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Unraveling Neurodiversity: Insights from Neuroscientific Perspectives
Neurodiversity is a concept and a social movement that addresses and normalizes human neurocognitive heterogeneity to promote acceptance and inclusion of neuro-minorities (e.g., learning disabilities, attention disorders, psychiatric disorders, and more) in contemporary society. Neurodiversity is attributed to nature and nurture factors, and about a fifth of the human population is considered neurodivergent. What does neurodiversity mean neuroscientifically? This question forms the foundation of the present entry, which focuses on existing scientific evidence on neurodiversity including neurodiversity between and within individuals, and the evolutional perspective of neurodiversity. Furthermore, the neuroscientific view will be synergistically integrated with social approaches, particularly in the context of the normalization of neurodiversity and its association with the medical and social models of disability. This multidimensional analysis offers a cohesive and comprehensive understanding of neurodiversity, drawing insights from various vantage points, such as social, psychological, clinical, and neuroscientific viewpoints. This integrated approach fosters a nuanced and holistic discussion on the topic of human diversity.
  • 1.1K
  • 10 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Unraveling Microbial Roles in Biofortified Common Bean
Microorganisms play a fundamental role in sustainable agriculture, and their importance in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) cultivation cannot be underestimated. 
  • 185
  • 07 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Unqiue Hyaluronic Acid
Hyaluronic acid (also known as sodium hyaluronate or hyaluronan) is a straight-chain, natural polysaccharide and the only nonsulfated GAG composed of alternating (1–4)-β d-glucuronic and (1–3)-β N-acetyl-d-glucosamine units. Both carbohydrate units are spatially related to glucose; therefore, in the β-configuration, it is possible for all their bulky groups (hydroxyl and carboxyl groups and the anomeric carbon on the neighboring sugar) to be in sterically favorable planes, while all the small hydrogen atoms occupy less sterically favorable axial positions. This chemical structure of HA is energetically very stable because of interactions between hydrophobic and intermolecular hydrogen bonds and the acetamide and carboxylate groups.
  • 1.0K
  • 12 May 2022
Topic Review
Unperson
Newspeak is the language of Oceania, a fictional totalitarian state and the setting of the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), by George Orwell. To meet the ideological requirements of English Socialism (Ingsoc) in Oceania, the ruling Party created Newspeak, a controlled language of restricted grammar and limited vocabulary, meant to limit the freedom of thought—personal identity, self-expression, free will—that threatens the ideology of the régime of Big Brother and the Party, who have criminalized such concepts into thoughtcrime, as contradictions of Ingsoc orthodoxy. In "The Principles of Newspeak", the appendix to the novel, George Orwell explains that Newspeak usage follows most of the English grammar, yet is a language characterised by a continually diminishing vocabulary; complete thoughts reduced to simple terms of simplistic meaning. Linguistically, the contractions of Newspeak—Ingsoc (English Socialism), Minitrue (Ministry of Truth), etc.—derive from the syllabic abbreviations of Russian, which identify the government and social institutions of the Soviet Union, such as politburo (Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union), Comintern (Communist International), kolkhoz (collective farm), and Komsomol (Young Communists' League). The long-term political purpose of the new language is for every member of the Party and society, except the Proles—the working-class of Oceania—to exclusively communicate in Newspeak, by A.D. 2050; during that 66-year transition, the usage of Oldspeak (Standard English) shall remain interspersed among Newspeak conversations. Newspeak is also a constructed language, of planned phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, like Basic English, which Orwell promoted (1942–44) during the Second World War (1939–45), and later rejected in the essay "Politics and the English Language" (1946), wherein he criticizes the bad usage of English in his day: dying metaphors, pretentious diction, and high-flown rhetoric, which produce the meaningless words of doublespeak, the product of unclear reasoning. Orwell's conclusion thematically reiterates linguistic decline: "I said earlier that the decadence of our language is probably curable. Those who deny this may argue that language merely reflects existing social conditions, and that we cannot influence its development, by any direct tinkering with words or constructions."
