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Topic Review
High-Purity Quartz Processing Technology
Quartz deposits are widely dispersed in nature, but the presence of ore bodies capable of yielding high-purity quartz is exceedingly rare. As a result, the effective purification and processing of high-purity quartz from natural siliceous materials has emerged as a prominent area of research within the non-metallic mineral processing field.
  • 4.1K
  • 12 Dec 2023
Topic Review
Traditional Seaweed Farming Methods
The imperative to substantially expand the world’s seaweed aquaculture supply is well established in published literature and has the strong backing of virtually all global non-government organizations (NGOs). The expansion of seaweed farming is recognised as one of the best approaches to realising many of the sustainable development goals of the United Nations.
  • 4.1K
  • 27 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Deep Reinforcement Learning in Economics
The popularity of deep reinforcement learning (DRL) applications in economics has increased exponentially. DRL, through a wide range of capabilities from reinforcement learning (RL) to deep learning (DL), offers vast opportunities for handling sophisticated dynamic economics systems. DRL is characterized by scalability with the potential to be applied to high-dimensional problems in conjunction with noisy and nonlinear patterns of economic data. In this paper, we initially consider a brief review of DL, RL, and deep RL methods in diverse applications in economics, providing an in-depth insight into the state-of-the-art. Furthermore, the architecture of DRL applied to economic applications is investigated in order to highlight the complexity, robustness, accuracy, performance, computational tasks, risk constraints, and profitability. The survey results indicate that DRL can provide better performance and higher efficiency as compared to the traditional algorithms while facing real economic problems in the presence of risk parameters and the ever-increasing uncertainties. View Full-Text
  • 4.1K
  • 08 Apr 2021
Topic Review
3D-Bioprinting for Chronic Wound
Skin substitutes can provide a temporary or permanent treatment option for chronic wounds. The selection of skin substitutes depends on several factors, including the type of wound and its severity. Full-thickness skin grafts (SGs) require a well-vascularised bed and sometimes will lead to contraction and scarring formation. Besides, donor sites for full-thickness skin grafts are very limited if the wound area is big, and it has been proven to have the lowest survival rate compared to thick- and thin-split thickness. Tissue engineering technology has introduced new advanced strategies since the last decades to fabricate the composite scaffold via the 3D-bioprinting approach as a tissue replacement strategy. Considering the current global donor shortage for autologous split-thickness skin graft (ASSG), skin 3D-bioprinting has emerged as a potential alternative to replace the ASSG treatment. The three-dimensional (3D)-bioprinting technique yields scaffold fabrication with the combination of biomaterials and cells to form bioinks. 
  • 4.1K
  • 08 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Information Technology
Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data and information. IT is typically used within the context of business operations as opposed to personal or entertainment technologies. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (IT system) is generally an information system, a communications system, or, more specifically speaking, a computer system — including all hardware, software, and peripheral equipment — operated by a limited group of IT users. Although humans have been storing, retrieving, manipulating, and communicating information since the earliest writing systems were developed, the term information technology in its modern sense first appeared in a 1958 article published in the Harvard Business Review; authors Harold J. Leavitt and Thomas L. Whisler commented that "the new technology does not yet have a single established name. We shall call it information technology (IT)." Their definition consists of three categories: techniques for processing, the application of statistical and mathematical methods to decision-making, and the simulation of higher-order thinking through computer programs. The term is commonly used as a synonym for computers and computer networks, but it also encompasses other information distribution technologies such as television and telephones. Several products or services within an economy are associated with information technology, including computer hardware, software, electronics, semiconductors, internet, telecom equipment, and e-commerce.[lower-alpha 1] Based on the storage and processing technologies employed, it is possible to distinguish four distinct phases of IT development: pre-mechanical (3000 BC — 1450 AD), mechanical (1450—1840), electromechanical (1840—1940), and electronic (1940 to present). This article focuses on the most recent period (electronic). Information technology is also a branch of computer science, which can be defined as the overall study of procedure, structure, and the processing of various types of data. As this field continues to evolve across the world, the overall priority and importance has also grown, which is where we begin to see the introduction of computer science-related courses in K-12 education. However, concerns have been raised about this fact that most schools are lacking advanced-placement courses in this field.
