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author collection (library)
There are at least as many types of book collectors as there are kinds of books. Traditional approaches tended to fall within three genres: the author collection, the subject collection, and the cabinet collection....
Author to Her Book, The (work by Bradstreet)
...the series. A silence may also replace expected sound and occupy the time of a foot or syllable. The early American poet Anne Bradstreet used substitution to great effect in the following lines from “The Author to Her Book”:I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet,Yet still thou run’st more hobbling than is meet;...
Authoritarian Personality, The (book by Adorno)
...was less quantitative, there were several outstanding works. Like Lasswell, the German philosopher Theodor Adorno (1903–69) and others adopted Freudian insights in their pioneering study The Authoritarian Personality (1950), which used a 29-item questionnaire to detect the susceptibility of individuals to fascist beliefs. The French political scientist Maurice Duverger...
authoritarianism (politics)
principle of blind submission to authority, as opposed to individual freedom of thought and action. In government, authoritarianism denotes any political system that concentrates power in the hands of a leader or a small elite that is not constitutionally responsible to the body of the people. Authoritarian leaders often exe...
authority
How the immediate effects of collective behaviour are translated into long-term consequences depends upon several contingencies, of which four merit attention. First, the nature of the response by authorities affects the immediate course of the collective behaviour. Some evidence suggests that alarmed and repressive reactions strengthen polarization, that moderate reactions strengthen the......
Authority in the Modern State (work by Laski)
...Wendell Holmes, Jr., and Louis Brandeis, both justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Felix Frankfurter, who was later appointed to the court. During this period he wrote Authority in the Modern State (1919) and The Foundations of Sovereignty, and Other Essays (1921). In both works he attacked the notion of an all-powerful sovereign state, arguing......
Authority, Liberty, and Function in Light of the War (work by Maeztu)
...(1905–19) and traveled in France and Germany to cover World War I. Disillusioned by the war, he became convinced that human reason could not solve social problems. He wrote, in English, Authority, Liberty, and Function in Light of the War, in which he called for a reliance on authority, tradition, and the institutions of the Roman Catholic church. It was published in Spanish as......
Authorized Version (sacred text)
English translation of the Bible published in 1611 under the auspices of King James I of England. The translation had a marked influence on English literary style and was generally accepted as the standard English Bible from the mid-17th to the early 20th century....
authors (card game)
English translation of the Bible published in 1611 under the auspices of King James I of England. The translation had a marked influence on English literary style and was generally accepted as the standard English Bible from the mid-17th to the early 20th century.......
Authors Guild (American organization)
English translation of the Bible published in 1611 under the auspices of King James I of England. The translation had a marked influence on English literary style and was generally accepted as the standard English Bible from the mid-17th to the early 20th century..........
autism (developmental disorder)
developmental disorder affecting physical, social, and language skills, with an onset of symptoms typically before age three. The term autism (from the Greek autos, meaning “self”) was coined in 1911 by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, who used it to describe withdrawal into one’s inne...
autism spectrum disorder
any of a group of neurobiological disorders that are characterized by deficits in social interaction and communication and by abnormalities in behaviours, interests, and activities....
Autism Spectrum, The (autism)
In 2009 researchers made numerous discoveries concerning the prevalence, neuropathology, and treatment of autism spectrum conditions (also known as autism spectrum disorders). Indeed, new estimates of prevalence in both the United States and the United Kingdom indicated that roughly 1 in every 100 children was diagnosed wi...
autistic disorder (developmental disorder)
developmental disorder affecting physical, social, and language skills, with an onset of symptoms typically before age three. The term autism (from the Greek autos, meaning “self”) was coined in 1911 by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, who used it to describe withdrawal into one’s inne...
Autlán (Mexico)
city, southwestern Jalisco estado (state), west-central Mexico. Autlán is situated in the western foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental at 3,291 feet (1,003 m) above sea level. It is a r...
Autlán de Navarro (Mexico)
city, southwestern Jalisco estado (state), west-central Mexico. Autlán is situated in the western foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental at 3,291 feet (1,003 m) above sea level. It is a r...
auto
a usually four-wheeled vehicle designed primarily for passenger transportation and commonly propelled by an internal-combustion engine using a volatile fuel....
