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  • preestablished harmony (philosophy)
    ...journals. In 1695 he explained a portion of his dynamic theory of motion in the Système nouveau (“New System”), which treated the relationship of substances and the preestablished harmony between the soul and the body: God does not need to bring about man’s action by means of his thoughts, as Malebranche asserted, or to wind some sort of watch in order to......
  • prefabrication (construction)
    the assembly of buildings or their components at a location other than the building site. The method controls construction costs by economizing on time, wages, and materials. Prefabricated units may include doors, stairs, window walls, wall panels, floor panels, roof trusses, room-sized components, and even entire buildings....
  • Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note (work by Baraka)
    ...black revolution, is epitomized in the evolution of LeRoi Jones into Amiri Baraka. Based in New York’s East Village, Jones became known first as a Beat poet whose collection Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note (1961) consisted largely of apolitical critiques of 1950s conventionality and materialism. By 1968, however, Jones had renamed himself Amiri Baraka and...
  • Preface to Shakespeare (work by Johnson)
    The lively imitation of nature came to be acknowledged as the primary business of the playwright and was confirmed by the authoritative voices of Dr. Samuel Johnson, who said in his Preface to Shakespeare (1765) that “there is always an appeal open from criticism to nature,” and the German dramatist and critic Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, who in his Hamburgische......
  • “Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, to the Works of the English Poets” (work by Johnson)
    Johnson’s last great work, Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, to the Works of the English Poets (conventionally known as The Lives of the Poets), was conceived modestly as short prefatory notices to an edition of English poetry. When Johnson was approached by some London booksellers in 1777 to write what he thought of as “little Liv...
  • Prefaces to Shakespeare (work by Granville-Barker)
    ...scenes, including presidency of the British Drama League. He settled in Paris with his second wife, an American, collaborating with her in translating Spanish plays and writing his five series of Prefaces to Shakespeare (1927–48), a contribution to Shakespearean criticism that analyzed the plays from the point of view of a practical playwright with firsthand stage experience. ...
  • prefect (government official)
    Local administration went through a slow evolution. The prefecture system developed in both Jin and Chu was one innovation. In Jin there were several dozen prefects across the state, each having limited authority and tenure. The Jin prefect was no more than a functionary, in contrast to the feudal practice. Similar local administrative units grew up in Chu. New lands taken by conquest were......
  • prefect (French political history)
    in France, a high government official, similar to the intendant before the French Revolution. The French prefectoral corps was created in 1800 by Napoleon Bonaparte, who endowed it with great prestige and influence. At that time the prefects were the administrators of the départements; they were responsible for pub...
  • prefect (ancient Roman official)
    in ancient Rome, any of various high officials or magistrates having different functions....
  • prefecture (political subdivision)
    Japan is divided into 47 prefectures, 43 of which are ken (prefectures proper), one of which (Tokyo) is a to (metropolitan prefecture); one (Hokkaido) is a dō (district), and two (Ōsaka and Kyōto) are fu (urban prefectures). Prefectures, which are administered by governors and assemblies, vary considerably both in area and in population. The largest...
  • Préfecture de Police (French police force)
    one of the three main police forces of France. Controlled by the Ministry of the Interior, it provides the preventive police force for Paris and the Seine département. Its uniformed members, known as gardiens de la paix (“guardians of the peace”), are responsible for traffic and crowd control and are highly motorized. By contrast, their plainclothes members, who...
  • preference (behaviour)
    ...of price and value: the supply side and the demand side. If cost can be said to underlie the supply relationship that determines price, the demand side must be taken to reflect consumer tastes and preferences. “Utility” is a concept that has been used to describe these tastes. As already indicated, the cost-of-production analysis of value given above is incomplete, because cost......
  • preference (card game)
    trick-taking card game for three players, widely played throughout eastern Europe, popular in Austria, and regarded since the early 19th century as the national card game of Russia....
