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Topic Review
Homosexuality and the Anglican Communion
Since the 1990s, the Anglican Communion has struggled with controversy regarding homosexuality in the church. In 1998, the 13th Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops passed a resolution stating that "homosexual acts" are "incompatible with Scripture". However, this is not legally binding. "Like all Lambeth Conference resolutions, it is not legally binding on all provinces of the Communion, including the Church of England, though it commends an essential and persuasive view of the attitude of the Communion." "Anglican national churches in Brazil, South Africa, South India, New Zealand and Canada have taken steps toward approving and celebrating same-sex relationships amid strong resistance among other national churches within the 80 million-member global body. The Episcopal Church in the U.S. has allowed gay marriage since 2015." "Church of England clergy have appeared to signal support for gay marriage after they rejected a bishops’ report which said that only a man and woman could marry in church." The Church of England's General Synod is set to discuss a diocesan motion "to create a set of formal services and prayers to bless those who have had a same-sex marriage or civil partnership." In 2002, the Diocese of New Westminster, in the Anglican Church of Canada, permitted the blessing of same-sex unions. In 2003, two openly gay men in England and the United States became candidates for bishop. In the Church of England, Jeffrey John eventually succumbed to pressure to withdraw his name from consideration to be the Bishop of Reading. In the Episcopal Church in the United States, Gene Robinson was elected and consecrated Bishop of New Hampshire, becoming the first openly gay bishop in the Anglican Communion and in apostolic Christianity. This was highly controversial and led several hundred bishops to boycott the 2008 Lambeth Conference. As an alternative to Lambeth, many of these bishops attended the Global Anglican Futures Conference in Jerusalem. As of 2004, other Anglican provinces, including the Anglican Church of Southern Africa and the Scottish Episcopal Church, permitted the ordination of gay clergy and others, such as the Episcopal Church in the USA, permitted blessing of same-sex unions as well. The BBC, in 2009, reported that many clergy in the Church of England "already bless same-sex couples on an unofficial basis". Many provinces, primarily from the Global South and representing about half of the 80 million active Anglicans worldwide, have responded to these theological disputes by declaring a state of impaired communion with their Western counterparts. Minority groups in Western provinces have stated their opposition to what they consider un-scriptural actions by the churches in England , Canada , Australia , and the United States. Since 2000, some conservative Global South provinces have appointed missionary bishops to the United States and Canada to provide pastoral oversight to disaffected Anglicans. This process, known as Anglican realignment, is considered by the Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada to be an illegitimate incursion into their territories; however, conservative Anglicans argued that the incursions were necessary because of the failure of these churches to uphold orthodox teaching with regard to human sexuality. To date, as aforementioned,"the more liberal provinces that are open to changing Church doctrine on marriage in order to allow same-sex unions include Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, Scotland, South India, South Africa, the US and Wales". In England and Wales, civil partnerships are permitted for clergy. "Neither the Church in Wales nor the Church of England are opposed to clergy being in civil partnerships. The Church of England requests that clergy in civil partnerships vow to remain sexually chaste, but the Church in Wales has no such restriction." The Church of England has allowed priests to enter into same-sex civil partnerships since 2005. The Church of Ireland recognises the pensions for clergy in same-sex civil partnerships.
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  • 01 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Copper Complexes as Topoisomerases Inhibitors
Organometallics, such as copper compounds, are cancer chemotherapeutics used alone or in combination with other drugs. A group of copper complexes exerts an effective inhibitory action on topoisomerases, which participate in the regulation of DNA topology. Copper complexes of topoisomerase inhibitors work by different molecular mechanisms that have repercussions on the cell cycle checkpoints and death effectors. 
  • 2.0K
  • 14 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Huntington’s Disease
Huntington’s disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder caused by pathogenic expansions of the triplet cytosine-adenosine-guanosine (CAG) within the Huntingtin gene. These expansions lead to a prolongation of the poly-glutamine stretch at the N-terminus of Huntingtin causing protein misfolding and aggregation. Huntingtin and its pathological variants are widely expressed, but the central nervous system is mainly a ected, as proved by the wide spectrum of neurological symptoms, including behavioral anomalies, cognitive decline and motor disorders. Other hallmarks of HD are loss of body weight and muscle atrophy. This review highlights some key elements that likely provide a major contribution to muscle atrophy, namely, alteration of the transcriptional processes, mitochondrial dysfunction, which is strictly correlated to loss of energy homeostasis, inflammation, apoptosis and defects in the processes responsible for the protein quality control. The improvement of muscular symptoms has proven to slow the disease progression and extend the life span of animal models of HD, underlining the importance of a deep comprehension of the molecular mechanisms driving deterioration of muscular tissue.