Auto Acordado of 1713 (Spanish history)
...Likewise, Spain had no such principle until Philip V, the first Spanish king to come from the French house of Bourbon, introduced a less-stringent variation of the Salic Law by his Auto Acordado of 1713, which was later repealed. The Salic Law of Succession was applied when Victoria, who was from the house of Hanover, became queen of England in 1837 but was barred from......
auto de fé (public ceremony)
a public ceremony during which the sentences upon those brought before the Spanish Inquisition were read and after which the sentences were executed by the secular authorities. The first auto-da-fé took place at Sevilla in 1481; the last, in Mexico in 1850. The ceremonies, which became increasingly elaborate and spectacular, were normally staged in the ...
Auto de la Pasión (work by Fernández)
Fernández was educated at Salamanca and was professor of music there from 1522 until his death. His six plays show clearly the influence of his rival Juan del Encina. His best work is the Auto de la Pasión, an Easter play. His Diálogo para cantar (1514; “Dialogue for Singing”) is the first example of a rudimentary zarzuela, the distinctively......
Auto de los reyes magos (Spanish drama)
Spanish drama originated in the church. The Auto de los reyes magos (“Play of the Three Wise Kings”), dated from the second half of the 12th century, is an incomplete play of the Epiphany cycle. It is medieval Spanish drama’s only extant text. The play’s realistic characterization of the Magi and of Herod and his advisers and its polymetric form...
auto sacramental (Spanish drama)
(Spanish: “sacramental act”), Spanish dramatic genre that reached its height in the 17th century with autos written by the playwright Pedro Calderón de la Barca. Performed outdoors as part of the Corpus Christi feast day celebrations, autos were short allegorical plays in verse dealing wit...
Auto-da-Fé (work by Canetti)
novel by Elias Canetti, published in 1935 in German as Die Blendung (“The Deception”). It was also published in English as The Tower of Babel....
auto-da-fé (public ceremony)
a public ceremony during which the sentences upon those brought before the Spanish Inquisition were read and after which the sentences were executed by the secular authorities. The first auto-da-fé took place at Sevilla in 1481; the last, in Mexico in 1850. The ceremonies, which became increasingly elaborate and spectacular, were normally staged in the ...
Auto-Emancipation (work by Pinsker)
...“Auto-Emanzipation. Ein Mahnruf an seine Stammesgenossen. Von einem russischen Juden” (“Self-Emancipation. A Warning Addressed to His Brethren. By a Russian Jew”; Auto-Emancipation, 1884), which provoked strong reactions, both critical and commendatory, from Jewish leaders. In the pamphlet he contended that the only restorative for Jewish dignity and......
“Auto-Emanzipation. Ein Mahnruf an seine Stammesgenossen. Von einem russischen Juden” (work by Pinsker)
...“Auto-Emanzipation. Ein Mahnruf an seine Stammesgenossen. Von einem russischen Juden” (“Self-Emancipation. A Warning Addressed to His Brethren. By a Russian Jew”; Auto-Emancipation, 1884), which provoked strong reactions, both critical and commendatory, from Jewish leaders. In the pamphlet he contended that the only restorative for Jewish dignity and......
autoacceleration (chemistry)
...reactions, but on a large industrial scale it can be dangerous, since heat causes an increase in the reaction rate, and faster reactions in turn produce yet more heat. This phenomenon, called autoacceleration, can cause polymerization reactions to accelerate at explosive rates unless efficient means for heat dissipation are included in the design of the reactor....
autoallergic disease (pathology)
The mechanism by which the enormous diversity of B and T cells is generated is a random process that inevitably gives rise to some receptors that recognize the body’s own constituents as foreign. Lymphocytes bearing such self-reactive receptors, however, are eliminated or rendered impotent by several different mechanisms, so that the immune system does not normally generate significant amou...