  • preference calculus (logic)
    ...a real-number quantity is obtained, symbolized # ( x). (Such a measure is called a utility measure, the units are called utiles, and the comparisons or computations involved constitute a preference calculus.) In terms of such a measure, a preference ordering is readily introduced by the definitions that (1) x ≫ y is to be construed as # ( x) ...
  • preference, logic of (logic)
    The logic of preference—also called the logic of choice, or proairetic logic (Greek proairesis, “a choosing”)—seeks to systematize the formal rules that govern the conception “ x is preferred to y.” A diversity of things can be at issue here: (1) Is x preferred to y by some individual (or group), or is x preferable...
  • preference ordering (logic)
    ...( x). (Such a measure is called a utility measure, the units are called utiles, and the comparisons or computations involved constitute a preference calculus.) In terms of such a measure, a preference ordering is readily introduced by the definitions that (1) x ≫ y is to be construed as # ( x) > # ( y), (2) x y as ...
  • preference relation (logic)
    ...in point of some particular factor (such as economy or safety or durability)? The resolution of these questions, though vital for interpretation, does not affect the formal structure of the preference relationships....
  • preference share (finance)
    To appeal to investors who wish to be sure of receiving dividends regularly, many companies issue what is called preferred stock, or preference shares. This class of stock has a prior claim to dividends paid by the company and, usually, to the assets of the company in the event of its dissolution. Dividends are usually set at a fixed annual rate that must be paid before dividends are......
  • preference stock (finance)
    To appeal to investors who wish to be sure of receiving dividends regularly, many companies issue what is called preferred stock, or preference shares. This class of stock has a prior claim to dividends paid by the company and, usually, to the assets of the company in the event of its dissolution. Dividends are usually set at a fixed annual rate that must be paid before dividends are......
  • preference Utilitarianism (ethics)
    ...to be universalizable, it must prescribe what is most in accord with the preferences of all those who would be affected by the action. This form of consequentialism is frequently called “preference utilitarianism” because it attempts to maximize the satisfaction of preferences, just as classical utilitarianism endeavours to maximize pleasure or happiness. Part of the attraction......
  • preferential kinship structure (sociology)
    ...precisely the essential properties of elementary structures. For the British anthropologist Rodney Needham the crucial distinction is not between elementary and complex but between prescriptive and nonprescriptive (formerly called preferential) systems. Prescriptive systems include those in which the kinship terminology defines exactly all the marriage possibilities. In some such societies the....
  • preferential tariff (economics)
    The economic integration of several countries or states may take a variety of forms. The term covers preferential tariffs, free trade associations, customs unions, common markets, economic unions, and full economic integration. The parties to a system of preferential tariffs levy lower rates of duty on imports from one another than they do on imports from third countries. For example, Great......
  • prefermentation heat treatment
    There is renewed interest in the prefermentation heat treatment of red musts to extract colour and deactivate enzymes. This process, when performed rapidly at moderate temperatures and without undue oxidation, may be particularly desirable in the production of red sweet wines, which employs short periods of fermentation on the skins, and for use with red grapes that have been attacked by the......
  • prefern (paleontology)
    any of a group of extinct plants considered transitional between the first land plants, the psilophytes, of the Silurian and Devonian periods (438 to 360 million years ago), and the ferns and seed-ferns that were common land plants later in time. The preferns appeared in Middle Devonian times (about 380 million years ago) and lasted into the Early Permian Epo...
  • preferred noise criteria curve (acoustics)
    ...of specifications that have been derived by collecting subjective judgments from a large sampling of people in a variety of specific situations. These have developed into the noise criteria (NC) and preferred noise criteria (PNC) curves, which provide limits on the level of noise introduced into the environment. The NC curves, developed in 1957, aim to provide a comfortable working or living......
  • preferred provider organization
    ...became popular in the late 20th century as a way to control medical costs through the use of prenegotiated fees for medical services and prescription medicines. An alternative to the HMO is the preferred provider organization (PPO), also known as a participating provider option, which offers features of traditional fee-for-service insurance plans, such as the ability of patients to choose......
