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atonement (religion)
the process by which a person removes obstacles to his reconciliation with God. It is a recurring theme in the history of religion and theology. Rituals of expiation and satisfaction appear in most religions, whether primitive or developed, as the means by which the religious person reestablishes or strengthens his relation to the holy or divine. Atonement is often attached to sacrifice...
Atonement, Day of (Judaism)
most solemn of Jewish religious holidays, observed on the 10th day of the lunar month of Tishri (in the course of September and October), when Jews seek to expiate their sins and achieve a reconciliation with God. Yom Kippur concludes the “10 days of repentance” that begin with Rosh Hashana (New Year’s Day) on the first day of Tishri. The Bible refers to Yom...
Atoni (people)
predominant people of Timor, easternmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia. They inhabit the central and western plains and mountains of the island and number about 530,000. Of Proto-Malay and Melanoid stock, they speak a Malayo-Polynesian dialect called Timorese. Atoni legend claims they fled to the...
atopic dermatitis (pathology)
a type of dermatitis....
atopic hypersensitivity (medicine)
type of hypersensitivity characterized by an immediate physiological reaction, with movement of fluid from the blood vessels into the tissues, upon exposure to an allergen. Atopy occurs mainly in persons with a familial tendency to allergic diseases; reaginic antibodies are found in the ...
Atopogale cubana (mammal)
Only two species of insectivorous mammals are extant in the West Indies. Both are extremely rare and endangered. One, Solenodon cubanus, is found in Cuba and the other, S. paradoxus, is found on Hispaniola. Alfred L. Roca, Gila Kahila Bar-Gal, and William J. Murphy of the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, Frederick, Md., and colleagues used DNA gene sequencing to determine that the......
atopy (medicine)
type of hypersensitivity characterized by an immediate physiological reaction, with movement of fluid from the blood vessels into the tissues, upon exposure to an allergen. Atopy occurs mainly in persons with a familial tendency to allergic diseases; reaginic antibodies are found in the ...
Atossa (Persian princess)
...had two sons, one of whom, Cambyses, succeeded him; the other, Bardiya (Smerdis of the Greeks), was probably secretly put to death by Cambyses after he became ruler. Cyrus had at least one daughter, Atossa (who married her brother Cambyses), and possibly two others, but they played no role in history....
ATP
...to sound in the cab of any train passing over it. If the operator fails to respond appropriately, after a short interval the train brakes are applied automatically. A refinement, generally known as automatic train protection (ATP), has been developed since World War II to provide continuous control of train speed. It has been applied principally to busy urban commuter and rapid-transit routes.....
ATP (international sports organization)
...to full-fledged professional tennis were rife with political disputes and lawsuits for control of what had become a big-money sport. Both male and female players formed guilds—the men’s Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), which in 1986 became the Women’s International Tennis Association (WITA). Previous player unions ha...
ATP (coenzyme)
energy-carrying molecule found in the cells of all living things. ATP captures chemical energy obtained from the breakdown of food molecules and releases it to fuel other cellular processes....
ATP synthetase (enzyme)
...Pi to ATP. In this process, electrical energy is converted to chemical energy, and it is the supply of ADP that limits the rate of this process. The precise mechanism by which the ATP synthetase complex converts the energy stored in the electrical H+ gradient to the chemical bond energy in ATP is not well understood. The H+ gradient may power other......
ATP-binding cassette, subfamily A, member 4 (gene)
...degeneration, is the only form inherited in an autosomal recessive manner (disease occurs only when mutations are inherited from both parents). It is caused by mutations in a gene called ABCA4 (ATP-binding cassette, subfamily A, member 4). Stargardt-like macular dystrophy differs from Stargardt macular dystrophy in that it is caused by mutations in a gene called ......
ATP7B (gene)
The disorder is caused by autosomal recessive mutations (defects inherited from both parents) in a gene known as ATP7B, which produces a membrane protein that regulates the transport of copper out of cells. When the ATP7B gene is mutated, the membrane protein becomes dysfunctional, resulting in inefficient cellular export of copper. This in turn results in......
