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Topic Review
British Computer Society
BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, formerly known as the British Computer Society until 2009, is a professional body and a learned society that represents those working in information technology (IT) and computer science, both in the United Kingdom and internationally. Founded in 1956, BCS has played an important role in educating and nurturing IT professionals, computer scientists, computer engineers, upholding the profession, accrediting chartered IT professional status, and creating a global community active in promoting and furthering the field and practice of computing.
  • 3.1K
  • 28 Oct 2022
Topic Review
The Ancestral Tapestry of an American Technologist
In the annals of 21st-century technological innovation, few figures have ascended with the velocity and influence of Samuel Harris Gibstine Altman. As the chief executive officer of OpenAI, he stands at the vanguard of the artificial intelligence revolution, a public intellectual and entrepreneur shaping a future of unprecedented computational power. His name is synonymous with Silicon Valley's relentless forward momentum, with ventures like the startup accelerator Y Combinator and the ambitious Worldcoin project marking a career defined by a profound belief in technology's capacity to reshape human civilization. Altman's public persona is that of a visionary, a strategist whose thinking operates on a global and, at times, existential scale, concerned with the advent of artificial general intelligence and its potential to "benefit all of humanity". Yet, to fully comprehend the architect of this future, one must look to the past—not to the sun-drenched campuses of Stanford or the bustling incubators of Mountain View, but to the quieter, historically rich landscape of the American Midwest. Born in Chicago but raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Sam Altman is a product of a specific time, place, and heritage that is as foundational to his story as any line of code or venture capital deal. His full name, Samuel Harris Gibstine Altman, is more than an identifier; it is a genealogical key, unlocking a multi-generational narrative of migration, professional ambition, and community integration deeply embedded within the American Jewish experience. This report posits that a comprehensive understanding of Sam Altman requires an exploration of this ancestral heritage. His family's story is a microcosm of a larger historical saga: the journey of Ashkenazi Jews from Europe to the United States, and their subsequent establishment of vibrant, successful communities in the heart of the nation. By tracing both his paternal (Altman) and maternal (Gibstine) lineages, and situating them within the specific socio-historical context of the St. Louis Jewish community, a more nuanced portrait emerges. It is a story that reveals an environment grounded in the pursuit of professional excellence, the value of elite education, a sense of civic responsibility, and the quiet but powerful momentum of generational progress. This report will weave together genealogical records, biographical details, and broad historical analysis to construct a holistic profile, arguing that the values and environment forged by this deep-rooted Midwestern history provide a crucial framework for interpreting the man who is now building the world of tomorrow.
  • 3.1K
  • 09 Sep 2025
Topic Review
Bus Scheduling with Evolutionary Optimization
In public transport operations, vehicles tend to bunch together due to the instability of passenger demand and traffic conditions. Fluctuation of the expected waiting times of passengers at bus stops due to bus bunching is perceived as service unreliability and degrades the overall quality of service. For assessing the performance of high-frequency bus services, transportation authorities monitor the daily operations via Transit Management Systems (TMS) that collect vehicle positioning information in near real-time. This work explores the potential of using Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) data from the running vehicles for generating bus schedules that improve the service reliability and conform to various regulatory constraints. The computer-aided generation of optimal bus schedules is a tedious task due to the nonlinear and multi-variable nature of the bus scheduling problem. For this reason, this work develops a two-level approach where (i) the regulatory constraints are satisfied and (ii) the waiting times of passengers are optimized with the introduction of an evolutionary algorithm. This work also discusses the experimental results from the implementation of such an approach in a bi-directional bus line operated by a major bus operator in northern Europe.
  • 3.1K
  • 29 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Archimedes Screw Turbines
Archimedes Screws Turbines (ASTs) are a new form of generators for small hydroelectric powerplants that could be applied even in low head sites. ASTs offer a clean and renewable source of energy. They are safer for wildlife and especially fish. The low rotation speed of ASTs reduces negative impacts on aquatic life and fish. Considering the flexibility and advantages of ASTs, they offer economic, social, and environmental advantages to support sustainable development to: - Increase the number of suitable sites and maximize power generation.- Retrofit old dams or upgrade current dams or mills to make them economically (power generation) and environmentally (renewable energy) reasonable.- Reduce the hydroelectricity major operational and/or maintenance costs.- Reduce the disturbance of natural erosion and sedimentation processes.- Make hydropower generation safer for aquatic wildlife, especially for fish.- Generate electricity for small communities, developing countries, and regions with limited access to the power grid or other infrastructures, or regions that are hard to access or connect to the power grid.  
