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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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Birkhoff's Representation Theorem
In mathematics, Birkhoff's representation theorem for distributive lattices states that the elements of any finite distributive lattice can be represented as finite sets, in such a way that the lattice operations correspond to unions and intersections of sets. The theorem can be interpreted as providing a one-to-one correspondence between distributive lattices and partial orders, between quasi-ordinal knowledge spaces and preorders, or between finite topological spaces and preorders. It is named after Garrett Birkhoff, who published a proof of it in 1937. The name “Birkhoff's representation theorem” has also been applied to two other results of Birkhoff, one from 1935 on the representation of Boolean algebras as families of sets closed under union, intersection, and complement (so-called fields of sets, closely related to the rings of sets used by Birkhoff to represent distributive lattices), and Birkhoff's HSP theorem representing algebras as products of irreducible algebras. Birkhoff's representation theorem has also been called the fundamental theorem for finite distributive lattices.
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  • 10 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Scopophobia
Scopophobia, scoptophobia, or ophthalmophobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by a morbid fear of being seen in public or stared at by others. Similar phobias include erythrophobia, the fear of blushing, and an epileptic's fear of being looked at, which may itself precipitate such an attack. Scopophobia is also commonly associated with schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. Often scopophobia will result in symptoms common with other anxiety disorders. Scopophobia is unique among phobias in that the fear of being looked at is considered both a social phobia and a specific phobia.
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  • 10 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Duclod Man
The Duclod Man was the title given to a man, identified as Robert W. McEwen, who over two decades generated mystery and speculation by sending out dozens of unusual anonymous letters to college students and posting writings on internet pages. The letters, internet writings, and library bathroom graffiti included the word "duclod" (ostensibly a portmanteau of dual and closeted, or a bisexual person who hides his or her sexuality from both gay and straight people.) The activity occurred over three decades until his identity was discovered in 2007 by Sarah Aswell, a journalist writing for The Advocate. In her investigative articles, she calls the duclod man "Richard".
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  • 10 Oct 2022
Topic Review
School of Economic Science
Coordinates: 51°31′00″N 0°09′05″W / 51.516775°N 0.151407°W / 51.516775; -0.151407 The School of Economic Science (SES), also operating under the names School of Philosophy and the School of Practical Philosophy, is a worldwide organisation based in London. It offers non-academic courses for adults, ranging from an introductory series called Practical Philosophy to more advanced classes. Its teachings are principally influenced by Advaita Vedanta, an orthodox philosophical system of Hinduism. It has a guru, Sri Vasudevananda Saraswati, who used the title Shankaracharya until 2017. The organization has been the subject of controversy, especially in connection with historical child abuse and the mistreatment of women; it has also been described as a cult, sect or new religious movement. The SES advertises introductory courses in "Practical Philosophy", "Economics with Justice" and other courses including Sanskrit language. The Practical Philosophy course involves a meditative process known as "The Exercise" and discussion of universal themes drawing on the work of European and Indian philosophers such as Plato, Marsilio Ficino, Swami Vivekananda and Adi Shankara, as well as Advaita. Those who continue involvement beyond 4 years mainly study Advaita; they are encouraged to take up meditation and to undertake voluntary work to help with the running of SES, and to attend residential programmes. SES members have founded schools for the education of children in a number of countries. SES is registered as a charity in the UK; worldwide operations register as non-profit organisations in their own countries. SES was founded in London by Labour MP Andrew MacLaren. His successor and son, SES leader Leon MacLaren (1910-1994), a barrister introduced programs on Advaita Vedanta. According to the SES financial report for 2017, it had a total of 3173 enrollments in the UK at the close of that year. As of 2012 it had a total of around 20,000 in up to 80 branches worldwide. Operating under various names, there are branches in America, Canada, Venezuela, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Trinidad, Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Holland, Malta, Spain, Ireland, Hungary, Germany, Israel and Argentina. The head of all of these branches is the SES 'Senior Tutor', MacLaren's successor, Donald Lambie, who is also a barrister. SES course fees are kept low to encourage recruitment; thanks to donations and wills, the organization has substantial properties worldwide, including several mansions.