  • preferred stock (finance)
    To appeal to investors who wish to be sure of receiving dividends regularly, many companies issue what is called preferred stock, or preference shares. This class of stock has a prior claim to dividends paid by the company and, usually, to the assets of the company in the event of its dissolution. Dividends are usually set at a fixed annual rate that must be paid before dividends are......
  • préfet (French political history)
    in France, a high government official, similar to the intendant before the French Revolution. The French prefectoral corps was created in 1800 by Napoleon Bonaparte, who endowed it with great prestige and influence. At that time the prefects were the administrators of the départements; they were responsible for pub...
  • prefix (grammar)
    a grammatical element that is combined with a word, stem, or phrase to produce derived and inflected forms. There are three types of affixes: prefixes, infixes, and suffixes. A prefix occurs at the beginning of a word or stem (sub-mit, pre-determine, un-willing); a suffix at the end (wonder-ful, depend-ent, act-ion); and an infix occurs in the middle.......
  • preform (materials science)
    Common ways of applying sealing glass are as frits and as preforms. Glass is crushed or ball-milled in order to obtain a fine powder, or frit, which is sieved to sizes of 5 to 100 micrometres and then mixed with a small amount of slurry-making organic volatilizing-type vehicles and binders. Metal powders (often flakes) can be mixed in to make conducting pastes, or nonmetallic powders can be......
  • preformation theory (biology)
    ...the entire future development of an animal is centred in the egg, and that sperm merely induce a “vapour,” which penetrates the womb and effects fertilization. Although this theory of preformation, as it is called, continued to survive for some time longer, Leeuwenhoek initiated its eventual demise....
  • preformer (plant anatomy)
    Most north temperate trees form their leaves during the development of the terminal buds of the previous year to some degree (preformers). In these species the number of height growth units for the year is determined to a great extent during the previous year. For example, those of the grand fir (Abies grandis) in the area of Vancouver are preformed in October, so that at spring......
  • preformism (biology)
    ...the entire future development of an animal is centred in the egg, and that sperm merely induce a “vapour,” which penetrates the womb and effects fertilization. Although this theory of preformation, as it is called, continued to survive for some time longer, Leeuwenhoek initiated its eventual demise....
  • prefrontal leukotomy (surgery)
    ...human behaviour involves social interaction. Although the whole brain contributes to social activities, certain parts of the cerebral hemispheres are particularly involved. The surgical procedure of leucotomy, cutting through the white matter that connects parts of the frontal lobes with the thalamus, upsets this aspect of behaviour. This procedure, proposed by the Spanish neurologist Egas......
  • prefrontal lobotomy (surgery)
    ...human behaviour involves social interaction. Although the whole brain contributes to social activities, certain parts of the cerebral hemispheres are particularly involved. The surgical procedure of leucotomy, cutting through the white matter that connects parts of the frontal lobes with the thalamus, upsets this aspect of behaviour. This procedure, proposed by the Spanish neurologist Egas......
  • prefrontal squall line (meteorology)
    Violent weather at the ground is usually produced by organized multiple-cell storms, squall lines, or a supercell. All of these tend to be associated with a mesoscale disturbance (a weather system of intermediate size, that is, 10 to 1,000 km [6 to 600 miles] in horizontal extent). Multiple-cell storms have several updrafts and downdrafts in close proximity to one another. They occur in......
  • preganglionic fibre (anatomy)
    ...of the target organs themselves. Motor ganglia have multipolar cell bodies, which have irregular shapes and eccentrically located nuclei and which project several dendritic and axonal processes. Preganglionic fibres originating from the brain or spinal cord enter motor ganglia, where they synapse on multipolar cell bodies. These postganglionic cells, in turn, send their processes to visceral......
  • preganglionic neuron (anatomy)
    ...system and the parasympathetic nervous system. These often function in antagonistic ways. The motor outflow of both systems is formed by two serially connected sets of neurons. The first set, called preganglionic neurons, originates in the brainstem or the spinal cord, and the second set, called ganglion cells or postganglionic neurons, lies outside the central nervous system in collections of....
