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Topic Review
Cousin
Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, "cousin" refers to a first cousin – a relative of the same generation whose most recent common ancestor with the subject is a grandparent. Degrees and removals are separate measures used to more precisely describe the relationship between cousins. Degree measures the separation, in generations, from the most recent common ancestor(s) to a parent of one of the cousins (whichever is closest), while removal measures the difference in generations between the cousins themselves, relative to their most recent common ancestor(s). To illustrate usage, a second cousin is a cousin with a degree of two; there are three (not two) generations from the common ancestor(s). When the degree is not specified, first cousin is assumed. A cousin "once removed" is a cousin with one removal. When the removal is not specified, no removal is assumed. Various governmental entities have established systems for legal use that can precisely specify kinship with common ancestors any number of generations in the past; for example, in medicine and in law, a first cousin is a type of third-degree relative.
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  • 25 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Malaysia Waste Management Practices
The three main municipalities of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Melaka, were discussed in their actions in household waste management practices and strategies in social, economy, information technology, and governance to achieve success for a better sustainability of the environment.
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  • 06 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Utopia
A utopia (/juːˈtoʊpiə/ yoo-TOH-pee-ə) is an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizens. The term was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island society in the south Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South America. The opposite of a utopia is a dystopia, which dominates the fictional literature from the 1950s onwards, chiefly because of the impact of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, published in 1949. However, the term can also denote actual experiments in what participants regard as a vastly superior manner of living, generally in what are termed intentional communities. In common parlance it is synonymous with "impossible", "far-fetched", and "deluded". Literary utopias focus on, amongst other things, equality, in such categories as economics, government and justice, with the method and structure of proposed implementation varying based on ideology. Lyman Tower Sargent argues that the nature of a utopia is inherently contradictory because societies are not homogeneous and have desires which conflict and therefore cannot simultaneously be satisfied. According to Sargent:
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  • 08 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Pole Weapon
A pole weapon or pole arm is a close combat weapon in which the main fighting part of the weapon is fitted to the end of a long shaft, typically of wood, thereby extending the user's effective range and striking power. Pole weapons are predominantly melee weapons, with a subclass of spear-like designs fit for both thrusting and throwing. Because many pole weapons were adapted from agricultural implements or other fairly abundant tools, and contained relatively little metal, they were cheap to make and readily available. When warfare would break out and the belligerents had a poorer class who could not pay for dedicated military weapons, leaders would often appropriate tools as cheap weapons. The cost of training was comparatively minimal, since these conscripted farmers had spent most of their lives using these "weapons" in the fields. This made polearms the favored weapon of peasant levies and peasant rebellions the world over. Pole arms can be divided into three broad categories: those designed for extended reach and thrusting tactics used in pike square or phalanx combat; those designed to increase leverage (thanks to hands moving freely on a pole) to maximize centrifugal force against cavalry; and those designed for throwing tactics used in skirmish line combat. Because their versatility, high effectiveness and cheap cost, polearms experimentation led to many variants and were the most frequently used weapons on the battlefield: bills, picks, dane axes, spears, glaives, guandaos, pudaos, poleaxes, halberds, harpoons, sovnyas, tridents, naginatas, bardiches, war scythes, and lances are all varieties of pole arms. Pole arms were common weapons on post-classical battlefields of Asia and Europe. Their range and impact force made them effective weapons against armored warriors on horseback, because they could be dismounted and/or penetrate said armor. The Renaissance saw a plethora of varieties. Pole arms in modern times are largely constrained to ceremonial military units such as the Papal Swiss Guard or Yeomen of the Guard, or traditional martial arts. Chinese martial arts in particular have preserved a wide variety of weapons and techniques.
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  • 09 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Structure of Oxide Perovskite
Materials crystalizing in the perovskite crystal structure are common crystals that are currently employed for multiples applications, including transistors, solar cells, light-emitting devices, memories, catalysts, and superconductors.One of the biggest players within the perovskite structures is the family of oxide perovskites. This is a prominent family with the general formula of ABO3, where A commonly designates an alkaline or rare earth metal cation, occupying the 12-fold coordinated cuboctahedral cages of the oxygen sub-lattice, and B stands for a transition-metal cation (e.g., Fe, Ni, Mn, Co, Cu, or Ti) coordinated with six oxygen atoms in an octahedral coordination. In fact, in the perovskite structure, distortions frequently occur due to the deviation from ideal values of ionic size ratios between the different A, B, and O sites of the crystal. In addition, A or B cations may have distinctive sizes and valences that could result into oxygen non-stoichiometry, involving both oxygen excess and/or oxygen deficiency.