Autoamerican (album by Blondie)
...led to the single Call Me, which topped the charts in 1980 and served as the theme for the film American Gigolo. By the time of Autoamerican (1980), the other members’ creative contributions had waned, even as the group’s style grew more adventurous, encompassing the reggae hit The Tide Is...
autoamputation
the ability of certain animals to release part of the body that has been grasped by an external agent. A notable example is found among lizards that break off the tail when it is seized by a predator. The phenomenon is found also among certain worms, salamanders, and spiders. The cast-off part is sometimes regenerated....
autoanalyzer (medical technology)
Tests can be performed manually using an individual procedure for each analysis; however, the autoanalyzer, a completely automated machine, increases the number of chemical analyses that can be performed in laboratories. A dozen analyses may be made simultaneously by a single machine employing a small amount of serum. The serum is automatically drawn from a test tube and is propelled through......
autoantibody (immunity)
harmful antibody that attacks components of the body called self antigens. Normally autoantibodies are routinely eliminated by the immune system’s self-regulatory process—probably through the neutralization of autoantibody-producing lymphocytes before they mature. At times this process fails, and antibodies that react to self constituents prolife...
Autobahn (album by Kraftwerk)
The foundation for Kraftwerk’s music was the sounds of everyday life, a concept first fully realized on the 22-minute title track of the Autobahn album (1974). Repetitious, monotonous, lulling, and entrancing, “Autobahn” became an unlikely hit in Europe and the United States (where it was played on commercial radio stations in severely edited form...
Autobahn (German highway)
high-speed, limited-access highway, the basis of the first modern national expressway system. Planned in Germany in the early 1930s, the Autobahnen were extended to a national highway network (Reichsautobahnen) of 2,108 km (1,310 miles) by 1942. West Germany embarked on an ambitious reconstruction of the system after ...
Autobahnen (German highway)
high-speed, limited-access highway, the basis of the first modern national expressway system. Planned in Germany in the early 1930s, the Autobahnen were extended to a national highway network (Reichsautobahnen) of 2,108 km (1,310 miles) by 1942. West Germany embarked on an ambitious reconstruction of the system after ...
Autobiographer as Torero, The (work by Leiris)
...the work catalogs Leiris’ physical and moral flaws; he introduced the 1946 edition with an essay, “De la littérature considérée comme une tauromachie” (1946; The Autobiographer as Torero), comparing the courage required to write with that required of a matador. In 1948 he began another autobiography, La Règle du jeu (“The Rul...
autobiographical memory (psychology)
As an aspect of episodic memory, autobiographical memories are unique to each individual. The study of autobiographical memory poses problems, because it is difficult to prove whether the events took place as reported. Using diary methods, researchers have found that people recall actions more accurately than thoughts—except in the case of emotionally charged thoughts, which are......
Autobiography (work by Mill)
The Autobiography tells how in 1826 Mill’s enthusiasm was checked by a misgiving as to the value of the ends that he had set before him. At the London Debating Society, where he first measured his strength in public conflict, he found himself looked upon with curiosity as a precocious phenomenon, a “made man,” an intellectual machine set to grind certain tunes. The elde...
autobiography (literature)
the biography of oneself narrated by oneself. Autobiographical works can take many forms, from the intimate writings made during life that were not necessarily intended for publication (including letters, diaries, journals, memoirs, and reminiscences) to a formal book-length autobiography....
Autobiography (work by Spencer)
...1850 Spencer became acquainted with Marian Evans (the novelist George Eliot), and his philosophical conversations with her led some of their friends to expect that they would marry; but in his Autobiography (1904) Spencer denies any such desire, much as he admired Evans’ intellectual powers. Other friends were G.H. Lewes, T.H. Huxley, and J.S. Mill. In 1853 Spencer, having receive...
Autobiography (work by Haydon)
English historical painter and writer, whose Autobiography has proved more enduring than his painting....
Autobiography (work by Cartwright)
...to Sangamon county, Ill. There he entered politics to oppose slavery and served several terms in the lower house of the Illinois general assembly. Cartwright recounted his colourful life in his Autobiography (1856), which became a leading source for material on the life of the western circuit rider....
Autobiography (work by Cellini)
Florentine sculptor, goldsmith, and writer, one of the most important Mannerist artists and, because of the lively account of himself and his period in his autobiography, one of the most picturesque figures of the Renaissance....
Autobiography (work by Loyola)
...during which he was, on his own admission, “a man given to the vanities of the world, whose chief delight consisted in martial exercises, with a great and vain desire to win renown” (Autobiography, 1). Although his morals were far from stainless, Ignatius was in his early years a proud rather than sensual man. He stood just under five feet two inches in height and had in hi...
