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  • Disko Island (island, Greenland)
    island in Davis Strait off western Greenland, northwest of Qeqertarsuup (Disko) Bay and southwest of Vaigat Strait. It is 80 miles (130 km) long and 20–75 miles (32–120 km) wide, with a maximum elevation of 6,296 feet (1,919 metres). There are coal and iron deposits, and until the late 1960s ...
  • Disks of Newton (Study for Fugue in Two Colors) (work by Kupka)
    Another painter associated with Orphism was František Kupka, a Czech who lived in Paris. Kupka exhibited his abstract painting Disks of Newton (Study for Fugue in Two Colours) in 1912. As the musical analogy implicit in the title suggests, the vibrating colour orchestrations on the canvas were intended to unite visual and musical ideas....
  • dislocation (joint damage)
    in physiology and medicine, displacement of the bones forming a joint, with consequent disruption of tissues....
  • dislocation (crystallography)
    ...prior to fracture. Metals, on the other hand, are ductile (that is, they deform and bend when subjected to stress), and they possess this extremely useful property owing to imperfections called dislocations within their crystal lattices. There are many kinds of dislocations. In one kind, known as an edge dislocation, an extra plane of atoms can be generated in a crystal structure, straining......
  • dislocation
    Three types of metamorphism may occur depending on the relative effect of mechanical and chemical changes. Dynamic metamorphism, or cataclasis, results mainly from mechanical deformation with little long-term temperature change. Textures produced by such adjustments range from breccias composed of angular, shattered rock fragments to very fine-grained, granulated or powdered rocks with obvious......
  • dislocation line (mechanics)
    ...force laws at that scale can be used to estimate elastic constants. In the case of plastic flow processes in metals and in sufficiently hot ceramics, the relevant microscale involves the network of dislocation lines that move within crystals. These lines shift atom positions relative to one another by one atomic spacing as they move along slip planes. Important features of elastic-plastic and.....
  • dislocation metamorphism
    Three types of metamorphism may occur depending on the relative effect of mechanical and chemical changes. Dynamic metamorphism, or cataclasis, results mainly from mechanical deformation with little long-term temperature change. Textures produced by such adjustments range from breccias composed of angular, shattered rock fragments to very fine-grained, granulated or powdered rocks with obvious......
  • Dismal Swamp (region, United States)
    marshy region on the Coastal Plain of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, U.S., between Norfolk, Virginia, and Elizabeth City, North Carolina. It is densely fo...
  • Dismal Swamp Canal (canal, United States)
    The Dismal Swamp Canal (built 1790–1828) is an intracoastal waterway 22 miles (35 km) long connecting Chesapeake Bay, by way of Deep Creek and the southern branch of the Elizabeth River, with Albemarle Sound in North Carolina through the Pasquotank River. The canal forms a link in the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. In the midst of the swamp is the freshwater Lake Drummond (about 3 miles......
  • Disme, La (work by Stevin)
    Simon Stevin of Holland, in his short pamphlet La Disme (1585), introduced decimal fractions to Europe and showed how to extend the principles of Hindu-Arabic arithmetic to calculation with these numbers. Stevin emphasized the utility of decimal arithmetic “for all accounts that are encountered in the affairs of men,” and he explained in an appendix how.....
  • “Disme: The Art of Tenths” (work by Stevin)
    In 1585 Stevin published a small pamphlet, La Thiende (“The Tenth”), in which he presented an elementary and thorough account of decimal fractions and their daily use. Although he did not invent decimal fractions and his notation was rather unwieldy, he established their use in day-to-day mathematics. He declared that the universal introduction of decimal coinage, measures,......
  • Dismissal of the Grecian Envoys, The (work by Kochanowski)
    ...of his beloved daughter, Urszula. Kochanowski was also the author of the first Polish Renaissance tragedy, Odprawa posłów greckich (1578; The Dismissal of the Grecian Envoys). With a plot from Homer’s Iliad and written in blank verse, it was performed at the royal court in Ujazdów near War...