ATPase (enzyme)
An enzyme called sodium-potassium-activated ATPase has been shown to be the sodium-potassium pump, the protein that transports the ions across the cell membrane while splitting ATP. Widely distributed in the animal kingdom and always associated with the cell membrane, this ATPase is found at high concentration in cells that pump large amounts of sodium (e.g., in mammalian kidneys, in......
ATR (French company)
In 1981 Aerospatiale and Italy’s Aeritalia (predecessor of Alenia Aerospazio) merged their designs for a turboprop regional aircraft and formed ATR as a 50-50 joint venture to develop, market, and support regional transport aircraft. ATR developed a family of high-wing, twin-turboprop aircraft in the 40–70 seat range based the ATR 42, its first product (entered service 1985), and the...
Atractaspis (reptile)
any of 19 species of venomous, secretive snakes, also known as mole vipers and stiletto snakes, of tropical Africa and the Middle East. They belong to the family Atractaspididae, a group distinct from vipers and elapids. Atractaspidids are characterized by a strong ...
Atractiellales (order of fungi)
Annotated classification...
Atractiellomycetes (class of fungi)
Annotated classification...
Atractosteus spatula (fish)
...of needlelike teeth are very effective in capturing prey. The beak is very long and forcepslike in the longnose gar, or billfish (Lepisosteus osseus), but broad and relatively short in the alligator gar (L. spatula) of the southern United States. The alligator gar, reaching a length of about 3 metres (10 feet), is one of the largest of all freshwater fishes. Gars are edible but......
Atrahasis, myth of (Babylonian mythology)
...role is to rule over all other creatures. The story of the Deluge, including the elements of the ark and the dispatch of the raven and dove, appears already in the Babylonian myths of Gilgamesh and Atrahasis. There, however, the hero is eventually made immortal, whereas in the Bible this detail is omitted because, to the Israelite mind, no child of woman could achieve that status. Lastly, while...
ATRAN (military technology)
...radio-controlled guidance, which was limited essentially to the line of sight between the ground controller and the missile, covered less than the missile’s potential range. However, in 1954 an automatic terrain recognition and guidance (Atran) system was added (and the missile system was subsequently designated Mace). Atran, which used radar map-matching for both en-route and terminal.....
Aṭrash, Farid al- (Arab musician)
...renaissance, in chronological order, include ʿAbduh al-Ḥamūlī, Dāhūd Ḥussnī, Sayyid Darwīsh, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, Umm Kulthūm, Farid al-Aṭrash, Fayrouz, Rashid al-Hundarashi, Ṣadīqa al-Mulāya, and Muḥammad al-Gubanshi....
Atrato, Río (river, Colombia)
river in northwestern Colombia. It rises in the western slopes of the Cordillera Occidental of the Andes and flows generally northward to empty into the Gulf of Urabá of the Caribbean Sea. The river is only 416 miles (670 km) long, but its large discharge of no less than 175,000 cubic feet (5,000 cubic m) of water per ...
Atrato River (river, Colombia)
river in northwestern Colombia. It rises in the western slopes of the Cordillera Occidental of the Andes and flows generally northward to empty into the Gulf of Urabá of the Caribbean Sea. The river is only 416 miles (670 km) long, but its large discharge of no less than 175,000 cubic feet (5,000 cubic m) of water per ...
Atrax formidabilis (spider)
The species Atrax robustus and A. formidabilis are large, brown bulky spiders that are much feared in southern and eastern Australia because of their venomous bites. Several human deaths from the bites of these aggressive spiders have been recorded in the Sydney area since the 1920s. An antidote to the main toxin in their venom has been developed which is effective if administered......
Atrax robustus (spider)
The species Atrax robustus and A. formidabilis are large, brown bulky spiders that are much feared in southern and eastern Australia because of their venomous bites. Several human deaths from the bites of these aggressive spiders have been recorded in the Sydney area since the 1920s. An antidote to the main toxin in their venom has been developed which is effective if administered......