  • 2.0K
  • 24 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Conservation Tillage and Climate Resilience
In the context of climate change, agricultural cultivation, as one of the most vulnerable sectors, is under threat. Extreme weather and climate conditions have caused a series of problems, such as yield loss, more serious pests and diseases, and declining biodiversity. Climate resilience refers to the ability to maintain agriculture’s core functions, including food security, soil and water conservation, and economic growth, while mitigating the impacts of climate change. Conservation tillage is considered a potential method to improve climate resilience. 
  • 2.0K
  • 12 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Carbon Intensity of Passenger Transport Modes
The transport sector is responsible for a significant amount of global carbon emissions, and several policies are being implemented at different levels to reduce its impact. To properly assess the effectiveness of planned measures, analysts often rely on average emission factors for different transport modes.
  • 2.0K
  • 09 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Underwater Communication Protocols
Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) have recently established themselves as an extremely interesting area of research thanks to the mysterious qualities of the ocean. The UWSN consists of sensor nodes and vehicles working to collect data and complete tasks. The battery capacity of sensor nodes is quite limited, which means that the UWSN network needs to be as efficient as it can possibly be. It is difficult to connect with or update a communication that is taking place underwater due to the high latency in propagation, the dynamic nature of the network, and the likelihood of introducing errors. This makes it difficult to communicate with or update a communication.
  • 2.0K
  • 29 May 2023
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
From Churn to Earn: Mitigating Turnover for Better Performance
The occurrence of human resource churning results in financial, time and effort losses for organisations, which creates a problem for organisations that lose the most experienced human resources that they have invested in training. The human resources that leave organisations are known as churners. Churning is the costly, time-consuming and difficult process of replacing workers who have left voluntarily. Given the multiplicity of definitions attributed to the subject of churning, we follow the approach that human resource churning is a component of turnover, which is related to analysing the costs associated with voluntary departures. As a result of this problem, this entry was created with the aim of theoretically explaining the effects that the churning of human resources has on organisations of origin. In order to meet this objective, various topics are covered with the aim of characterising churners, their backgrounds and their aspirations, referring to the effect of the mobility of human resources on organisations, in other words, the effect of churning on organisations and the urgent need for action.
  • 2.0K
  • 11 Mar 2025
Topic Review
Google App Engine
Google App Engine (often referred to as GAE or simply App Engine) is a cloud computing platform as a service for developing and hosting web applications in Google-managed data centers. Applications are sandboxed and run across multiple servers. App Engine offers automatic scaling for web applications—as the number of requests increases for an application, App Engine automatically allocates more resources for the web application to handle the additional demand. Google App Engine primarily supports Go, PHP, Java, Python, Node.js, .NET, and Ruby applications, although it can also support other languages via "custom runtimes". The service is free up to a certain level of consumed resources and only in standard environment but not in flexible environment. Fees are charged for additional storage, bandwidth, or instance hours required by the application. It was first released as a preview version in April 2008 and came out of preview in September 2011.
  • 2.0K
  • 17 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Phosphorus-Solubilizing Microorganisms
Phosphorus (P) is one of the essential macronutrients for plant growth, being a highly required resource to improve the productive performance of several crops, especially in highly weathered soils. However, a large part of the nutrients applied in the form of fertilizers becomes “inert” in the medium term and cannot be assimilated by plants. Rationalizing the use of phosphorus is a matter of extreme importance for environmental sustainability and socioeconomic development. Therefore, alternatives to the management of this nutrient are needed, and the use of P-solubilizing microorganisms is an option to optimize its use by crops, allowing the exploration of less available fractions of the nutrient in soils and reducing the demand for phosphate fertilizers.
  • 2.0K
  • 06 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Embryo Rescue in Plant Breeding
Embryo rescue (ER) techniques are among the oldest and most successful in vitro tissue culture protocols used with plant species. ER refers to a series of methods that promote the development of an immature or lethal embryo into a viable plant.  
  • 2.0K
  • 11 Sep 2023
Topic Review
Colorado Potato Beetle Control
The Colorado potato beetle (CPB) is one of the most important potato pest worldwide. It is native to U.S. but during the 20th century it has dispersed through Europe, Asia and western China. It continues to expand in an east and southeast direction. Damages are caused by larvae and adults. Their feeding on potato plant leaves can cause complete defoliation and lead to a large yield loss. After the long period of using only chemical control measures, the emergence of resistance increased and some new and different methods come to the fore. The main focus of this entry is on new approaches to the old CPB control problem. We describe the use of Bacillus thuringiensis and RNA interference (RNAi) as possible solutions for the future in CPB management. RNAi has proven successful in controlling many pests and shows great potential for CPB control. Better understanding of the mechanisms that affect efficiency will enable the development of this technology and boost potential of RNAi to become part of integrated plant protection in the future. We described also the possibility of using single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as a way to go deeper into our understanding of resistance and how it influences genotypes.