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Topic Review
Interactive Visual Analysis
Interactive Visual Analysis (IVA) is a set of techniques for combining the computational power of computers with the perceptive and cognitive capabilities of humans, in order to extract knowledge from large and complex datasets. The techniques rely heavily on user interaction and the human visual system, and exist in the intersection between visual analytics and big data. It is a branch of data visualization. IVA is a suitable technique for analyzing high-dimensional data that has a large number of data points, where simple graphing and non-interactive techniques give an insufficient understanding of the information. These techniques involve looking at datasets through different, correlated views and iteratively selecting and examining features the user finds interesting. The objective of IVA is to gain knowledge which is not readily apparent from a dataset, typically in tabular form. This can involve generating, testing or verifying hypotheses, or simply exploring the dataset to look for correlations between different variables.
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Topic Review
Hydraulic Empire
A hydraulic empire (also known as a hydraulic despotism, or water monopoly empire) is a social or government structure which maintains power and control through exclusive control over access to water. It arises through the need for flood control and irrigation, which requires central coordination and a specialized bureaucracy. Often associated with these terms and concepts is the notion of a water dynasty. This body is a political structure which is commonly characterized by a system of hierarchy and control often based on class or caste. Power, both over resources (food, water, energy) and a means of enforcement such as the military, is vital for the maintenance of control.
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Topic Review
Climate Change and Gender
The effects of climate change and gender do not impact equally on men and women. This results not from biological differences due to one's sex, but from the social construction of gender roles and relations, which affect the accepted behaviors of men and women. Climate change increases gender inequality, reduces women's ability to be financially independent, and has an overall negative impact on the social and political rights of women, especially in economies that are heavily based on agriculture. In many cases, gender inequality means that women are more vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change. This is due to gender roles, particularly in the developing world, which means that women are often dependent on the natural environment for subsistence and income. By further limiting women's already constrained access to physical, social, political, and fiscal resources, climate change often burdens women more than men and can magnify existing gender inequality. Gender-based differences have also been identified in relation to awareness, causation and response to climate change, and many countries have developed and implemented gender-based climate change strategies and action plans. For example, the government of Mozambique adopted a Gender, Environment and Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan in early 2010, being the first government in the world to do so. Analysis of gender in climate change, however, is not limited to women. It also means not only applying a binary male/female system of analysis on sets of quantitative data, but also scrutinizing discursive constructions that shapes power relations connected to climate change.
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  • 10 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Protests Against SOPA and PIPA
On January 18, 2012, a series of coordinated protests occurred against two proposed laws in the United States Congress—the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). These followed smaller protests in late 2011. Protests were based on concerns that the bills, intended to provide more robust responses to copyright infringement (also known as piracy) arising outside the United States, contained measures that could possibly infringe online freedom of speech, websites, and Internet communities. Protesters also argued that there were insufficient safeguards in place to protect sites based upon user-generated content. The move to a formal protest was initiated when Fight for the Future organized thousands of the most popular websites in the world, including the English Wikipedia, to temporarily close or interrupt their content and redirect users to a message opposing the proposed legislation. Websites such as Google, Reddit, Mozilla, and Flickr soon featured protests against the acts. Some shut down completely, while others kept some or all of their content accessible. According to Fight for the Future, more than 115,000 websites joined the Internet protest. In addition to the online protests, there were simultaneous physical demonstrations in several U.S. cities, including New York City, San Francisco and Seattle, and separately during December 2011 a mass boycott of then–supporter GoDaddy. The protests were reported globally. The January protest, initially planned to coincide with the first SOPA hearing of the year, drew publicity and reaction. Days prior to the action, the White House issued a statement that it would "not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet." On January 18, 2012 itself, more than 8 million people looked up their representative on Wikipedia, 3 million people emailed Congress to express opposition to the bills, more than 1 million messages were sent to Congress through the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a petition at Google recorded over 4.5 million signatures, Twitter recorded at least 2.4 million SOPA-related tweets, and lawmakers collected "more than 14 million names—more than 10 million of them voters—who contacted them to protest" the bills. During and after the January protest, a number of politicians who had previously supported the bills expressed concerns with the proposals in their existing form, while others withdrew their support entirely. Internationally, "scathing" criticism of the bills was voiced from World Wide Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, as well as the European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda. Some observers were critical of the tactics used; the Boston Herald described the service withdrawals as evidence of "how very powerful these cyber-bullies can be." Motion Picture Association of America Chairman Chris Dodd stated that the coordinated shutdown was "an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today." Others such as The New York Times saw the protests as "a political coming of age for the tech industry." By January 20, 2012, the political environment regarding both bills had shifted significantly. The bills were removed from further voting, ostensibly to be revised to take into consideration the issues raised, but according to The New York Times probably "shelved" following a "flight away from the bill". Opposers noted the bills had been "indefinitely postponed" but cautioned they were "not dead" and "[would] return."
