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Topic Review
Foams and Emulsions
Foams and emulsions are collections of different kinds of bubbles or drops with particular properties. They provide exceptional sensitive bases for measuring low concentrations of molecules down to the level of traces using spectroscopy techniques, thus opening new horizons in microfluidics. The optical and spectral properties of foams and emulsions provide information about their micro-/nanostructures, chemical and time stability, and molecular data of their components. 
  • 6.1K
  • 19 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Starch-Based Biodegradable Films for Food Packaging
The use of biodegradable packaging material as an alternative to conventional petrochemical-based polymers is based on the environmental issues associated with conventional materials. Starch-based biodegradable films can be applied in food packaging. It was evident that starch stands out among biopolymers due to its abundance and cost effectiveness.
  • 6.1K
  • 07 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Empire of Liberty
The Empire of Liberty is a theme developed first by Thomas Jefferson to identify the responsibility of the United States to spread freedom across the world. Jefferson saw the mission of the U.S. in terms of setting an example, expansion into western North America, and by intervention abroad. Major exponents of the theme have been James Monroe (and his Monroe Doctrine), Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk (who promoted Manifest Destiny), Abraham Lincoln (in the Gettysburg Address), Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson (and "Wilsonianism"), Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. In the history of U.S. foreign policy, the Empire of Liberty has provided motivation to fight the Spanish–American War (1898), World War I (1917-18), the later part of World War II (1941-45), the Cold War (1947–91) and the War on Terror (2001–present).
  • 6.1K
  • 26 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Chinese Alchemy
Chinese alchemy is an ancient Chinese scientific and technological approach to alchemy, a part of the larger tradition of Taoist body-spirit cultivation developed from the traditional Chinese understanding of medicine and the body. According to original texts such as the Cantong qi, the body is understood as the focus of cosmological processes summarized in the five agents, or wu xing, the observation and cultivation of which leads the practitioner into greater alignment with the operation of the Tao, the great cosmological principle of everything. Therefore, the traditional view in China is that alchemy focuses mainly on the purification of one's spirit and body in the hopes of gaining immortality through the practice of Qigong and/or consumption and use of various concoctions known as alchemical medicines or elixirs, each of which having different purposes. Pao zhi (Pao chi) cites the pharmacological processing (of Chinese materia medica) as used in the practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine, such as honey or wine frying and roasting with toxic metals such as mercury, lead, and arsenic. According to J.C. Cooper's Chinese Alchemy: The Taoist Quest for Immortality, Taoism had two distinct parts, the classical Tao Chia, which was mystical and stemmed primarily from Laozi and Zhuangzi, and the more popular Tao Chiao, which was the popular, magical and alchemical side of Taoism. Cooper states that a common viewpoint is that "classical Taoism [Daoism] was the original but was too austere and rarefied for the general populace ... [but] Tao Chiao fulfilled the day-to-day needs of the people."
  • 6.1K
  • 16 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Disinformation
Disinformation is false or misleading information that is spread deliberately to deceive. This is a subset of misinformation, which may also be unintentional. The English word disinformation is a loan translation of the Russian dezinformatsiya, derived from the title of a KGB black propaganda department. Joseph Stalin coined the term, giving it a French-sounding name to claim it had a Western origin. Russian use began with a "special disinformation office" in 1923. Disinformation was defined in Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1952) as "false information with the intention to deceive public opinion". Operation INFEKTION was a Soviet disinformation campaign to influence opinion that the U.S. invented AIDS. The U.S. did not actively counter disinformation until 1980, when a fake document reported that the U.S. supported apartheid. The word disinformation did not appear in English dictionaries until the late-1980s. English use increased in 1986, after revelations that the Reagan Administration engaged in disinformation against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. By 1990, it was pervasive in U.S. politics; and by 2001 referred generally to lying and propaganda.
  • 6.1K
  • 14 Oct 2022
Topic Review
BMW 6 Series (E24)
The BMW E24 is the first generation of BMW 6 Series grand tourer coupes and was produced from January 1976 to April 1989. It replaced the E9 coupes and was, after a 16-year hiatus, succeeded by the E63 6 Series in 2004. The E24 was produced solely in a 2-door coupe body style. Aside from the M635CSi/M6 models, the E24 was powered by a range of M30 straight-6 engines. The M635CSi is the first of the BMW M6 model line and is the second true "M car" produced after the BMW M1. The M635CSi is powered by the M88/3 straight-6 engine. In North America, the vehicle is badged simply as "M6" and is powered by the detuned S38 straight-6 engine, which has a lower compression ratio and uses a catalytic converter. Although the 8 Series was released as production of the E24 was ending, the 8 Series is considered a separate model line and therefore not a true successor to the E24.
  • 6.1K
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Premature Termination Codons
Premature termination codons (PTCs) are stop codons arising from nonsense variants converting a sense codon into a termination signal, i.e. UAA, UAG or UGA. PTCs arising from mutations may, at low frequency, be misrecognized and result in PTC suppression, named ribosome readthrough, with production of full-length proteins through the insertion of a subset of amino acids. Since some drugs have been identified as readthrough inducers, this fidelity drawback has been explored as a therapeutic approach in several models of human diseases caused by nonsense mutations.