Autobiography (work by Trollope)
...a further series, the six-volume Palliser group (1864–80), set in the world of British parliamentary politics. Trollope published an astonishing total of 47 novels, and his Autobiography (1883) is a uniquely candid account of the working life of a Victorian writer....
Autobiography (work by Jefferson)
...club, succeeding Edwin Booth and preceding John Drew. His first wife was the actress Margaret Clements Lockyer, and his second was Sarah Warren, niece of the actor William Warren. Jefferson’s Autobiography (1890) is written with spirit and humour, and its judgments with regard to the art of the actor and the playwright place it beside Colley Cibber’s Apology....
Autobiography (work by Franklin)
American author, journalist, and diplomat who was the discoverer and first editor of Benjamin Franklin’s long-lost Autobiography. As U.S. consul in Paris during the American Civil War, he also prevented the delivery of warships constructed in France for the Confederacy....
Autobiography, An (work by Smith)
In 1893 Smith published An Autobiography. The proceeds from the book, together with her savings, the income from a small newspaper she published, and gifts from others, enabled her to open a home for African-American orphans in Harvey, Ill., in 1899. Eventually she resumed preaching and singing in order to support the home. In 1912, when she retired to Florida, the orphanage was taken......
Autobiography, An (work by Wright)
...into a catastrophic state; in 1926–27 he sold a great collection of Japanese prints but could not rescue Taliesin from the bank that seized it. Amid these debacles, Wright began to write An Autobiography, as well as a series of articles on architecture, which appeared in 1927 and 1928. Finally, some of Wright’s admirers set up Wright, Incorporated—a firm that o...
“Autobiography of a Runaway Slave, The” (work by Barnet)
Barnet is best known for his Biografía de un cimarrón (1966; Biography of a Runaway Slave, also published as The Autobiography of a Runaway Slave), a trend-setting book that inaugurated and then became the standard for what was to be known as testimonio, or......
Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, The (work by Stein)
book by Gertrude Stein, written in the voice of her lifelong companion, Alice B. Toklas. Published in 1933, the work ostensibly contains Toklas’s first-person account not of her own life but of Stein’s, written from Toklas’s viewpoint and replete with Toklas’s sensibilities, observations, and mannerisms. The work was originally publ...
Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, The (novel by Johnson)
novel by James Weldon Johnson, published in 1912. This fictional autobiography, originally issued anonymously in order to suggest authenticity, explores the intricacies of racial identity through the eventful life of its mixed-race (and unnamed) narrator....
Autobiography of An Idea (work by Sullivan)
...last for half a century from its date, if not longer. It has penetrated deep into the constitution of the American mind.” It is with this event that Sullivan ended the Autobiography of an Idea (1924), his account of his career and his architectural theories....
Autobiography of Malcolm X, The (work by Haley)
biography, published in 1965, of the American black militant religious leader and activist who was born Malcolm Little. Written by Alex Haley, who had conducted extensive audiotaped interviews with Malcolm X just before his assassination in 1965, the book gained renown...
Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman (television movie)
...dramatic anthology format of the 1940s and ’50s. Many titles achieved a significant amount of critical acclaim, including Duel (ABC, 1971), Brian’s Song (ABC, 1971), The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (CBS, 1974), and The Execution of Private Slovik (NBC, 1974)....
Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, The (novel by Gaines)
novel by Ernest J. Gaines, published in 1971. The novel is set in rural southern Louisiana and spans 100 years of American history—from the early 1860s to the onset of the civil rights movement in the 1960s—in following the life of the elderly Jane Pittman, who witnessed those years....
Autobiography of Red (work by Carson)
...1995) reenvision language, sexuality, and subjectivity through a feminist, lesbian, and theoretical lens. Anne Carson writes playful poems that interweave contemporary and past voices. In Autobiography of Red (1998)—the story of the winged red monster Geryon and his doomed love for Herakles—she draws on the Greek poet Stesichoros, while in The Beauty of the......