Atrebates (people)
...former capital of Artois, northern France. It lies on the Scarpe River, southwest of Lille. Of Gallo-Roman origin, it was the chief town (Nemetacum or Nemetocenna) of the Atrebates, one of the last Gallic peoples to surrender to Caesar. The woollen industry dates from the 4th century. The Middle Ages was a period of great material and cultural wealth, when Arras......
Atrek (river, Turkmenistan)
Turkmenistan’s main rivers are the Amu Darya (ancient Oxus River), which flows along its northeastern border toward the Aral Sea, and the Tejen, Morghāb (Murgab, or Murgap), and Atrek; there are also numerous small mountain rivers. However, the geographic position of the rivers and the direction of their flow do not coincide with the location of cultivable lands; the most......
atresia (congenital disorder)
absence, usually congenital, of a normal bodily passage or cavity (atresia) or narrowing of a normal passage (stenosis). Most such malformations must be surgically corrected soon after birth. Almost any cavity or passage may be affected; some of the more important of these disorders are as follows....
Atreus (Greek mythology)
in Greek legend, the son of Pelops of Mycenae and his wife, Hippodamia. Atreus was the elder brother of Thyestes and was the king of Mycenae. The story of his family—the House of Atreus—is virtually unrivaled in antiquity for complexity and corruption. There are several different accounts of Atreus’s feud with Thyestes....
Atreus, Treasury of (archaeological site, Mycenae, Greece)
a beehive, or tholos, tomb built about 1350 to 1250 bc at Mycenae, Greece. This surviving architectural structure of the Mycenaean civilization is a pointed dome built up of overhanging (i.e., corbeled) blocks of conglomerate masonry cut and polished to give the impression of a true vault. Th...
Atri (Italy)
town, Abruzzi region, central Italy, northwest of Pescara, on a hill overlooking the Adriatic Sea 7.5 mi (12 km) to the east and the Gran Sasso d’Italia mountain group to the west. Atri originated as Hatria, a town of the Picene...
Atria (star)
town, Abruzzi region, central Italy, northwest of Pescara, on a hill overlooking the Adriatic Sea 7.5 mi (12 km) to the east and the Gran Sasso d’Italia mountain group to the west. Atri originated as Hatria, a town of the Picene...
Atria (Italy)
town and episcopal see in the Veneto regione of northern Italy, on the Bianco Canal just east of Rovigo. Founded by the Etruscans or the Veneti of northeastern Italy, it later became a Roman town and was a flourishing port on the Adriatic Sea (to which it gave its name) until the silting up of the Po ...
atria (heart)
in vertebrates and the higher invertebrates, heart chamber that receives blood into the heart and drives it into a ventricle, or chamber, for pumping blood away from the heart. Fishes have one atrium; amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, two....
atria (anatomy)
...and turtles are sensitive to low-frequency vibrations, thus they “hear” mostly earth-borne, rather than aerial, sound waves. The reptilian auditory apparatus is typically made up of a tympanum, a thin membrane located at the rear of the head; the stapes, a small bone running between the tympanum and the skull in the tympanic cavity (the middle ear); the inner ear; and a eustachian...
atrial disease
...and turtles are sensitive to low-frequency vibrations, thus they “hear” mostly earth-borne, rather than aerial, sound waves. The reptilian auditory apparatus is typically made up of a tympanum, a thin membrane located at the rear of the head; the stapes, a small bone running between the tympanum and the skull in the tympanic cavity (the middle ear); the inner ear; and a eustachian...
atrial fibrillation (pathology)
irregular rhythm of contraction of the muscles of the atrium, the upper chamber of the heart. In some cases the fibrillations are not noticed by the patient, but frequently the chaotic, rapid, and shallow beats are felt as significant palpitations of the heart, often accompanied by shortness of breath, diz...