  • 2.0K
  • 20 Sep 2020
Topic Review
Aquaporins and Female Reproductive System
Aquaporins constitute a group of water channel proteins located in numerous cell types. These are pore-forming transmembrane proteins, which mediate the specific passage of water molecules through membranes. It is well-known that water homeostasis plays a crucial role in different reproductive processes, e.g., oocyte transport, hormonal secretion, completion of successful fertilization, blastocyst formation, pregnancy, and birth. Further, aquaporins are involved in the process of spermatogenesis, and they have been reported to be involved during the storage of spermatozoa. It is noteworthy that aquaporins are relevant for the physiological function of specific parts in the female reproductive system.
  • 2.0K
  • 22 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Crop Plants with Silicon Application
Silicon (Si) is present in soil mainly in three different phases such as solid, liquid, and adsorbed. Solid phases can be either amorphous or crystalline. Plants take up Si from the soil which impacts their growth and nutrient accumulation. It increases plant resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses such as drought, salinity, and heavy metal, diseases, and pest infestation.
  • 2.0K
  • 29 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Factors of Consumer Attitudes towards Organic Food Products
Globally, organic food production and consumption have significantly increased, driven largely by perceived positive impacts on consumer health, the environment, and sustainable development. In emerging economies, consumers often lack trust in institutions which are responsible for ensuring food safety and quality. Certification is the most influential factor in consumers’ attitudes towards organic food products. In addition, actors involved in the organic food system should make an effort to better communicate the health, environmental, and social benefits associated with the consumption of organic food products to consumers, given that health and environmental issues significantly influence consumers’ attitudes towards organic food products. A joint effort should be made to increase awareness and knowledge of the provision of other positive externalities of organic farming, including other sustainability aspects related to animal welfare, rural development, local origin, and respect for human rights. This indicates that there is potential for growth of the organic market considering that most consumers have concerns about food safety, health, and the environment.
  • 2.0K
  • 13 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Defect Synthesis for Automated Visual Inspection
Defect inspection, which detects defects in real-time and classifies defect types, is one of the key technologies required for smart factory implementation. Defect detection on steel surfaces is an important task to ensure the quality of industrial production. To build an automated visual inspection (AVI) and achieve smartization of steel manufacturing, detecting defects in products in real-time and accurately diagnosing the quality of products are essential elements. 
  • 2.0K
  • 23 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Thermomechanical Modeling of the WAAM Process
Wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) is a type of additive manufacturing (AM) process that uses an electric arc welding technique with a wire feeding process and provides a high deposition rate. Previous investigations showed that the method is carried out using a layer-by-layer approach to build the part, and the corresponding heat input influences the mechanical properties of WAAM products. 
  • 2.0K
  • 17 Apr 2023
Topic Review
September 12: Hans Spemann Died
Hans Spemann (27 June 1869 – 9 September 1941) was a pioneering German embryologist and Nobel laureate renowned for his groundbreaking work in experimental embryology. His discovery of the "organizer effect" (now known as embryonic induction) revolutionized understanding of embryonic development and earned him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1935. Spemann's research laid the foundation for modern developmental biology and concepts such as cellular differentiation and cloning. Despite his scientific achievements, his final years were marred by the political turmoil of Nazi Germany, leading to his death in 1941 under circumstances that remain historically debated.
  • 2.0K
  • 12 Sep 2025
Topic Review
Death Certificate
The phrase death certificate can refer either to a document issued by a medical practitioner certifying the deceased state of a person or, popularly, to a document issued by a person such as a registrar of vital statistics that declares the date, location and cause of a person's death as later entered in an official register of deaths.
  • 2.0K
  • 19 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Synthesis of Quantum Dots, Polymer, and Nanocomposites
Owing to the nanometer size range, Quantum Dots (QDs) have exhibited unique physical and chemical properties which are favourable for different applications. Especially, due to their quantum confinement effect, excellent optoelectronic characteristics is been observed. This considerable progress has not only uplifted the singular usage of QDs, but also encouraged to prepare various hybrid materials to achieve superior efficiency by eliminating certain shortcomings. Such issues can be overcome by compositing QDs with polymers. 
  • 2.0K
  • 14 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Optical Biosensors for MicroRNAs/miRNAs Detection
MicroRNAs, also known as miRNAs, are involved in the regulation of gene expression and their altered levels can be associated to different diseases, therefore making interesting their employment as biomarkers. Biosensors are developed to obtain accurate data from fluids that originate in the human body and they basically consist of a bioreceptor that binds the target molecule (the biomarker, such as a miRNA) and a transducer that enables a measurable response to be obtained. Optical biosensors are becoming increasingly important, particularly in the case of DNA and RNA biomarkers due to their advantages, including their direct detection, high specificity, sensitivity and good cost-performance ratio among others. An overview of the different optical biosensors used to detect miRNAs is provided, describing the employed technique (fluorescence, plasmon resonances, interferometry, SERS), their performance and main characteristics (LOD and dynamic range). 
  • 2.0K
  • 20 Apr 2021
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