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Topic Review
Echoic Memory
Echoic memory is the sensory memory that registers specific to auditory information (sounds). Once an auditory stimulus is heard, it is stored in memory so that it can be processed and understood. Unlike visual memory, in which our eyes can scan the stimuli over and over, the auditory stimuli cannot be scanned over and over. Since echoic memories are heard once, they are stored for slightly longer periods of time than iconic memories (visual memories). Auditory stimuli are received by the ear one at a time before they can be processed and understood. For instance, hearing the radio is very different from reading a magazine. A person can only hear the radio once at a given time, while the magazine can be read over and over again. It can be said that the echoic memory is like a "holding tank" concept, because a sound is unprocessed (or held back) until the following sound is heard, and only then can it be made meaningful. This particular sensory store is capable of storing large amounts of auditory information that is only retained for a short period of time (3–4 seconds). This echoic sound resonates in the mind and is replayed for this brief amount of time shortly after being heard. Echoic memory encodes only moderately primitive aspects of the stimuli, for example pitch, which specifies localization to the non-association brain regions.
  • 2.9K
  • 21 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Captive White Tigers
Captive white tigers are of little known lineage. They are held captive around the world, usually for financial purposes. The Tiger Species Survival Plan devised by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums has condemned the breeding of white tigers. The genes responsible for white colour are represented by 0.001% of the tiger population. However, in 2008–2009, a closing stock of 264 Bengal tigers and 100 white Bengal tigers were accounted for in Indian zoos. The disproportionate growth in numbers of the latter points to the relentless inbreeding resorted to among homozygous recessive individuals for selectively multiplying the white animals. This progressively increasing process will eventually lead to inbreeding depression and loss of genetic variability.
  • 2.9K
  • 01 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Advances in Finger Prosthetic Mechanisms
Approximately 70% of the upper extremity amputations refers to partial hand loss with the involvement of one or more fingers. Historically, this type of limb amputation has been addressed adopting simple opposition designs that use the movement of the residual digit for grasping against a fixed device. Nevertheless, in the last few years, technological advances, and the introduction of modern computer-aided tools for the synthesis and functional design of mechanisms have led to the development of smaller, more robust systems that are constantly improving body-powered and electrically-powered prototypes.
  • 2.9K
  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Ferret
The ferret (Mustela furo) is a domestic species of small mustelid. The only domesticated species in Mustelidae, it is thought to be a descendant of the European polecat, a mammal belonging to the same genus as the weasel, Mustela. Their fur is typically brown, black, white, or mixed. They have an average length of 51 cm (20 in), including a 13 cm (5.1 in) tail, weigh about between 0.7 and 2.0 kg (1.5 and 4.4 lb), and have a natural lifespan of 7 to 10 years. Ferrets are sexually dimorphic predators, with males being substantially larger than females. The history of the ferret's domestication is uncertain, like that of most other domestic animals, but it is likely that they have been domesticated for at least 2,500 years. They are still used for hunting rabbits in some parts of the world, but increasingly they are kept only as pets. Being so closely related to polecats, ferrets easily hybridize with them, and this has occasionally resulted in feral colonies of polecat–ferret hybrids that have caused damage to native fauna, especially in New Zealand. As a result, New Zealand and some other parts of the world have imposed restrictions on the keeping of ferrets. Several other mustelids are also known as ferrets, such as the black-footed ferret, an endangered species native to North America.
  • 2.9K
  • 21 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Seed Waste from Custard Apple
Annona squamosa L. (custard apple or sugar apple), belonging to the Annonaceae family, is a small tree or shrub that grows natively in subtropical and tropical regions. Seeds of the custard apple have been employed in folk medicines because of the presence of bioactive chemicals/compounds such as alkaloids, flavonoids and phenolic compounds and acetogenins and cyclopeptides that are responsible for various biological activities. The seeds also show the presence of tannins, vitamin C, vitamin E and a higher content of amino acids. From investigations, it has been shown that the seeds of A. squamosa have considerable potential to be used as an antibacterial, hepatoprotective, antioxidant and antitumor/anticancer agent. Cyclosquamosin B, extracted from the custard apple seed, possesses vasorelaxant properties. Tocopherols and fatty acids, notably oleic acid and linoleic acid, are also found in the seed oil. A. squamosa seeds contain a high amount of annonaceous acetogenins compounds, which are potent mitochondrial complex I inhibitors and have high cytotoxicity. A survey primarily based on the nutritional, phytochemical and biological properties showed that A. squamosa seeds can be used for the discovery of novel products, including pharmaceutical drugs.
