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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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Chemical Affinity
In chemical physics and physical chemistry, chemical affinity is the electronic property by which dissimilar chemical species are capable of forming chemical compounds. Chemical affinity can also refer to the tendency of an atom or compound to combine by chemical reaction with atoms or compounds of unlike composition.
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  • 20 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Quantum Finite Automata
In quantum computing, quantum finite automata (QFA) or quantum state machines are a quantum analog of probabilistic automata or a Markov decision process. They provide a mathematical abstraction of real-world quantum computers. Several types of automata may be defined, including measure-once and measure-many automata. Quantum finite automata can also be understood as the quantization of subshifts of finite type, or as a quantization of Markov chains. QFAs are, in turn, special cases of geometric finite automata or topological finite automata. The automata work by receiving a finite-length string [math]\displaystyle{ \sigma=(\sigma_0,\sigma_1,\cdots,\sigma_k) }[/math] of letters [math]\displaystyle{ \sigma_i }[/math] from a finite alphabet [math]\displaystyle{ \Sigma }[/math], and assigning to each such string a probability [math]\displaystyle{ \operatorname{Pr}(\sigma) }[/math] indicating the probability of the automaton being in an accept state; that is, indicating whether the automaton accepted or rejected the string. The languages accepted by QFAs are not the regular languages of deterministic finite automata, nor are they the stochastic languages of probabilistic finite automata. Study of these quantum languages remains an active area of research.
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  • 20 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development
Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, as articulated in the second half of the 20th century by Erik Erikson in collaboration with Joan Erikson, is a comprehensive psychoanalytic theory that identifies a series of eight stages that a healthy developing individual should pass through from infancy to late adulthood. According to Erikson’s theory the results from each stage, whether positive or negative, influences the results of succeeding stages. Erikson published a book called Childhood and Society around the 1950s that made his research well known on the eight stages of psychosocial development. Erikson was originally influenced by Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual stages of development. He began by working with Freud's theories specifically, but as he began to dive deeper into biopsychosocial development and how other environmental factors affect human development, he soon progressed past Freud’s theories and developed his own ideas. Erikson's stage theory characterizes an individual advancing through the eight life stages as a function of negotiating their biological and sociocultural forces. The two conflicting forces each have a psychosocial crisis which characterizes the eight stages. If an individual does indeed successfully reconcile these forces (favoring the first mentioned attribute in the crisis), they emerge from the stage with the corresponding virtue. For example, if an infant enters into the toddler stage (autonomy vs. shame and doubt) with more trust than mistrust, they carry the virtue of hope into the remaining life stages. The challenges of stages not successfully completed may be expected to return as problems in the future. However, mastery of a stage is not required to advance to the next stage. In one study, subjects showed significant development as a result of organized activities.
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  • 20 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Health Software
Medical software is any software item or system used within a medical context, such as reducing the paperwork, tracking patient activity.  standalone software used for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes; software embedded in a medical device (often referred to as "medical device software"); software that drives a medical device or determines how it is used; software that acts as an accessory to a medical device; software used in the design, production, and testing of a medical device; or software that provides quality control management of a medical device.
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  • 20 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Love Bombing
Love bombing is an attempt to influence a person by demonstrations of attention and affection. It can be used in different ways and for either positive or negative purposes. Psychologists have identified love bombing as a possible part of a cycle of abuse and have warned against it. Critics of cults use the phrase with the implication that the "love" is feigned and that the practice is psychological manipulation in order to create a feeling of unity within the group against a society perceived as hostile. In 2011 clinical psychologist Oliver James advocated love bombing in his book Love Bombing: Reset Your Child's Emotional Thermostat, as a means for parents to rectify emotional problems in their children.
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  • 20 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Cryptographically-Secure Pseudorandom Number Generator
A cryptographically secure pseudorandom number generator (CSPRNG) or cryptographic pseudorandom number generator (CPRNG) is a pseudorandom number generator (PRNG) with properties that make it suitable for use in cryptography. It is also loosely known as a cryptographic random number generator (CRNG) (see Random number generation § "True" vs. pseudo-random numbers). Most cryptographic applications require random numbers, for example: key generation nonces salts in certain signature schemes, including ECDSA, RSASSA-PSS The "quality" of the randomness required for these applications varies. For example, creating a nonce in some protocols needs only uniqueness. On the other hand, the generation of a master key requires a higher quality, such as more entropy. And in the case of one-time pads, the information-theoretic guarantee of perfect secrecy only holds if the key material comes from a true random source with high entropy, and thus any kind of pseudorandom number generator is insufficient. Ideally, the generation of random numbers in CSPRNGs uses entropy obtained from a high-quality source, generally the operating system's randomness API. However, unexpected correlations have been found in several such ostensibly independent processes. From an information-theoretic point of view, the amount of randomness, the entropy that can be generated, is equal to the entropy provided by the system. But sometimes, in practical situations, more random numbers are needed than there is entropy available. Also, the processes to extract randomness from a running system are slow in actual practice. In such instances, a CSPRNG can sometimes be used. A CSPRNG can "stretch" the available entropy over more bits.