  • Pregl, Fritz (Austrian chemist)
    Austrian chemist awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for developing techniques in the microanalysis of organic compounds....
  • pregnancy
    process and series of changes that take place in a woman’s organs and tissues as a result of a developing fetus. The entire process from fertilization to birth takes an average of 266–70 days, or about nine months. (For pregnancies other than those in humans, see gestation.)...
  • pregnancy termination (pregnancy)
    the expulsion of a fetus from the uterus before it has reached the stage of viability (in human beings, usually about the 20th week of gestation). An abortion may occur spontaneously, in which case it is also called a miscarriage, or it may be brought on purposefully, in which case it is often called an induced abortion....
  • pregnancy test (medicine)
    Xenopus was once widely used for tests for human pregnancy because researchers found that young female clawed frogs would lay eggs when injected with minute quantities of a human hormone found in the urine of pregnant women. Though other types of pregnancy tests have since proved more reliable, Xenopus is still used in embryological and anatomical research....
  • pregnanediol (hormone metabolite)
    ...cells. The functions of the two important follicular phases, preceding and following ovulation, therefore, are continuous. The hormone is metabolized in several ways, but one important product is pregnanediol; formed mainly in the liver, it appears in part in the urine, where it can be measured to determine the degree of ovarian function....
  • pregnenolone (biochemistry)
    The first step in steroid hormone synthesis is the conversion of cholesterol into pregnenolone, which occurs in mitochondria (organelles that produce most of the energy used for cellular processes). This conversion is mediated by a cleavage enzyme, the synthesis of which is stimulated in the adrenal glands by corticotropin (adrenocorticotropin, or ACTH) or angiotensin and in the ovaries and......
  • prehensile foot (anatomy)
    It is noteworthy that, during evolution, the development of a prehensile foot preceded that of a prehensile hand. Vertical-clinging primates such as the tarsiers or small, squirrel-like quadrupeds such as the marmosets—all of which have prehensile feet but not completely prehensile hands—by remaining or becoming small, have avoided the evolutionary pressures that have impinged on......
  • prehensile hand (anatomy)
    It is noteworthy that, during evolution, the development of a prehensile foot preceded that of a prehensile hand. Vertical-clinging primates such as the tarsiers or small, squirrel-like quadrupeds such as the marmosets—all of which have prehensile feet but not completely prehensile hands—by remaining or becoming small, have avoided the evolutionary pressures that have impinged on......
  • prehensile-lipped rhinoceros (mammal)
    The two African species of rhinoceros are the black or prehensile-lipped rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) and the white or square-lipped rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum). The terms black and white are misleading, since both species are grayish to brownish, but the names are well established in common usage....
  • prehensile tail (mammal anatomy)
    an unusual member of the raccoon family (see procyonid) distinguished by its long, prehensile tail, short muzzle, and low-set, rounded ears. Native to Central America and parts of South America, the kinkajou is an agile denizen of the upper canopy of tropical forests....
  • prehensile-tailed skink (lizard)
    ...the temperate regions of North America. The bodies of skinks are typically cylindrical in cross section, and most species have cone-shaped heads and long, tapering tails. The largest species, the prehensile-tailed skink (Corucia zebrata), reaches a maximum length of about 76 cm (30 inches), but most species are less than 20 cm (8 inches) long. Ground-dwelling and......
  • prehension (understanding)
    ...mechanics (mechanics that is worked out in connection with the physics of relativity and thus measures not only the distance but also the time intervals between points) but is minimally a “prehension” (a term proper to Whitehead indicating the point-transcending function of perception and consciousness)....
  • prehistoric age
    The oldest known tools date from 2,600,000 years ago; geologically, this is close to the end of the Pliocene Epoch, which had extended over 4,500,000 years and was the last of five epochs constituting the Tertiary Period (the 65,000,000 years of which had seen the rise of mammals). The Pliocene was succeeded by the Pleistocene Epoch, which began about 2,500,000 years ago and was terminated only......
