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Topic Review
Circassian Beauties
Circassian beauty or Adyghe beauty (Adyghe: Адыгэ пшъашъэ, romanized: Adıgə pş̂aş̂ə) is a stereotype and a belief used to refer to an idealized image of the women of the Circassian people of the Northwestern Caucasus. A fairly extensive literary history suggests that Circassian women were thought to be unusually beautiful, spirited, and elegant, and as such were desirable as concubines. This reputation dates back to the Late Middle Ages, when the Circassian coast was frequented by traders from Genoa, and the founder of the Medici dynasty, Cosimo de' Medici, had an illegitimate son from a Circassian slave. During the Ottoman Empire and Persian Safavid and Qajar dynasties, Circassian women living as slaves in the Sultan's Imperial Harem and Shah's harems started to build their reputation as extremely beautiful and genteel, which then became a common trope in Western Orientalism. As a result of this reputation, in Europe and America Circassians were often characterised as ideals of feminine beauty in poetry and art. Cosmetic products were advertised, from the 18th century on, using the word "Circassian" in the title, or claiming that the product was based on substances used by the women of Circassia. In consequence, most wives of several Ottoman Sultans were ethnic Circassians converted to Islam, e.g. Valide Sultans (Empress mothers), including Perestü Valide Sultan, Şevkefza Valide Sultan, Tirimüjgan Valide Sultan, Nükhetseza Başhanımefendi, other important Hatuns (Ladies) and Sultans like Şemsiruhsar Hatun and Saçbağlı Sultan, Haseki sultans (chief consorts) such as Hümaşah Haseki Sultan, Hatice Muazzez Haseki Sultan, and Ayşe Haseki Sultan besides numerous Başkadınefendis (most senior consorts), including Bedrifelek I, Bidar II, Kamures I, and Servetseza I as well as Kadınefendis (senior consorts) such as Bezmara VI, Düzdidil III, Hayranıdil II, Meyliservet IV, Mihrengiz II, Neşerek III, Nurefsun II, Reftaridil II, Şayan III, amongst many others, or İkbals (honoured lady consorts), most notable of them being Cevherriz II, Ceylanyar II, Dilfirib I, Nalanıdil III, and Nergis IV in addition to Gözdes (favourite lady consorts), including Dürdane I, Hüsnicenan III, Safderun IV, amongst others. The "golden age" of the Circassian beauty may be considered to be between the 1770s, when the Russian Empire seized the Crimean Khanate and cut off their slave trade, which increased the demand for Circassian women in Near Eastern harems; and the 1860s, when the Russians massacred thousands of Circassians and conquered Circassia. In the 1860s the showman P. T. Barnum exhibited women who he claimed were Circassian beauties. They wore a distinctive curly, big hair style, which had no precedent in earlier portrayals of Circassians, but which was soon copied by other female performers in the United States, who became known as "moss-haired girls". This hair style was a sort of exhibit's trademark and was achieved by washing the hair of women in beer, drying it and then teasing it. It is not clear why Barnum chose this hairstyle. It may have been a reference to the Circassian fur hat, rather than the hair. There were also several classical Turkish music pieces and poems that praise the beauty of the Circassian ethnic group like "Lepiska Saçlı Çerkes" (Straight, flaxen-haired Circassian; "lepiska" refers to long blonde hair which is straight, as if flatironed). As a foreign group, they were always praised in Turkey for what they labeled as distinct and pure European features.
  • 12.0K
  • 24 Nov 2022
Topic Review
The Process of Wound Healing
Wound healing is a recovering process of damaged tissues by replacing dysfunctional injured cellular structures. Wounds occur as a result of accidental or surgical trauma and from a variety of medical conditions. This wound often causes pain, inflammation, and loss of function, which affects a patient’s life and financial costs.