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  • 24 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Euro Health Consumer Index
Euro Health Consumer Index (EHCI) is a comparison of European health care systems based on waiting times, results, and generosity. The information is presented as a graphic index. EHCI was produced 2005–2009 and 2012–2016 by Health Consumer Powerhouse. The 2014 ranking included 37 countries measured by 48 indicators. It claims to measure the "consumer friendliness" of healthcare systems. It does not claim to measure which European state has the best healthcare system, but it does produce specialist Indexes on Diabetes, Cardiac Care, HIV, Headache and Hepatitis. In 2006 France was the champion with 768 points out of 1000. In the 2015 results the same performance would have given the 13th position among 35 countries because of the widespread improvements in standards. While no bias in favour of any health system was alleged, the index was criticised in the British Medical Journal by Martin McKee and others from the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies in February 2016. Points they made included: A survey by the Centre for Population Change in 2019 produced results consistent with the index.
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  • 09 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Biodiesel Production from Animal Fats Versus Vegetable Oils
Biodiesel, a mixture of fatty acids alkyl esters shows properties, which make it a feasible substitute for fossil diesel. Biodiesel can be produced using different processes and different raw materials. The most common, first generation, biodiesel is produced by methanolysis of vegetable oils using basic or acid homogeneous catalysts. The use of vegetable oils for biodiesel production raises serious questions about biodiesel sustainability. Used cooking oils and animal fats can replace the vegetable oils in biodiesel production thus allowing to produce a more sustainable biofuel. 
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  • 19 Jan 2024
Topic Review
The Acquisition of Negation
Although negation in natural languages is a complex and heterogeneous phenomenon, the first instances of linguistic negation appear in children’s speech quite early, by 18 and 24 months of life. Nevertheless, its acquisition is a gradual and challenging process, as it takes time for children to fully grasp the semantic meanings of the different negative words to be able to use them correctly across different sentential contexts. Moreover, in order to understand how to negate a sentence, children must also learn how negation can have scope over different parts of the sentences, leaving the others unaffected. The picture becomes even more complicated for children when multiple negative structures come into play, in which the negative meaning is conveyed by the combination of two (or more) negative elements. The interpretation of these complex syntactic constructions is indeed not always straightforward since a different arrangement of the same negative elements may yield different semantic interpretations of the same sentence.
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  • 16 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Corporate Social Responsibility in Saudi Arabia
In Saudi Arabia, as in the international arena, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a trending phenomenon that has been transforming and influencing government policies, business strategic management, and societal relationships.
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  • 13 May 2022
Topic Review
Communication
Communication (from Latin communicare, meaning "to share"or "to be in relation with") is "an apparent answer to the painful divisions between self and other, private and public, and inner thought and outer word." As this definition indicates, communication is difficult to define in a consistent manner, because it is commonly used to refer to a wide range of different behaviors (broadly: "the transfer of information"), or to limit what can be included in the category of communication (for example, requiring a "conscious intent" to persuade). John Peters argues the difficulty of defining communication emerges from the fact that communication is both a universal phenomena (because everyone communicates), and a specific discipline of institutional academic study. One possible definition of communication is the act of developing meaning among entities or groups through the use of sufficiently mutually understood signs, symbols, and semiotic conventions. In Claude Shannon's and Warren Weaver's influential model, human communication was imagined to function like a telephone or telegraph. Accordingly, they conceptualized communication as involving discrete steps: These elements are now understood to be substantially overlapping and recursive activities rather than steps in a sequence. For example, communicative actions can commence before a communicator formulates a conscious attempt to do so, as in the case of phatics; likewise, communicators modify their intentions and formulations of a message in response to real-time feedback (e.g., a change in facial expression). Practices of decoding and interpretation are culturally enacted, not just by individuals (genre conventions, for instance, trigger anticipatory expectations for how a message is to be received), and receivers of any message operationalize their own frames of reference in interpretation. The scientific study of communication can be divided into: The channel of communication can be visual, auditory, tactile/haptic (e.g. Braille or other physical means), olfactory, electromagnetic, or biochemical. Human communication is unique for its extensive use of abstract language. Development of civilization has been closely linked with progress in telecommunication.
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  • 02 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Abnormality (Behavior)
Abnormality (or dysfunctional behavior) is a behavioral characteristic assigned to those with conditions that are regarded as rare or dysfunctional. Behavior is considered to be abnormal when it is atypical or out of the ordinary, consists of undesirable behavior, and results in impairment in the individual's functioning. Abnormality in behavior, is that in which is considered deviant from specific societal, cultural and ethical expectations. These expectations are broadly dependent on age, gender, traditional and societal categorizations. The definition of abnormal behavior is an often debated issue in abnormal psychology, because of these subjective variables. Abnormal behavior should not be confused with unusual behavior. Behavior that is out of the ordinary is not necessarily indicative of a mental or psychological disorder. Abnormal behavior, on the other hand, while not a mental disorder in itself, is often an indicator of a possible mental and/or psychological disorder. A psychological disorder is defined as an "ongoing dysfunctional pattern of thought, emotion, and behavior that causes significant distress, and is considered deviant in that person's culture or society". It is important to note that abnormal behavior, as it relates to psychological disorders, would be "ongoing" and a cause of "significant distress". A mental disorder describes a patient who has a medical condition whereby the medical practitioner makes a judgement that the patient is exhibiting abnormal behavior based on the DSM-5 criteria. Thus, simply because a behavior is unusual it does not make it abnormal; it is only considered abnormal if it meets these criteria. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5, is used by both researchers and clinicians in diagnosing a potential mental disorder. The criteria needed to be met in the DSM-5 varies for each mental disorder. Unlike physical abnormalities in ones health whose symptoms are objective, psychology health professionals cannot use objective symptoms when evaluating someone for abnormalities in behavior.
