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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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Students' Union
A students' union, student government, free student union, student senate, students' association, guild of students, or government of student body is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, organizational activities, representation, and academic support of the membership. In the United States, student union often only refers to a physical building owned by the university with the purpose of providing services for students without a governing body. This building is also referred to as a student activity center, although the Association of College Unions International (largely US-based) has hundreds of campus organizational members. Outside the US, student union and students' union refer to a representative body, as distinct from a student activity centre.
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  • 01 Dec 2022
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FP-C
The Flight Paramedic Certification (FP-C) is an advanced certification that indicates an individual has attained the designation of Certified Flight Paramedic. The FP-C certification exam is administered by the International Board of Specialty Certification (IBSC) and the Board for Critical Care Transport Paramedic Certification (BCCTPC), a not-for-profit organizations responsible for the administration and development of specialty certification exams for critical care professionals. The test is administered by PSI and Applied Measurement Professionals (AMP) to assure compliance with the highest testing standards. This certification is designed to be successfully approved only for experienced paramedics who have demonstrated advanced knowledge of critical care medicine by passing an exam consisting of 125 scored items and 10 unscored items within a 2.5 hour window. As of February 22, 2018 there are 6458 certified flight paramedics worldwide, 494 of whom hold dual certification as a CCP-C. The FP-C, or CCP-C, and/or Critical Care Emergency Medical Transport Program (CCEMTP) certifications are often a requirement to work as a flight paramedic in the United States. The FP-C does not have an associated course, unlike the CCEMTP, although review courses and study guides available. The FP-C is considered comparable in difficultly to the Critical Care Paramedic Certification (CCP-C). Experience in the air medical or critical care transport fields is recommended before attempting to take the exam. However, there is no minimum education component required, and the examination does not require minimum years of experience, therefore new paramedics who have just completed school are eligible to take the exam and receive certification. In addition, there is no practical skills test associated with the examination, unlike the NREMT paramedic exam. Many agencies may require prospective employees to demonstrate practical competency in other courses (TPATC, ATLS-audit, CCEMTP, etc.) prior to being considered for employment. A candidate must hold a current paramedic license and have active certifications in Basic Life Support (BLS), Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS), and other advanced certifications.
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  • 01 Dec 2022
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Huntington–Hill Method
The Huntington–Hill method of apportionment assigns seats by finding a modified divisor D such that each constituency's priority quotient (its population divided by D), using the geometric mean of the lower and upper quota for the divisor, yields the correct number of seats that minimizes the percentage differences in the size of subconstituencies. When envisioned as a proportional electoral system, it is effectively a highest averages method of party-list proportional representation in which the divisors are given by [math]\displaystyle{ \scriptstyle D=\sqrt{n(n+1)} }[/math], n being the number of seats a state or party is currently allocated in the apportionment process (the lower quota) and n+1 is the number of seats the state or party would have if it is assigned to the party list (the upper quota). Although no legislature uses this method of apportionment to assign seats to parties after an election, it was considered for House of Lords elections under the ill-fated House of Lords Reform Bill. The method is how the United States House of Representatives assigns the number of representative seats to each state – the purpose for which it was devised – and the Census Bureau calls it the method of equal proportions. It is credited to Edward Vermilye Huntington and Joseph Adna Hill.
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  • 06 Dec 2022
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M35 Series 2½-ton 6X6 Cargo Truck
The M35 2½-ton cargo truck is a long-lived 2½-ton 6x6 cargo truck initially used by the United States Army and subsequently utilized by many nations around the world. Over time it evolved into a family of specialized vehicles. It inherited the nickname "Deuce and a Half" from an older 2½-ton truck, the World War II GMC CCKW. The M35 started as a 1949 REO Motor Car Company design for a 2½-ton 6x6 off-road truck. This original 6-wheel M34 version with a single wheel tandem was quickly superseded by the 10-wheel M35 design with a dual tandem. The basic M35 cargo truck is rated to carry 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) off-road or 10,000 pounds (4,500 kg) on roads. Trucks in this weight class are considered medium duty by the military and the Department of Transportation.
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  • 01 Dec 2022
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River Anticlines
A river anticline is a geologic structure that is formed by the focused uplift of rock caused by high erosion rates from large rivers relative to the surrounding areas. An anticline is a fold that is concave down, whose limbs are dipping away from its axis, and whose oldest units are in the middle of the fold. These features form in a number of structural settings. In the case of river anticlines, they form due to high erosion rates, usually in orogenic settings. In a mountain building setting, like that of the Himalaya or the Andes, erosion rates are high and the river anticline's fold axis will trend parallel to a major river. When river anticlines form, they have a zone of uplift between 50-80 kilometers wide along the rivers that form them.
