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Topic Review
Essential Oil Prevents COVID-19
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV‑2), also known as coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), is a pandemic disease that has been declared as modern history’s gravest health emergency worldwide. Until now, no precise treatment modality has been developed. The angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor, a host cell receptor, has been found to play a crucial role in virus cell entry; therefore, ACE2 blockers can be a potential target for anti-viral intervention. In this study, we evaluated the ACE2 inhibitory effects of 10 essential oils. Among them, geranium and lemon oils displayed significant ACE2 inhibitory effects in epithelial cells. In addition, immunoblotting and qPCR analysis also confirmed that geranium and lemon oils possess potent ACE2 inhibitory effects. Furthermore, the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis displayed 22 compounds in geranium oil and 9 compounds in lemon oil. Citronellol, geraniol, and neryl acetate were the major compounds of geranium oil and limonene that represented major compound of lemon oil. Next, we found that treatment with citronellol and limonene significantly downregulated ACE2 expression in epithelial cells. The results suggest that geranium and lemon essential oils and their derivative compounds are valuable natural anti-viral agents that may contribute to the prevention of the invasion of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 into the human body.
  • 8.6K
  • 13 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Lipsticks History, Formulations, and Production
Lipsticks are one of the most widely used cosmetic products. Social, psychological, and therapeutic benefits can be attained from using lipstick. The beauty and attractiveness of a person are enhanced as lipsticks colour the lips and protect them from the external environment.
  • 8.6K
  • 02 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Natural Emulsion Stabilizers
Natural emulsion stabilizers are polymers of amino acid, nucleic acid, carbohydrate, etc., which are derived from microorganisms, bacteria, and other organic materials. Plant and animal proteins are basic sources of natural emulsion stabilizers. Pea protein-maltodextrin and lentil protein feature entrapment capacity up to 88%, (1–10% concentrated), zein proteins feature 74–89% entrapment efficiency, soy proteins in various concentrations increase dissolution, retention, and stability to the emulsion and whey proteins, egg proteins, and proteins from all other animals are applicable in membrane formation and encapsulation to stabilize emulsion/nanoemulsion. In pharmaceutical industries, phospholipids, phosphatidyl choline (PC), phosphatidyl ethanol-amine (PE), and phosphatidyl glycerol (PG)-based stabilizers are very effective as emulsion stabilizers. Lecithin (a combination of phospholipids) is used in the cosmetics and food industries. Various factors such as temperature, pH, droplets size, etc. destabilize the emulsion. Therefore, the emulsion stabilizers are used to stabilize, preserve and safely deliver the formulated drugs, also as a preservative in food and stabilizer in cosmetic products. Natural emulsion stabilizers offer great advantages because they are naturally degradable, ecologically effective, non-toxic, easily available in nature, non-carcinogenic, and not harmful to health.
  • 8.6K
  • 19 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Food Heritage
The entry explores the concept of food heritage, focusing mainly on the anthropological, geographical, and sociological debate. Although the review identifies some conceptualisations that frame heritage in the food and gastronomic domains, it also shows the high degree of fragmentation of the debate. In so doing, it sheds light on how the concept of food heritage from a theoretical point of view is still in progress.
  • 8.6K
  • 02 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Compass Card (TransLink)
The Compass Card is a contactless smart card payment system primarily used for public transit in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is operated by TransLink. Riders purchase a Compass Card and add fare value online, by phone, or at vending machines located at SeaBus terminals, SkyTrain and West Coast Express stations. Vending machines are also available at 18 participating London Drugs retail store locations. Compass Cards were deployed in August 2015. Full deployment for the general public took place on November 2, 2015. Since April 4, 2016, Compass Cards and Tickets have been required for all trips taken on the SkyTrain, SeaBus, and West Coast Express. In June 2016, TransLink reported that 100 percent of monthly pass users and 95 percent of all other users have switched over to the new format, totalling more than 915,000 customers.
  • 8.6K
  • 14 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Lisbon Treaty
The Lisbon Treaty has brought significant changes to the institutional structure of the European Union. The traditional three pillar system has been abolished and provisions regarding formal Union institutions have been amended. The aim of this encyclopedia entry is to briefly describe the functioning of each of the formal EU institutions after the Lisbon amendment. More specifically, their main tasks and powers will be shortly presented, whilst more extensive bibliography will be provided. In this regard, the reader will be in position to understand the fundamentals of the EU institutional structure and also find valuable sources for further research.