  • Disney Channel (television programming service)
    ...of his beloved daughter, Urszula. Kochanowski was also the author of the first Polish Renaissance tragedy, Odprawa posłów greckich (1578; The Dismissal of the Grecian Envoys). With a plot from Homer’s Iliad and written in blank verse, it was performed at the royal court in Ujazdów near War...
  • Disney Company (American corporation)
    American corporation that was the best-known purveyor of family entertainment in the 20th century....
  • Disney on Ice (American ice show)
    ...Ice Follies put on similar variety shows. In the 1990s the big production numbers fell out of favour as the ice show evolved into more contemporary formats. Disney on Ice began in 1981 and signed a number of top skaters to headline. Not surprisingly, it often presents Disney’s animated movie characters on ice....
  • Disney, Roy (American film producer)
    ...Disney was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1923. He moved to California to pursue a career as a cinematographer, but the surprise success of the first Alice film compelled Disney and his brother Roy—a lifelong business partner—to reopen shop in Hollywood....
  • Disney, Walt (American film producer)
    American motion-picture and television producer and showman, famous as a pioneer of animated cartoon films and as the creator of such cartoon characters as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. He also planned and built Disneyland, a huge amusement park...
  • Disney, Walter Elias (American film producer)
    American motion-picture and television producer and showman, famous as a pioneer of animated cartoon films and as the creator of such cartoon characters as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. He also planned and built Disneyland, a huge amusement park...
  • Disney World (resort complex, Florida, United States)
    resort complex near Orlando, Fla., envisioned by Walt Disney and featuring attractions based on stories and characters created by the Disney Company....
  • Disneyland (amusement park, Anaheim, California, United States)
    amusement park in Anaheim, Calif., featuring characters, rides, and shows based on the creations of Walt Disney and the Disney Company....
  • disociation (humour)
    ...different wavelengths. While this unusual condition lasts, the event is not only, as is normally the case, associated with a single frame of reference but “disociated” with two. The word disociation was coined by the present writer to make a distinction between the routines of disciplined thinking within a single universe of discourse—on a single plane, as it were—an...
  • disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate (chemical compound)
    The most important titrations based upon complex-formation reactions are those involving the titration of metal ions with the reagent disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate (a salt of edetic acid, or EDTA). The indicators are dyes that have the property of forming a coloured complex with the metal ion. As the titration proceeds, the reagent reacts first with uncomplexed metal ions, and, finally,......
  • disorder
    a harmful deviation from the normal structural or functional state of an organism. A diseased organism commonly exhibits signs or symptoms indicative of its abnormal state. Thus, the normal condition of an organism must be understood in order to recognize the hallmarks of disease. Nevertheless, a sharp demarcation between disease and health is not always apparent....
  • disorderly conduct (law)
    in law, intentional disturbing of the public peace and order by language or other conduct. It is a general term including various offenses that are usually punishable by minor penalties....
  • disorganized schizophrenia (mental disorder)
    ...organic changes in the brain. He further distinguished at least three clinical varieties of the disease: catatonia, in which motor activities are disrupted (either excessively active or inhibited); hebephrenia, characterized by inappropriate emotional reactions and behaviour; and paranoia, characterized by delusions of grandeur and of persecution....
  • disparate predication (logic)
    ...particular instead of singular, which predicates warmness (or its negation) of several or many subjects of a kind. The predication is identical if it characterizes every referent (x); it is disparate if it fails to characterize some or all of the referents. The predication is formal if the subject necessarily entails (or excludes) the predicate; it is material if the entailment is......
  • “disparates, Los” (prints by Goya y Lucientes)
    ...any of his earlier church paintings. The enigmatic “black paintings” with which he decorated the walls of his country house, the Quinta del Sordo (1820–23) and Los proverbios or Los disparates, a series of etchings made at about the same time (though not published until 1864), are, on the other hand, nightmare visions in......