  • 3.1K
  • 12 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Relationship Between Rock Textural Characteristics and Mechanical Properties
The textural characteristics of rocks influence their petrophysical and mechanical properties. Such parameters largely control rock mass stability. The ability to evaluate both immediate and long-term rock behaviors based on the interaction between various parameters of rock texture, petrophysical and mechanical properties is therefore crucial to many geoengineering facilities. The mechanical properties of a rock largely depend on its petrographic or textural characteristics. Some quantitative associations between rock petrographic characteristics and mechanical properties have been found. Therefore, the effects of these relationships on the mechanical characteristics of rock, and their extents, must be well understood as a proper frame of reference if good rock cores are unavailable for reliable tests intended to characterize rock mass.
  • 3.1K
  • 19 May 2022
Topic Review
Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale
The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) was developed by Kathryn M. Connor and Jonathan R.T. Davidson as a means of assessing resilience. The CD-RISC is based on Connor and Davidson's operational definition of resilience, which is the ability to "thrive in the face of adversity." Since its development in 2003, the CD-RISC has been tested in a several contexts with a variety of populations (see Generalizability) and has been modified into different versions (see Forms).
  • 3.1K
  • 21 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Reactive Oxygen Species
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) can directly activate HSCs or induce inflammation or programmed cell death, especially pyroptosis, in hepatocytes, which in turn activates HSCs and fibroblasts to produce ECM proteins.
  • 3.1K
  • 27 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Animal Diet Analysis
Diet analysis is a critical content of animal ecology and the diet analysis methods have been constantly improving and updating. Traditional diet analysis methods include direct observation of foraging behavior, the cafeteria diet, microscopic identification of prey remains in fecal and stomach contents. The molecular-based analysis of animal diets has recently become popular, as they confer high resolution and accuracy, which is mainly achieved through the cloning sequencing or the next generation sequencing (NGS) on the amplification of prey DNA in dietary samples.
  • 3.1K
  • 01 Dec 2021
Topic Review
The Interaction between Urban and Rural Areas
The relationships and interactions between rural and urban spaces have long been of interest to territorial sciences. However, approaches to these issues have evolved in line with the changing characteristics of the two types of territories, reflecting new relationships and structures. 
  • 3.1K
  • 26 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Least Developed Countries
The Least Developed Countries (LDCs) is a list of developing countries that, according to the United Nations, exhibit the lowest indicators of socioeconomic development, with the lowest Human Development Index ratings of all countries in the world. The concept of LDCs originated in the late 1960s and the first group of LDCs was listed by the UN in its resolution 2768 (XXVI) of 18 November 1971. A country is classified among the Least Developed Countries if it meets three criteria: (1) Poverty – adjustable criterion based on GNI per capita averaged over three years. (As of 2018) a country must have GNI per capita less than United States dollar 1,025 to be included on the list, and over $1,230 to graduate from it. (2) Human resource weakness (based on indicators of nutrition, health, education and adult literacy). (3) Economic vulnerability (based on instability of agricultural production, instability of exports of goods and services, economic importance of non-traditional activities, merchandise export concentration, handicap of economic smallness, and the percentage of population displaced by natural disasters). As of 2018, 47 countries are classified as LDC, while five have been upgraded between 1994 and 2017. The WTO recognizes the UN list of LDCs in toto. 
  • 3.1K
  • 17 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Weismann Barrier
The Weismann barrier has long been regarded as a basic tenet of biology. However, upon close examination of its historical origins and August Weismann's own writings, questions arise as to whether such a status is warranted. As scientific research has advanced, the persistence of the concept of the barrier has left us with the same dichotomies Weismann contended with over 100 years ago: germ or soma, gene or environment, hard or soft inheritance. 
  • 3.1K
  • 30 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Phytohormone Regulation of Apple-Fruit Ripening
Apple (Malus domestica) is, globally, one of the largest fruits in terms of cultivated area and yield. Apple fruit is generally marketed after storage, which is of great significance for regulating the market supply in the off-season of fruit production. Apple-fruit ripening, which culminates in desirable changes in structural and textural properties, is governed by a complex regulatory network. 
