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HandWiki is the world's largest wiki-style encyclopedia dedicated to science, technology and computing. It allows you to create and edit articles as long as you have external citations and login account. In addition, this is a content management environment that can be used for collaborative editing of original scholarly content, such as books, manuals, monographs and tutorials.

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Prophet, Seer, and Revelator
Prophet, seer, and revelator is an ecclesiastical title used in the Latter Day Saint movement. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) is the largest denomination of the movement, and it currently applies the terms to the members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. In the past, it has also been applied to the Presiding Patriarch of the church and the Assistant President of the Church. Other sects and denominations of the movement also use these terms.
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  • 25 Nov 2022
Topic Review
RESOLFT
RESOLFT, an acronym for REversible Saturable OpticaL Fluorescence Transitions, denotes a group of optical fluorescence microscopy techniques with very high resolution. Using standard far field visible light optics a resolution far below the diffraction limit down to molecular scales can be obtained. With conventional microscopy techniques, it is not possible to distinguish features that are located at distances less than about half the wavelength used (i.e. about 200 nm for visible light). This diffraction limit is based on the wave nature of light. In conventional microscopes the limit is determined by the used wavelength and the numerical aperture of the optical system. The RESOLFT concept surmounts this limit by temporarily switching the molecules to a state in which they cannot send a (fluorescence-) signal upon illumination. This concept is different from for example electron microscopy where instead the used wavelength is much smaller.
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  • 25 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Election Audits
Election auditing refers to any review conducted after polls close for the purpose of determining whether the votes were counted accurately (a results audit) or whether proper procedures were followed (a process audit), or both. Both results and process audits can be performed between elections for purposes of quality management, but if results audits are to be used to protect the official election results from undetected fraud and error, they must be completed before election results are declared final. Recounts may be considered to be a specific type of audit, but not all audits are recounts. The Verified Voting Foundation explains the difference between audits and recounts: Post-election audits are performed to “routinely check voting system performance…not to challenge to the results, regardless of how close margins of victory appear to be", while "recounts repeat ballot counting (and are performed only) in special circumstances, such as when preliminary results show a close margin of victory. Post-election audits that detect errors can lead to a full recount.” In the US, recount laws vary by state, but typically require recounting 100% of the votes, while audits may use samples. Recounts incorporate elements of both results and process audits.
  • 649
  • 25 Nov 2022
Topic Review
List of Autodidacts
This is a list of notable autodidacts which includes people who have been partially or wholly self-taught.
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  • 25 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Aromatic Hydrocarbon
An aromatic hydrocarbon or arene (or sometimes aryl hydrocarbon) is a hydrocarbon with sigma bonds and delocalized pi electrons between carbon atoms forming a circle. In contrast, aliphatic hydrocarbons lack this delocalization. The term "aromatic" was assigned before the physical mechanism determining aromaticity was discovered, and referred simply to the fact that many such compounds have a sweet or pleasant odour; however, not all aromatic compounds have a sweet odour, and not all compounds with a sweet odour are aromatic. The configuration of six carbon atoms in aromatic compounds is called a "benzene ring", after the simplest possible such hydrocarbon, benzene. Aromatic hydrocarbons can be monocyclic (MAH) or polycyclic (PAH). Not all aromatic compounds are benzene-based; aromaticity can also manifest in heteroarenes, which follow Hückel's rule (for monocyclic rings: when the number of its π electrons equals 4n + 2, where n = 0, 1, 2, 3, ...). In these compounds, at least one carbon atom is replaced by one of the heteroatoms oxygen, nitrogen, or sulfur. Examples of non-benzene compounds with aromatic properties are furan, a heterocyclic compound with a five-membered ring that includes a single oxygen atom, and pyridine, a heterocyclic compound with a six-membered ring containing one nitrogen atom.
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  • 25 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Monkeys in Chinese Culture
Monkeys, particularly macaques and monkey-like gibbons, have played significant roles in Chinese culture for over two thousand years. Some examples familiar to English speakers include the zodiacal Year of the Monkey, the Monkey King Sun Wukong in the novel Journey to the West, and Monkey Kung Fu.
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  • 25 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Shotgun Wedding
A shotgun wedding is a wedding that is arranged to avoid embarrassment due to premarital sex possibly leading to an unintended pregnancy, rather than out of the desire of the participants. The phrase is a primarily American colloquialism, termed as such based on a stereotypical scenario where the father of the pregnant bride-to-be threatens the reluctant groom with a shotgun to ensure that he follows through with the wedding.
  • 6.7K
  • 25 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Timeline of Measles
This is a timeline of measles, describing major events, such as vaccine releases, historic epidemics, and major organizations.
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  • 10 Mar 2025
Topic Review
Linear Difference Equation
In mathematics and in particular dynamical systems, a linear difference equation:ch. 17:ch. 10 or linear recurrence relation sets equal to 0 a polynomial that is linear in the various iterates of a variable—that is, in the values of the elements of a sequence. The polynomial's linearity means that each of its terms has degree 0 or 1. Usually the context is the evolution of some variable over time, with the current time period or discrete moment in time denoted as t, one period earlier denoted as t − 1, one period later as t + 1, etc. An nth order linear difference equation is one that can be written in terms of parameters a1, …, an and b as or equivalently as The equation is called homogeneous if b = 0 and nonhomogeneous if b ≠ 0. Since the longest time lag between iterates appearing in the equation is n, this is an nth order equation, where n could be any positive integer. When the longest lag is specified numerically so n does not appear notationally as the longest time lag, n is occasionally used instead of t to index iterates. In the most general case the coefficients ai and b could themselves be functions of t; however, this article treats the most common case, that of constant coefficients. If the coefficients ai are polynomials in t the equation is called a linear recurrence equation with polynomial coefficients. The solution of such an equation is a function of t, and not of any iterate values, giving the value of the iterate at any time. To find the solution it is necessary to know the specific values (known as initial conditions) of n of the iterates, and normally these are the n iterates that are oldest. The equation or its variable is said to be stable if from any set of initial conditions the variable's limit as time goes to infinity exists; this limit is called the steady state. Difference equations are used in a variety of contexts, such as in economics to model the evolution through time of variables such as gross domestic product, the inflation rate, the exchange rate, etc. They are used in modeling such time series because values of these variables are only measured at discrete intervals. In econometric applications, linear difference equations are modeled with stochastic terms in the form of autoregressive (AR) models and in models such as vector autoregression (VAR) and autoregressive moving average (ARMA) models that combine AR with other features.
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  • 25 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Sunset Provision
In public policy, a sunset provision or clause is a measure within a statute, regulation or other law that provides that the law shall cease to have effect after a specific date, unless further legislative action is taken to extend the law. Most laws do not have sunset clauses and therefore remain in force indefinitely, except under systems in which desuetude applies.
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