  • “Disparition, La” (work by Perec)
    ...Literature). Known in short as OuLiPo, the group dedicated itself to the pursuit of new forms for literature and the revival of old ones. Perec’s novel La Disparition (1969; A Void) was written entirely without using the letter e, as was its translation. W; ou, le souvenir d’enfance (1975; W; or, the Memory of Childhood) is considered a....
  • Dispatch, Council for (French political body)
    Besides the High Council, the king’s council also met for somewhat less vital matters under a variety of different guises. The Council for Dispatches (Conseil des Dépêches), or, more loosely, the Council for the Interior, had particular responsibility for home affairs, including the activities of the intendants; the Royal Council for Finances (Conseil Royal des Finances) super...
  • Dispatch of 1854 (Indian history)
    The next step in the history of Indian education is marked by Sir Charles Wood’s epoch-making Dispatch of 1854, which led to (1) the creation of a separate department for the administration of education in each province, (2) the founding of the universities of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras in 1857, and (3) the introduction of a system of grants-in-aid. Even when the administration of India.....
  • dispensation (ecclesiastical law)
    in Christian ecclesiastical law, the action of a competent authority in granting relief from the strict application of a law. It may be anticipatory or retrospective....
  • dispensationalism (Protestant theology)
    ...earliest leaders of the Plymouth Brethren (a British free church movement emphasizing biblical prophecy and the Second Coming of Christ), introduced a very different theological perspective, called dispensationalism. First taught to the Brethren in the mid-19th century, dispensationalism maintained that history is divided into distinct periods, or “dispensations,” during which God...
  • dispersal (ecology)
    The benefits of forming dispersal swarms, flocks, and coalitions are considered similar to the advantages of living in aggregations as both exploit the potential benefits of living in groups. Moving about in groups can provide additional advantages, such as the reduction in turbulence and energy savings accrued by geese migrating in V-formations. However, dispersal and migration are......
  • dispersant (chemistry)
    ...are the principal applications of detergents for which the liquid bath is water. Detergents also are used as emulsifiers in many applications. Detergents that function in nonaqueous media include dispersing agents added to lubricating oils used in automotive engines to prevent the accumulation of varnishlike deposits on the cylinder walls, to gasoline to prevent the buildup of gummy residues......
  • Dispersão (poem by Sá-Carneiro)
    ...Sá-Carneiro’s poetry, written in Paris, expresses the crisis of a personality inadequate to its own intense feelings; it perhaps hints at the reasons for his suicide in 1916. His Dispersão (1914; “Dispersion”) features exuberant images, an obsession with verbal constructions and metaphors, and experimentation with graphic design and fonts. The mos...
  • disperse dye (chemical compound)
    A few of the anthraquinone vat dyes and some disperse dyes are also azo compounds; the latter are not water-soluble but can be suspended in water by soap and in that state are adsorbed from the suspension by cellulose acetate fibres. ...
  • dispersed-source pollutant (water pollution)
    Water pollutants come from either point sources or dispersed sources. A point source is a pipe or channel, such as those used for discharge from an industrial facility or a city sewerage system. A dispersed (or nonpoint) source is a very broad, unconfined area from which a variety of pollutants enter the water body, such as the runoff from an agricultural area. Point sources of water pollution......
  • dispersing agent (chemistry)
    ...are the principal applications of detergents for which the liquid bath is water. Detergents also are used as emulsifiers in many applications. Detergents that function in nonaqueous media include dispersing agents added to lubricating oils used in automotive engines to prevent the accumulation of varnishlike deposits on the cylinder walls, to gasoline to prevent the buildup of gummy residues......
  • dispersion (ecology)
    The benefits of forming dispersal swarms, flocks, and coalitions are considered similar to the advantages of living in aggregations as both exploit the potential benefits of living in groups. Moving about in groups can provide additional advantages, such as the reduction in turbulence and energy savings accrued by geese migrating in V-formations. However, dispersal and migration are......