  • 508
  • 23 Nov 2022
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Unpacking Transdisciplinary Research Scenarios in Architecture and Urbanism
Research in architecture and urbanism is a complex undertaking. It involves a multitude of challenges, approaches, variables, diverse scales, and types of environments to examine. This entry dives into the complexities of architectural and urban research and explores the integration of diverse approaches into various research topics or domains. Recognizing the dynamic interplay of human, cultural, technological, and environmental factors in architecture and urbanism, it proposes a transdisciplinary approach to bridge existing disciplinary and methodological boundaries. This entry adopts and operationalizes a comprehensive approach that encompasses hybrid scenario development, integrated socio-spatial analysis, a revised experiential approach, and the integration of environmental psychology into architectural and urban studies. These components are envisioned to harmonize various methodologies and to depict a picture of what research in architecture and urbanism could be within an identified set of domains. This approach is grounded in a rigorous literature review, empirical evidence, and relevant validation through case studies. The application of this approach instigates a series of research scenarios which act as frameworks that provide new insights into design and practice-based research, building anatomy research, city dynamics research, housing dynamics research, and user perception studies. Each scenario demonstrates the applicability of combining theoretical insights with empirical investigations. The implications of these scenarios for architectural and urban research emphasize the significance of transdisciplinarity and highlights the importance of integrating diverse theoretical tenets and methodological insights to address the complex challenges of research in architecture and urbanism.
  • 2.2K
  • 20 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Unpacking Phthalates from Obscurity in the Environment
Phthalates (PAEs) are a group of synthetic esters of phthalic acid compounds mostly used as plasticizers in plastic materials but are widely applied in most industries and products. As plasticizers in plastic materials, they are not chemically bound to the polymeric matrix and easily leach out. Logically, PAEs should be prevalent in the environment, but their prevalence, transport, fate, and effects have been largely unknown until recently. This has been attributed, inter alia, to a lack of standardized analytical procedures for identifying them in complex matrices.
  • 232
  • 20 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Unobtrusive Monitoring of Sleep Cycles
Polysomnography is the gold-standard method for measuring sleep but is inconvenient and limited to a laboratory or a hospital setting. As a result, the vast majority of patients do not receive a proper diagnosis. In an attempt to solve this issue, sleep experts are continually looking for unobtrusive and affordable alternatives that can provide longitudinal sleep tracking. Collecting longitudinal data on sleep can accelerate epidemiological studies exploring the effect of sleep on health and disease. These alternatives can be in the form of wearables (e.g., actigraphs) or nonwearable (e.g., under-mattress sleep trackers). 
  • 749
  • 19 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Unnatural Gallotannins
Nature has been a source of inspiration for the development of new pharmaceutically active agents. Polyphenols, including gallotannins, are widely studied as they protect cells against oxidative damage and pathogen attack. A series of new unnatural gallotannins (GTs), derived from D-lyxose, D-ribose, D-rhamnose, D-mannose, and D-fructose have been designed and synthesized i order to study the protective and antimicrobial effects of synthetic polyphenols that are structurally related to plant-derived products. Apart from spectral analysis, their antioxidant activity was evaluated. Structurally different GTs were screened in vitro for their antimicrobial properties against a spectrum of staphylococci, enterococci, and mycobacteria. Furthermore, the antibiofilm activity of GTs against S. aureus, and their ability to inhibit sortase A were inspected. Experimental data suggest that synthetic GTs could be considered as promising candidates for pharmacological, biomedical, and food industry applications.
  • 694
  • 14 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Unmixing-Guided Convolutional Transformer for Spectral Reconstruction
Specifically, transformer and ResBlock components are embedded in Paralleled-Residual Multi-Head Self-Attention (PMSA) to facilitate fine feature extraction guided by the excellent priors of local and non-local information from CNNs and transformers. Furthermore, the Spectral–Spatial Aggregation Module (S2AM) combines the advantages of geometric invariance and global receptive fields to enhance the reconstruction performance.
  • 386
  • 19 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Unmet Needs in Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) swiftly evolved from a disrupting technology towards mainstream therapy in the field of severe symptomatic aortic stenosis. A series of randomized evaluations established its role in treating severe aortic stenosis patients across all surgical risk categories, paving the way for an extension of its indications to younger low-risk patients with a longer life expectancy.
  • 662
  • 21 Nov 2022
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