atrial flutter (pathology)
Atrial flutter (rapid atrial beat) may occur suddenly and unpredictably or may be a chronic sustained arrhythmia. The heart rate in atrial flutter approximates 300 beats per minute and is difficult to treat pharmacologically. In general, only a fraction of the atrial beats (one-third to one-fourth) are transmitted to the ventricle, which is done in a systematic manner so that the ventricular......
atrial natriuretic peptide (hormone)
...renal function is secreted by special “stretch receptor” cells in the atria of the heart in response to a rise in atrial pressure, as during heart failure. This hormone, called atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), exerts a vasodilator effect on the kidney and also reduces tubular reabsorption of sodium. Both actions result in increased urinary elimination of salt and water and......
atrial reflex (physiology)
acceleration of the heart rate resulting from increased blood pressure in, or increased distension of, the large systemic veins and the right upper chamber of the heart. This reflex, first described by the British physiologist Francis ...
atrial septal defect (pathology)
congenital opening in the partition between the two upper chambers (atria) of the heart. The most common atrial septal defect is persistence of the foramen ovale, an opening in this partition that is normal before birth and that normally closes at birth or shortly thereafter. The opening in the atrial septum results in the flow of blood from ...
Atrichornis clamosus
...allied to lyrebirds. Both species are brown, with a longish, pointed tail—rather like the brown thrasher of the United States. The 22-centimetre (9-inch) western, or noisy, scrub-bird (Atrichornis clamosus), discovered in dry brushlands of Western Australia in the 1840s, was believed extinct after 1889 but was rediscovered in 1961. The 18-centimetre (7-inch) rufous scrub-bird......
Atrichornis rufescens (bird)
...scrub-bird (Atrichornis clamosus), discovered in dry brushlands of Western Australia in the 1840s, was believed extinct after 1889 but was rediscovered in 1961. The 18-centimetre (7-inch) rufous scrub-bird (A. rufescens), discovered in the 1860s in wet forests of New South Wales, 2,500 miles (4,000 km) away from the other species, is now known to range to Queensland, where it......
Atrichornithidae (bird)
either of two species of rare Australian birds comprising the family Atrichornithidae (order Passeriformes), allied to lyrebirds. Both species are brown, with a longish, pointed tail—rather like the brown thrasher of the United States. The 22-centimetre (9-inch) w...
Atriden Tetralogie, Die (work by Hauptmann)
...stands beside naturalistic studies of the destinies of contemporary people (Dorothea Angermann, 1926). The culmination of the final phase in Hauptmann’s dramatic work is the Atrides cycle, Die Atriden-Tetralogie (1941–48), which expresses through tragic Greek myths Hauptmann’s horror of the cruelty of his own time....
atrioventricular bundle (anatomy)
Swiss cardiologist (son of the renowned anatomist of the same name), who discovered (1893) the specialized muscle fibres (known as the bundle of His) running along the muscular partition between the left and right chambers of the heart. He found that these fibres help communicate a single rhythm of contraction to all parts of the heart....
atrioventricular groove (anatomy)
...sulci, containing blood vessels, mark the separation between ventricles on the front and back surfaces of the heart. There are two grooves on the external surface of the heart. One, the atrioventricular groove, is along the line where the right atrium and the right ventricle meet; it contains a branch of the right coronary artery (the coronary arteries deliver blood to the heart......
atrioventricular node (anatomy)
...of both atria to trigger the contraction of those two chambers, which forces blood into the ventricles. The wave of atrial electrical activity activates a second patch of conductive tissue, the atrioventricular node, initiating a second discharge along an assembly of conductive fibres called the bundle of His, which induces the contraction of the ventricles. When electrical conduction......
atrioventricular valve (anatomy)
...lining) “pinch” the single opening between the atrium and the ventricle into two portions, thereby forming two openings. These cushions are also responsible for the formation of the two atrioventricular valves (the valves between atria and ventricles), which regulate the direction of blood flow through the heart....