  • dispersion (biology)
    in biology, the dissemination, or scattering, of organisms over periods within a given area or over the Earth....
  • Dispersion (Judaism)
    the dispersion of Jews among the Gentiles after the Babylonian Exile; or the aggregate of Jews or Jewish communities scattered “in exile” outside Palestine or present-day Israel. Although the term refers to the physical dispersal of Jews throughout the world, it also carries religious, philosophical, political, and eschatological connotations, in...
  • dispersion (physics)
    in wave motion, any phenomenon associated with the propagation of individual waves at speeds that depend on their wavelengths. Ocean waves, for example, move at speeds proportional to the square root of their wavelengths; these speeds vary from a few feet per second for ripples to hundreds of miles per ho...
  • dispersion force (intermolecular force)
    ...as a whole may be polar, one part having an excess of positive charge and another an excess of negative charge, or it may contain polar groups. At sufficiently low temperatures the relatively weak London forces (i.e., forces acting between any two atoms brought close together) may also be strong enough to produce molecular association....
  • dispersion medium (chemistry)
    ...are the principal applications of detergents for which the liquid bath is water. Detergents also are used as emulsifiers in many applications. Detergents that function in nonaqueous media include dispersing agents added to lubricating oils used in automotive engines to prevent the accumulation of varnishlike deposits on the cylinder walls, to gasoline to prevent the buildup of gummy residues......
  • dispersion relation (physics)
    ...is called dispersion. It is this property of a prism that effects the colour separation, or dispersion, of white light. An equation that connects the refractive index with frequency is called a dispersion relation. For visible light the index of refraction increases slightly with frequency, a phenomenon termed normal dispersion. The degree of refraction depends on the refractive index. The......
  • dispersive power (optics)
    ...however, to compare the dispersion with the mean refractive index of the material for some intermediate colour such as the sodium “D” Fraunhofer line of wavelength 5893 angstroms. The dispersive power (w) of the material is then defined as the ratio of the difference between the “F” and “C” indices and the “D” index reduced by 1, or...
  • disphenoid (crystallography)
    ...parallel to two of the principal crystallographic axes;Dome: two nonparallel faces symmetrical to a plane of symmetry;Sphenoid: two nonparallel faces symmetrical to a 2- or 4-fold axis of symmetry;Disphenoid: four-faced closed form in which the two faces of a sphenoid alternate above two faces of another sphenoid;Prism: 3, 4, 6, 8, or 12 faces the intersection lines of which are parallel and......
  • Dispholidus typus (snake)
    (Dispholidus typus), venomous snake of the family Colubridae, one of the few colubrid species that is decidedly dangerous to humans. This moderately slender snake grows to about 1.8 metres (6 feet) in length and occurs in savannas throughout sub-Saharan Africa. When hunting, it lies in wait in a bush or tree for chamel...
  • disphotic zone (oceanography)
    ...which occupies the great bulk of the ocean, is called the aphotic zone (Figure 1). The illuminated region above it is called the photic zone, within which are distinguished the euphotic and disphotic zones. The euphotic zone is the layer closer to the surface that receives enough light for photosynthesis to occur. Beneath lies the disphotic zone, which is illuminated but so poorly that......
  • displacement (psychology)
    ...which Freud called overdetermination. No direct correspondence between a simple manifest content and its multidimensional latent counterpart can be assumed. The second activity of the dreamwork, displacement, refers to the decentring of dream thoughts, so that the most urgent wish is often obliquely or marginally represented on the manifest level. Displacement also means the associative......
  • displacement (ship design)
    ...machinery), and outfit (fixed items having to do with crew life support). These categories of weight are known collectively as lightship weight. The sum of deadweight and lightship weight is displacement—that is, the weight that must be equaled by the weight of displaced water if the ship is to float. Of course, the volume of water displaced by a ship is a function of the size of......