  • 6.1K
  • 23 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria
Plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPR) are soil bacteria living in the rhizosphere which, through the secretion of various regulatory molecules, are involved in promoting plant growth and development. They can be found associated with the roots (rhizosphere), with the leaves (phyllosphere), or within the plant (endosphere). The endophytes (PGPE) are generally the most effective in supporting growth; being inside the plant tissues, they can communicate with the host plant and exert their beneficial effect much more efficiently.
  • 6.1K
  • 28 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Clinical Psychology
Clinical psychology is an integration of science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development. Central to its practice are psychological assessment, clinical formulation, and psychotherapy, although clinical psychologists also engage in research, teaching, consultation, forensic testimony, and program development and administration. In many countries, clinical psychology is a regulated mental health profession. The field is generally considered to have begun in 1896 with the opening of the first psychological clinic at the University of Pennsylvania by Lightner Witmer. In the first half of the 20th century, clinical psychology was focused on psychological assessment, with little attention given to treatment. This changed after the 1940s when World War II resulted in the need for a large increase in the number of trained clinicians. Since that time, three main educational models have developed in the USA—the Ph.D. Clinical Science model (heavily focused on research), the Ph.D. science-practitioner model (integrating scientific research and practice), and the Psy.D. practitioner-scholar model (focusing on clinical theory and practice). In the UK and the Republic of Ireland, the Clinical Psychology Doctorate falls between the latter two of these models, whilst in much of mainland Europe, the training is at the masters level and predominantly psychotherapeutic. Clinical psychologists are expert in providing psychotherapy, and generally train within four primary theoretical orientations—psychodynamic, humanistic, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and systems or family therapy. Clinical psychology is distinguished from psychiatry. Although practitioners in both fields are mental health professionals, clinical psychologists treat mental disorders through talk therapy and have a doctorate in Psychology or a Doctor of Psychology degree but cannot prescribe medicine. Psychiatrists are medical doctors who treat mental disorders through medication and have a medical degree. Five states, Louisiana, New Mexico, Illinois, Iowa, and Idaho, allow clinical psychologists to prescribe certain medications with completion of medical training, whereas most states only allow psychiatrists to prescribe medicine.
  • 6.1K
  • 01 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Structure-Based Approach in Drug Design
Structure-based drug design (SBDD) is the computational approach that relies on knowledge of 3D structures of the biological targets to identify or design the potential chemical structure suitable for clinical tests. With the explosion of genomic, functional, and structural information in recent decades, the majority of biological targets with 3D structure have been identified and stimulated the applications of structure-based approaches in the current design pipeline. SBDD is popular for virtual screening to filter the drug-like compounds from a large library of small molecules, including widely applied approaches, such as docking and structure-based pharmacophore design. 
  • 6.1K
  • 24 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Panzer II Variants
The Panzerkampfwagen II (Pz.Kpfw.II) light tank, produced in Germany in the late 1930s and early 1940s had a wide array of variants, both as development of the light tank and for specialised tasks.
  • 6.1K
  • 02 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Polycaprolactone-Based Biocomposites
The developments within the topic of biomaterials has taken hold of researchers due to the mounting concern of current environmental pollution as well as scarcity resources. Amongst all compatible biomaterials, polycaprolactone (PCL) is deemed to be a great potential biomaterial, especially to the tissue engineering sector, due to its advantages, including its biocompatibility and low bioactivity exhibition. The commercialization of PCL is deemed as infant technology despite of all its advantages. This contributed to the disadvantages of PCL, including expensive, toxic, and complex.
  • 6.1K
  • 10 Feb 2022
Topic Review
D-10 Tank Gun
The D-10 is a Soviet 100 mm tank gun developed in late World War II. It originally equipped the SU-100 tank destroyers and was later selected for the T-55 tank, equipping these as late as 1979. On the T-55 the D-10 continues to be in active service in many countries.
  • 6.1K
  • 19 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Adhan
The adhan, athan, or azaan (Arabic: أَذَان [ʔaˈðaːn]) (also called in Turkish: Ezan) is the Islamic call to worship, recited by the muezzin at prescribed times of the day. The root of the word is ʾadhina أَذِنَ meaning "to listen, to hear, be informed about". Another derivative of this word is ʾudhun (أُذُن), meaning "ear". Adhan is called out by a muezzin from the mosque five times a day, traditionally from the minaret, summoning Muslims for mandatory (fard) worship (salat). A second call, known as iqama, (set up) then summons Muslims to line up for the beginning of the prayers. The main purpose behind the multiple loud pronouncements of adhan in every mosque is to make available to everyone an easily intelligible summary of Islamic belief. In modern times, loudspeakers have been installed on minarets for this purpose. The adhan recites the Takbir (God is great) followed by the Shahada (There is no god but God, Muhammad is the messenger of God). This statement of faith, called the Kalimah, is the first of the Five Pillars of Islam.