  • 2.9K
  • 01 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Learning Paradigms
Learning paradigms are more like methodologies that guide problem solving. In addition to the most widely used supervised learning paradigm, other learning paradigms are also employed in the multimodal field, such as semi-supervised learning, self-supervised learning, and transfer learning. 
  • 2.9K
  • 06 Jul 2022
Biography
Roger Shepard
Roger Newland Shepard (born January 30, 1929) is an American cognitive scientist and author of the "universal law of generalization" (1987). He is considered a father of research on spatial relations. He studied mental rotation, and was an inventor of non-metric multidimensional scaling, a method for representing certain kinds of statistical data in a graphical form that can be apprehended by hu
  • 2.9K
  • 30 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Multiphase Flows
Multiphase flows appear in many industrial and environmental applications (dredging, oil industry, mining industry, cement industry, among others), quite often as two-phase flows, either solid/liquid, liquid/liquid or gas/liquid flows. When we speak about multiphase flows we are referring both to flow in channels or pipes or in other process units. In our studies we have been more directed to multiphase flows in pipes. Being able to model and accurately predict the behaviour of such flows and to monitor, as well, the flows themselves, is of high importance to guarantee a stable flow and to optimize energy consumption, by designing adequately the conveying system, without the need to overdimensioning conveying equipment to avoid, for instance, pipe blockage.
  • 2.9K
  • 28 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Academic and Administrative Role of AI in Education
Using AI in education can have a dramatic impact on the way academic and administrative staff use their time and the manner in which students are served individually. Artificial Intelligence Applications are assisting the education sector organizations at two main levels.1. Administrative level (admission, counseling, library services, etc.)2. Academic Level (assessment, feedback, tutoring, etc.)
  • 2.9K
  • 20 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Spin-Off–University Relationship
The concept of academic spin-off (AS) has witnessed an increase in attention due to its effectiveness in solving industry problems using core technology and knowledge from academia. Most studies based on US and western Europe experiences have presented the main key factors for academic spin-offs.
  • 2.9K
  • 26 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Karratha, Western Australia
Karratha is a city in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, adjoining the port of Dampier. It was established in 1968 to accommodate the processing and exportation workforce of the Hamersley Iron mining company and, in the 1980s, the petroleum and liquefied natural gas operations of the North West Shelf Venture. At June 2018, Karratha had an urban population of 16,708. The city's name comes from the cattle station of the same name, which derives from a word in a local Aboriginal language meaning "good country" or "soft earth". The city is the seat of government of the City of Karratha, a local government area covering the surrounding region.
  • 2.9K
  • 30 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Application of Nanoparticles on Plants as Fertilizers
Soil degradation has led to an imbalance between food and feed production, climate regulation, water retention and carbon storage in the ecosystem. On a larger scale, it has led to soil erosions and nutrient runoffs, leading to soil infertility, thus affecting human beings through malnutrition and other related diseases. To increase productivity and improve soil quality, fertilizers have been used for decades by farmers worldwide on degraded soils affected by human factors. However, their intensive usage has led to the pollution of both water and soil as the crop uses less than half of the applied amount; the other remaining amount is lost through photolysis, hydrolysis, leaching and microbial immobilization and degradation; thus, threatening the soil microorganisms, human health and the ecosystem, and reducing the profit margin of farmers.
  • 2.9K
  • 04 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Plasticity
In physics and materials science, plasticity, also known as plastic deformation, is the ability of a solid material to undergo permanent deformation, a non-reversible change of shape in response to applied forces. For example, a solid piece of metal being bent or pounded into a new shape displays plasticity as permanent changes occur within the material itself. In engineering, the transition from elastic behavior to plastic behavior is known as yielding. Plastic deformation is observed in most materials, particularly metals, soils, rocks, concrete, and foams. However, the physical mechanisms that cause plastic deformation can vary widely. At a crystalline scale, plasticity in metals is usually a consequence of dislocations. Such defects are relatively rare in most crystalline materials, but are numerous in some and part of their crystal structure; in such cases, plastic crystallinity can result. In brittle materials such as rock, concrete and bone, plasticity is caused predominantly by slip at microcracks. In cellular materials such as liquid foams or biological tissues, plasticity is mainly a consequence of bubble or cell rearrangements, notably T1 processes. For many ductile metals, tensile loading applied to a sample will cause it to behave in an elastic manner. Each increment of load is accompanied by a proportional increment in extension. When the load is removed, the piece returns to its original size. However, once the load exceeds a threshold – the yield strength – the extension increases more rapidly than in the elastic region; now when the load is removed, some degree of extension will remain. Elastic deformation, however, is an approximation and its quality depends on the time frame considered and loading speed. If, as indicated in the graph opposite, the deformation includes elastic deformation, it is also often referred to as "elasto-plastic deformation" or "elastic-plastic deformation". Perfect plasticity is a property of materials to undergo irreversible deformation without any increase in stresses or loads. Plastic materials that have been hardened by prior deformation, such as cold forming, may need increasingly higher stresses to deform further. Generally, plastic deformation is also dependent on the deformation speed, i.e. higher stresses usually have to be applied to increase the rate of deformation. Such materials are said to deform visco-plastically.
