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Kangxi Radical
The 214 Kangxi radicals (Chinese: 康熙部首; pinyin: Kāngxī bùshǒu), also known as the Zihui radicals, form a system of radicals (部首) of Chinese characters. The radicals are numbered in stroke count order. They are the most popular system of radicals for dictionaries that order Traditional Chinese characters (hanzi, hanja, kanji, chữ hán) by radical and stroke count. They are officially part of the Unicode encoding system for CJKV characters, in their standard order, under the coding block "Kangxi radicals", while their graphic variants are contained in the "CJK Radicals Supplement". Thus, a reference to "radical 61", for example, without additional context, refers to the 61st radical of the Kangxi Dictionary, 心; xīn "heart". Originally introduced in the 1615 Zihui (字彙), they are more commonly named in relation to the Kangxi Dictionary of 1716 (Kāngxī 康熙 being the era name for 1662–1723). The 1915 encyclopedic word dictionary Ciyuan (辭源) also uses this system. In modern times, many dictionaries that list Traditional Chinese head characters continue to use this system. For example, the Wang Li Character Dictionary of Ancient Chinese (王力古漢語字典, 2000) adopted the Kangxi radicals system. The system of 214 Kangxi radicals is based on the older system of 540 radicals used in the Han-era Shuowen Jiezi. Since 2009, the PRC government has promoted a 201-radical system (Table of Han Character Radicals, 汉字部首表) as a national standard for Simplified Chinese (see list of Xinhua Zidian radicals).
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  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Surface Passivation
Passivation, in physical chemistry and engineering, refers to coating a material so it becomes "passive", that is, less readily affected or corroded by the environment. Passivation involves creation of an outer layer of shield material that is applied as a microcoating, created by chemical reaction with the base material, or allowed to build by spontaneous oxidation in the air. As a technique, passivation is the use of a light coat of a protective material, such as metal oxide, to create a shield against corrosion. Passivation of silicon is used during fabrication of microelectronic devices. In electrochemical treatment of water, passivation reduces the effectiveness of the treatment by increasing the circuit resistance, and active measures are typically used to overcome this effect, the most common being polarity reversal, which results in limited rejection of the fouling layer.[clarification needed] When exposed to air, many metals naturally form a hard, relatively inert surface layer, usually an oxide (termed the "native oxide layer") or a nitride, that serves as a passivation layer. In the case of silver, the dark tarnish is a passivation layer of silver sulfide formed from reaction with environmental hydrogen sulfide. (In contrast, metals such as iron oxidize readily to form a rough porous coating of rust that adheres loosely and sloughs off readily, allowing further oxidation.) The passivation layer of oxide markedly slows further oxidation and corrosion in room-temperature air for aluminium, beryllium, chromium, zinc, titanium, and silicon (a metalloid). The inert surface layer formed by reaction with air has a thickness of about 1.5 nm for silicon, 1–10 nm for beryllium, and 1 nm initially for titanium, growing to 25 nm after several years. Similarly, for aluminium, it grows to about 5 nm after several years. Surface passivation refers to a common semiconductor device fabrication process critical to modern electronics. It is the process by which a semiconductor surface such as silicon is rendered inert, and does not change semiconductor properties when it interacts with air or other materials. This is typically achieved by thermal oxidation, in which the material is heated and exposed to oxygen. In a silicon semiconductor, this process allows electricity to reliably penetrate to the conducting silicon below the surface, and to overcome the surface states that prevent electricity from reaching the semiconducting layer. Surface passivation by thermal oxidation is one of the key features of silicon technology, and is dominant in microelectronics. The surface passivation process was developed by Mohamed M. Atalla at Bell Labs in the late 1950s. It is commonly used to manufacture MOSFETs (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors) and silicon integrated circuit chips (with the planar process), and is critical to the semiconductor industry. Surface passivation is also critical to solar cell and carbon quantum dot technologies.
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  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Genealogical Bewilderment
Genealogical bewilderment is a term referring to potential identity problems that could be experienced by a child who was either fostered, adopted, or conceived via an assisted reproductive technology procedure such as surrogacy or gamete donation (egg or sperm donation). The concept was first introduced in a 1952 letter to the Journal of Mental Health by psychiatrist E. Wellisch. The term “genealogical bewilderment” was coined in 1964 by psychologist H. J. Sants, a colleague of Wellisch, referring to the plight of children who have uncertain, little, or no knowledge of one or both of their natural parents. Sants argued that genealogical bewilderment constituted a large part of the additional stress that adoptees experienced that is not experienced by children being raised by their natural parents. In the 1970s, researchers Sorosky, Pannor and Baran drew upon the work of Sants to explore the concept in a number of publications, including a book titled The Adoption Triangle, thus bringing "genealogical bewilderment" to a larger audience.
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  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Meaning (Philosophy of Language)
In the philosophy of language, meaning "is a relationship between two sorts of things: signs and the kinds of things they intend, express, or signify". The types of meanings vary according to the types of the thing that is being represented. Namely: There are the things in the world, which might have meaning; There are things in the world that are also signs of other things in the world, and so, are always meaningful (i.e., natural signs of the physical world and ideas within the mind); There are things that are always necessarily meaningful, such as words, and other nonverbal symbols. The major contemporary positions of meaning come under the following partial definitions of meaning: Psychological theories, involving notions of thought, intention, or understanding; Logical theories, involving notions such as intension, cognitive content, or sense, along with extension, reference, or denotation; Message, content, information, or communication; Truth conditions; Usage, and the instructions for usage; and Measurement, computation, or operation.
