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Topic Review
New Literacies
New literacies generally are new forms of literacy made possible by digital technology developments, although new literacies do not necessarily have to involve use of digital technologies to be recognized as such. The term "new literacies" itself is relatively new within the field of literacy studies (the first documented mention of it in an academic article title dates to 1993 in a text by David Buckingham). Its definition remains open, with new literacies being conceptualized in different ways by different groups of scholars. For example, one group of scholars argues that literacy is now deictic, and see it as continually and rapidly changing as new technologies appear and new social practices for literacy emerge. (Leu, 2000). This group aims at developing a single, overarching theory to help explain new literacies (see, for example, Leu, O'Byrne, Zawilinski, McVerry, & Everett-Cacopardo, 2009; see also, below). This orientation towards new literacies is largely psycholinguistic in nature. Other groups of scholars follow a more sociocultural orientation that focuses on literacy as a social practice, which emphasizes the role of literacy with a range of socially patterned and goal-directed ways of getting things done in the world (see, for example, Gee & Hayes, 2012; Lankshear & Knobel, 2011; Kalantzis and Cope 2011). Accompanying the varying conceptualizations of new literacies, there are a range of terms used by different researchers when referring to new literacies, including 21st century literacies, internet literacies, digital literacies, new media literacies, multiliteracies, information literacy, ICT literacies, and computer literacy. In the Handbook of New Literacies Research, Coiro, Knobel, Lankshear, and Leu (2008) note that all these terms "are used to refer to phenomena we would see as falling broadly under a new literacies umbrella" (pg. 10). Commonly recognized examples of new literacies include such practices as instant messaging, blogging, maintaining a website, participating in online social networking spaces, creating and sharing music videos, podcasting and videocasting, photoshopping images and photo sharing, emailing, shopping online, digital storytelling, participating in online discussion lists, emailing and using online chat, conducting and collating online searches, reading, writing and commenting on fan fiction, collaborating on and writing encyclopedic wikis, processing and evaluating online information, creating and sharing digital mashups, etc. (see: Black, 2008; Coiro, 2003; Gee, 2007; Hunter, 2014; Jenkins, 2006; Kist, 2007; Lankshear & Knobel, 2006; Lessig, 2005; Leu, et al. 2004; Prensky, 2006).
  • 9.4K
  • 14 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Huītzilōpōchtli
In Aztec mythology, Huitzilopochtli (Template:Lang-nci-IPA, modern Nahuatl pronunciation (help·info)) is the deity of war, sun, human sacrifice, and the patron of the city of Tenochtitlan. He was also the tribal god of the Mexicas, also known as the Aztecs, of Tenochtitlan. Many in the pantheon of deities of the Aztecs were inclined to have a fondness for a particular aspect of warfare. However, Huitzilopochtli was known as the primary god of war in ancient Mexico. Since he was the patron god of the Mexica, he was credited with both the victories and defeats that the Mexica people had on the battlefield. The people had to make sacrifices to him to protect the Aztec from infinite night. He wielded Xiuhcoatl, the fire serpent, as a weapon, thus also associating Huitzilopochtli with fire. As noted by the Spaniards during their discovery and conquest of the Aztec Empire (wherein they recorded the deity's name as Huichilobos), human sacrifice was common in worship ceremonies, which took place frequently and in numerous temples throughout the region, and when performed they typically sacrificed multiple victims per day at a given temple.
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  • 15 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Lipid Membrane
The biological lipid membrane is the key element for the maintenance of cell architecture and physiology. Lipid membranes act as a barrier separating the inner cellular space from the outer environment and further helping in the transmission of signals across the cell boundary. The correct composition and structure of cell membranes define key pathophysiological aspects of cells.
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  • 23 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Parallelism Measurement Methods
At present, the parallelism error was evaluated by contact probe, laser interferometer, and  autocollimator, etc. Moreover, it can also be divided into contact method and non-contact method based on the measurement principle.