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  • 01 Dec 2022
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Thiomersal Controversy
The thiomersal controversy describes claims that vaccines containing the mercury-based preservative thiomersal contribute to the development of autism and other brain development disorders. Thimerosal is no longer used in children's vaccines in the United States, except some types of flu shots. While exposure to mercury may result in damage to brain, kidneys, and developing fetus, the current scientific consensus has found no convincing scientific evidence supporting claims that thiomersal has such effects. Thiomersal (also spelled thimerosal, especially in the United States) is an organomercury compound used as a preservative in vaccines since the 1930s to prevent bacterial and fungal contamination. Following a mandated review of mercury-containing food and drugs in 1999, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) asked vaccine makers to remove thiomersal from vaccines as quickly as possible as a precautionary measure, and it was rapidly phased out of most US and EU vaccines, but is still used in multi-dose vials of flu vaccines in both jurisdictions. In the context of perceived increased autism rates and increased number of vaccines in the childhood vaccination schedule, some parents believed the action to remove thiomersal was an indication that the preservative caused autism. The potential impact of thiomersal on autism has been investigated extensively. Multiple lines of scientific evidence have shown that thiomersal does not cause autism. For example, the clinical symptoms of mercury poisoning differ significantly from those of autism. In addition, multiple population studies have found no association between thiomersal and autism, and rates of autism have continued to increase despite removal of thiomersal from vaccines. Thus, major scientific and medical bodies such as the Institute of Medicine and World Health Organization (WHO) as well as governmental agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the CDC reject any role for thiomersal in autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders. In spite of the consensus of the scientific community, some parents and advocacy groups continue to contend that thiomersal is linked to autism. This controversy has caused harm due to parents attempting to treat their autistic children with unproven and possibly dangerous treatments, discouraging parents from vaccinating their children due to fears about thiomersal toxicity and diverting resources away from research into more promising areas for the cause of autism. Thousands of lawsuits have been filed in the U.S. to seek damages from alleged toxicity from vaccines, including those purportedly caused by thiomersal. US courts have ruled against multiple representative test cases involving thiomersal. A 2011 journal article described the vaccine-autism connection as "perhaps, the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years". Outside of the United States, worries about thiomersal had not gained any significant traction as of 2009.
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  • 01 Dec 2022
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Conceptual Economy
Conceptual economy is a term describing the contribution of creativity, innovation, and design skills to economic competitiveness, especially in the global context.
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  • 01 Dec 2022
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Adverse Vaccine Reactions in Pets
A number of studies have demonstrated adverse reactions in pets after administering vaccines to both dogs and cats. Concern about adverse effects has led to revised guidelines that alter the recommended frequency and methods/locations for both vaccination of dogs and feline vaccination.
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  • 01 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Opening Credits
In a motion picture, television program or video game, the opening credits or opening titles are shown at the very beginning and list the most important members of the production. They are now usually shown as text superimposed on a blank screen or static pictures, or sometimes on top of action in the show. There may or may not be accompanying music. When opening credits are built into a separate sequence of their own, the correct term is a title sequence (such as the familiar James Bond and Pink Panther title sequences). Opening credits since the early 1980s, if present at all, identify the major actors and crew, while the closing credits list an extensive cast and production crew. Historically, however, opening credits have been the only source of crew credits and, largely, the cast, although over time the tendency to repeat the cast, and perhaps add a few players, with their roles identified (as was not always the case in the opening credits), evolved. The ascendancy of television movies after 1964 and the increasingly short "shelf-life" of films in theaters has largely contributed to the credits convention which came with television programs from the beginning, of holding the vast majority of cast and crew information for display at the end of the show. In movies and television, the title and opening credits may be preceded by a "cold open," or teaser (in other words, a brief scene prior to the main acts), that helps to set the stage for the episode or film.
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  • 01 Dec 2022
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Postal Censorship
Postal censorship is the inspection or examination of mail, most often by governments. It can include opening, reading and total or selective obliteration of letters and their contents, as well as covers, postcards, parcels and other postal packets. Postal censorship takes place primarily but not exclusively during wartime (even though the nation concerned may not be at war, e.g. Ireland during 1939–1945) and periods of unrest, and occasionally at other times, such as periods of civil disorder or of a state of emergency. Both covert and overt postal censorship have occurred. Historically, postal censorship is an ancient practice; it is usually linked to espionage and intelligence gathering. Both civilian mail and military mail may be subject to censorship, and often different organisations perform censorship of these types of mail. In 20th-century wars the objectives of postal censorship encompassed economic warfare, security and intelligence. The study of postal censorship is a philatelic topic of postal history.
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  • 01 Dec 2022
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