  • 12.0K
  • 06 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Media Ecology
Media ecology theory is the study of media, technology, and communication and how they affect human environments. The theoretical concepts were proposed by Marshall McLuhan in 1964, while the term media ecology was first formally introduced by Neil Postman in 1968. Ecology in this context refers to the environment in which the medium is used – what they are and how they affect society. Neil Postman states, "if in biology a 'medium' is something in which a bacterial culture grows (as in a Petri dish), in media ecology, the medium is 'a technology within which a [human] culture grows.'" In other words, "Media ecology looks into the matter of how media of communication affect human perception, understanding, feeling, and value; and how our interaction with media facilitates or impedes our chances of survival. The word ecology implies the study of environments: their structure, content, and impact on people. An environment is, after all, a complex message system which imposes on human beings certain ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving." Media ecology argues that media act as extensions of the human senses in each era, and communication technology is the primary cause of social change. McLuhan is famous for coining the phrase, "the medium is the message", which is an often-debated phrase believed to mean that the medium chosen to relay a message is just as important (if not more so) than the message itself. McLuhan proposed that media influence the progression of society, and that significant periods of time and growth can be categorized by the rise of a specific technology during that period. Additionally, scholars have compared media broadly to a system of infrastructure that connect the nature and culture of a society with media ecology being the study of "traffic" between the two.
  • 12.0K
  • 23 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Testing Effect
The testing effect is the finding that long-term memory is often increased when some of the learning period is devoted to retrieving the to-be-remembered information. The effect is also sometimes referred to as retrieval practice, practice testing, or test-enhanced learning. Retrieval practice may be the best way to refer to the testing effect because the benefits of retrieval-related testing are not limited to tests. It can be more broad, including tools like flash cards and quizzes. The testing effect on memory should be distinguished from more general practice effects, defined in the APA Dictionary of Psychology (2007) as "any change or improvement that results from practice or repetition of task items or activities." The term testing effect is also sometimes used in a more general sense; The Oxford Dictionary of Psychology (2003) defines a testing effect as "any effect of taking tests on the respondents, a typical example being test sophistication." Whereas psychologists who develop tests for personality and intelligence want to avoid practice effects, cognitive psychologists working with educators have begun to understand how to take advantage of tests—not as an assessment tool, but as a teaching/learning tool. It is useful for people to test their knowledge of the to-be-remembered material during the learning process, instead of only reading or otherwise passively studying the material. For example, a student can use flashcards to self-test and receive feedback as they study. The testing effect provides a larger benefit to long-term memory when the tested material is difficult enough to require effort, the rate of retrieval success is high, and feedback with correct answers is given after testing. The testing effect is activated by active recall.
  • 12.0K
  • 20 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Eyelash Curler
An eyelash curler is a hand-operated mechanical device for curling eyelashes for cosmetic purposes. Usually only the upper eyelashes are curled.
  • 12.0K
  • 25 Nov 2022
Topic Review
List of ASTM International Standards (F)
This is a list of ASTM International standards for "Materials for Specific Applications".
  • 11.9K
  • 24 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Clay Bricks
Clay bricks are extensively used as building material worldwide. Natural soil deposits are in constant reduction due to the frequent use of clay to manufacture bricks. About 1600 billion bricks are produced annually by the consumption of millions of tons of natural resources.
  • 11.9K
  • 18 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Recovery of Banana Waste-Loss
Banana is a tropical fruit grown in more than 130 countries. It is the second most produced fruit after citrus, contributing around 16% of world fruit production and the fourth most important food crop after rice, wheat and corn. Banana is very nutritious and digests better than many other fruits. After harvest, almost 60% of banana biomass is left as waste. Worldwide, about 114.08 million metric tons of banana waste-loss are produced, leading to environmental problems such as the excessive emission of greenhouse gases. These wastes contain a high content of paramount industrial importance, such as cellulose, hemicellulose and natural fibers that various processes can modify, such as bacterial fermentation and anaerobic degradation, to obtain bioplastics, organic fertilizers and biofuels such as ethanol, biogas, hydrogen and biodiesel. In addition, they can be used in wastewater treatment methods by producing low-cost biofilters and obtaining activated carbon from rachis and banana peel. Furthermore, nanometric fibers commonly used in nanotechnology applications and silver nanoparticles useful in therapeutic cancer treatments, can be produced from banana pseudostems. 