  • 9.4K
  • 29 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Lotus-Leaf-Inspired Biomimetic Coatings
A universal infrastructural issue is wetting of surfaces; millions of dollars are invested annually for rehabilitation and maintenance of infrastructures including roadways and buildings to fix the damages caused by moisture and frost. The biomimicry of the lotus leaf can provide superhydrophobic surfaces that can repel water droplets, thus reducing the penetration of moisture, which is linked with many deterioration mechanisms in infrastructures, such as steel corrosion, sulfate attack, alkali-aggregate reactions, and freezing and thawing. In cold-region countries, the extent of frost damage due to freezing of moisture in many components of infrastructures will be decreased significantly if water penetration can be minimized. Consequently, it will greatly reduce the maintenance and rehabilitation costs of infrastructures.
  • 9.4K
  • 11 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Stilbene Biosynthesis
Stilbenes are a small family of polyphenolic secondary metabolites that can be found in several distantly related plant species. These compounds act as phytoalexins, playing a crucial role in plant defense against phytopathogens, as well as being involved in the adaptation of plants to abiotic environmental factors. Among stilbenes, trans-resveratrol is certainly the most popular and extensively studied for its health properties. However, many other stilbenes, both monomeric and oligomeric, are currently under intensive investigation due to their biological role and bioactivity.
  • 9.4K
  • 14 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Mental Distress
Mental distress (or psychological distress) is a term used, by some mental health practitioners and users of mental health services, to describe a range of symptoms and experiences of a person's internal life that are commonly held to be troubling, confusing or out of the ordinary. Mental distress can potentially lead to a change of behavior, affect a person's emotions in a negative way, and affect their relationships with the people around them. Certain traumatic life experiences such as: bereavement, stress, lack of sleep, use of drugs or alcohol, assault, abuse or accidents can induce mental distress. This may be something which resolves without further medical intervention, though people who endure such symptoms longer term are more likely to be diagnosed with mental illness. This definition is not without controversy as some mental health practitioners would use the terms mental distress and mental illness interchangeably. Some users of mental health services prefer the term mental distress in describing their experience as they feel it better captures that sense of the unique and personal nature of their experience, while also making it easier to relate to, since everyone experiences distress at different times. The term also fits better with the social model of disability.
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  • 06 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Effects of Frankincense Compounds
Boswellia trees, found throughout the Middle East and parts of Africa and Asia, are the source of frankincense oil. Since antiquity, frankincense has been traded as a precious commodity, but it has also been used for the treatment of chronic disease, inflammation, oral health, and microbial infection.
  • 9.4K
  • 11 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Financial Crisis of 2007–08
The financial crisis of 2007–08, also known as the global financial crisis and the 2008 financial crisis, was a severe worldwide economic crisis considered by many economists to have been the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, to which it is often compared. It began in 2007 with a crisis in the subprime mortgage market in the United States , and developed into a full-blown international banking crisis with the collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008. Excessive risk-taking by banks such as Lehman Brothers helped to magnify the financial impact globally. Massive bail-outs of financial institutions and other palliative monetary and fiscal policies were employed to prevent a possible collapse of the world financial system. The crisis was nonetheless followed by a global economic downturn, the Great Recession. The Asian markets (China, Hong Kong, Japan, India, etc.) were immediately impacted and volatilized after the U.S. sub-prime crisis. The European debt crisis, a crisis in the banking system of the European countries using the euro, followed later. In 2010, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was enacted in the US following the crisis to "promote the financial stability of the United States". The Basel III capital and liquidity standards were adopted by countries around the world.
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  • 11 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Security and Privacy in Cloud Computing
Advances in the usage of information and communication technologies (ICT) has given rise to the popularity and success of cloud computing. Cloud computing offers advantages and opportunities for business users to migrate and leverage the scalability of the pay-as-you-go price model. However, outsourcing information and business applications to the cloud or a third party raises security and privacy concerns, which have become critical in adopting cloud implementation and services. Researchers and affected organisations have proposed different security approaches in the literature to tackle the present security flaws. The literature also provides an extensive review of security and privacy issues in cloud computing. Unfortunately, the works provided in the literature lack the flexibility in mitigating multiple threats without conflicting with cloud security objectives. The literature has further focused on only highlighting security and privacy issues without providing adequate technical approaches to mitigate such security and privacy threats. Conversely, studies that offer technical solutions to security threats have failed to explain how such security threats exist.