  • prehistoric archaeology (archaeology)
    ...in India and China, and later still in Europe. The aspect of archaeology that deals with the past of man before he learned to write has, since the middle of the 19th century, been referred to as prehistoric archaeology, or prehistory. In prehistory the archaeologist is paramount, for here the only sources are material and environmental....
  • prehistoric art
    The oldest manifestations of art were produced during the Aurignacian, and the development continued during Upper Périgordian times. In general, Upper Paleolithic art falls into two closely related categories: mural art and portable art. The former includes finger tracings, paintings, engravings, bas-reliefs, and sculptures on the walls of caves and rock shelters; the latter is......
  • prehistoric peoples
    prehistoric cultural stage, or level of human development, characterized by the creation and use of stone tools. The Stone Age is usually divided into three separate periods—Paleolithic Period, Mesolithic Period, and Neolithic Period—based on the degree of sophistication in the fashioning and use of tools....
  • prehistoric religion
    the beliefs and practices of Stone Age peoples....
  • prehistory (archaeology)
    ...in India and China, and later still in Europe. The aspect of archaeology that deals with the past of man before he learned to write has, since the middle of the 19th century, been referred to as prehistoric archaeology, or prehistory. In prehistory the archaeologist is paramount, for here the only sources are material and environmental....
  • prehnite (mineral)
    pale green to gray, glassy silicate mineral that commonly lines cavities in igneous rocks. It also occurs as stalactite masses. Prehnite is a secondary or hydrothermal mineral that is a basic calcium and aluminum silicate, Ca2Al2Si3O10(OH)2, and is often associated with zeolites. Prehnite has been found in Italy, Germany, France, S...
  • prehnite-pumpellyite facies (geology)
    Along with the zeolite facies, the prehnite-pumpellyite facies received little attention until about 1950. The first rocks of the facies were described in New Zealand and Celebes. The facies is transitional, bridging the path to the blueschist facies or the greenschist facies. It is particularly well developed in graywacke-type sediments. The two minerals prehnite and pumpellyite replace the......
  • Preil, Gabriel (American poet)
    Jewish Estonian poet who, although he lived most of his life in the United States, was internationally known for his introspective and lyrical poems written in Hebrew. He was a powerful influence on younger Israeli poets both through his own works and through his translations into Hebrew of such American poets as Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, and Robin...
  • preimpregnated tape
    The most common form of material used for the fabrication of composite structures is the preimpregnated tape, or “prepreg.” There are two categories of prepreg: tapes, generally 75 millimetres (3 inches) or less in width, intended for fabrication in automated, computer-controlled tape-laying machines; and “broad goods,” usually several metres in dimension, intended for....
  • Preindustrial City, Past and Present, The (work by Sjoberg)
    Gideon Sjoberg (The Preindustrial City, Past and Present, 1960), in the next step toward a cross-culturally valid understanding of cities, challenged this conception of urban culture as ethnocentric and historically narrow. He divided the world’s urban centres into two types, the preindustrial city and the industrial city, which he distinguished on the basis of differences in the......
  • Preis, Ellen (Austrian athlete)
    ...one. She advanced to the final round, where she met stiff competition from Ilona Schacherer (later Ilona Elek), a Hungarian fencer who was also Jewish, and from the defending Olympic champion Ellen Preis of Austria. Mayer faced Schacherer in an early match, and the Hungarian was able to rattle and outscore Mayer with an unorthodox style. Mayer quickly recovered from this setback, fencing......
  • Prejevalsky’s horse (mammal)
    (subspecies Equus caballus przewalskii), last wild horse subspecies surviving in the 21st century. It was discovered in western Mongolia in the late 1870s by the Russian explorer N.M. Przhevalsky. Several expeditions since 1969 have failed to find this horse, which probably crossed with half-wild domesticated horses and lost its di...
  • prejudice (behaviour)
    Research has been directed to how social perception is affected by cultural stereotypes (e.g., racial prejudice), by inferences from different verbal and nonverbal cues, by the pattern of perceptual activity during social interaction, and by the general personality structure of the perceiver. The work has found practical application in the assessment of employees and of candidates for......
