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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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Baltimore–Washington Superconducting Maglev Project
The Baltimore–Washington Superconducting Maglev Project (SCMAGLEV) is a proposed project connecting the United States cities of Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., with a 40 mi (64 km) maglev train system between their respective central business districts. It is the first segment of the planned Washington-New York Northeast Maglev project. The maglev proposal is not related to the Baltimore–Washington hyperloop proposed by the Boring Company.
  • 943
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Mycorrhizae and Changing Climate
Mycorrhizae and changing climate refers to the effects of climate change on mycorrhizae, a fungus which forms an endosymbiotic relationship between with a vascular host plant by colonizing its roots, and the effects brought on by climate change. Climate change is any lasting effect in weather or temperature. It is important to note that a good indicator of climate change is global warming, though the two are not analogous. However, temperature plays a very important role in all ecosystems on Earth, especially those with high counts of mycorrhiza in soil biota. Mycorrhizae are one of the most widespread symbioses on the planet, as they form a plant-fungal interaction with nearly eighty percent of all terrestrial plants. The resident mycorrhizae benefits from a share of the sugars and carbon produced during photosynthesis, while the plant effectively accesses water and other nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, crucial to its health. This symbiosis has become so beneficial to terrestrial plants that some depend entirely on the relationship to sustain themselves in their respective environments. The fungi are essential to the planet as most ecosystems, especially those in the Arctic, are filled with plants that survive with the aid of mycorrhizae. Because of their importance to a productive ecosystem, understanding this fungus and its symbioses is currently an active area of scientific research.
  • 1.4K
  • 19 May 2023
Topic Review
HSD2 Neurons
HSD2 neurons are a small group of neurons in the brainstem which are uniquely sensitive to the mineralocorticosteroid hormone aldosterone, through expression of HSD11B2. They are located within the caudal medulla oblongata, in the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS). HSD2 neurons are activated during a prolonged deficit in body sodium or fluid volume, as occurs after dietary sodium deprivation or during frank hypovolemia. They are also activated by supraphysiologic stimulation of the mineralocorticoid receptor. They are inactivated when salt is ingested. To date, HSD2 neurons have been identified and studied only in rats and mice.
  • 903
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Boy Scouts of America Membership Controversies
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA), one of the largest private youth organizations in the United States, has policies which prohibit those who are not willing to subscribe to the BSA's Declaration of Religious Principle, which is usually interpreted as banning atheists, and, until January 2014, prohibited all "known or avowed homosexuals", from membership in its Scouting program. The ban on adults who are "open or avowed homosexuals" from leadership positions was lifted in July 2015. Prior to these policy changes, BSA had denied or revoked membership status or leadership positions for violation of these foundational principles. The BSA had contended that its policies were essential in its mission to instill in young people the values of the Scout Promise, or Oath, and Scout Law. The organization's legal right to have these policies was upheld by the United States Supreme Court. In Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, the Supreme Court of the United States has affirmed that as a private organization, the BSA can set its own membership standards. The BSA's policies have been legally challenged but have not been found to constitute illegal discrimination because as a private organization in the United States, the BSA has the right to freedom of association, as determined in the court case. In recent years, the policy disputes have led to litigation over the terms under which the BSA can access governmental resources, including public lands. These policies have led to various disputes and controversies. In 2012, both Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and then President Barack Obama stated that they opposed the ban on gay Scouts. On May 23, 2013, the BSA's National Council approved a resolution to remove the restriction denying membership to youth on the basis of sexual orientation alone effective January 1, 2014. The policy for adult leaders remained in place until July 27, 2015.
  • 1.9K
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review
LICRA V. Yahoo!
Ligue contre le racisme et l'antisémitisme et Union des étudiants juifs de France c. Yahoo! Inc. et Société Yahoo! France (LICRA c. Yahoo!) is a France court case decided by the Tribunal de grande instance of Paris in 2000. The case concerned the sale of memorabilia from the Nazi period by Internet auction and the application of national laws to the Internet. Some observers have claimed that the judgement creates a universal competence for French courts to decide Internet cases. A related case before the United States courts concerning the enforcement of the French judgement reached the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, where a majority of the judges ruled to dismiss Yahoo!'s appeal. Criminal proceedings were also brought in the French courts against Yahoo!, Inc. and its then president Timothy Koogle; the defendants were acquitted on all charges, a verdict that was upheld on appeal.