  • 8.6K
  • 16 Mar 2021
Topic Review
SoundCloud
SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website based in Berlin, Germany that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio.
  • 8.6K
  • 20 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Correlation and Dependence
In statistics, correlation or dependence is any statistical relationship, whether causal or not, between two random variables or bivariate data. In the broadest sense correlation is any statistical association, though it commonly refers to the degree to which a pair of variables are linearly related. Familiar examples of dependent phenomena include the correlation between the height of parents and their offspring, and the correlation between the price of a good and the quantity the consumers are willing to purchase, as it is depicted in the so-called demand curve. Correlations are useful because they can indicate a predictive relationship that can be exploited in practice. For example, an electrical utility may produce less power on a mild day based on the correlation between electricity demand and weather. In this example, there is a causal relationship, because extreme weather causes people to use more electricity for heating or cooling. However, in general, the presence of a correlation is not sufficient to infer the presence of a causal relationship (i.e., correlation does not imply causation). Formally, random variables are dependent if they do not satisfy a mathematical property of probabilistic independence. In informal parlance, correlation is synonymous with dependence. However, when used in a technical sense, correlation refers to any of several specific types of mathematical operations between the tested variables and their respective expected values. Essentially, correlation is the measure of how two or more variables are related to one another. There are several correlation coefficients, often denoted [math]\displaystyle{ \rho }[/math] or [math]\displaystyle{ r }[/math], measuring the degree of correlation. The most common of these is the Pearson correlation coefficient, which is sensitive only to a linear relationship between two variables (which may be present even when one variable is a nonlinear function of the other). Other correlation coefficients – such as Spearman's rank correlation – have been developed to be more robust than Pearson's, that is, more sensitive to nonlinear relationships. Mutual information can also be applied to measure dependence between two variables.
  • 8.6K
  • 14 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Manufacturing Processes for Ceramic Matrix Composites
Materials such as ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) have been the focus of research and being tested in different conditions for several decades now. They are known as a subgroup of composite materials and ceramics. Ceramic composites were developed to control and address problems that occurred with other commonly used ceramics, such as silicon carbide, alumina, silicon nitride, aluminum nitride, and zirconia. Such ceramics fractured with ease, revealing scratches and cracks while mechanical and thermo-mechanical loads were applied to them. CMCs exhibit mechanical and thermal properties comparable with, and in some cases, even better than, the conventional superalloys used in aero-engines. However, their adoption relies on other variables as well, such as the cost of development, industrialization, manufacturing, and the availability of manufacturing technologies and systems.
  • 8.6K
  • 27 Apr 2023
Topic Review
White–Juday Warp-Field Interferometer
The White–Juday warp-field interferometer is an experiment designed to detect a microscopic instance of a warping of spacetime. If such a warp is detected, it is hoped that more research into creating an Alcubierre warp bubble will be inspired. A research team led by Harold "Sonny" White in collaboration with Dr. Richard Juday at the NASA Johnson Space Center and Dakota State University are conducting experiments, but results so far have been inconclusive.
  • 8.5K
  • 24 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Expectation–Disconfirmation Theory and Brand
Combining brand equity indicators with Expectation–Disconfirmation Theory (EDT) provides insight into the hardly measurable influential variables of brand loyalty and brand equity evaluation. The results suggest that the satisfaction level (i.e., product evaluation) can be explained in more depth by the divided response shift indicator in the case of a familiar, low involvement product such as mineral water. It can be stated that the positive and negative disconfirmations of the response shift, which measures the weight of a brand in the overall evaluation of a product, can provide accurate information for brand managers.