Autobranchia (bivalve subclass)
Annotated classification...
autocatalysis (chemistry)
The unsaturated fatty acids present in the lipids of many foods are susceptible to chemical breakdown when exposed to oxygen. The oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids is autocatalytic; that is, it proceeds by a free-radical chain reaction. Free radicals contain an unpaired electron (represented by a dot in the molecular formula) and, therefore, are highly reactive chemical molecules. The basic......
autocephalous church (Eastern Orthodoxy)
in the modern usage of Eastern Orthodox canon law, church that enjoys total canonical and administrative independence and elects its own primates and bishops. The term autocephalous was used in medieval Byzantine law in its literal sense of “self-headed” (Greek: autokephalos), or independent, and was applied in church law...
Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Poland (Eastern Orthodoxy)
ecclesiastically independent member of the Eastern Orthodox communion, established in 1924 to accommodate the 4,000,000 Orthodox Christians residing in the vast Ukrainian and Byelorussian territories acquired by Poland after World War I. As the new political situation made it difficult for these Orthodox c...
autochrome process (photography)
The Autochrome process, introduced in France in 1907 by Auguste and Louis Lumière, was the first practical colour photography process. It used a colour screen (a glass plate covered with grains of starch dyed to act as primary-colour filters and black dust that blocked all unfiltered light) coated with a thin film of panchromatic (i.e., sensitive to all colours) emulsion, and it resulted......
autochthon (Greek mythology)
...as arbiter during the dispute between the deities Athena and Poseidon for the possession of Attica (the west pediment of the Parthenon shows the two gods in conflict for the honour). As one of the autochthons of Attica—i.e., literally sprung from its soil—Cecrops was represented as human in the upper part of his body, while the lower part was shaped like a snake....
autoclave (vessel)
vessel, usually of steel, able to withstand high temperatures and pressures. The chemical industry uses various types of autoclaves in manufacturing dyes and in other chemical reactions requiring high pressures. In bacteriology and medicine, instrumen...
autoclaved aerated concrete (building material)
vessel, usually of steel, able to withstand high temperatures and pressures. The chemical industry uses various types of autoclaves in manufacturing dyes and in other chemical reactions requiring high pressures. In bacteriology and medicine, instrumen...
Autocode (computer science)
Then, in September 1952, Alick Glennie, a student at the University of Manchester, England, created the first of several programs called Autocode for the Manchester Mark I. Autocode was the first compiler actually to be implemented. (The language that it compiled was called by the same name.) Glennie’s compiler had little influence, however. When J. Halcombe Laning created a compiler for th...
autocracy (political system)
the political doctrine and practice of unlimited, centralized authority and absolute sovereignty, as vested especially in a monarch or dictator. The essence of an absolutist system is that the ruling power is not subject to regularized challenge or check by any other agency, be it judicial, legislative, religious, economic, or electoral. Kin...
autocrine function (biology)
Chemical signals secreted by cells can act over varying distances. In the autocrine signaling process, molecules act on the same cells that produce them. In paracrine signaling, they act on nearby cells. Autocrine signals include extracellular matrix molecules and various factors that stimulate cell growth. An example of paracrine signals is the chemical transmitted from nerve to muscle that......
Autodromo (race track, Monza, Italy)
Monza is a busy industrial centre manufacturing felt hats and carpets, textiles, machinery, furniture, glass, paint, and plastics. It is the site of the famous Autodromo (automobile-racing track), which, because of its elliptical shape and concrete banked curves, is claimed to be the fastest in the world. Pop. (2006 est.) mun., 121,961....
Autofiction (work by Kanehara)
...novel, Asshu beibī (Ash Baby), appeared in 2004. She followed it with Ōtofikushon (2006; Autofiction), which opens with another nihilistic 20-something female and then scrolls back in time to reveal the past that shaped her skewed perceptions. It was a candidate for the Man Asian......
autofocus (photography)
Some cameras evaluate the coincidence (or lack thereof) between two rangefinder images by image analysis with a microchip system. This signals electronically when the lens is set to the correct distance and often carries out the distance setting by a servomotor built into the camera. Such focusing automation makes the camera even simpler to use. Alternative automatic ranging systems used in......
autofocus camera (photography)
Some cameras evaluate the coincidence (or lack thereof) between two rangefinder images by image analysis with a microchip system. This signals electronically when the lens is set to the correct distance and often carries out the distance setting by a servomotor built into the camera. Such focusing automation makes the camera even simpler to use. Alternative automatic ranging systems used in.........