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  • 03 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Inedia
Inedia (Latin for "fasting") or breatharianism /brɛθˈɛəriənɪzəm/ is the belief that it is possible for a person to live without consuming food. Breatharians claim that food, and in some cases water, are not necessary for survival, and that humans can be sustained solely by prana, the vital life force in Hinduism. According to Ayurveda, sunlight is one of the main sources of prana, and some practitioners believe that it is possible for a person to survive on sunlight alone. The terms breatharianism or inedia may also refer to this philosophy when it is practiced as a lifestyle in place of the usual diet. Breatharianism is considered a deadly pseudoscience by scientists and medical professionals, and several adherents of these practices have died from starvation and dehydration. Though it is common knowledge that biological entities require sustenance to survive, breatharianism continues.
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  • 25 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Apoptosis
Apoptosis is a multistep process that involves two major pathways to trigger a cascade of events leading to the fragmentation of chromatin, nuclear membrane, and cell shrinkage. However, when this physiological process tended to be dysregulated, many pathological transformations happen to develop cancer.
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  • 23 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Sex Ratio
The sex ratio is the ratio of males to females in a population. In most sexually reproducing species, the ratio tends to be 1:1. This tendency is explained by Fisher's principle. For various reasons, however, many species deviate from anything like an even sex ratio, either periodically or permanently. Examples include parthenogenic species, periodically mating organisms such as aphids, some eusocial wasps such as Polistes fuscatus and Polistes exclamans, bees, ants, and termites. The human sex ratio is of particular interest to anthropologists and demographers. In human societies, however, sex ratios at birth may be considerably skewed by factors such as the age of mother at birth, and by sex-selective abortion and infanticide. Exposure to pesticides and other environmental contaminants may be a significant contributing factor as well. As of 2014, the global sex ratio at birth is estimated at 107 boys to 100 girls (1,000 boys per 934 girls).
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  • 19 Oct 2022
Topic Review
CamPro Engine
The CamPro engine is the first automotive engine developed together with Lotus by the Malaysian automobile manufacturer, Proton. The name CamPro is short for Cam Profiling. This engine powers the Proton Gen-2, Proton Satria Neo, Proton Waja Campro, Proton Persona, Proton Saga, Proton Exora, Proton Preve, Proton Suprima S and Proton Iriz. The CamPro engine was created to show Proton's ability to make its own engines that produce good power output and meet newer emission standards. The engine prototype was first unveiled on 6 October 2000 at the Lotus factory in UK before it debuted in the 2004 Proton Gen•2. All CamPro engines incorporate drive-by-wire technology (specifically electronic throttle control) for better response, eliminating the need for friction-generating mechanical linkages and cables.
  • 6.4K
  • 28 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Salvia divinorum
Salvia divinorum Epling and Játiva is a psychoactive Mexican mint used for centuries by Mazatec Indian shamans or curanderos of north-eastern Oaxaca, Mexico, for divinatory and religious purposes and physical healing.
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  • 18 Mar 2021
Topic Review
List of Translations of the Paschal Greeting
This article lists translations of the Christian Paschal greeting in various languages.
  • 6.4K
  • 23 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Single-Letter Second-Level Domain
Single-letter second-level domains are domain names in which the second-level domain consists of only one letter, such as x.com. In 1993, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) explicitly reserved all single-letter and single-digit second-level domain names in the top-level domains com, net, and org, and grandfathered those that had already been assigned. In December 2005, ICANN considered auctioning these domains.
  • 6.4K
  • 03 Nov 2022
Biography
Hilton Hotema
Hilton Hotema, born George R. Clements (7 February 1878, Fitchburg, Massachusetts - 1970),[1] was a 20th-century American alternative health writer, esoteric author and mystic, who also adopted the names Kenyon Klamonti and Dr. Karl Kridler. Hilton Hotema authored numerous books on dietetics, fasting, fruitarianism, breatharianism, vitality, cellular regeneration, longevity, higher consciousn
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  • 20 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Li7La3Zr2O12 (LLZO): An Overview
Li7La3Zr2O12 (LLZO) is an inorganic garnet type solid electrolyte which has proven to be one of the most promising electrolytes because of its high ionic conductivity at room temperature, low activation energy, good chemical and electrochemical stability, and wide potential window.
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  • 03 Aug 2021
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