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.

Expand All
Entries
Topic Review
Plug-in Electric Vehicles in Pennsylvania
In recent years, the popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) has increased dramatically, as numerous manufacturers now have vehicles competing in the United States EV market. The state of Pennsylvania has focused some legislation on the spread of EVs as it plans to further decrease its carbon emissions in the transportation sector. Infrastructure updates including fast charging stations, sales and tax incentives are being rolled out to help facilitate this growth. In addition, there are also some alternatives to EV's that are more fuel efficient than traditional gasoline powered vehicles.
  • 1.3K
  • 13 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Self-Help Groups for Mental Health
Self-help groups for mental health, or mutual aid groups are voluntary associations of people who share a common desire to overcome mental illness or otherwise increase their level of cognitive or emotional wellbeing. Despite the different approaches, many of the psychosocial processes in the groups are the same. Self-help groups have had varying relationships with mental health professionals but generally is shown in research to provide additional support alongside mental health professionals. Due to the nature of these groups, self-help groups can help defray the costs of mental health treatment and implementation into the existing mental health system could help provide treatment to a greater number of the mentally-ill population. Although this article specifically defines mental health as relating to mental illness diagnoses or cognitive/behavioral processes, it should be noted that mental health is an important focus of other categories of self-help groups that are not listed below, such as 12-step groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, support groups for those who have undergone trauma like Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. These self-help groups aim towards improving the mental health surrounding trauma or addiction in order to facilitate recovery.
  • 2.3K
  • 14 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Aspect Weaver
An aspect weaver is a metaprogramming utility for aspect-oriented languages designed to take instructions specified by aspects (isolated representations of significant concepts in a program) and generate the final implementation code. The weaver integrates aspects into the locations specified by the software as a pre-compilation step. By merging aspects and classes (representations of the structure of entities in the program), the weaver generates a woven class. Aspect weavers take instructions known as advice specified through the use of pointcuts and join points, special segments of code that indicate what methods should be handled by aspect code. The implementation of the aspect then specifies whether the related code should be added before, after, or throughout the related methods. By doing this, aspect weavers improve modularity, keeping code in one place that would otherwise have been interspersed throughout various, unrelated classes.
  • 674
  • 13 Oct 2022
Topic Review
List of AMD Phenom Microprocessors
The AMD Phenom family is a 64-bit microprocessor family from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), based on the K10 microarchitecture. It includes the AMD Phenom II X6 hex-core series, Phenom X4 and Phenom II X4 quad-core series, Phenom X3 and Phenom II X3 tri-core series, and Phenom II X2 dual-core series. Other related processors based on the K10 microarchitecture include the Athlon X2 Kuma processors, Athlon II processors, and various Opteron, Sempron, and Turion series. The first Phenoms were released in November 2007. An improved second generation was released in December 2008, named Phenom II. Processors with an e following the model number (e.g., 910e) are low-power models, usually 45 W for Athlons, 65 W for Phenoms. Processors with a "u" following the model number (e.g., 270u) are ultra-low-power models, usually 20 W for single core chips or 25 W for dual core chips.
  • 2.8K
  • 12 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Adolescence
Adolescence (from la adolescere 'to grow up') is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to legal adulthood (age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the teenage years, but its physical, psychological or cultural expressions may begin earlier and end later. For example, puberty now typically begins during preadolescence, particularly in females. Physical growth (particularly in males), and cognitive development can extend into the early twenties. Thus age provides only a rough marker of adolescence, and scholars have found it difficult to agree upon a precise definition of adolescence. A thorough understanding of adolescence in society depends on information from various perspectives, including psychology, biology, history, sociology, education, and anthropology. Within all of these perspectives, adolescence is viewed as a transitional period between childhood and adulthood, whose cultural purpose is the preparation of children for adult roles. It is a period of multiple transitions involving education, training, employment and unemployment, as well as transitions from one living circumstance to another. The end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood varies by country. Furthermore, even within a single nation state or culture there can be different ages at which an individual is considered mature enough for society to entrust them with certain privileges and responsibilities. Such privileges and responsibilities include driving a vehicle, having legal sexual relations, serving in the armed forces or on a jury, purchasing and drinking alcohol, voting, entering into contracts, finishing certain levels of education, marriage, and accountability for upholding the law. Adolescence is usually accompanied by an increased independence allowed by the parents or legal guardians, including less supervision as compared to preadolescence. In studying adolescent development, adolescence can be defined biologically, as the physical transition marked by the onset of puberty and the termination of physical growth; cognitively, as changes in the ability to think abstractly and multi-dimensionally; or socially, as a period of preparation for adult roles. Major pubertal and biological changes include changes to the sex organs, height, weight, and muscle mass, as well as major changes in brain structure and organization. Cognitive advances encompass both increment in knowledge and in the ability to think abstractly and to reason more effectively. The study of adolescent development often involves interdisciplinary collaborations. For example, researchers in neuroscience or bio-behavioral health might focus on pubertal changes in brain structure and its effects on cognition or social relations. Sociologists interested in adolescence might focus on the acquisition of social roles (e.g., worker or romantic partner) and how this varies across cultures or social conditions. Developmental psychologists might focus on changes in relations with parents and peers as a function of school structure and pubertal status. Some scientists have questioned the universality of adolescence as a developmental phase, arguing that traits often considered typical of adolescents are not in fact inherent to the teenage years.
