K
  • 17 Oct 2022
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Antifungals and Drug Resistance
Antifungal drugs prevent topical or invasive fungal infections (mycoses) either by stopping growth of fungi (termed fungistatic) or by killing the fungal cells (termed fungicidal). Antibiotics also prevent bacterial infections through either bacteriostatic or bactericidal mechanisms. These microorganisms successfully develop resistance against conventional drugs that are designed to kill or stop them from multiplying. When a fungus no longer responds to antifungal drug treatments and continues to grow, this is known as antifungal drug resistance. Bacteria have an amazing capacity to become resistant to antibiotic action as well, and the effectiveness of the scarce antifungal arsenal is jeopardised by this antibiotic resistance, which poses a severe threat to public health.
  • 4.2K
  • 21 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Forensic Photography
Forensic photography may refer to the visual documentation of different aspects that can be found at a crime scene. It may include the documentation of the crime scene, or physical evidence that is either found at a crime scene or already processed in a laboratory. Forensic photography differs from other variations of photography because crime scene photographers usually have a very specific purpose for capturing each image. As a result, the quality of forensic documentation may determine the result of an investigation, in that with the absence of good documentation, investigators may find it impossible to conclude what did or did not happen. Crime scenes can be major sources of physical evidence that is used to associate or link suspects to scenes, victims to scenes, and suspects to victims. Locard's exchange principle is a major concept that helps determine these relationships of evidence. It is the basic tenet of why crime scenes should be investigated. Anything found at a crime scene can be used as physical evidence as long as it is relevant to the case, which is why the documentation of a crime scene and physical evidence in its true form is key for the interpretation of the investigation. Knowing that crucial information for an investigation can be found at a crime scene, forensic photography is a form of documentation that is essential for retaining the quality of discovered physical evidence. Such physical evidence to be documented include those found at the crime scene, in the laboratory, or for the identification of suspects. All forensic photography must consider three elements at a crime scene: the subject, the scale, and a reference object. Also, the overall forensic photographs must be shown a neutral and accurate representation.
  • 4.2K
  • 21 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Vegetables Irrigated with Untreated Wastewater
Vegetables are commonly cultivated with untreated wastewater and consumed by human beings who often ignore their harmful impacts on health. The industrialization and urbanization in developing countries have led to the release of increasing amounts of heavy metals (HM) into the environment. Regular monitoring of metal concentration levels in contaminated soils and edible plants is essential to prevent their excessive build-up in the diet and food chains.
  • 4.2K
  • 25 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Urban Morphology and Sustainable Urban Form
This qualitative grounded theory study is to unpack a conceptual model for assessing the interrelation between urban morphology and sustainable urban form. As it is cited in this entry, although numerous researches have been carried out on the topic of "sustainable urban form" and "urban morphology", yet, there seems to be a substantial gap in the study of the mutual relationship between the two. As the importance is not evaluated in the previous literature, there was no explored model to validate the relation. Consequently, this study was intended to gain a conceptual model of the necessity of conducting systematic model evaluations of sustainable urban form based on the typo morphology as a field of inquiry.
  • 4.2K
  • 06 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Statins in High Cardiovascular Risk Patients
Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) morbidity and mortality are decreasing in high-income countries, but ASCVD remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in high-income countries. Over the past few decades, major risk factors for ASCVD, including LDL cholesterol (LDL-C), have been identified. Statins are the drug of choice for patients at increased risk of ASCVD and remain one of the most commonly used and effective drugs for reducing LDL cholesterol and the risk of mortality and coronary artery disease in high-risk groups. Unfortunately, doctors tend to under-prescribe or under-dose these drugs, mostly out of fear of side effects. The latest guidelines emphasize that treatment intensity should increase with increasing cardiovascular risk and that the decision to initiate intervention remains a matter of individual consideration and shared decision-making.
  • 4.2K
  • 31 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Climate Change Denial
File:Former Senator Tom Coburn- Paris Climate Agreement Was 'Poorly Negotiated'.webm Climate change denial, or global warming denial is denial, dismissal, or unwarranted doubt that contradicts the scientific consensus on climate change, including the extent to which it is caused by humans, its effects on nature and human society, or the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions. Many who deny, dismiss, or hold unwarranted doubt about the scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming self-label as "climate change skeptics", which several scientists have noted is an inaccurate description. Climate change denial can also be implicit, when individuals or social groups accept the science but fail to come to terms with it or to translate their acceptance into action. Several social science studies have analyzed these positions as forms of denialism, pseudoscience, or propaganda. The campaign to undermine public trust in climate science has been described as a "denial machine" organized by industrial, political and ideological interests, and supported by conservative media and skeptical bloggers to manufacture uncertainty about global warming. The politics of global warming have been affected by climate change denial and the political global warming controversy, undermining the efforts to act on climate change or adapting to the warming climate. Those promoting denial commonly use rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none. Organised campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science is associated with conservative economic policies and backed by industrial interests opposed to the regulation of CO2 emissions. Climate change denial has been associated with the fossil fuels lobby, the Koch brothers, industry advocates and conservative think tanks, often in the United States. More than 90% of papers sceptical on climate change originate from right-wing think tanks. Since the late 1970s, oil companies have published research broadly in line with the standard views on global warming. Despite this, oil companies organized a climate change denial campaign to disseminate public disinformation for several decades, a strategy that has been compared to the organized denial of the hazards of tobacco smoking by the tobacco industry.