Atriplex (plant genus)
genus of herbs and shrubs in the amaranth family (Amaranthaceae), containing about 300 species, often found on saline soils throughout temperate and subtropical areas of the world. Saltbush and orach are common names for the group. The leaves of many species often are white and look scurfy or mealy. Several species are salt-t...
Atriplex canescens (plant)
...Saltbush and orach are common names for the group. The leaves of many species often are white and look scurfy or mealy. Several species are salt-tolerant shrubs of western North America, especially four-wing saltbush, or chamiso (A. canescens), and spiny saltbush (A. confertifolia). Young leaves of the orach (A. hortensis), or garden orach, are eaten....
Atriplex confertifolia (plant)
...of many species often are white and look scurfy or mealy. Several species are salt-tolerant shrubs of western North America, especially four-wing saltbush, or chamiso (A. canescens), and spiny saltbush (A. confertifolia). Young leaves of the orach (A. hortensis), or garden orach, are eaten....
Atriplex halimus (plant)
...number of important plants. Species of Atriplex (saltbush) are extremely tolerant of environments with a high salt concentration and do exceedingly well near coastal areas. A. halimus (sea orach) is cultivated for its beautiful foliage and silvery-gray stems; its flowers are green and rather inconspicuous. A. hortensis (garden orach) was at one time used as a cure for gout....
Atriplex hortensis (plant)
...number of important plants. Species of Atriplex (saltbush) are extremely tolerant of environments with a high salt concentration and do exceedingly well near coastal areas. A. halimus (sea orach) is cultivated for its beautiful foliage and silvery-gray stems; its flowers are green and rather inconspicuous. A. hortensis (garden orach) was at one time used as a cure for gout....
Atriplex vesicaria (plant)
...such as oils, mucilages, resins, and, in the case of carnivorous plants, digestive juices. Plants growing in soils with high salt content produce salt-secreting trichomes (e.g., saltbush, Atriplex vesicaria; Amaranthaceae) that prevent a toxic internal accumulation of salt. In other cases, trichomes help prevent predation by insects, and many plants produce secretory (glandular)......
atrium (architecture)
in architecture, originally an open central court of a Roman house and later of a Christian basilica. In domestic and commercial architecture the concept of the atrium experienced a revival in the 20th century....
atrium (anatomy)
...and turtles are sensitive to low-frequency vibrations, thus they “hear” mostly earth-borne, rather than aerial, sound waves. The reptilian auditory apparatus is typically made up of a tympanum, a thin membrane located at the rear of the head; the stapes, a small bone running between the tympanum and the skull in the tympanic cavity (the middle ear); the inner ear; and a eustachian...
atrium (heart)
in vertebrates and the higher invertebrates, heart chamber that receives blood into the heart and drives it into a ventricle, or chamber, for pumping blood away from the heart. Fishes have one atrium; amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, two....
Atrium Vestae, The (work by Van Deman)
...the structure itself and showed that such differences in building materials provided a key to the chronology of ancient structures. The Carnegie Institution published her preliminary findings in The Atrium Vestae (1909). Van Deman extended her research to other kinds of concrete and brick constructions and published “Methods of Determining the Date of Roman Concrete......
Atrocity Exhibition, The (work by Ballard)
...previously been taboo in the genre. Among the notable works that appeared under Moorcock’s editorship were the “condensed novels” of J.G. Ballard that later appeared in The Atrocity Exhibition (1970); Thomas Disch’s Camp Concentration (1968), about an American military camp where political prisoners are subjected to experiments t...
Atropa belladonna (plant)
tall bushy herb, the deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna), of the family Solanaceae (order Solanales), and the crude drug consisting of its dried leaves or roots. The plant, which grows to about 1.5 metres (4–5 feet) tall, is a native of wooded or waste areas in central and southern Eurasia. It has dull green l...
Atropatene (region, Iran)
geographic region that comprises the extreme northwestern portion of Iran. It is bounded on the north by the Aras River, which separates it from independent Azerbaijan and Armenia; on the east by the Iranian region of Gīlān and the Caspian Sea; on the south by the Iranian regions of Zanjān and Kordest...