  • displacement (mechanics)
    in mechanics, distance moved by a particle or body in a specific direction. Particles and bodies are typically treated as point masses—that is, without loss of generality, bodies can be treated as though all of their mass is concentrated in a mathematical point. In the , A is the initial position of a point, B is the final position, and the straight line directed from A to B is ...
  • displacement activity (animal behaviour)
    the performance by an animal of an act inappropriate for the stimulus or stimuli that evoked it. Displacement behaviour usually occurs when an animal is torn between two conflicting drives, such as fear and aggression. Displacement activities often consist of comfort movements, such as grooming, scratching, drinking, or eating. In courtship, for example, an individual afraid of its mate may, inst...
  • displacement antinode (physics)
    ...one end is open and one end closed (a closed tube). The basic acoustic difference is that the open end of a tube allows motion of the air; this results in the occurrence there of a velocity or displacement antinode similar to the centre of the fundamental mode of a stretched string, as illustrated at the top of Figure 4. On the other hand, the air at the closed end of a tube cannot move,......
  • displacement current (electronics)
    in electromagnetism, a phenomenon analogous to an ordinary electric current, posited to explain magnetic fields that are produced by changing electric fields. Ordinary electric ...
  • displacement, electric (physics)
    auxiliary electric field or electric vector that represents that aspect of an electric field associated solely with the presence of separated free electric charges, purposely excluding the contribution of any electric charges bound together in neutral atoms or molecules. If ...
  • displacement hull (boat design)
    ...turns a propeller acting against the water. However, for shallow water there are such variations as the paddle wheel, airscrew, and water jet pump. The two main types of hulls used on motorboats are displacement hulls, which push through the water; and planing hulls, which skim across the water’s surface. The displacement hull has a V-shaped or round bottom, a relatively deep draft, a na...
  • displacement law (physics)
    in physics, any of the statements (originally formulated in 1913) that radioactive decay produces daughter atoms whose position in the periodic table of the chemical elements is shifted from that of their parents: two lower for ...
  • displacement node (physics)
    ...the centre of the fundamental mode of a stretched string, as illustrated at the top of Figure 4. On the other hand, the air at the closed end of a tube cannot move, so that a closed end results in a velocity node similar to the ends of a stretched string....
  • displacement reaction (chemical reaction)
    any of a class of chemical reactions in which an atom, ion, or group of atoms or ions in a molecule is replaced by another atom, ion, or group. An example is the reaction in which the chlorine atom in the chloromethane molecule is displaced by the hydroxide ion, forming ...
  • displacement tonnage (shipping)
    Displacement tonnage is used to define the size of naval ships. It refers to the weight of the volume of water displaced by a vessel in normal seagoing condition....
  • display (information recording)
    For humans to perceive and understand information, it must be presented as print and image on paper; as print and image on film or on a video terminal; as sound via radio or telephony; as print, sound, and video in motion pictures, on television broadcasts, or at lectures and conferences; or in face-to-face encounters. Except for live encounters and audio information, such displays emanate......
  • display behaviour (animal behaviour)
    ritualized behaviour by which an animal provides specific information to others, usually members of its own species. Virtually all higher animals use displays to some extent. The best-known displays are visual ones—and some biologists restrict the term display to visual signals or gestures—but many also incorporate sound, smell, or even touch. Displays evolve through the ritualizati...
  • display ground (biology)
    in animal behaviour, communal area in which two or more males of a species perform courtship displays. Lek behaviour, also called arena behaviour, is found in a number of insects, birds, and mammals. Varying degrees of interaction occur between the males, from virtually none to closely cooperative dancing. Females visit the ...
  • Display of Heraldrie, A (book by Guillim)
    ...such conceits were not entirely unreasonable. The works of Sir John Ferne, Blazon of Gentrie (1586), Gerard Legh, The Accedens of Armorie (1562), and John Guillim, A Display of Heraldrie (1610), not only perpetuate the nonsensical natural history of olden days but are largely responsible for erroneous beliefs about heraldic charges having definite......