autogamy (biology)
...of male and female gametes (sex cells) produced by the same individual. Self-fertilization occurs in bisexual organisms, including most flowering plants, numerous protozoans, and many invertebrates. Autogamy, the production of gametes by the division of a single parent cell, is frequently found in unicellular organisms such as the protozoan Paramecium. These organisms, however, may also....
autogenous fly (zoology)
...an insufficient larval diet. Although one batch of eggs occasionally is laid without a meal of blood, blood is necessary to mature a second batch. Flies that lay one batch of eggs without blood are autogenous; those that cannot lay at all without blood are anautogenous. One species can have both types, possibly as a result of shifting populations or races arising from natural selection. For......
autogenous mill
A special development is the autogenous or semiautogenous mill. Autogenous mills operate without grinding bodies; instead, the coarser part of the ore simply grinds itself and the smaller fractions. To semiautogenous mills (which have become widespread), 5 to 10 percent grinding bodies (usually metal spheres) are added....
autogiro (aircraft)
rotary-wing aircraft, superseded after World War II by the more efficient helicopter. It employed a propeller for forward motion and a freely rotating, unmotorized rotor for lift. In searching for an aircraft that could be slowed down in flight and landed vertically, experimenters built many prototypes tha...
autograft (surgery)
A tissue removed from one part of the body and transplanted to another site in the same individual is called an autograft. Autografts cannot be rejected. Similarly, grafts between identical twins or highly inbred animals—isografts—are accepted by the recipients indefinitely. Grafts from a donor to a recipient of the same species—allografts or homografts—are usually......
autograph (manuscript)
any manuscript handwritten by its author, either in alphabetical or musical notation. (The term also refers to a person’s handwritten signature.) Aside from its antiquarian or associative value, an autograph may be an early or corrected draft of a manuscript and provide valuable evidence of the stages of composition o...
Autograph Man, The (novel by Smith)
Smith’s second novel, The Autograph Man, was published in 2002. It centred on Alex-Li Tandem, a Chinese Jewish autograph trader who sets out to meet a reclusive 1950s starlet and in the process undertakes his own journey of self-discovery. The Autograph Man, which also addressed the public’s obsession with celebrity and pop culture, r...
autogyro (aircraft)
rotary-wing aircraft, superseded after World War II by the more efficient helicopter. It employed a propeller for forward motion and a freely rotating, unmotorized rotor for lift. In searching for an aircraft that could be slowed down in flight and landed vertically, experimenters built many prototypes tha...
autoharp (musical instrument)
stringed instrument of the zither family popular for accompaniment in folk music and country and western music. A musician may position the instrument on a table, on the lap while seated, or resting against the left shoulder. An autoharp player strums the strings with ...
autohelmsman (aeronautics)
device for controlling an aircraft or other vehicle without constant human intervention....
autohypnosis
hypnosis that is self-induced. Though feasible and possibly productive of useful results, it is often a sterile procedure because the autohypnotist usually tries too hard to direct consciously the activities that he wishes to take place at the hypnotic level of awareness, thus nullifying the effort. A form of self-hypnosis, or trancelike experience, is familiar to anyone who has been so absorbed i...
autoimmune antibody (biology)
Autoimmune antibodies (those produced against the body’s own cells) cause the destruction of acetylcholine receptors of the neuromuscular junction. Removal of the thymus, treatment with high doses of corticosteroids (which depress the immune response) and anticholinesterase medications (which stimulate the transmission of nerve impulses), and plasmapheresis (a procedure in which the autoimm...
autoimmune disease (pathology)
The mechanism by which the enormous diversity of B and T cells is generated is a random process that inevitably gives rise to some receptors that recognize the body’s own constituents as foreign. Lymphocytes bearing such self-reactive receptors, however, are eliminated or rendered impotent by several different mechanisms, so that the immune system does not normally generate significant amou...
autoimmune gastritis (pathology)
...rapid heartbeat, unsteady gait, smooth tongue, gastrointestinal disturbances, and neurological problems. Pernicious anemia is in most cases associated with an inflammation of the stomach called autoimmune gastritis. An absence of hydrochloric acid in gastric secretions (achlorhydria) is also characteristic of pernicious anemia. The anemia may become severe before the disorder is diagnosed,......