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  • 11 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Chimera (Mythology)
The Chimera (/kɪˈmɪərə/ or /kaɪˈmɪərə/, also Chimaera (Chimæra); Greek: Χίμαιρα, Chímaira "she-goat") was, according to Greek mythology, a monstrous fire-breathing hybrid creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of more than one animal. It is usually depicted as a lion, with the head of a goat arising from its back, and a tail that might end with a snake's head, and was one of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna and a sibling of such monsters as Cerberus and the Lernaean Hydra. The term Chimera has come to describe any mythical or fictional animal with parts taken from various animals, or to describe anything composed of very disparate parts, or perceived as wildly imaginative, implausible, or dazzling. The sight of a Chimera was an omen for disaster.
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  • 16 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Anodizing
Anodizing is an electrochemical process by which the thickness of the natural oxide layer present on metals is increased. Anodizing is used to improve the corrosion and wear resistance of the substrate, to enhance the adhesion of coatings and for aesthetics reasons. The properties, chemistry and morphology of the resulting anodic oxide film depend on the anodizing parameters chosen.
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  • 25 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Lobe-Finned Fish
Sarcopterygii (/ˌsɑːrkɒptəˈrɪdʒi.aɪ/; from grc σάρξ (sárx) 'flesh', and πτέρυξ (ptérux) 'wing, fins')—sometimes considered synonymous with Crossopterygii (from grc κροσσός (krossós) 'fringe')—is a taxon (traditionally a class or subclass) of the bony fishes whose members are known as lobe-finned fishes. The group Tetrapoda, a superclass including amphibians, reptiles (including dinosaurs and therefore birds), and mammals, evolved from certain sarcopterygians; under a cladistic view, tetrapods are themselves considered a group within Sarcopterygii. The known extant non-tetrapod sarcopterygians include two species of coelacanths and six species of lungfishes.
  • 9.3K
  • 21 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES)
Deep eutectic solvent (DES) are a highly non-ideal mixture of two biodegradable components (HBA and HBD) associated with strong hydrogen bonding interactions. 
  • 9.3K
  • 08 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Ethnomedicinal Plants
Ethnomedicinal plants have a significant role in the lives of people of rural and tribal areas. Thousands of medicinal plant species are used to treat various diseases, including jaundice, and are considered an important therapeutic resource to minimize these diseases. Jaundice (icterus) is a chronic disease that occurs when the amount of bilirubin in the blood increases.
  • 9.3K
  • 08 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Muslim World
The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religions beliefs and laws of Islam, or to societies where Islam is practiced. In a modern geopolitical sense, these terms refer to countries where Islam is widespread, although there are no agreed criteria for inclusion. The term Muslim-majority countries is an alternative often used for the latter sense. The history of the Muslim world spans about 1,400 years and includes a variety of socio-political developments, as well as advances in the arts, science, philosophy, and technology, particularly during the Islamic Golden Age. All Muslims look for guidance to the Quran and believe in the prophetic mission of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, but disagreements on other matters have led to the appearance of different religious schools of thought and sects within Islam. In the modern era, most of the Muslim world came under European colonial domination. The nation states that emerged in the post-colonial era have adopted a variety of political and economic models, and they have been affected by secular and as well as religious trends. (As of 2013), the combined GDP (nominal) of 49 Muslim majority countries was US$5.7 trillion, (As of 2016), they contributed 8% of the world's total. As of 2015, 1.8 billion or about 24.1% of the world population are Muslims. By the percentage of the total population in a region considering themselves Muslim, 91% in the Middle East-North Africa (MENA), 89% in Central Asia, 40% in Southeast Asia, 31% in South Asia, 30% in Sub-Saharan Africa, 25% in Asia–Oceania, around 6% in Europe, and 1% in the Americas. Most Muslims are of one of two denominations: Sunni Islam (85-90%) and Shia (10-15%), However, other denominations exist in pockets, such as Ibadi (primarily in Oman). About 13% of Muslims live in Indonesia, the largest Muslim-majority country; 31% of Muslims live in South Asia, the largest population of Muslims in the world; 20% in the Middle East–North Africa, where it is the dominant religion; and 15% in Sub-Saharan Africa and West Africa. Muslims are the overwhelming majority in Central Asia, the majority in the Caucasus and widespread in Southeast Asia. India is the country with the largest Muslim population outside Muslim-majority countries. Sizeable Muslim communities are also found in the Americas, China, and Europe. Islam is the fastest-growing major religion in the world.