  • 799
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review
2016 Hong Kong LegCo Candidates' Disqualification Controversy
A controversy arose during the 2016 Legislative Council election in Hong Kong as the Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) banned six potential localist candidates from running for the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo). The EAC carried out a new election measure to require all candidates to sign an additional "confirmation form" in the nomination to declare their understanding of Hong Kong being an inalienable part of China as stipulated in the Article 1, Article 12 and Article 159(4) of the Basic Law of Hong Kong. Localist Hong Kong Indigenous's Edward Leung and pan-democrat League of Social Democrats (LSD) Avery Ng sought a judicial review but the court refused to immediately hear the judicial reviews. Leung subsequently signed the confirmation form but was asked by returning officers whether they would still advocate independence along with some other localist candidates including Civic Passion's Alvin Cheng and Hong Kong National Party's Chan Ho-tin. After the end of the nomination period, nominations of six localist candidates, Hong Kong National Party's Chan Ho-tin, Democratic Progressive Party's Yeung Ke-cheong, Nationalist Hong Kong's Nakade Hitsujiko, Conservative Party's Alice Lai Yee-man, Hong Kong Indigenous's Edward Leung and independent Chan Kwok-keung, were "invalidated"; Edward Leung's nomination was rejected by EAC returning officer Cora Ho Lai-sheung on the basis that she did not trust Leung had "genuinely changed his previous stance for independence."
  • 936
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review
The Banyan
The Banyan is a non-governmental organization based in Chennai, India was founded in 1993 by Vandana Gopikumar and Vaishnavi Jayakumar to cater to the mentally ill and homeless women in the city. This includes emergency care and critical time interventions offered across 2 hospital based settings, and one shelter for homeless persons with psychosocial disabilities, operated in collaboration with the Corporation of Chennai, reaching out to 162 individuals in distress at any given point of time. Over 3400 individuals have accessed these services since 1993. The Banyan's NALAM programme offers well-being oriented outpatient clinics and community based mental health care in both urban and rural areas. These clinics provide free of charge and mental health and social care services, address distress, common mental disorders and severe mental disorders. They are offered across 15 service access points, reaching out to a population of approximately 7 lakhs. NALAM has reached out to over 10,000 individuals and has a current active registry of 2000 individuals. For those who experience high support needs, The Banyan offers a range of inclusive living options, over 200 individuals with moderate to severe mental health issues, today live in communities & homelike environments with supportive services across 6 districts in 3 States (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra). The Banyan's sister organisation was founded in 2007. BALM uses capacity building, education programmes (diploma, masters’, and PhD programmes) in collaboration with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), research, collaborative work (with civil society organisations, local governments, disability movements, mental health user-caregiver groups, and Central and State Government) and construction of think tanks, as strategies to influence progressive policies and plans.
  • 1.9K
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Modo
Modo (stylized as MODO, and originally modo) is a polygon and subdivision surface modeling, sculpting, 3D painting, animation and rendering package developed by Luxology, LLC, which is now merged with and known as Foundry. The program incorporates features such as n-gons and edge weighting, and runs on Microsoft Windows, Linux and macOS platforms.
  • 1.7K
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Shtrafbat
Shtrafbats (Russian: штрафбат, штрафной батальон) were Union of Soviet Socialist Republics penal battalions that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The shtrafbats were greatly increased in number by Joseph Stalin in July 1942 via Order No. 227 (Директива Ставки ВГК №227). Order No. 227 was a desperate effort to re-instill discipline after the panicked routs of the first year of combat with Germany. The order—popularized as the "Not one step back!" (Ни шагу назад!, Ni shagu nazad!) Order—introduced severe punishments, including summary execution, for unauthorized retreats. In his order, Stalin also mentioned Hitler's successful use of penal battalions (known as Strafbataillon) as a means to ensure obedience among regular Wehrmacht units.
  • 2.2K
  • 19 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Winograd Schema Challenge
The Winograd schema challenge (WSC) is a test of machine intelligence proposed by Hector Levesque, a computer scientist at the University of Toronto. Designed to be an improvement on the Turing test, it is a multiple-choice test that employs questions of a very specific structure: they are instances of what are called Winograd schemas, named after Terry Winograd, professor of computer science at Stanford University. On the surface, Winograd schema questions simply require the resolution of anaphora: the machine must identify the antecedent of an ambiguous pronoun in a statement. This makes it a task of natural language processing, but Levesque argues that for Winograd schemas, the task requires the use of knowledge and commonsense reasoning. Nuance Communications announced in July 2014 that it would sponsor an annual WSC competition, with a prize of $25,000 for the best system that could match human performance. However, the prize is no longer offered.
  • 831
  • 18 Oct 2022
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