  • 4.2K
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Nonlocal Elasticity for Nanostructures: A Review of Recent Achievements
Recent developments in modeling and analysis of nanostructures are illustrated and discussed in this paper. Starting with the early theories of nonlocal elastic continua, a thorough investigation of continuum nano-mechanics is provided. Two-phase local/nonlocal models are shown as possible theories to recover consistency of the strain-driven purely integral theory, provided that the mixture parameter is not vanishing. Ground-breaking nonlocal methodologies based on the well-posed stress-driven formulation are shown and commented upon as effective strategies to capture scale-dependent mechanical behaviors. Static and dynamic problems of nanostructures are investigated, ranging from higher-order and curved nanobeams to nanoplates. Geometrically nonlinear problems of small-scale inflected structures undergoing large configuration changes are addressed in the framework of integral elasticity. Nonlocal methodologies for modeling and analysis of structural assemblages as well as of nanobeams laying on nanofoundations are illustrated along with benchmark applicative examples.
  • 4.2K
  • 06 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Domesticated Plants and Animals of Austronesia
One of the major human migration events was the maritime settlement of the islands of the Indo-Pacific by the Austronesian peoples, believed to have started from at least 5,500 to 4,000 BP (3500 to 2000 BC). These migrations were accompanied by a set of domesticated, semi-domesticated, and commensal plants and animals transported via outrigger ships and catamarans that enabled early Austronesians to thrive in the islands of Maritime Southeast Asia (also known as 'Island Southeast Asia'), Near Oceania (Melanesia), Remote Oceania (Micronesia and Polynesia), Madagascar , and the Comoros Islands. They include crops and animals believed to have originated from the Hemudu and Majiabang cultures in the hypothetical pre-Austronesian homelands in mainland China , as well as other plants and animals believed to have been first domesticated from within Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, and New Guinea. Some of these plants are sometimes also known as "canoe plants", especially in the context of the Polynesian migrations. Domesticated animals and plants introduced during historic times are not included.
  • 4.2K
  • 25 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Xeno Nucleic Acid
Xeno nucleic acid (XNA) is a synthetic alternative to the natural nucleic acids DNA and RNA as information-storing biopolymers that differs in the sugar backbone. As of 2011, at least six types of synthetic sugars have been shown to form nucleic acid backbones that can store and retrieve genetic information. Research is now being done to create synthetic polymerases to transform XNA. The study of its production and application has created a field known as xenobiology. Although the genetic information is still stored in the four canonical base pairs (unlike other nucleic acid analogues), natural DNA polymerases cannot read and duplicate this information. Thus the genetic information stored in XNA is "invisible" and therefore useless to natural DNA-based organisms.
  • 4.2K
  • 01 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Cracking of Wireless Networks
Cracking a wireless network is defeating the security of a wireless local-area network (back-jack wireless LAN). A commonly used wireless LAN is a Wi-Fi network. Wireless LANs have inherent security weaknesses from which wired networks are exempt. Wireless cracking is an information network attack similar to a direct intrusion. Two frequent types of vulnerabilities in wireless LANs are those caused by poor configuration, and those caused by weak or flawed security protocols.
  • 4.2K
  • 28 Nov 2022
Topic Review
The Autonomic Nervous System Interaction with Immunity
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the immune system are deeply interrelated. The ANS regulates both innate and adaptive immunity through the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches, and an imbalance in this system can determine an altered inflammatory response as typically observed in chronic conditions such as systemic autoimmune diseases. Rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and systemic sclerosis all show a dysfunction of the ANS that is mutually related to the increase in inflammation and cardiovascular risk. Moreover, an interaction between ANS and the gut microbiota has direct effects on inflammation homeostasis. Recently vagal stimulation techniques have emerged as an unprecedented possibility to reduce ANS dysfunction, especially in chronic diseases characterized by pain and a decreased quality of life as well as in chronic inflammation.
  • 4.2K
  • 07 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Meaningful Life
In positive psychology, a meaningful life is a construct having to do with the purpose, significance, fulfillment, and satisfaction of life. While specific theories vary, there are two common aspects: a global schema to understand one's life and the belief that life itself is meaningful. Meaning can be defined as the connection linking two presumably independent entities together; a meaningful life links the biological reality of life to a symbolic interpretation or meaning. Those possessing a sense of meaning are generally found to be happier, to have lower levels of negative emotions, and to have lower risk of mental illness.
  • 4.2K
  • 23 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Instrumental Temperature Record
The instrumental temperature record provides the temperature of Earth's climate system from the historical network of in situ measurements of surface air temperatures and ocean surface temperatures. Data are collected at thousands of meteorological stations, buoys and ships around the globe. The longest-running temperature record is the Central England temperature data series, which starts in 1659. The longest-running quasi-global record starts in 1850. In recent decades, more extensive sampling of ocean temperatures at various depths allows estimates of ocean heat content, but these samples do not form part of the global surface temperature datasets.
  • 4.2K
  • 25 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Application of Artificial Neural Networks in Construction Management
Artificial neural networks (ANN) exhibit excellent performance in complex problems and have been increasingly applied in the research field of construction management (CM) over the last few decades. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the application of ANN in CM research and useful reference for the future.Content analysis is performed to comprehensively analyze 112 related bibliographic records retrieved from seven selected top journals published between 2000 and 2020. The results indicate that the applications of ANN of interest in CM research have been significantly increasing since 2015. Back-propagation was the most widely used algorithm in training ANN. Integrated ANN with fuzzy logic/genetic algorithm was the most commonly em-ployed way of addressing the CM problem. In addition, 11 application fields and 31 research topics were identified, with the primary research interests focusing on cost, performance, and safety.
  • 4.2K
  • 27 Oct 2021
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