  • 8.5K
  • 26 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Glossolalia
Glossolalia or speaking in tongues is a phenomenon in which people speak words that are apparently in languages unknown to the speaker. One definition used by linguists is the fluid vocalizing of speech-like syllables that lack any readily comprehended meaning, in some cases as part of religious practice in which it is believed to be a divine language unknown to the speaker. Glossolalia is practiced in Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity as well as in other religions. Sometimes a distinction is made between "glossolalia" and "xenolalia" or "xenoglossy", which specifically designates when the language being spoken is a natural language previously unknown to the speaker. This distinction is not universally made, and the New Testament of the Bible mentions the phenomenon in at least one passage in reference to speaking in languages known to others but not to the speakers.
  • 8.5K
  • 01 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Extreme Weather Events of 535–536
The extreme weather events of 535–536 were the most severe and protracted short-term episodes of cooling in the Northern Hemisphere in the last 2,000 years. The event is thought to have been caused by an extensive atmospheric dust veil, possibly resulting from a large volcanic eruption conjectured to be either in Asia, the Americas, Europe, or other locations. Its effects were widespread, causing unseasonable weather, crop failures, and famines worldwide.
  • 8.5K
  • 23 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Cyrillic Script
The Cyrillic script (/sɪˈrɪlɪk/ sə-RIL-ik) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia and is used as the national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, North Asia and East Asia. (As of 2019), around 250 million people in Eurasia use Cyrillic as the official script for their national languages, with Russia accounting for about half of them. With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007, Cyrillic became the third official script of the European Union, following the Latin and Greek alphabets. In the 9th century AD, the Bulgarian tsar Simeon I the Great – following the cultural and political course of his father Boris I – commissioned a new script, the Early Cyrillic alphabet, to be made at the Preslav Literary School in the First Bulgarian Empire, which would replace the Glagolitic script, produced earlier by Saints Cyril and Methodius and the same disciples that created the new Slavic script in Bulgaria. The usage of the Cyrillic script in Bulgaria was made official in 893. The new script became the basis of alphabets used in various languages, especially those of Orthodox Slavic origin, and non-Slavic languages influenced by Bulgarian. For centuries Cyrillic was used by Catholic and Muslim Slavs too (see Bosnian Cyrillic). Cyrillic is derived from the Greek uncial script, augmented by letters from the older Glagolitic alphabet, including some ligatures. These additional letters were used for Old Church Slavonic sounds not found in Greek. The script is named in honor of the Saint Cyril, one of the two Byzantine brothers, Saints Cyril and Methodius, who created the Glagolitic alphabet earlier on. Modern scholars believe that Cyrillic was developed and formalized by the early disciples of Cyril and Methodius in the Preslav Literary School, the most important early literary and cultural centre of the First Bulgarian Empire and of all Slavs. The school developed the Cyrillic script: The earliest datable Cyrillic inscriptions have been found in the area of Preslav. They have been found in the medieval city itself, and at nearby Patleina Monastery, both in present-day Shumen Province, in the Ravna Monastery and in the Varna Monastery. With the orthographic reform of Saint Evtimiy of Tarnovo and other prominent representatives of the Tarnovo Literary School (14th and 15th centuries) such as Gregory Tsamblak or Constantine of Kostenets the school influenced Russian, Serbian, Wallachian and Moldavian medieval culture. That is famous in Russia as the second South-Slavic influence. In the early 18th century, the Cyrillic script used in Russia was heavily reformed by Peter the Great, who had recently returned from his Grand Embassy in Western Europe. The new letterforms, called the Civil script, became closer to those of the Latin alphabet; several archaic letters were abolished and several letters were designed by Peter himself. Letters became distinguished between upper and lower case. West European typography culture was also adopted. The pre-reform forms of letters called 'Полуустав' were notably kept for use in Church Slavonic and are sometimes used in Russian even today, especially if one wants to give a text a 'Slavic' or 'archaic' feel.
  • 8.5K
  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Classical Nucleation Theory
Crystal nucleation determining the formation and assembly pathway of first organic materials is the central science of various scientific disciplines such as chemical, geochemical, biological, and synthetic materials. Classical nucleation theory (CNT)  applies to systems of small organic molecules with an emphasis on the molecular interpretation of nucleation kinetics. CNT holds that density fluctuations are concomitant with the development of crystalline order. In other words, a crystal nucleus has an identical structure to its bulk crystal. 