  • Prejudices (work by Mencken)
    ...the 1920s, and he often used his criticism as a point of departure to jab at various American social and cultural weaknesses. His reviews and miscellaneous essays filled six volumes aptly titled Prejudices (1919–27). In literature he fought against what he regarded as fraudulently successful writers and worked for the recognition of such outstanding newcomers as Theodore Dreiser.....
  • Prekmurje (region, Slovenia)
    ...Slovenes persist in calling their portion Štajerska and share some traits with their Austrian neighbours. Beyond a saddle of hills known as the Slovenske Gorice or the Slovene Humpback is Prekmurje, a region drained by the Mura River that was ruled by Hungary until 1918. The main town here is Murska Sobota....
  • prelate (ecclesiastical title)
    an ecclesiastical dignitary of high rank. In the modern Roman Catholic church, prelates are those who exercise the public power of the church. True prelacy is defined as “preeminence with jurisdiction,” and true, or real, prelates are distinguished as (1) greater prelates, those who possess episcopal jurisdiction (such as patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops), and...
  • Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (Roman Catholic organization)
    Roman Catholic lay and clerical organization whose members seek personal Christian perfection and strive to implement Christian ideals and values in their occupations and in society as a whole. Theologically conservative, Opus Dei accepts the teaching authority of the church without question and has long been the subject of controversy; it has been accused of secrecy, cultlike practices, and polit...
  • Preliminaries to Speech Analysis (work by Jakobson)
    ...scope of his research—e.g., Kindersprache and Aphasie und allgemeine Lautgesetze (both 1941; Studies in Child-Language and Aphasia). Among his later works are Preliminaries to Speech Analysis (1952), a pioneering work in the distinctive feature analysis of speech sounds, written in collaboration with C. Gunnar, M. Fant, and Morris Halle, and......
  • preliminary crime (law)
    In Anglo-American law there is a class of offenses known as inchoate, or preliminary, crimes because guilt attaches even though the criminal purpose of the parties may not have been achieved. Thus the offense of incitement or solicitation consists of urging or requesting another to commit a crime. Certain specified types of solicitation may be criminal, such as solicitation of a bribe or......
  • Preliminary Discourse Concerning a Solid Body Enclosed by Processes of Nature Within a Solid (work by Steno)
    ...become embedded in another solid body, such as a layer of rock? He published his answers in 1669 in a paper entitled “De solido intra naturaliter contento dissertationis” (“A Preliminary Discourse Concerning a Solid Body Enclosed by Processes of Nature Within a Solid”). Steno cited evidence to show that when the hard parts of an organism are covered with sediment,......
  • Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy (work by Herschel)
    ...For several years he searched in vain for the means of concatenation. Finally, in 1837, on reading William Whewell’s Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences and rereading John F.W. Herschel’s Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy, Mill at last saw his way clear both to formulating the methods of scientific investigation and to joining the new logic on...
  • Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of an Electronic Computing Instrument (paper by von Neumann)
    ...the design of the modern, or classical, computer did not fully crystallize until the publication of a 1946 paper by Arthur Burks, Herman Goldstine, and John von Neumann titled Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of an Electronic Computing Instrument. Although many researchers contributed ideas directly or indirectly to the paper, von Neumann was the......
  • Preliminary General Catalogue of 6,188 Stars for the Epoch 1900 (work by Boss)
    ...staff he observed the northern stars from Albany and the southern stars from Argentina. With the new data, he corrected catalogs that had been compiled in the past, and in 1910 he published the Preliminary General Catalogue of 6,188 Stars for the Epoch 1900. Though he died leaving his work unfinished, his son Benjamin completed it in 1937 (General......
  • preliminary hearing (law)
    Anglo-American procedure traditionally divides lawsuits into two stages: the pretrial stage and the trial stage. At the pretrial stage, the parties notify each other of their claims and defenses and probe their factual foundations; at the trial stage, they or their counsel attempt to prove their factual contentions before a judge or jury, primarily through the oral examination of witnesses. The......