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  • 10 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Parvovirus
Parvovirus is the common name applied to all the viruses in the Parvoviridae taxonomic family. Parvovirus can also be used specifically for members of one of the two Parvoviridae subfamilies: Parvovirinae, which infect vertebrate hosts, and Densovirinae, which infect invertebrate hosts, are more commonly referred to as densoviruses. In subfamily Parvovirinae there are eight genera, containing a total of 58 recognized species, while in subfamily Densovirinae there are 5 genera and a total of 21 species. Parvoviruses are linear, nonsegmented, single-stranded DNA viruses, with an average genome size of 5-6 kilo base pairs (kbp). They are classified as group II viruses in the Baltimore classification of viruses. Parvoviruses are among the smallest viruses (hence the name, from Latin parvus meaning small) and are 23–28 nm in diameter. Parvoviruses can infect and may cause disease in many animals, from arthropods such as insects and shrimp, to echinoderms such as starfish, and to mammals including humans. Because most of these viruses require actively dividing cells to replicate, the type of tissue infected varies with the age of the animal. The gastrointestinal tract and lymphatic system can be affected at any age, leading to vomiting, diarrhea, and immunosuppression, but cerebellar hypoplasia is only seen in cats that were infected with feline parvovirus (FPV) in the womb or at less than two weeks of age, and disease of the myocardium is seen in puppies infected with canine parvovirus 2 (CPV2) between the ages of three and eight weeks.
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  • 10 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Second Bulgarian Empire
The Second Bulgarian Empire (Bulgarian: Второ българско царство, Vtorо Bălgarskо Tsarstvo) was a medieval Bulgarian state that existed between 1185 and 1396. A successor to the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Tsars Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II before gradually being conquered by the Ottomans in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. It was succeeded by the Principality and later Kingdom of Bulgaria in 1878. Until 1256, the Second Bulgarian Empire was the dominant power in the Balkans, defeating the Byzantine Empire in several major battles. In 1205 Emperor Kaloyan defeated the newly established Latin Empire in the Battle of Adrianople. His nephew Ivan Asen II defeated the Despotate of Epiros and made Bulgaria a regional power again. During his reign, Bulgaria spread from the Adriatic to the Black Sea and the economy flourished. In the late 13th century, however, the Empire declined under constant invasions by Mongols, Byzantines, Hungarians, and Serbs, as well as internal unrest and revolts. The 14th century saw a temporary recovery and stability, but also the peak of Balkan feudalism as central authorities gradually lost power in many regions. Bulgaria was divided into three parts on the eve of the Ottoman invasion. Despite strong Byzantine influence, Bulgarian artists and architects created their own distinctive style. In the 14th century, during the period known as the Second Golden Age of Bulgarian culture, literature, art and architecture flourished. The capital city Tarnovo, which was considered a "New Constantinople", became the country's main cultural hub and the centre of the Eastern Orthodox world for contemporary Bulgarians. After the Ottoman conquest, many Bulgarian clerics and scholars emigrated to Serbia, Wallachia, Moldavia, and Russian principalities, where they introduced Bulgarian culture, books, and hesychastic ideas.
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