  • 6.1K
  • 14 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt
Fear, uncertainty and doubt (often shortened to FUD) is a disinformation strategy used in sales, marketing, public relations, politics, cults, and propaganda. FUD is generally a strategy to influence perception by disseminating negative and dubious or false information and a manifestation of the appeal to fear. While the phrase dates to at least the early 20th century, the present common usage of disinformation related to software, hardware and technology industries generally appeared in the 1970s to describe disinformation in the computer hardware industry, and has since been used more broadly.
  • 6.1K
  • 20 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Interferometry
Interferometry is a family of techniques in which waves, usually electromagnetic waves, are superimposed causing the phenomenon of interference in order to extract information. Interferometry is an important investigative technique in the fields of astronomy, fiber optics, engineering metrology, optical metrology, oceanography, seismology, spectroscopy (and its applications to chemistry), quantum mechanics, nuclear and particle physics, plasma physics, remote sensing, biomolecular interactions, surface profiling, microfluidics, mechanical stress/strain measurement, velocimetry, and optometry.:1–2 Interferometers are widely used in science and industry for the measurement of small displacements, refractive index changes and surface irregularities. In most interferometers, light from a single source is split into two beams that travel different optical paths, then combined again to produce interference, however, under the some circumstances two incoherent sources can also be interfered. The resulting interference fringes give information about the difference in optical path length. In analytical science, interferometers are used to measure lengths and the shape of optical components with nanometer precision; they are the highest precision length measuring instruments existing. In Fourier transform spectroscopy they are used to analyze light containing features of absorption or emission associated with a substance or mixture. An astronomical interferometer consists of two or more separate telescopes that combine their signals, offering a resolution equivalent to that of a telescope of diameter equal to the largest separation between its individual elements.
  • 6.1K
  • 17 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Mechanism of CRISPR/Cas Based Detection
In the pace of time, numerous platforms for rapid nucleic acid (NA) detection have been developed; however, they may not be able to satisfy the ASSURED (Affordable, Sensitive, Specific, User-friendly, Rapid and Robust, Equipment-free and Deliverable to end-users) parameters set by the World Health of Organization at the same time. Recent studies have established that the CRISPR/Cas system possesses the potential to fulfil ASSURED criteria and demonstrated that it may be repurposed for the detection of contaminants, enzymes, proteins, analytes, and plant diseases, rather than being limited to clinical settings and nucleic acids. Several platforms have yet to be translated into clinical applications and must be brought into clinical settings from the laboratory. 
  • 6.1K
  • 08 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Electronic Skin
Mimicking skin sensorial properties, the development of “electronic skin” (e-skin) holds the promise of developing medical monitoring and highly sensitive prosthetic devices, biocompatible compliant medical implants, enhanced robotics, and more. The e-skin-related research field is a robust interdisciplinary approach, which combines micro-/nanoelectronics, material science, biotechnology, data transmission, and data processing technologies. The potential of epidermal electronics as biomimetic sensors, soft neural probes, prosthetics, implantable biomedical electronics, robotics, and a whole range of other skin-inspired devices show great potential to change the world. Its feasibility, however, relies on the desired e-skin characteristics such as flexibility, stretchability, self-healing ability, self-powering, biocompatibility, biodegradability and last, but not least, the reliability of large-scale manufacturing processes. 
  • 6.1K
  • 18 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Angry Black Woman
The angry black woman stereotype is a trope in American society that portrays African-American women as sassy, ill-mannered, and ill-tempered by nature. Related concepts are the "sapphire" or "sassy black woman". Scholars Dionne Bennett and Marcyliena Morgan suggest that the stereotype is less studied than the mammy and Jezebel archetypes because researchers accept it as true. Carolyn West defines the Angry Black Woman as one variety of a Sapphire stereotype (another category listed is "Sistas with Attitude"). West defines the pervasive "Sapphire/ABW image" as "a template for portraying almost all Black women" and as serving several purposes. West sees it as "passion and righteous indignation... often misread as irrational anger... used to silence and shame Black women who dare to challenge social inequalities, complain about their circumstances, or demand fair treatment (Harris-Perry, 2011). Defined by Pilgrim (2015), "it is a social control mechanism that is employed to punish black women who violate the societal norms that encourage them to be passive, servile, nonthreatening, and unseen" (p. 121). It has been characterized as leading to a form of double bind.
  • 6.1K
  • 11 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Style (Sociolinguistics)
In sociolinguistics, a style is a set of linguistic variants with specific social meanings. In this context, social meanings can include group membership, personal attributes, or beliefs. Linguistic variation is at the heart of the concept of linguistic style—without variation there is no basis for distinguishing social meanings. Variation can occur syntactically, lexically, and phonologically. Many approaches to interpreting and defining style incorporate the concepts of indexicality, indexical order, stance-taking, and linguistic ideology. Note that a style is not a fixed attribute of a speaker. Rather, a speaker may use different styles depending on context. Additionally, speakers often incorporate elements of multiple styles into their speech, either consciously or subconsciously, thereby creating a new style.
  • 6.1K
  • 22 Nov 2022
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