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  • 20 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Annatto
Annatto (/əˈnætoʊ/ or /əˈnɑːtoʊ/) is an orange-red condiment and food coloring derived from the seeds of the achiote tree (Bixa orellana), native to tropical America. It is often used to impart a yellow or orange color to foods, but sometimes also for its flavor and aroma. Its scent is described as "slightly peppery with a hint of nutmeg" and flavor as "slightly nutty, sweet and peppery". The color of annatto comes from various carotenoid pigments, mainly bixin and norbixin, found in the reddish waxy coating of the seeds. The condiment is typically prepared by grinding the seeds to a powder or paste. Similar effects can be obtained by extracting some of the color and flavor principles from the seeds with hot water, oil, or lard, which are then added to the food. Annatto and its extracts are now widely used in an artisanal or industrial scale as a coloring agent in many processed food products, such as cheeses, dairy spreads, butter and margarine, custards, cakes and other baked goods, potatoes, snack foods, breakfast cereals, smoked fish, sausages, and more. In these uses, annatto is a natural alternative to synthetic food coloring compounds, but it has been linked to rare cases of food-related allergies. Annatto is of particular commercial value in the United States because the Food and Drug Administration considers colorants derived from it to be "exempt of certification".
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  • 20 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire
The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) is a psychological inventory consisting of 36 items pertaining to leadership styles and 9 items pertaining to leadership outcomes. The MLQ was constructed by Bruce J. Avolio and Bernard M. Bass with the goal to assess a full range of leadership styles. The MLQ is composed of 9 scales that measure three leadership styles: transformational leadership (5 scales), transactional leadership (2 scales), and passive/avoidant behavior (2 scales), and 3 scales that measure outcomes of leadership. The MLQ takes an average of 15 minutes to complete and can be administered to an individual or group. The MLQ can be used to differentiate effective and ineffective leaders at all organizational levels and has been validated across many cultures and types of organizations. It is used for leadership development and research. The MLQ is designed as a multi-rater (or 360-degree) instrument, meaning that the leadership assessment considers the leader's self-assessment alongside the assessments of their leadership from their superiors, peers, subordinates, and others. The Leader (Self) Form and the Rater Form of the MLQ can be completed and assessed separately - however validity is much weaker when assessing leadership using only the Leader (Self) Form. Following the publication of the original MLQ in 1990, new versions of the MLQ were gradually developed to fit different assessment needs. The current versions of the MLQ are: Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 360 (MLQ 360), Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Self Form (MLQ Self), Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Rater Form (MLQ Rater Form), Team Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (TMLQ), and Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Actual vs. Ought. All MLQ versions are protected by copyright law and published by Mind Garden, Inc. The MLQ underwent a re-branding for its scales in 2015 with the justification of replacing the heavily-academic scale names with terms that would be more widely and easily understood by those outside of academia, such as business leaders and consultants. Recent academic research using the MLQ continue to use the original scale names. The MLQ is often combined with the Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ) to assess the self-awareness, transparency, ethics/morality, and processing ability of leaders (the ALQ was constructed by Avolio with William L. Gardner and Fred O. Walumbwa in 2007).
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  • 20 Oct 2022
Topic Review
New Chronology (Rohl)
New Chronology is an alternative chronology of the ancient Near East developed by English Egyptologist David Rohl and other researchers beginning with A Test of Time: The Bible - from Myth to History in 1995. It contradicts mainstream Egyptology by proposing a major revision of the established Egyptian chronology, in particular by re-dating Egyptian kings of the Nineteenth through Twenty-fifth Dynasties, bringing forward conventional dating by up to 350 years. Rohl asserts that the New Chronology allows him to identify some of the characters in the Hebrew Bible with people whose names appear in archaeological finds. The New Chronology, one of several proposed radical revisions of the conventional chronology, has not been accepted in academic Egyptology, where the conventional chronology or small variations of it remain standard. Amélie Kuhrt, head of Ancient Near Eastern History at University College London, in one of the standard reference works of the discipline, notes: "Many scholars feel sympathetic to the critique of weaknesses in the existing chronological framework [...], but most archaeologists and ancient historians are not at present convinced that the radical redatings proposed stand up to close examination." Rohl's most vocal critic has been Kenneth Kitchen, one of the leading experts on biblical history and the author of the standard work on the conventional chronology of the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt, the period most directly affected by the New Chronology's redating of the Nineteenth to Twenty-fifth Dynasties.
  • 2.8K
  • 20 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Crackdown
Crackdown is a series of action-adventure video games created by David Jones and published by Xbox Game Studios. The series takes place in a futuristic dystopian city controlled and enforced by a secret organization called the Agency. The games center on the Agency's super soldiers, known as 'Agents', as they fight threats ranging from various criminal syndicates, a terrorist group known as 'Cell', and zombie-like monsters called 'Freaks'. Games of the series have been developed by various game developers, with the first game Crackdown completed by Realtime Worlds on February 20, 2007, and a sequel called Crackdown 2 developed by Ruffian Games on July 6, 2010. Both games were released for the Xbox 360. A third installment Crackdown 3 developed by Sumo Digital was released on February 15, 2019 for Xbox One and Microsoft Windows. Although Crackdown started as a game that was released with access codes for the Halo 3 multiplayer beta, the game itself has been met with positive critical reception and won several video game awards. Critics praised the sandbox style third-person shooter for allowing the ability to cause massive destruction in a non-linear gameplay, while also criticizing the series for lacking an actual story. The series has garnered mostly positive reception and commercial success.
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  • 20 Oct 2022
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