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  • 22 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Humid Continental Climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and cold (sometimes severely cold in the northern areas) winters. Precipitation is usually distributed throughout the year. The definition of this climate regarding temperature is as follows: the mean temperature of the coldest month must be below −3 °C (26.6 °F) and there must be at least four months whose mean temperatures are at or above 10 °C (50 °F). In addition, the location in question must not be semi-arid or arid. The Dfb, Dwb and Dsb subtypes are also known as hemiboreal. Humid continental climates are generally found roughly between latitudes 40° N and 60° N, within the central and northeastern portions of North America, Europe, and Asia. They are much less commonly found in the Southern Hemisphere due to the larger ocean area at that latitude and the consequent greater maritime moderation. In the Northern Hemisphere some of the humid continental climates, typically in Hokkaido, Northern Honshu, Sakhalin island, Scandinavia, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland are heavily maritime-influenced, with relatively cool summers and winters being just below the freezing mark. More extreme humid continental climates found in northeast China , southern Siberia, the Canadian Prairies, and the Great Lakes region of the American Midwest and Central Canada combine hotter summer maxima and colder winters than the marine-based variety.
  • 11.8K
  • 29 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Types of Electrochemical Sensors
The world of sensors is diverse and is advancing at a rapid pace due to the fact of its high demand and constant technological improvements. Electrochemical sensors provide a low-cost and convenient solution for the detection of variable analytes and are widely utilized in agriculture, food, and oil industries as well as in environmental and biomedical applications. The popularity of electrochemical sensing stems from two main advantages: the variability of the reporting signals, such as the voltage, current, overall power output, or electrochemical impedance, and the low theoretical detection limits that originate from the differences in the Faradaic and nonFaradaic currents.
  • 11.8K
  • 09 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Nations and Intelligence
The relationship between nations and intelligence is a controversial area of study concerning differences between nations in average intelligence test scores, their possible causes, and their correlation with measures of social well-being and economic prosperity. Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen constructed IQ estimates for many countries using literature reviews, student assessment studies and other methodologies to create estimates, which have been widely criticized on theoretical and methodological grounds. Subsequent research by psychologists such as Earl B. Hunt, Jelte Wicherts and Heiner Rindermann has focused on identifying potential national differences in cognitive ability and causal factors, and determining the nature of the relationship of IQ to variables such as GDP, life expectancy, and governance.
  • 11.8K
  • 29 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Ingredients of Moisturizers
Moisturizers are one of the most widely used preparations in cosmetics and have been extensively used to soften the skin for consumers. Moisturizers work effectively in combating dry skin which may cause pain, tightness, itch, stinging, and/or tingling. Knowing the characteristics and interactions of active ingredients with the skin will allow for better utilization of available moisturizers.
  • 11.8K
  • 11 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Partition (Number Theory)
In number theory and combinatorics, a partition of a positive integer n, also called an integer partition, is a way of writing n as a sum of positive integers. Two sums that differ only in the order of their summands are considered the same partition. (If order matters, the sum becomes a composition.) For example, 4 can be partitioned in five distinct ways: 4 3 + 1 2 + 2 2 + 1 + 1 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 The order-dependent composition 1 + 3 is the same partition as 3 + 1, and the two distinct compositions 1 + 2 + 1 and 1 + 1 + 2 represent the same partition 2 + 1 + 1. A summand in a partition is also called a part. The number of partitions of n is given by the partition function p(n). So p(4) = 5. The notation λ ⊢ n means that λ is a partition of n. Partitions can be graphically visualized with Young diagrams or Ferrers diagrams. They occur in a number of branches of mathematics and physics, including the study of symmetric polynomials and of the symmetric group and in group representation theory in general.
  • 11.8K
  • 04 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Bryophyllum Pinnatum
Bryophyllum pinnatum, also known as the air plant, cathedral bells, life plant, miracle leaf, and Goethe plant is a succulent plant native to Madagascar , which is a popular houseplant and has become naturalized in tropical and subtropical areas. It is distinctive for the profusion of miniature plantlets that form on the margins of its phylloclades, a trait it has in common with some other members of its genus. Many people also currently call this plant Kalanchoe pinnata. It is a succulent, perennial plant, about 1 m (39 in) tall, with a fleshy cylindrical stem and a reddish color for the youngest and it flowers most of the year. The specific epithet "pinnata" is the feminine form of the Latin adjective pinnatus, meaning "winged, pinnate".
  • 11.8K
  • 30 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED)
Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) has 3 meanings : The first is “education for understanding AI,” which aims to develop the ability to understand and handle AI. The second is “education using AI,” which applies AI to effective teaching and learning in each subject. The third is “AI expert training,” which cultivates experts who develop AI and teachers who teach AI.