autoimmune hemolytic anemia (pathology)
Autoantibodies damage body tissues by bringing about the phagocytosis (ingestion) or lysis (bursting) of healthy cells. Blood cells are common targets of these actions. In autoimmune hemolytic anemia, for example, certain autoantibodies bind to red blood cells. This chemical binding activates the complement system, a series of proteins in the plasma, which in turn lyses the blood cells.......
autoimmune hepatitis (disease)
...with some illnesses, such as Wilson disease and alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency. Chronic hepatitis B primarily affects males, whereas chronic hepatitis C arises in equal numbers in both sexes. Autoimmune hepatitis, a disorder associated with a malfunction of the immune system, generally occurs in young women. Treatment for autoimmune hepatitis includes corticosteroids, which help to reduce......
autoimmunity
the state in which the immune system reacts against the body’s own normal components, producing disease or functional changes....
autoionization
...of water (81 at 25 °C [77 °F]), so it is a better solvent for organic materials. However, it is still high enough to allow ammonia to act as a moderately good ionizing solvent. Ammonia also self-ionizes, although less so than does water.2NH3 ⇌ NH4+ + NH2−...
autokinetic effect (psychology)
illusory movement of a single still object, usually a stationary pinpoint of light used in psychology experiments in dark rooms. As one stares at a fixed point of light, one’s eye muscles become fatigued, causing a slight eye movement. Without the usual reference points available in the everyday environment, the movement of the image on the retina is perceived as its actu...
autolith (geology)
...magma while it was still fluid, may be located near their original positions of detachment or may have settled deep into the intrusion, if their density is greater. Xenoliths can be contrasted with autoliths, or cognate xenoliths, which are pieces of older rock within the intrusion that are genetically related to the intrusion itself. The general term for all such incorporated bodies is......
autologous bone-marrow rescue (medical technology)
An important application of cryopreservation is in the freezing and storage of hematopoietic stem cells, which are found in the bone marrow and peripheral blood. In autologous bone-marrow rescue, hematopoietic stem cells are collected from a patient’s bone marrow prior to treatment with high-dose chemotherapy. Following treatment, the patient’s cryopreserved cells are thawed and infu...
autologous (self) hematopoietic stem cell transplant (therapeutics)
Another treatment for MS that has been explored in clinical trials is a form of stem cell therapy called autologous (self) hematopoietic stem cell transplant. This therapy has been tested only in patients who have not responded to conventional treatment regimens and therefore elect to undergo immunosuppressive therapy to destroy lymphocytes that have acquired autoimmune characteristics. Prior......
autologous transfusion (biology)
Autologous transfusion is the reinfusion of one’s own blood. The blood is obtained before surgery and its use avoids transfusion reactions and transfusion-transmitted diseases. Donation can begin one month before surgery and be repeated weekly, depending on the number of units likely to be needed. Intraoperative blood salvage is another form of autologous transfusion. The intraoperative blo...
autologous transplant (bone marrow transplantation)
Today, the two most commonly used bone marrow transplants are known as autologous and allogeneic. Both types of transplants are considered forms of stem cell therapy, since hematopoietic stem cells from the bone marrow are central to the recovery of the patient receiving the graft. An autologous transplant is used primarily in the case of cancer patients who are preparing to undergo high doses......
Autolycus (Greek mythology)
in Greek mythology, the maternal grandfather, through his daughter Anticleia, of the hero Odysseus. In Homer’s Odyssey the god Hermes rewards Autolycus’s faithful sacrifices to him by granting Autolycus skill in trickery, but later ancient autho...
autolysis (biology)
...may appear in the culture medium in which the bacteria are growing during the declining phases of growth; in some cases they are released at the time of normal destruction of the cells after death (autolysis). The exotoxins are less stable to heat than are the endotoxins, and they may be detoxified by agents that do not affect endotoxins. They are more toxic than endotoxins, and each exotoxin.....
Automat (American cafeteria chain)
any of a chain of cafeterias in New York City and Philadelphia, where low-priced prepared food and beverages were obtained, especially from coin-operated compartments....
automata
any of various mechanical objects that are relatively self-operating after they have been set in motion. The term automaton is also applied to a class of electromechanical devices—either theoretical or real—that transform information from one form into another on the basis of predetermined instructions or procedures (see automata theory...