  • 2.9K
  • 10 Nov 2022
Biography
Arthur Eddington
Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington OM FRS[1] (28 December 1882 – 22 November 1944) was an English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician. He was also a philosopher of science and a populariser of science. The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the luminosity of stars, or the radiation generated by accretion onto a compact object, is named in his honour. Around 1920, he anticipated the discover
  • 2.9K
  • 14 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Wittig Reactions under Sonication Conditions
Carbonyl olefinations are among the most important organic syntheses that form C=C bonds, as they usually have high yields and in addition offer excellent stereoselectivity. Due to these advantages, carbonyl olefinations have important pharmaceutical and industrial applications. These reactions contain an additional step of an α-functionalized carbanion to an aldehyde or ketone to produce alkenes, but syntheses performed using metal carbene complexes are also known. The Wittig reaction is an example of carbonyl olefination, one of the best ways to synthesize alkenes.
  • 2.9K
  • 28 Jun 2023
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Health-Promoting Nature-Based Paradigms in Urban Planning
Since the 19th century, urban planning has largely been guided by ambitions to improve the population’s wellbeing and living conditions. Parks and green areas have played a significant role in this work. However, the confidence in the function of green areas, and thus the motives for creating urban parks and green open spaces, have shifted over the years, which has affected both the planning and design of green areas. This entry describes three overarching paradigm shifts in urban planning, from the end of the 18th century to today, and the focus is on the major paradigm shift that is underway: how green areas can mitigate climate effects, increase biodiversity and at the same time support people’s health and living conditions in a smart city.
  • 2.9K
  • 14 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Mechanochemical Synthesis of Nanoparticles
Various solvent-based approaches have been already used to synthesize porous materials. Mechanochemical synthesis is one of the effective eco-friendly alternatives to the conventional synthesis. It adopts the efficient mixing of reactants using ball milling without or with a very small volume of solvents, gives smaller size nanoparticles (NPs) and larger surface area, and facilitates their functionalization, which is highly beneficial for antimicrobial applications.
  • 2.9K
  • 15 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Bacillus coagulans in Food Industry
Probiotic microorganisms are generally considered to beneficially affect host health when used in adequate amounts. Although generally used in dairy products, they are also widely used in various commercial food products such as fermented meats, cereals, baby foods, fruit juices, and ice creams. Among lactic acid bacteria, Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium are the most commonly used bacteria in probiotic foods, but they are not resistant to heat treatment. Probiotic food diversity is expected to be greater with the use of probiotics, which are resistant to heat treatment and gastrointestinal system conditions. Bacillus coagulans (B. coagulans) has recently attracted the attention of researchers and food manufacturers, as it exhibits characteristics of both the Bacillus and Lactobacillus genera. B. coagulans is a spore-forming bacterium which is resistant to high temperatures with its probiotic activity.
  • 2.9K
  • 04 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Advanced Bioengineered Skin Equivalents
The formation of severe scars still represents the result of the closure process of extended and deep skin wounds. To address this issue, different bioengineered skin substitutes have been developed but a general consensus regarding their effectiveness has not been achieved yet. It will be shown that bioengineered skin substitutes, although representing a valid alternative to autografting, induce skin cells in repairing the wound rather than guiding a regeneration process. Repaired skin differs from regenerated skin, showing high contracture, loss of sensitivity, impaired pigmentation and absence of cutaneous adnexa (i.e., hair follicles and sweat glands). This leads to significant mobility and aesthetic concerns, making the development of more effective bioengineered skin models a current need. The objective of this review is to determine the limitations of either commercially available or investigational bioengineered skin substitutes and how advanced skin tissue engineering strategies can be improved in order to completely restore skin functions after severe wounds.
  • 2.9K
  • 30 Jul 2020
Topic Review
Table olives microbiota
Table olives fermentation is the result of a complex set of dynamics involving diverse microbial populations such as lactic acid bacteria, yeasts and moulds. Their metabolic activities determine the characteristics such as flavour, texture and safety of the final product. This chapter offers an overview on the main microbiota characterizing table olives and their role during fermentation.
  • 2.9K
  • 01 Jul 2020
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