Atropates (king of Atropatene)
...the Great occupied Media in 330, and in the partition of his empire, southern Media was given to the Macedonian commander Peithon and eventually passed to the Seleucids, but the north was left to Atropates, a former general of Darius III, who succeeded in founding an independent kingdom, named Atropatene, with its capital at Gazaca. In later times Atropatene came under the control of Parthia,.....
atrophic glossitis (pathology)
A bald tongue (atrophic glossitis), with a smooth surface due to complete atrophy of the papillae, is associated with malnutrition, severe iron deficiency anemia, pernicious anemia, and pellagra, a disorder of skin and mucous membranes due to niacin deficiency. The condition is endemic in underdeveloped countries in which there are periods of famine....
atrophic vaginitis
Atrophic vaginitis occurs in postmenopausal women because the lack of estrogen stimulation causes the surface membrane of the vagina to become thin, dry, and fragile, increasing the likelihood of infection. Hormone replacement therapy restores the protective surface and eliminates vaginitis....
atrophy (pathology)
decrease in size of a body part, cell, organ, or tissue. The term implies that the atrophied part was of a size normal for the individual, considering age and circumstance, prior to the diminution. In atrophy of an organ or body part, there may be a reduction in the number or in the size of the component cells, or in both....
atropine (chemical compound)
poisonous, crystalline substance belonging to a class of compounds known as alkaloids and used in medicine. Its chief use is in ophthalmology, in which it is applied locally to the eye to dilate the pupil in the examination of the retina or to break up or prevent adhesions between the lens and the iris. It gives symptomatic relief from ...
Atryn (drug)
trade name of recombinant human antithrombin, an anticoagulant agent used to prevent thrombosis—the formation of a clot in a blood vessel that may block or impede the flow of blood, causing a potentially life-threatening condition. Atryn was developed by U.S.-based GTC Biotherapeutics and was the first therapeutic a...
Atrypa (extinct brachiopod genus)
genus of extinct brachiopods, or lamp shells, that has a broad time range and occurs abundantly as fossils in marine rocks from the Silurian through the Early Carboniferous (444 million to 318 million years ago). Many species of Atrypa have been described. The genus is easily recognized by its distinctive concentric ...
ʿAtshanah (ancient Syrian city, Turkey)
ancient Syrian city in the Orontes (Asi) valley, southern Turkey. Excavations (1936–49) by Sir Leonard Woolley uncovered numerous impressive buildings, including a massive structure known as the palace of Yarim-Lim, dating from c. 1780 bc, when Alalakh was the chief city of the district of Mukish and was incorporated within the kingdom of Yamkhad....
Atsina (people)
North American Indian tribe related to the Algonquian-speaking Arapaho, from which they may have separated as early as 1700. The variant name Gros Ventres (French: “Big Bellies”) was a misinterpretation by French trappers of Plains Indian...
Atsiz (Khwārezm-Shāh ruler)
Atsiz was the military leader who, after Sultan Sanjar’s capture in 1153, succeeded in supplanting Seljuq power in northeastern Iran. His ancestor, Anūṣtegin, had been keeper of Malik-Shah’s kitchen utensils and had been rewarded with the governorship of Khwārezm on the Oxus, where he founded the Khwārezm-Shah dynasty (c. 1077–1231). Regions ...
atsugai-hō (Japanese art)
...of mother-of-pearl or of abalone shells are cut into designs and either glued onto or inserted into the surface of the lacquer or wood. There are several varieties of raden lacquerware. Atsugai-hō, a technique using thick shell, consists of two methods, one of which is inlay: the shell is inserted into the incised pattern after the surface has been given a first coat of......
