Summary

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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CajunBot
CajunBot refers to the autonomous ground vehicles developed by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette for the DARPA Grand Challenges. CajunBot was featured on CNN and on the Discovery Channel science series Robocars. CajunBot's custom AGV software, CBSystem, has artificial intelligence path planning capabilities, as well as visualization and simulation components. The hardware repertoire of CajunBot includes a high grade GPS/INS positioning unit to navigate a designated route while detecting and avoiding obstacles using LIDAR laser-ranging units.
  • 1.0K
  • 17 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Technocrat
Technocracy is an ideological system of governance in which a decision-maker or makers are elected by the population or appointed on the basis of their expertise in a given area of responsibility, particularly with regard to scientific or technical knowledge. This system explicitly contrasts with Representative Democracy, the notion that elected representatives should be the primary decision-makers in government, though it does not necessarily imply eliminating elected representatives. Leadership skills for decision-makers are selected on the basis of specialized knowledge and performance, rather than political affiliations or parliamentary skills. The term technocracy was originally used to advocate the application of the scientific method to solving social problems. Concern could be given to sustainability within the resource base, instead of monetary profitability, so as to ensure continued operation of all social-industrial functions. In its most extreme sense technocracy is an entire government running as a technical or engineering problem and is mostly hypothetical. In more practical use, technocracy is any portion of a bureaucracy that is run by technologists. A government in which elected officials appoint experts and professionals to administer individual government functions and recommend legislation can be considered technocratic. Some uses of the word refer to a form of meritocracy, where the ablest are in charge, ostensibly without the influence of special interest groups. Critics have suggested that a "technocratic divide" challenges more participatory models of democracy, describing these divides as "efficacy gaps that persist between governing bodies employing technocratic principles and members of the general public aiming to contribute to government decision making".
  • 2.2K
  • 17 Oct 2022
Topic Review
West African Lion
The West African lion is a Panthera leo leo population in West Africa. It is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. This population is isolated and probably comprises fewer than 250 mature individuals. Already in 2004, the lion population in West and Central Africa was fragmented and estimated as comprising at most 1,800 individuals. The West African lion was formerly considered a distinct lion subspecies with the scientific name P. l. senegalensis. Results of phylogenetic research indicate that the West African lion population forms a distinct clade and is closely related to Central African, North African and Asian lion populations. The lion populations in North, West and Central Africa and Asia were therefore subsumed to P. l. leo in 2017.
  • 7.0K
  • 17 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Current Sensing Techniques
In electrical engineering, current sensing is any one of several techniques used to measure electric current. The measurement of current ranges from picoamps to tens of thousands of amperes. The selection of a current sensing method depends on requirements such as magnitude, accuracy, bandwidth, robustness, cost, isolation or size. The current value may be directly displayed by an instrument, or converted to digital form for use by a monitoring or control system. Current sensing techniques include shunt resistor, current transformers and Rogowski coils, magnetic-field based transducers and others.
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  • 17 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Krauss-Maffei Transurban
Krauss-Maffei's Transurban was a 12-passenger automated guideway transit (AGT) mass transit system based on a maglev guideway. Development started in 1970 as one of the many AGT and PRT projects that followed in the wake of the HUD reports of 1968. Its selection as the basis of the GO-Urban system in Toronto in 1973 made it well known in the industry; it would have been the basis of the first large-area AGT mass transit network in the world. Technical problems cropped up during the construction of the test track, and the sudden removal of funding by the West German government led to the project's cancellation in late 1974. The Ontario government completed development and installation of a non-maglev version, today known as the Bombardier Advanced Rapid Transit.
  • 556
  • 17 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Ukrainian Center for EU Civil Service Standards
The Center for Adaptation of the Civil Service to the Standards of the European Union (since its foundation in April, 2004 till June, 2008 – Center for Support of Civil Service Institutional Development) was established under the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service (hereinafter – NAUCS) in order to provide informational and analytical, expert and organizational support to public administration development, strengthening of institutional capacity of the civil service of Ukraine and its adaptation to the standards of the European Union. Professional activity of the Center for Adaptation of the Civil Service to the Standards of the European Union (hereinafter – the Center) is carried out in accordance with the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine as of 4 June 2008 No 528 “Some Issues of the Center for Support of Civil Service Institutional Development”.