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  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Planet-Hosting Stars
Planet-hosting stars are stars which host planets, therefore forming planetary systems. This article describes the correlations between stars' characteristics and the characteristics of the planets that orbit them, and other connections between stars and their planets.
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  • 23 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Pudú
The pudus (Mapudungun püdü or püdu, Spanish: pudú, Spanish pronunciation: [puˈðu]) are two species of South American deer from the genus Pudu, and are the world's smallest deer. The name is a loanword from Mapudungun, the language of the indigenous Mapuche people of central Chile and south-western Argentina. The two species of pudus are the northern pudu (Pudu mephistophiles) from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, and the southern pudu (Pudu puda; sometimes incorrectly modified to Pudu pudu) from southern Chile and south-western Argentina . Pudus range in size from 32 to 44 centimeters (13 to 17 in) tall, and up to 85 centimeters (33 in) long. The southern pudu is currently classified as near threatened, while the northern pudu is classified as Data Deficient in the IUCN Red List.
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  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
History of Democratic Socialism
Democratic socialism represents the modernist development of socialism and its outspoken support for democracy. The origins of democratic socialism can be traced back to 19th-century utopian socialist thinkers and the Chartist movement in Great Britain, which somewhat differed in their goals but shared a common demand of democratic decision making and public ownership of the means of production, and viewed these as fundamental characteristics of the society they advocated for. Democratic socialism was also heavily influenced by the gradualist form of socialism promoted by the British Fabian Society and Eduard Bernstein's evolutionary socialism. In the 19th century, the ruling classes were afraid of socialism because it challenged their rule. Socialism has faced opposition since then, and the opposition to it has often been organized and violent. In countries such as Germany and Italy, democratic socialist parties were banned, like with Otto von Bismarck's Anti-Socialist Laws. With the expansion of liberal democracy and universal suffrage during the 20th century, democratic socialism became a mainstream movement which expanded across the world, as centre-left and left-wing parties came to govern, became the main opposition party, or simply a commonality of the democratic process in most of the Western world; one major exception was the United States. Democratic socialist parties greatly contributed to existing liberal democracy.
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  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Iranian Plateau
The Iranian Plateau or the Persian Plateau is a geological feature in Central Asia, South Asia, and Western Asia. It is the part of the Eurasian Plate wedged between the Arabian and Indian plates, situated between the Zagros Mountains to the west, the Caspian Sea and the Kopet Dag to the north, the Armenian Highlands and the Caucasus Mountains in the northwest, the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf to the south and the Indo-Gangetic Plain to the east in Indian subcontinent. As a historical region, it includes Parthia, Media, Persis, the heartlands of Iran and some of the previous territories of Greater Iran. The Zagros Mountains form the plateau's western boundary, and its eastern slopes may be included in the term. The Encyclopædia Britannica excludes "lowland Khuzestan" explicitly and characterizes Elam as spanning "the region from the Mesopotamian Plain to the Iranian Plateau". From the Caspian in the northwest to Balochistan in the south-east, the Iranian Plateau extends for close to 2,000 km. It encompasses the greater part of Iran, all of Afghanistan, and Pakistan west of the Indus River containing some 3,700,000 square kilometres (1,400,000 sq mi). In spite of being called a "plateau", it is far from flat but contains several mountain ranges, the highest peak being Damavand in the Alborz at 5610 m, and the Dasht-e Lut east of Kerman in Central Iran falling below 300 m.
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  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
LC-3
Little Computer 3, or LC-3, is a type of computer educational programming language, an assembly language, which is a type of low-level programming language. It features a relatively simple instruction set, but can be used to write moderately complex assembly programs, and is a theoretically viable target for a C compiler. The language is less complex than x86 assembly but has many features similar to those in more complex languages. These features make it useful for beginning instruction, so it is most often used to teach fundamentals of programming and computer architecture to computer science and computer engineering students. The LC-3 was developed by Yale N. Patt at the University of Texas at Austin and Sanjay J. Patel at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Their specification of the instruction set, the overall architecture of the LC-3, and a hardware implementation can be found in the second edition of their textbook. Courses based on the LC-3 and Patt and Patel's book are offered in many computer engineering and computer science departments.
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  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Parent-Teacher Conference
A parent-teacher conference, parent-teacher interview, parent-teacher night or parents' evening, is a short meeting or conference between the parents and teachers of students to discuss a child's progress at school and find solutions to academic or behavioral problems. Parent-teacher conferences supplement the information conveyed by report cards by focusing on students' specific strengths and weaknesses in individual subjects and generalizing the level of inter-curricular skills and competences. Most conferences take place without the presence of the students whose progress is being discussed, although there is evidence that their inclusion increases the productivity of the meetings. The meetings are generally led by teachers who take a more active role in information sharing, with parents relegated mostly to the role of listeners.
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  • 22 Nov 2022
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