  • Preliminary Treatise on Method (essay by Coleridge)
    ...individual could be refined by contact with the intellect of the ideal man. Another Englishman, the poet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge, was well aware of this point of view and said in his “Preliminary Treatise on Method” (1817) that in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, which he was proposing to create, “our great objects are to exhibit the Arts and......
  • preliterate society
    a people or culture without a written language. The term nonliterate is distinguished from “illiterate,” which indicates a member of a literate society who has not learned to read or write. Although the term is not entirely satisfactory because it distinguishes by the sole criterion of written language, it has several advantages over the loosely equivalent terms primitive, preliterat...
  • Preljubovič (despot of Epirus)
    ...Greek recovery, it was taken by the Serbs in 1348. Ioánnina and Arta were its main political centres. From 1366 to 1384 Ioánnina was ruled by Thomas Komnenos Palaeologus, also known as Preljubovič, the son of the caesar Gregory Preljub, who had been Serbian governor of Thessaly under Stefan Uroš IV Dušan. He was able to assert Serbian control over......
  • Prelog, Vladimir (Swiss chemist)
    Swiss chemist who shared the 1975 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with John W. Cornforth for his work on the stereochemistry of organic molecules and reactions. (Stereochemistry is the study of the three-dimensional arrangements of atoms within molecules.)...
  • Prelude (work by Mansfield)
    ...from George Bowden. The death of her soldier brother in 1915 shocked her into a recognition that she owed what she termed a sacred debt to him and to the remembered places of her native country. Prelude (1918) was a series of short stories beautifully evocative of her family memories of New Zealand. These, with others, were collected in Bliss (1920), which secured her reputation.....
  • prelude (music)
    musical composition, usually brief, that is generally played as an introduction to another, larger musical piece. The term is applied generically to any piece preceding a religious or secular ceremony, including in some instances an operatic performance. In the 17th century, organists in particular began to write loosely structured preludes to rigorously conceived fugues. The most notable compose...
  • “Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune” (work by Debussy)
    ...(“Herodias”) and L’Après-midi d’un faune (“The Afternoon of a Faun”), the latter being the work that inspired Claude Debussy to compose his celebrated Prélude a quarter of a century later....
  • Prelude, or, Growth of a Poet’s Mind, The (poem by Wordsworth)
    ...to test his powers, Wordsworth began writing the autobiographical poem that would absorb him intermittently for the next 40 years, and which was eventually published in 1850 under the title The Prelude, or, Growth of a Poet’s Mind. The Prelude extends the quiet autobiographical mode of reminiscence that Wordsworth had begun in “Tintern Abbey” and traces the po...
  • Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (work by Debussy)
    ...(“Herodias”) and L’Après-midi d’un faune (“The Afternoon of a Faun”), the latter being the work that inspired Claude Debussy to compose his celebrated Prélude a quarter of a century later....
  • Preludes (work by Meynell)
    ...Italy, and about 1868 she converted to Roman Catholicism, which was strongly reflected in her writing. Encouraged by Alfred Tennyson and Coventry Patmore, she published her first volume of poems, Preludes, in 1875. She subsequently published Poems (1893) and Later Poems (1902); Last Poems (1923) was published......
  • Preludes, Les (work by Liszt)
    ...(The Freeshooter) by Carl Maria von Weber. Long strings of this chord, moving rapidly up and down the scale for purely colouristic purposes, also appear in climactic passages of the tone poem Les Préludes, by Franz Liszt, expressing the struggle of the soul against supernatural forces. The highly embroidered piano style of Frédéric Chopin, touched, in passing,...
  • Preludes to Definition (work by Aiken)
    ...The best of his poetry is contained in Selected Poems (1929), which won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1930, and Collected Poems (1953), including a long sequence “Preludes to Definition,” which some critics consider his masterwork, and the often anthologized “Morning Song of Senlin.” Aiken served as the poetry consultant to the Library......
  • prelumirhodopsin (biochemistry)
    Immediately after absorption of a quantum, the rhodopsin molecule is changed into a substance called prelumirhodopsin, recognized by its different colour from that of rhodopsin; this product is so highly unstable that at body temperature it is converted, without further absorption of light, into a series of products. These changes may be arrested by cooling the solution to -195° C......