Atsugi (Japan)
city, Kanagawa ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, in the Sagami Valley, at the confluence of the Sagami-gawa (Sagami River) and the Nakatsu-gawa. Until the late 19th century, it flourished as a river port, post town, and centre for sericulture. Now an important commercial centre for the surrounding agricultural region, the city has convenient road and railway connections wi...
Atsukimi (emperor of Japan)
60th emperor of Japan. He was unsuccessful in continuing his father’s policy of limiting the power of the important Fujiwara family, which dominated the Japanese government from 857 to 1160....
Atsumi Kiyoshi (Japanese actor)
Japanese comic actor who portrayed the bumbling hero Tora-jiro Kuruma (widely known as Tora-san) in the 48-film series Otoko wa tsurai yo (“It’s Tough Being a Man”). The series ran from 1968 to 1996 and was the longest-running film series in which the same actor portrayed the central character....
Atsunobu (Japanese philosopher)
neo-Confucian philosopher, travel writer, and pioneer botanist of the early Tokugawa period (1603–1867) who explicated the Confucian doctrines in simple language that could be understood by Japanese of all classes. He was the first to apply Confucian ethics to women and children and the Japanese lower classes...
Atsuta (Japan)
ku (ward), Nagoya city, Aichi ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. A port town and early religious centre, Atsuta in the Tokugawa period (1603–1867) was one of the most prosperous post towns on the Tōkaidō highway. It was incorporated into Nagoya in 1907 and became a ward in ...
Atsuta Shrine (shrine, Nagoya, Japan)
...is Nagoya Castle, originally built in 1610–12 but destroyed by fire during World War II; it was rebuilt in 1959. The Tokugawa Art Museum preserves the collection of the Tokugawa family. The Atsuta Shrine and the nearby Grand Shrine of Ise are the oldest and most highly esteemed Shintō shrines in Japan. Other institutions include Citizen Hall, Aichi Cultural Centre, Chūnichi...
ATT (president of Mali)
Malian politician and military leader who has twice led his country. He served as interim president (1991–92) after a coup and has served as president since his election in 2002....
atta (food)
...the grain may be converted to food in other ways. In India the major part of the grain is not ground into flour in roller mills but is roughly ground in small crushing mills into a meal called atta. This meal is cooked into flat cakes known as chapatis....
Atta (ant genus)
After clipping out pieces of leaves with their jaws, the fragments are transported to an underground nest that can include over 1,000 chambers and house millions of individual ants. Nests of the Atta genus are characterized by ants of different sizes corresponding to castes of workers, soldiers, reproductives, and “guards.” Deep within the nest, the ants physically and......
Atta capiguara (ant)
...vegetation cut from tropical forests by the Atta ants alone has been estimated at 12–17 percent of all leaf production. Grass-cutting species accomplish similar feats: one species, A. capiguara, reduces the commercial value of pasture land in Brazil and Paraguay by as much as 10 percent....
Atta cephalotes (ant)
Though voracious, leafcutter ants are not indiscriminate in their harvests. At a study site in Costa Rica, A. cephalotes attacked only 17 of 332 available plant species, selecting woody species over herbaceous ones and introduced species over natives. Members of the plant families Compositae, Solanaceae, and Euphorbiaceae are frequently attacked. Within the favoured species, the ants......
Atta, Mohammed (Egyptian militant)
...11 plot took shape in Hamburg. Four of the key pilots and planners in the “Hamburg cell” who would take operational control of the September 11 attacks, including the lead hijacker Mohammed Atta, had a chance meeting on a train in Germany in 1999 with an Islamist militant who struck up a conversation with them about fighting jihad in Chechnya. The militant put the Hamburg cell......
Atta sexdens (ant)
...By pruning vegetation, they stimulate new plant growth, and, by gardening their fungal food, they enrich the soil. Excavating nests that may occupy 23 cubic metres (800 cubic feet), a colony of A. sexdens leafcutters may turn over 40,000 kg (88,000 pounds) of soil in tropical moist forests, stimulating root growth of many plant species. In New World tropical rainforests, the large nests....