  • 4.1K
  • 02 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Aluminum-Fuel-Based Energy Conversion Systems
Metallic aluminum is widely used in propellants, energy-containing materials, and batteries due to its high energy density. In addition to burning in the air, aluminum can react with water to generate hydrogen. Aluminum is carbon-free and the solid-phase products can be recycled easily after the reaction. Micron aluminum powder is stable in the air and enables global trade. Aluminum metal is considered to be a viable recyclable carrier for clean energy.
  • 4.1K
  • 05 Jan 2023
Topic Review
Gut–Brain Axis and the Microbiome Physiology
Human microbiome has not been at the center of scientific research until recent years, when the scientific approach to the gut–brain axis and its medical involvement in multiple pathologies has revealed the decisive role of the intestinal flora.
  • 4.1K
  • 14 Sep 2023
Topic Review
The Swimming Mode of Fish
Starting from the morphological function of fish, there are many swimming modes of fish in nature, the most authoritative classification of which, based on the organ of propulsion, was first proposed by Breder and Webb. There are two main categories of propulsion methods, body caudal fin (BCF) propulsion and median paired fin (MPF) propulsion. In 1978, Lindsey classified the different families of fish species according to their mode of propulsion, which provided the essential foundation for the improvement of the overall performance of undulating propulsion biomimetic robots.
  • 4.1K
  • 05 Sep 2023
Topic Review
End-of-Life Vehicles Recycling
End-of-life vehicle (ELV) recycling is a process that spends energy and could be an energy source as well. This part of energy recovering depends on many different factors related to the broad and local aspects of ELV recycling. The ELV recycling process is consuming energy from different energy sources (electrical, fossil), however, this consumption is lower in relation to energy consumption during the production of new vehicle parts from the very beginning. ELVs have, in the first phase, been considered as an environmental problem, which must be solved through many decision-making approaches, directives, and standards. Accordingly, it may be concluded, that this issue is very complex since it includes a lot of relations concerning ELV recycling, as well as broad infrastructure and socio-economic environment factors. On the other hand, there is not enough relevant and reliable information related to the ELV recycling and energy recovery through ELV recycling process. This information can be obtained through user responses, financial analysis, business analysis, or some government body relevant information sources. Due to new regulations related to ELV recycling, the responsibility of manufacturers is becoming increasingly important. They are obligated to design and revise their processes and adapt them to new legislation norms.
  • 4.1K
  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Depression
Depression (also known as major depression or major depressive disorder) is a psychiatric disorder that affects mood, behavior, and overall health. It causes prolonged feelings of sadness, emptiness, or hopelessness, and a loss of interest in activities that were once enjoyed. People with depression may also have changes in appetite (leading to overeating or not eating enough), changes in sleeping patterns (sleeping too much or not being able to sleep), loss of energy, and difficulty concentrating. Although depression is considered primarily a mental health disorder, it can also have physical features including headaches, other unexplained aches and pains, unusually slow or fast movements, and digestive problems. To be diagnosed with depression, an individual must have signs and symptoms nearly every day for at least 2 weeks. However, the features of this condition vary widely.
  • 4.1K
  • 31 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Afrikaans Folklore
Learners of Afrikaans as an additional language could be enabled to respond to aesthetical, emotional, cultural and social values. Through the use of Afrikaans folklore teachers can focus on developing the learners' ability to behave with cultural and aesthetic sensitivity in different social contexts. Afrikaans examples of folklore are mentioned and discussed briefly to include stories with humour, magic, the transmission of social and cultural values and traditions, ecological meaning, idiomatic expressions, praise poems, ogre characters and stereotypes. By means of a well-known background and/or context of a text, learners of Afrikaans as an additional language can become aware of the aesthetic range of the target language; they can become acquainted with the depth and content of meaning implied in the text. If a text is understood, the reader becomes personally involved and this, in itself, can lead the reader to interact creatively with the text - from the mechanical aspect of the language system to the analytical aspect - where s/he can participate in the story. The learner can thus discover how the events unfold, s/he can share the characters' emotional experiences and communicate their personal responses. Herein lies the relevance of a good reading text (despite the origin) - because the reader inhabits the text and in the process the language becomes transparent.