  • display pewter (decoration)
    ...two places in Europe evolved quite independently, though simultaneously, a new technique for casting pewter. The product was a type of relief-decorated ware known as “display pewter” (Edelzinn), and it gave a new and brilliant impetus to the trade. The first examples were made between 1560 and 1570, and the main centres of production were Nürnberg and Lyon. In the......
  • dispondee (metre)
    ...the other element is rarely wholly absent, though on an instrument such as the organ, actual dynamic stress is impossible. After all, metres like the spondee, ♩♩, and the dispondee, ♩♩♩♩, need an accent on the first beat to keep their identity. Notwithstanding the opposite tendencies of metrical organization and stress......
  • disposable income (economics)
    that portion of an individual’s income over which the recipient has complete discretion. An accurate general definition of income is not easy to provide. Income includes wages and salaries, interest and dividend payments from financial assets, and rents and net profits from businesses. Capital gains on real or financial assets should also be counted as income in most cases, at least insofa...
  • Dispositio Achillea (German history)
    ...cities and towns, especially Nürnberg, which he tried to subdue several times. His administrative policy was more effective than his campaigns, however. On February 24, 1473, he proclaimed the Dispositio Achillea (“Disposition of Achilles”), which was to preserve Brandenburg as a united whole and keep his dynastic inheritance intact. This settlement gave the mark of Branden...
  • disposition (personality)
    in psychology, an aspect of personality concerned with emotional dispositions and reactions and their speed and intensity; the term often is used to refer to the prevailing mood or mood pattern of a person. The notion of temperament in this sense originated with Galen, the Greek physician of the 2nd century ad, who developed it from an earlier physiological theory...
  • disposition (mining)
    Disposition is the handling of the products of a preparation plant. The entire plant process includes ROM storage, raw coal storage, crusher house, screening plants, various slurries (coal-water mixtures), dewatering system, thickeners, thermal dryer, process-water systems, clean-coal storage, clean-coal load-out system, monitoring and process-control system, and refuse-disposal system.......
  • dispositional knowledge (epistemology)
    ...and suddenly sees the solution, for example, one can be said to have occurrent knowledge of it, because “seeing” the solution involves being aware of or attending to it. In contrast, dispositional knowledge, as the term suggests, is a disposition, or a propensity, to behave in certain ways in certain conditions. Although Smith may not now be thinking of his home address, he......
  • Dispossessed, The (work by Le Guin)
    ...that characterizes her science fiction and high fantasy works. The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) is about a race of androgynous people who may become either male or female. In The Dispossessed (1974), she examined two neighbouring worlds that are home to antithetical societies, one capitalist, the other anarchic, both of which stifle freedom in particular ways. The......
  • disproportionation (chemistry)
    ...the nonmetal is both oxidized and reduced (i.e., its oxidation number is increased and decreased, respectively). A reaction in which the same element is both oxidized and reduced is called a disproportionation reaction. In the following disproportionation reaction, N4+ is reduced to N2+ (in NO) and oxidized to N5+ (in......
  • Dispur (India)
    City, capital of Assam state, northeastern India. Following the administrative reorganization of the region in 1972, Dispur, a suburb of Guwahati, became the state capital....
  • Disputa (painting by Raphael)
    ...and the “School of Athens” on the larger walls and the “Parnassus” and “Cardinal Virtues” on the smaller walls. The two most important of these frescoes are the “Disputa” and the “School of Athens.” The “Disputa,” showing a celestial vision of God and his prophets and apostles above a gathering of representative...
  • Disputatio Iudaei et Christiani (work by Gilbert Crispin)
    Gilbert’s exegesis was deeply influenced by his friendship with Anselm and his acquaintance with a Jew from Mainz. His skillful writings include Disputatio Iudaei et Christiani, in which a dialogue on the Christian faith is carried out between Gilbert and his Jewish acquaintance. Other historical and doctrinal works are De Simoniacis, De Spiritu Sancto, and Disputatio......