  • 537
  • 17 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Conscience Clause
Conscience clauses are legal clauses attached to laws in some parts of the United States and other countries which permit pharmacists, physicians, and/or other providers of health care not to provide certain medical services for reasons of religion or conscience. In many cases, the clauses also permit health care providers to refuse to refer patients to unopposed providers. Those who choose not to refer or provide services may not be disciplined or discriminated against. The provision is most frequently enacted in connection with issues relating to reproduction, such as abortion, sterilization, contraception, and stem cell based treatments, but may include any phase of patient care.
  • 1.7K
  • 17 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Counter-Insurgency
Counterinsurgency (COIN) is generally used to refer to "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the activities of guerrillas or revolutionaries" and can be considered war by a state against a non-state adversary. Insurgency and counterinsurgency campaigns have been waged since ancient history. However, modern thinking on counterinsurgency was developed during decolonization. Within the military sciences, counterinsurgency is one of the main operational approaches of irregular warfare. During insurgency and counterinsurgency, the distinction between civilians and combatants is often blurred. Counterinsurgency may involve attempting to win the hearts and minds of populations supporting the insurgency. Alternately, it may be waged in an attempt to intimidate or eliminate civilian populations suspected of loyalty to the insurgency through indiscriminate violence, including genocide.
  • 2.1K
  • 17 Oct 2022
Topic Review
History of Nanotechnology
The history of nanotechnology traces the development of the concepts and experimental work falling under the broad category of nanotechnology. Although nanotechnology is a relatively recent development in scientific research, the development of its central concepts happened over a longer period of time. The emergence of nanotechnology in the 1980s was caused by the convergence of experimental advances such as the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope in 1981 and the discovery of fullerenes in 1985, with the elucidation and popularization of a conceptual framework for the goals of nanotechnology beginning with the 1986 publication of the book Engines of Creation. The field was subject to growing public awareness and controversy in the early 2000s, with prominent debates about both its potential implications as well as the feasibility of the applications envisioned by advocates of molecular nanotechnology, and with governments moving to promote and fund research into nanotechnology. The early 2000s also saw the beginnings of commercial applications of nanotechnology, although these were limited to bulk applications of nanomaterials rather than the transformative applications envisioned by the field.
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  • 17 Oct 2022
Topic Review
WDFW Toxics in Biota Fish Monitoring
Fish are an important component of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's (WDFW) Toxics in Biota Program, part of the Puget Sound Ecosystem Monitoring Program (PSEMP, recently renamed from PSAMP). Since 1989 fish indicator species have been used to monitor contamination of Puget Sound by chemicals such as poly-chlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), pesticides, and metals. English Sole, the first species studied for the Toxics in Biota Program, have been used for monitoring by WDFW since 1989. As of 2015 the program also monitors copper rockfish, quillback rockfish, brown rockfish, coho salmon, chinook salmon, Pacific herring, and Pacific staghorn sculpin. Exposure and effects of each contaminant are monitored for each species, and more in-depth studies of specific regions are performed if monitoring indicates a contamination problem. Geographical characteristics making Puget Sound especially susceptible to contaminants include funneling of fish through narrow inlets, restricted exchange of water, shallow sea floor sills, and freshwater inputs from urban sources. One of the largest sources of contaminants is stormwater runoff. During heavy rain events metals, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and pesticides flow untreated into local waterways, streams, and lakes. Impervious surfaces such as roads provide a route for deposition of metals and POPs by cars and industrial emissions, before subsequent discharge into nearby water bodies. The highly urbanized coastline of southern Puget Sound results in stormwater runoff containing high concentrations of contaminants.
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  • 17 Oct 2022
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