  • 4.1K
  • 31 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Interslavic Language
Interslavic (Medžuslovjansky; Меджусловјанскы) is a zonal constructed language based on the Slavic languages. Its purpose is to facilitate communication between representatives of different Slavic nations, as well as to allow people who do not know any Slavic language to communicate with Slavs by being understandable to most, if not all Slavic speakers without them having to learn the language themselves. For Slavs it can fulfill an educational role as well. Interslavic can be classified as a semi-constructed language. It is essentially a modern continuation of Old Church Slavonic, but also draws on the various improvised language forms Slavs have been using for centuries to communicate with Slavs of other nationalities, for example in multi-Slavic environments and on the Internet, providing them with a scientific base. Thus, both grammar and vocabulary are based on the commonalities between the Slavic languages, and non-Slavic elements are avoided. Its main focus lies on instant understandability rather than easy learning, a balance typical for naturalistic (as opposed to schematic) languages. Precursors of Interslavic have a long history and predate constructed languages like Volapük and Esperanto by centuries: the oldest description, written by the Croatian priest Juraj Križanić, goes back to the years 1659–1666. In its current form, Interslavic was created in 2006 under the name Slovianski. In 2011, Slovianski underwent a thorough reform and merged with two other projects, simultaneously changing its name to "Interslavic", a name that was first proposed by the Czech Ignác Hošek in 1908. Interslavic can be written using the Latin and the Cyrillic alphabets.
  • 4.1K
  • 10 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Legal Norms
Legal norms are binding rules, or norms, of conduct that organisations of sovereign power promulgate and enforce in order to regulate social relations. Legal norms determine the rights and duties of individuals who are the subjects of legal relations within the governing jurisdiction at a given point in time. Competent state authority issue and publish basic aspects of legal norms through a collection of laws that individuals under that government must abide to, which is further guaranteed by state coercion. There are two categories of legal norms: normativity, that regulates the conduct of people, and generality, which are binding for the indefinite number of people and cases. Diplomatic and legislative immunity refers to instances where legal norms are constructed to be targeted towards a minority and are specifically only binding for them, such as soldiers and public officials. In a legal sense, retro-activity refers to a law that impairs or invalidates the vested rights of an individual acquired under existing laws by creating new obligations to considerations that have been pre-established. Legal norms can either classify under true retro-activity, where norms influence the legal relations that have existed before its effect, or pseudo retro-activity, referring to how the validity of old legal relations can be influenced by derogated norms. Legal norms become validated from the moment it is published as part of legal order and become in effect from the moment it binds the subjects of the law. The Latin phrase, ‘vacatio legis’ refers to the period of time between a legal norm’s validity and effect. As the validity of a legal norm is limited from the moment of its adoption by legal institutions, a lapse of time can cause its termination. Legal norms can either be terminated by explicit derogation by the competent state authority, or through automatic derogation whereby the authoritative organisation adopts a new normative act that regulates the same relations, effectively replacing the old one.
  • 4.1K
  • 19 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Renewable Energy and Energy Storage Systems
The use of fossil fuels has contributed to climate change and global warming, which has led to a growing need for renewable and ecologically friendly alternatives to these. It is accepted that renewable energy sources are the ideal option to substitute fossil fuels in the near future. Significant progress has been made to produce renewable energy sources with acceptable prices at a commercial scale, such as solar, wind, and biomass energies. Hybrid renewable energy systems are needed with good energy management to balance the various renewable energy sources’ production/consumption/storage.
  • 4.1K
  • 14 Feb 2023
Topic Review
Rockfall
A rockfall is defined as the “detachment, fall, rolling, and bouncing of rock fragments. It may occur singly or in clusters, but there is little dynamic interaction between the most mobile moving fragments, which interact mainly with the substrate (path)".
  • 4.1K
  • 04 Aug 2021
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Knowledge Integration in Smart Factories
Knowledge integration is well explained by the human–organization–technology (HOT) approach known from knowledge management. This approach contains the horizontal and vertical interaction and communication between employees, human-to-machine, but also machine-to-machine. Different organizational structures and processes are supported with the help of appropriate technologies and suitable data processing and integration techniques. In a Smart Factory, manufacturing systems act largely autonomously on the basis of continuously collected data. The technical design concerns the networking of machines, their connectivity and the interaction between human and machine as well as machine-to-machine. Within a Smart Factory, machines can be considered as intelligent manufacturing systems. Such manufacturing systems can autonomously adapt to events through the ability to intelligently analyze data and act as adaptive manufacturing systems that consider changes in production, the supply chain and customer requirements. Inter-connected physical devices, sensors, actuators, and controllers form the building block of the Smart Factory, which is called the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT uses different data processing solutions, such as cloud computing, fog computing, or edge computing, to fuse and process data. This is accomplished in an integrated and cross-device manner.