  • 8.0K
  • 12 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Power (Social and Political)
In social science and politics, power is the capacity of an individual to influence the actions, beliefs, or conduct (behaviour) of others. The term "authority" is often used for power that is perceived as legitimate by the social structure. Power can be seen as evil or unjust. However, power can also be seen as good and as something inherited or given for exercising humanistic objectives that will help, move, and empower others as well. In general, it is derived by the factors of interdependence between two entities and the environment. In business, the ethical instrumentality of power is achievement, and as such it is a zero-sum game. In simple terms it can be expressed as being "upward" or "downward". With downward power, a company's superior influences subordinates for attaining organizational goals. When a company exerts upward power, it is the subordinates who influence the decisions of their leader or leaders. The use of power need not involve force or the threat of force (coercion). An example of using power without oppression is the concept "soft power," as compared to hard power. Much of the recent sociological debate about power revolves around the issue of its means to enable – in other words, power as a means to make social actions possible as much as it may constrain or prevent them.
  • 24.1K
  • 12 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Accounting
Greenhouse gas emissions accounting is measuring the amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted during a given period of time by a polity, usually a country but sometimes a region or city. Such measures are used to conduct climate science and climate policy. There are two main, conflicting ways of measuring GHG emissions: production-based (also known as territorial-based) and consumption-based. Production-based emissions take place “within national territory and offshore areas over which the country has jurisdiction”. Consumption-based emissions take into account the effects of trade, encompassing the emissions from domestic final consumption and those caused by the production of its imports. From the perspective of trade, consumption-based emissions accounting is thus the reverse of production-based emissions accounting, which includes exports but excludes imports (Table 1). The choice of accounting method can have very important effects on policymaking, as each measure can generate a very different result. Thus, different values for a National greenhouse gas Emissions Inventory (NEI) could result in a country choosing different optimal mitigation activities, the wrong choice based on wrong information being potentially damaging. The application of production-based emissions accounting is currently favoured in policy terms as it is easier to measure, although much of the scientific literature favours consumption-based accounting. The former method is criticised in the literature principally for its inability to allocate emissions embodied in international trade/transportation and the potential for carbon leakage. Almost all countries in the world are parties to the Paris Agreement, which requires them to provide regular production-based GHG emissions inventories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in order to track both countries achievement of their nationally determined contributions and climate policies as well as regional climate policies such as the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), and the world's progress in limiting global warming. Under an earlier UNFCCC agreement greenhouse gas emissions by Turkey and greenhouse gas emissions by the United States will continue to be inventoried even if they are not parties to the Paris Agreement.
  • 1.3K
  • 13 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Folk Dance
A folk dance is a dance developed by people that reflect the life of the people of a certain country or region. Not all ethnic dances are folk dances. For example, ritual dances or dances of ritual origin are not considered to be folk dances. Ritual dances are usually called "Religious dances" because of their purpose. The terms "ethnic" and "traditional" are used when it is required to emphasize the cultural roots of the dance. In this sense, nearly all folk dances are ethnic ones. If some dances, such as polka, cross ethnic boundaries and even cross the boundary between "folk" and "ballroom dance", ethnic differences are often considerable enough to mention.
  • 20.4K
  • 12 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Cord Factor
Cord factor, or trehalose dimycolate, is a glycolipid molecule found in the cell wall of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and similar species. It is the primary lipid found on the exterior of M. tuberculosis cells. Cord factor influences the arrangement of M. tuberculosis cells into long and slender formations, giving its name. Cord factor is virulent towards mammalian cells and critical for survival of M. tuberculosis in hosts, but not outside of hosts. Cord factor has been observed to influence immune responses, induce the formation of granulomas, and inhibit tumor growth. The antimycobacterial drug SQ109 is thought to inhibit TDM production levels and in this way disrupts its cell wall assembly.
  • 2.2K
  • 12 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Flow Battery
A flow battery, or redox flow battery (after reduction–oxidation), is a type of electrochemical cell where chemical energy is provided by two chemical components dissolved in liquids that are pumped through the system on separate sides of a membrane. Ion exchange (accompanied by flow of electric current) occurs through the membrane while both liquids circulate in their own respective space. Cell voltage is chemically determined by the Nernst equation and ranges, in practical applications, from 1.0 to 2.43 volts. A flow battery may be used like a fuel cell (where the spent fuel is extracted and new fuel is added to the system) or like a rechargeable battery (where an electric power source drives regeneration of the fuel). While it has technical advantages over conventional rechargeables, such as potentially separable liquid tanks and near unlimited longevity, current implementations are comparatively less powerful and require more sophisticated electronics. The energy capacity is a function of the electrolyte volume and the power is a function of the surface area of the electrodes.
  • 2.2K
  • 12 Oct 2022
  • Page
  • of
  • 863

Other Entry Collections

>>