Atta Troll, a Midsummer Night’s Dream (poem by Heine)
...which did not fit his ideal of a revolution of joy and sensuality. About the time that he met Marx, he also wrote another long poem, Atta Troll. Ein Sommernachtstraum (1843–45; Atta Troll, a Midsummer Night’s Dream), a comic spoof of radical pomposity and the clumsiness of contemporary political verse....
“Atta Troll, Ein Sommernachtstraum” (poem by Heine)
...which did not fit his ideal of a revolution of joy and sensuality. About the time that he met Marx, he also wrote another long poem, Atta Troll. Ein Sommernachtstraum (1843–45; Atta Troll, a Midsummer Night’s Dream), a comic spoof of radical pomposity and the clumsiness of contemporary political verse....
attaché
...food sales, aviation, and allocations of radio frequencies. Career diplomats tended to be generalists drawn from foreign ministries, and specialists increasingly came from other agencies as attachés or counselors. Disarmament negotiations, for example, required specialized knowledge beyond the scope of military attachés. Environmental abuse gave rise to a host of topics,......
attached column (architecture)
...Olympian Zeus at Acragas, begun in about 500 bc and left unfinished a century later. To carry the weight of the massive entablature, the outer columns were not freestanding but were half-columns engaged against (that is, partially attached to) a continuous solid wall. An earlier Sicilian variant of this use of the plastically molded wall mass with the orders applied decoratively c...
attachment (psychology)
Perhaps the central accomplishment in personality development during the first years of life is the establishment of specific and enduring emotional bonds, or attachment. The person to whom an infant becomes emotionally attached is termed the target of attachment. Targets of attachment are usually those persons who respond most consistently, predictably, and appropriately to the baby’s sign...
attachment (law)
in U.S. law, a writ issuing from a court of law to seize the person or property of a defendant. In several of the older states in the United States, attachments against property are issued at the commencement of suits in order to secure any judgment that may be entered for the plaintiff...
attack (aggressive behaviour)
The immediate cause or motivation of an attack by one animal on another lies in the attacker’s response to certain cues or stimuli. Such cues can be visual (robins will vigorously attack a bunch of red feathers placed in their territory), auditory (robins will also attack a tape recorder playing the song of another robin), tactile (spiders respond to vibrations set up by rivals entering the...
attack aircraft (military)
type of military aircraft that supports ground troops by making strafing and low-level bombing attacks on enemy ground forces, tanks and other armoured vehicles, and installations. Attack aircraft are typically slower and less maneuverable than air-combat fighters but carry a large and varied load of weapons (automatic canno...
attack, angle of (aerodynamics)
The lift an airfoil generates is also affected by its “angle of attack”—i.e., its angle relative to the wind. Both lift and angle of attack can be immediately, if crudely, demonstrated, by holding one’s hand out the window of a moving automobile. When the hand is turned flat to the wind, much resistance is felt and little “lift” is generated, for there is ...
attack submarine (military technology)
...the new nuclear submarines has had two great consequences. One is the rise of an altogether new kind of submarine, the strategic submarine. The other is a revolution in antisubmarine warfare, with attack submarines becoming the primary antisubmarine weapons. Attack submarines are armed with torpedoes and, in some cases, with antiship missiles. Strategic submarines may carry similar weapons,......
attack transient (music)
Because many musical instrument families have similar spectra, there must be other factors that affect their tone quality and by which their tones can be distinguished. Attack transients, such as the way in which a string is bowed, a trumpet tongued, or a piano key struck, and decay transients, such as the way the sound of a plucked string dies away, are very important in many instruments,......
Attacus atlas (insect)
...assama for muga silk; the Chinese oak silkworm, A. pernyi, for shantung silk; and the Indian moth, A. paphia, for tussah silk. A Southeast Asian silk-producing species is the large atlas moth (Attacus atlas), whose wingspread often exceeds 25 cm (10 inches). The caterpillar of the cynthia moth (Samia cynthia or walkeri), also known as the ailanthus silk...