  • disputation (education)
    ...of the authorities, however, frequently differed. They also shared a common style and method that developed out of the teaching practices in the universities. Teaching was done by lecture and disputation (a formal debate). A lecture consisted of the reading of a prescribed text followed by the teacher’s commentary on it. Masters also held disputations in which the affirmative and negativ...
  • “Disputationes” (work by Bellarmine)
    Bellarmine’s most influential writings were the series of lectures published under the title Disputationes de controversiis Christianae fidei adversus huius temporis haereticos (1586–93; “Lectures Concerning the Controversies of the Christian Faith Against the Heretics of This Time”). They contained a lucid and uncompromising statement of Roman Catholic doctrine....
  • Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem (work by Pico della Mirandola)
    ...Müller (also known as Regiomontanus, 1436–76) and Disputationes adversus astrologianm divinatricenm (“Disputations against Divinatory Astrology”) by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola....
  • Disputationes de controveriis Christianae fidei adversus huius temporis haereticos (work by Bellarmine)
    Bellarmine’s most influential writings were the series of lectures published under the title Disputationes de controversiis Christianae fidei adversus huius temporis haereticos (1586–93; “Lectures Concerning the Controversies of the Christian Faith Against the Heretics of This Time”). They contained a lucid and uncompromising statement of Roman Catholic doctrine....
  • Disputationes Metaphysicae (work by Suárez)
    His principal study in philosophy is the Disputationes Metaphysicae (1597), which was used for more than a century as a textbook at most European universities, Catholic and Protestant alike. In this work, which treats especially the problems of human will and the concept of general versus particular phenomena, Suárez drew upon Aristotle and Aquinas, although he took into......
  • “Disquisitio de Attractionibus Electivis” (work by Bergman)
    Bergman’s most important paper is probably his Disquisitio de Attractionibus Electivis (1775; A Dissertation on Elective Attractions), in which he included tables listing the elements in the order of their affinity (their ability to react and displace other elements in a compound). These tables were widely acclaimed and were included in chemical literature as late as 1808....
  • Disquisitiones Arithmeticae (book by Gauss)
    The fundamental theorem of arithmetic was proved by Gauss in his Disquisitiones Arithmeticae. It states that every composite number can be expressed as a product of prime numbers and that, save for the order in which the factors are written, this representation is unique. Gauss’s theorem follows rather directly from another theorem of Euclid to the effect that if a....
  • "Disraeli" (film by Green [1929])
    ...Alexander Hamilton (1931), The House of Rothschild (1934), and Cardinal Richelieu (1935). He won an Oscar for best actor of 1929–30 for his role in the film version of Disraeli. Arliss wrote several plays and two autobiographical works: Up the Years from Bloomsbury (1927) and My Ten Years in the Studios (1940)....
  • Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield, Viscount Hughenden of Hughenden (prime minister of United Kingdom)
    British statesman and novelist who was twice prime minister (1868, 1874–80) and who provided the Conservative Party with a twofold policy of Tory democracy and imperialism....
  • Disrobing of Christ (painting by El Greco)
    At the same time, El Greco created another masterpiece of extraordinary originality—the Espolio (Disrobing of Christ). In designing the composition vertically and compactly in the foreground he seems to have been motivated by the desire to show the oppression of Christ by his cruel tormentors. He chose a method of space elimination......
  • disruption (pathology)
    Disruptions are a group of congenital disorders that result from environmental disturbances of the processes of blastogenesis and organogenesis. Several classes of disruption have been recognized, including those due to prenatal infections such as rubella, cytomegalovirus, and toxoplasmosis; chemicals such as mercury, alcohol, thalidomide, and cancer chemotherapeutic agents; immune phenomena......