  • 9.3K
  • 26 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Fleischmann–Pons Experiment
The Fleischmann–Pons experiment was an investigation conducted in the 1980s by Martin Fleischmann of the University of Southampton and Stanley Pons of the University of Utah into whether electrolysis of heavy water on the surface of a palladium (Pd) electrode produces physical effects that defy chemical explanation. Of particular interest was evidence of "excess" (i.e. non-chemical) heat extracted from the deuterium fraction of common surface water which, if true, could have delivered the largest economic shock to the global energy industry since the Pennsylvania oil rush. On March 23, 1989, Fleischmann (then one of the world's leading electrochemists) and Pons reported their work via a press release from the University of Utah (who asserted ownership of the technology) claiming that the table-top apparatus had produced anomalous heat (understood as "excess" heat) of a magnitude they asserted would defy explanation except in terms of nuclear processes, which later came to be referred to as "cold fusion". In addition to the results from calorimetry, they further reported measuring small amounts of nuclear reaction byproducts, including neutrons and tritium. The reported results received wide media attention, and raised hopes of a cheap and abundant source of energy. Many scientists tried to replicate the experiment with the few details available. Hopes faded due to the large number of negative replications, the withdrawal of many reported positive replications, the discovery of flaws and sources of experimental error in the original experiment, and finally the discovery that Fleischmann and Pons had not actually detected nuclear reaction byproducts. By late 1989, most scientists considered cold fusion claims dead.
  • 9.3K
  • 26 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Koh-i-Sultan
Koh-i-Sultan is a volcano in Balochistan, Pakistan. It is part of the tectonic belt formed by the collision of India and Asia: specifically, a segment influenced by the subduction of the Arabian plate beneath the Asian plate and forming a volcanic arc which includes the Bazman and Taftan volcanoes in Iran. The volcano consists of three main cones, with heavily eroded craters running west-northwest and surrounded by a number of subsidiary volcanic centres. Its summit is 2,334 metres (7,657 ft) high, and the crater associated with the Miri cone has a smaller crater inside. The volcano is formed by andesite and dacite rocks, with fragmentary rocks prevailing over lava flows. The rocks have typical arc-volcano chemistry and composition, with a progression from andesite to dacite in the eruption products with younger age. Potassium-argon dating has indicated an age range from 5,900,000 to 90,000 years. Subsequent erosion has generated a large debris apron around the base of the volcano and carved rock formations which impressed early explorers; one well-known rock formation is Neza e Sultan. Geothermal activity and the emission of volcanic gases are ongoing, and the volcano has been prospected for the possibility of obtaining geothermal energy. The geothermal activity has resulted in widespread rock alteration and the formation of sulfur deposits, which were mentioned in a 1909 report and later mined. Koh-i-Sultan also has deposits of other minerals.
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  • 04 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Social Group
In sociology, a group is a social entity composed of two or more individuals who interact with one another, share a sense of identity, and are bound by a common purpose or goal. These social groups can range from intimate and small-scale, such as families, to larger and more complex structures like organizations or communities. The study of groups in sociology provides insights into human social behavior, dynamics, and the influence of collective processes on individuals within the societal framework.
  • 9.3K
  • 25 Jan 2024
Topic Review
Smart Cities
"Smart cities" are a new type of city where stakeholders are jointly responsible for urban management. City Information Management (CIM) is an output tool for smart city planning and management, which assists in achieving the sustainable development of urban infrastructure, and promotes smart cities to achieve the goals of stable global economic development, sustainable environmental development, and improvement of people’s quality of life. Existing research has so far established that blockchain and BIM have great potential to enhance construction project performance.
  • 9.3K
  • 14 Mar 2021
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