  • 11.8K
  • 27 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Frog
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally without tail in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" Triadobatrachus is known from the Early Triassic of Madagascar , but molecular clock dating suggests their split from other amphibians may extend further back to the Permian, 265 million years ago. Frogs are widely distributed, ranging from the tropics to subarctic regions, but the greatest concentration of species diversity is in tropical rainforest. Frogs account for around 88% of extant amphibian species. They are also one of the five most diverse vertebrate orders. Warty frog species tend to be called toads, but the distinction between frogs and toads is informal, not from taxonomy or evolutionary history. An adult frog has a stout body, protruding eyes, anteriorly-attached tongue, limbs folded underneath, and no tail (the tail of tailed frogs is an extension of the male cloaca). Frogs have glandular skin, with secretions ranging from distasteful to toxic. Their skin varies in colour from well-camouflaged dappled brown, grey and green to vivid patterns of bright red or yellow and black to show toxicity and ward off predators. Adult frogs live in fresh water and on dry land; some species are adapted for living underground or in trees. Frogs typically lay their eggs in water. The eggs hatch into aquatic larvae called tadpoles that have tails and internal gills. They have highly specialized rasping mouth parts suitable for herbivorous, omnivorous or planktivorous diets. The life cycle is completed when they metamorphose into adults. A few species deposit eggs on land or bypass the tadpole stage. Adult frogs generally have a carnivorous diet consisting of small invertebrates, but omnivorous species exist and a few feed on plant matter. Frog skin has a rich microbiome which is important to their health. Frogs are extremely efficient at converting what they eat into body mass. They are an important food source for predators and part of the food web dynamics of many of the world's ecosystems. The skin is semi-permeable, making them susceptible to dehydration, so they either live in moist places or have special adaptations to deal with dry habitats. Frogs produce a wide range of vocalizations, particularly in their breeding season, and exhibit many different kinds of complex behaviors to attract mates, to fend off predators and to generally survive. Frogs are valued as food by humans and also have many cultural roles in literature, symbolism and religion. They are also seen as environmental bellwethers, with declines in frog populations often viewed as early warning signs of environmental damage. Frog populations have declined significantly since the 1950s. More than one third of species are considered to be threatened with extinction and over 120 are believed to have become extinct since the 1980s. The number of malformations among frogs is on the rise and an emerging fungal disease, chytridiomycosis, has spread around the world. Conservation biologists are working to understand the causes of these problems and to resolve them.
  • 11.7K
  • 19 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Atmospheric Reentry
Atmospheric reentry is the process by which vehicles that are outside the atmosphere of a planet can enter that atmosphere and reach the planetary surface intact. Vehicles that undergo this process include spacecraft from orbit, as well as suborbital ICBM reentry vehicles. Typically this process requires special methods to protect against aerodynamic heating. Various advanced technologies have been developed to enable atmospheric reentry and flight at extreme velocities.
  • 11.7K
  • 01 Dec 2022
Topic Review
The Hook
The Hook, or The Hookman, is an urban legend about a killer with a pirate-like hook for a hand attacking a couple in a parked car. The story is thought to date from at least the mid-1950s, and gained significant attention when it was reprinted in the advice column Dear Abby in 1960. It has since become a morality archetype in popular culture, and has been referenced in various horror films.
  • 11.7K
  • 03 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Water Literacy
Water literacy may be considered generally as the culmination of water-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviors.  It holds growing importance for sustainable water resource use and management.  While use and definitions of the concept of water literacy vary broadly in the literature, the synthesis of these identifies common elements and themes in a holistic framework.
  • 11.7K
  • 03 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Application of Standardized Regression Coefficient in Meta-Analysis
The β coefficient is the estimate resulting from an analysis carried out on variables that have been standardized so that their standard deviations (and variances) are equal to one. Therefore, the standardized coefficient refers to how many standard deviations the response or outcome variable will change per a standard deviation increase in the explanatory or predictor variable. Thus, the standardized coefficient β can be regarded as an attempt to make regression coefficients more comparable, and can be used as an effect-size estimate when the exposure levels in original studies are measured in different units of measurement.
  • 11.7K
  • 14 Sep 2022
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