  • 4.1K
  • 13 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Born Equal: Can Genetics Make the Perfect Athlete?
Thanks to the dawn of accessible science to map the human genome and the research that is poured into it, genetics are playing a larger role in elite sports. Genetics have a large influence over many attributes necessary for athletic excellence such as strength, muscle size, muscle fibre composition, anaerobic threshold, lung capacity, and flexibility. The aim of the study was to analyse a large database of athletes, comparing their chosen sports and the level that they play. Analysis of the individuals will include genotypes in six heavily studied genes attributed to athlete potential: ACTN3, MSTN, NOS3, ACE, AMPD1 and TRHR. A combination of both nurture and nature will always be required to bring the most out of an individual, however it would be naïve to ignore natural gifts. Genotypes may give an advantage to certain individuals but the lines between which genotype bring the most benefits is blurred, certain genotypes such as those found in MSTN are very uncommon but have very high affinity for power sports and bodybuilding. Other genes such as the once hailed “sports gene” ACTN3 have far more varied distribution and no particular athlete appeared to be hampered from any genotype, however the C allele did have affinity towards strength and power. From the six analysed genes in the study both power/strength athletes and bodybuilders had completed genotype affinity, however these genes seem to have less impact on those that compete in endurance/stamina sports. The  ACTN3 C allele, MSTN G allele, NOS3 T allele, ACE II, AMPD1 C allele and TRHR C allele all show affinity towards power, strength and/or bodybuilding athletes, only the NOS3 C allele showed a true affinity towards endurance/stamina sports. 
  • 4.1K
  • 13 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Allegory in the Middle Ages
Allegory in the Middle Ages was a vital element in the synthesis of biblical and classical traditions into what would become recognizable as medieval culture. People of the Middle Ages consciously drew from the cultural legacies of the ancient world in shaping their institutions and ideas, and so allegory in medieval literature and medieval art was a prime mover for the synthesis and transformational continuity between the ancient world and the "new" Christian world. People of the Middle Ages did not see the same break between themselves and their classical predecessors that modern observers see; rather, they saw continuity with themselves and the ancient world, using allegory as a synthesizing agent that brings together a whole image.
  • 4.1K
  • 21 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Identification of Optimal Binders for Torrefied Biomass Pellets
The pretreatment of biomass through torrefaction is an effective means of improving the fuel quality of woody biomass and its suitability for use in existing facilities burning thermal coal. Densification of torrefied biomass produces a fuel of similar energy density, moisture content, and fixed carbon content to low-grade coals. Additionally, if the torrefaction conditions are optimized, the produced torrefied pellet will be resistant to weathering and biological degradation, allowing for outdoor storage and transport in a manner similar to coal. In untreated biomass, lignin is the primary binding agent for biomass pellets and is activated by the heat and pressures of the pellet extrusion process. The thermal degradation of lignin during torrefaction reduces its binding ability, resulting in pellets of low durability not suitable for transportation. The use of a binding agent can increase the durability of torrefied pellets/briquettes through a number of different binding mechanisms depending on the binder used.
  • 4.1K
  • 19 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis
In the field of synthesis and processing of noble metal nanoparticles, the study of the bottom-up method, called Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis (USP), is becoming increasingly important. This review analyses briefly the features of USP, to underline the physical, chemical and technological characteristics for producing nanoparticles and nanoparticle composites with Au and Ag. The main aim is to understand USP parameters, which are responsible for nanoparticle formation. There are two nanoparticle formation mechanisms in USP: Droplet-To-Particle (DTP) and Gas-To-Particle (GTP). This review shows how the USP process is able to produce Au, Ag/TiO2, Au/TiO2, Au/Fe2O3 and Ag/(Y0.95 Eu0.05)2O3 nanoparticles, and presents the mechanisms of formation for a particular type of nanoparticle. Namely, the presented Au and Ag nanoparticles are intended for use in nanomedicine, sensing applications, electrochemical devices, and catalysis, in order to benefit from their properties, which cannot be achieved with identical bulk materials. The development of new noble metal nanoparticles with USP is a constant goal in Nanotechnology, with the objective to obtain increasingly predictable final properties of nanoparticles.
  • 4.1K
  • 14 Aug 2020
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