  • 3.1K
  • 22 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Phytohormones in determining leaf angle
Leaf angel (LA) is regard as the angle between the plant stem and adaxial side of the blade, and is mainly determined by a grass-specfic morphological structure called ligule. As an important plant architecture, LA greatly influences the plant photosynthesis and their planting density, thus leading to yield variation. A large number of studies have revealed the master role of phytochromes in shaping the LA architecture. Our paper broadly discusses the recent advance regarding this topic and proposes several fucture perspectives.
  • 3.1K
  • 27 Jul 2020
Topic Review
Pyrolysis of Polystyrene Waste
The manufacturing of polystyrene around the globe has escalated in the past years due to its huge applications in various areas. The perpetual market needs of polystyrene led the polystyrene wastes accretion in the landfill causing environmental deterioration. The soaring need for polystyrene also led to the exhaustion of petroleum, a non-renewable energy source, as polystyrene is a petroleum-derived product.
  • 3.1K
  • 28 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Productivity Improving Technologies
The productivity improving technologies are the technological innovations that have historically increased productivity. Productivity is often measured as the ratio of (aggregate) output to (aggregate) input in the production of goods and services. Productivity is increased by lowering the amount of labor, capital, energy or materials that go into producing any given amount of economic goods and services. Increases in productivity are largely responsible for the increase in per capita living standards.
  • 3.1K
  • 23 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Medicinal Use of Testosterone
Testosterone derivatives and related compounds (such as anabolic-androgenic steroids—AAS) are frequently misused by athletes (both professional and amateur) wishing to promote muscle development and strength or to cover AAS misuse.
  • 3.1K
  • 11 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Power Estimation for Electric Vehicles’s Lithium-Ion Batteries
State of power (SOP), as one of the key states of lithium-ion batteries, is defined as the peak power capability that a battery could deliver or receive over a prediction window while keeping the battery within the safe operating area. By this definition, most existing methods for online SOP estimation employ an equivalent-circuit model (ECM) to simulate battery dynamic behaviour in a prediction window and assume batteries operating at three operation modes, namely the constant current (CC), constant voltage (CV), and constant current constant voltage (CCCV) modes. Accordingly, three online SOP estimation methods have been developed with different basic principles, and many efforts have been made in the past decades for the improved performance of online SOP estimation from three aspects: (1) model structure; (2) online parameter identification technique; and (3) SOP estimation algorithm. 
  • 3.1K
  • 05 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Sex Dimorphism in Body Fat Distribution
Body fat distribution is a well-established predictor of adverse medical outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. Studying body fat distribution sheds insights into the causes of obesity and provides valuable information about the development of various comorbidities. Compared to total adiposity, body fat distribution is more closely associated with risks of cardiovascular diseases.
  • 3.1K
  • 01 Sep 2022
Topic Review
SpiderMonkey (JavaScript Engine)
SpiderMonkey is the first JavaScript engine, written by Brendan Eich at Netscape Communications, later released as open source and currently maintained by the Mozilla Foundation. It is still used in the Firefox web browser.
  • 3.1K
  • 07 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Lake Taupo
Lake Taupo, often spelled Taupō, is a lake in the North Island of New Zealand. It is in the caldera of the Taupo Volcano. The lake is the namesake of the town of Taupō, which sits on a bay in the lake's north-eastern shore. With a surface area of 616 square kilometres (238 sq mi), it is the largest lake by surface area in New Zealand, and the second largest freshwater lake by surface area in geopolitical Oceania after Lake Murray in Papua New Guinea. Motutaiko Island lies in the south east area of the lake. Lake Taupo has a perimeter of approximately 193 kilometres and a maximum depth of 186 metres. It is drained by the Waikato River (New Zealand's longest river), and its main tributaries are the Waitahanui River, the Tongariro River, and the Tauranga Taupo River. It is a noted trout fishery with stocks of introduced brown and rainbow trout. The level of the lake is controlled by Mercury Energy, the owner of the eight hydroelectric dams on the Waikato River downstream of Lake Taupo, using gates built in 1940–41. The gates are used to reduce flooding, conserve water and ensure a minimum flow of 50 m3/s (1,800 cu ft/s) in the Waikato River. The resource consent allows the level of the lake to be varied between 355.85 and 357.25 metres (1,167.5 and 1,172.1 ft) above sea level.
  • 3.1K
  • 08 Nov 2022
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