  • 8.5K
  • 22 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Mango (Mangifera indica L.) Leaves
Mango (Mangifera indica L.) ascribed to the family Anacardiaceae has been adjudged as the vital traditionally significant and one of the most economically important tropical fruit crop globally.
  • 8.5K
  • 28 May 2021
Topic Review
Social Control
Social control refers to the mechanisms, norms, and practices through which societies regulate individual behavior and maintain order. It encompasses both formal institutions such as laws and regulations, as well as informal social norms and expectations. Social control mechanisms serve to reinforce conformity to societal norms, values, and expectations, while also deterring deviant behavior through sanctions and rewards.
  • 8.5K
  • 26 Jan 2024
Topic Review
Phenomenology
Phenomenology (from Greek φαινόμενον, phainómenon "that which appears" and λόγος, lógos "study") is the philosophical study of the structures of experience and consciousness. As a philosophical movement it was founded in the early years of the 20th century by Edmund Husserl and was later expanded upon by a circle of his followers at the universities of Göttingen and Munich in Germany . It then spread to France , the United States , and elsewhere, often in contexts far removed from Husserl's early work. Phenomenology is not a unified movement; rather, the works of different authors share a 'family resemblance' but with many significant differences. Gabriella Farina states:Phenomenology, in Husserl's conception, is primarily concerned with the systematic reflection on and study of the structures of consciousness and the phenomena that appear in acts of consciousness. Phenomenology can be clearly differentiated from the Cartesian method of analysis which sees the world as objects, sets of objects, and objects acting and reacting upon one another. Husserl's conception of phenomenology has been criticized and developed not only by him but also by students and colleagues such as Edith Stein, Max Scheler, Roman Ingarden, and Dietrich von Hildebrand, by existentialists such as Nicolai Hartmann, Gabriel Marcel, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Jean-Paul Sartre, by hermeneutic philosophers such as Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Paul Ricoeur, by later French philosophers such as Jean-Luc Marion, Michel Henry, Emmanuel Levinas, and Jacques Derrida, by sociologists such as Alfred Schütz and Eric Voegelin, and by Christian philosophers, such as Dallas Willard.
  • 8.5K
  • 28 Nov 2022
Topic Review
List of Phobias
The English suffixes -phobia, -phobic, -phobe (from Greek φόβος phobos, "fear") occur in technical usage in psychiatry to construct words that describe irrational, abnormal, unwarranted, persistent, or disabling fear as a mental disorder (e.g. agoraphobia), in chemistry to describe chemical aversions (e.g. hydrophobic), in biology to describe organisms that dislike certain conditions (e.g. acidophobia), and in medicine to describe hypersensitivity to a stimulus, usually sensory (e.g. photophobia). In common usage, they also form words that describe dislike or hatred of a particular thing or subject (e.g. homophobia). The suffix is antonymic to -phil-. For more information on the psychiatric side, including how psychiatry groups phobias such as agoraphobia, social phobia, or simple phobia, see phobia. The following lists include words ending in -phobia, and include fears that have acquired names. In some cases, the naming of phobias has become a word game, of notable example being a 1998 humorous article published by BBC News. In some cases, a word ending in -phobia may have an antonym with the suffix -phil-, e.g. Germanophobe/Germanophile. Many -phobia lists circulate on the Internet, with words collected from indiscriminate sources, often copying each other. Also, a number of psychiatric websites exist that at the first glance cover a huge number of phobias, but in fact use a standard text to fit any phobia and reuse it for all unusual phobias by merely changing the name. Sometimes it leads to bizarre results, such as suggestions to cure "prostitute phobia". Such practice is known as content spamming and is used to attract search engines. An article published in 1897 in American Journal of Psychology noted "the absurd tendency to give Greek names to objects feared (which, as Arndt says, would give us such terms as klopsophobia – fear of thieves, triakaidekaphobia – fear of the number 13....)".
  • 8.5K
  • 07 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Fresh Fruit Supply Chain Optimization
The fresh fruit chain has been recognized as a very important and strategic part of the economic development of many countries. The planning framework for production and distribution is highly complex as a result. Mathematical models have been developed over the decades to deal with this complexity. This review focuses on the recent progress in mathematically based decision making to account for uncertainties in the fresh fruit supply chain
  • 8.5K
  • 27 Jul 2021
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