  • Prem Chand (Indian author)
    Indian author of novels and short stories in Hindi and Urdu who pioneered in adapting Indian themes to Western literary styles....
  • Prem Tinsulanonda (prime minister of Thailand)
    By 1980, when Kriangsak was replaced by Gen. Prem Tinsulanonda, Thailand had established a new system of government in which the military shared power with parliament through the mediation of the monarchy. Prem, who served as prime minister from 1980 to 1988, succeeded in eliminating the challenge of the Communist Party of Thailand and quelled dissent within the country by declaring a general......
  • Premadasa, Ranasinghe (president of Sri Lanka)
    Sri Lankan politician (b. June 23, 1924, Colombo, Ceylon [now Sri Lanka]--d. May 1, 1993, Colombo), was at the centre of the Sri Lankan government for more than 25 years as leader of the national state assembly (1977-88), prime minister (1978-88), and president (1989-93). Premadasa, a Sinhalese born into the dhobi (washerman’s) caste, was the first member of a low caste to lead the country,...
  • Premānanda Bhaṭṭa (Indian poet)
    ...lyrics telling of her relationship with her god and lover are among the warmest and most movingly personal in any Indian literature. One of the best known of the non-bhakti Gujarati poets is Premānanda Bhaṭṭa (16th century), who wrote narrative poems based on Purāṇa-like tales; although his themes were conventional, his characters were real and.....
  • premarital coitus (sexual behaviour)
    Coitus, the insertion of the penis into the vagina, is viewed by society quite differently depending upon the marital status of the individuals. The majority of human societies permit premarital coitus, at least under certain circumstances. In more repressive societies, such as modern Western society, it is more likely to be tolerated (but not encouraged) if the individuals intend marriage.......
  • premarital sex (sexual behaviour)
    Coitus, the insertion of the penis into the vagina, is viewed by society quite differently depending upon the marital status of the individuals. The majority of human societies permit premarital coitus, at least under certain circumstances. In more repressive societies, such as modern Western society, it is more likely to be tolerated (but not encouraged) if the individuals intend marriage.......
  • premature aging (pathology)
    human disorder with many characteristics of premature aging. Affected persons have parchment-like skin, become bald or gray-haired early in life, and tend to develop diseases related to aging decades before they occur in normal individuals. Initially, progeria was studied as a model of normal aging, but because not all organs are affected, this is no longer thought to be approp...
  • premature birth (medicine)
    in humans, respectively, any birth that occurs significantly before or after the expected date of delivery....
  • premature ejaculation (sexual behaviour)
    ...erection; ejaculatory impotence (or inhibited male orgasm), in which a man cannot achieve orgasm in the woman’s vagina, although he can sustain an erection and may reach orgasm by other methods; and premature ejaculation, in which the man ejaculates before or immediately after entering the vagina....
  • premature seeding (agriculture)
    Premature seeding, or bolting, is an undesirable condition that is sometimes seen in fields of cabbage, celery, lettuce, onion, and spinach. The condition occurs when the plant goes into the seeding stage before the edible portion reaches a marketable size. Bolting is attributed to either extremely low or high temperature conditions in combination with inherited traits. Specific vegetable......
  • premenstrual dysphoric disorder
    ...lethargy, and rapid mood swings to hostility, confusion, aggression, and depression. Women who have severe symptoms of depression that are associated with premenstrual syndrome may be diagnosed with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). While premenstrual dysphoric disorder is closely related to major depressive disorder, the symptoms of severe depression are cyclical in nature, fluctuating.....
  • premenstrual syndrome (medicine)
    a medical condition in which a group of characteristic physical and emotional symptoms are felt by women before the onset of menstruation. The symptoms of PMS are cyclic in nature, generally beginning from 7 to 14 days before menstruation and ending within 24 hours after menstruation has begun. The medical condition was named by British physician Katharina Dal...
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