  • Disruption, The (Scottish religious history)
    ...Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland. Thomas Chalmers (q.v.) was elected the first moderator. Considered more than a secession from the established church, the event came to be known as the Disruption....
  • disruptive coloration (zoology)
    ...from prey and protection from predators. Background matching is a type of concealment in which an organism avoids recognition by resembling its background in coloration, form, or movement. In disruptive coloration, the identity and location of an animal may be concealed through a coloration pattern that causes visual disruption because the pattern does not coincide with the shape and......
  • disruptive selection (biology)
    Two or more divergent phenotypes in an environment may be favoured simultaneously by diversifying selection. (See the right column of the figure.) No natural environment is homogeneous; rather, the environment of any plant or animal population is a mosaic consisting of more or less dissimilar subenvironments. There is heterogeneity with respect to climate, food......
  • dissecting aneurysm (pathology)
    Medial necrosis is a lesion of the aorta in which the media (the middle coat of the artery) deteriorates, and, in association with arteriosclerosis and often hypertension, it may lead to a dissecting aneurysm. In a dissecting aneurysm a rupture in the intima, the innermost coat of the artery, permits blood to enter the wall of the aorta, causing separation of the layers of the wall. Obstruction......
  • dissection (biology)
    ...a lecturer in surgery with the responsibility of giving anatomical demonstrations. Since he knew that a thorough knowledge of human anatomy was essential to surgery, he devoted much of his time to dissections of cadavers and insisted on doing them himself, instead of relying on untrained assistants. At first, Vesalius had no reason to question the theories of Galen, the Greek physician who had....
  • dissection (geometry)
    Geometric dissection problems involve the cutting of geometric figures into pieces that can be arranged to form other geometric figures; for example, cutting a rectangle into parts that can be put together in the form of a square and vice versa. Interest in this area of mathematical recreations began to manifest itself toward the close of the 18th century when Montucla called attention to this......
  • disseisin (law)
    ...at least for the period of his life, having a complete right to possession of the property as against all others. The possession by any other under some claim of right to the land was known as disseisin. One who was disseised of his property could take the matter to the king’s court through a legal action known as the assize of novel disseisin. If the land held by a disseisor was claimed...
  • disseminated coccidioidomycosis (pathology)
    ...symptoms of influenza or pneumonia: fever, chills, headache, severe pain in the joints, chest pain, and coughing. In a few instances after recovery there are solid lesions or cavities in the lungs. Disseminated coccidioidomycosis, or coccidioidal granuloma, is a progressive form of infection that can result in skin ulcers, many nodules or cavities in the lungs, widespread involvement of lymph.....
  • disseminated gonococcal infection (pathology)
    N. gonorrhoeae can sometimes enter the bloodstream, causing disseminated gonococcal infection (DGI) in virtually any organ system. In both male and female, arthritis is the most common manifestation of DGI. The process usually settles in one or two joints and may result in permanent disability in the absence of treatment. Involvement of the tendon sheaths in the region of the......
  • disseminated intravascular coagulation (pathology)
    Disseminated intravascular coagulation is an acquired disorder in which platelets and blood-clotting components are consumed until a severe deficiency exists, resulting in a bleeding disorder. In addition, the fibrinolytic system—the system that dissolves clots—is also activated, leading to the destruction of fibrinogen and fibrin clots. Numerous primary problems can be responsible.....
  • disseminated lupus erythematosus (pathology)
    Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic inflammatory disease of unknown cause that affects, either singularly or in combination, the skin, joints, kidneys, nervous system, and membranes lining body cavities and often other organs as well. The disease has a tendency toward remissions and exacerbations and a multitude of immunologic abnormalities, including antibodies that react with......
  • disseminated sclerosis (pathology)
    a progressive disease of the central nervous system characterized by the destruction of the myelin sheath surrounding the nerve fibres of the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves. As a result, the transmission of nerve impulses becomes impaired, particularly in pathways involved with vision, sensation, a...
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