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Xanthus (Turkey)
principal city of ancient Lycia. The ruined city, situated on a cliff above the mouth of the Koca (Xanthus) River in what is now southwestern Turkey, was designated (along with the nearby Letoon religious centre) a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988....
Xanto Avelli, Francesco (Italian artist)
Several distinguished painters of pottery are known. The most notable are Nicola Pellipario, who worked at Castel Durante originally and at Urbino from 1528, and Francesco Xanto Avelli of Rovigo (flourished 1529–42). Nicola, who introduced and developed the istoriato style at Urbino, painted in the workshop of his son Guido (who took the name Fontana), drawing from engravings after.....
Xantusiidae (reptile)
any of 26 species of small, secretive New World lizards that live under rocks and decaying vegetation and in crevices and caves. Three genera are known. Xantusia (six species) occurs from southern California to the tip of the Baja California peninsula, with one species in Durango state, Mexico. The 19 species of Lepidophyma...
Xantusiidae henshawi (reptile)
...the smallest night lizards, X. vigilis is less than 4 cm (1.6 inches) from snout to vent. It eats small insects and termites that live under logs. A close relative, the granite night lizard (X. henshawi), lives in crevices, where it moves about during the day....
Xantusiidae vigilis (reptile)
The desert night lizard (X. vigilis) lives underneath decaying Joshua trees in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. Among the smallest night lizards, X. vigilis is less than 4 cm (1.6 inches) from snout to vent. It eats small insects and termites that live under logs. A close relative, the granite night lizard (X.......
Xantus’s murrelet (bird)
...in Alaska are the marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus), seen as far south as California, and Kittlitz’s murrelet, (B. brevirostris), which reaches Japan. Most southerly is Xantus’s murrelet (Endomychura hypoleucus), which nests on the hot coast of Baja California and (like some gulls of the region) travels north in winter....
Xarays, Lago (floodplain, Brazil)
floodplain in south-central Brazil that extends into northeast Paraguay and southeast Bolivia. It lies mainly within the Brazilian estados (states) of Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso. The Pantanal is one of ...
Xasan, Sayyid Maxamed Cabdulle (Somalian leader)
Somali religious and nationalist leader (called the “Mad Mullah” by the British) who for 20 years led armed resistance to the British, Italian, and Ethiopian colonial forces in Somaliland. Because of his active resistance to the British and his vision of a Somalia united in a Muslim brotherhood transcending clan divisions, Sayyid Maxamed is seen as a forerunner of modern Somali natio...
Xauen (Morocco)
town, northern Morocco, situated in the Rif mountain range. Founded as a holy city in 1471 by the warrior Abū Youma and later moved by Sīdī ʿAlī ibn Rashīd to its present site at the base of Mount El-Chaouene, it became a refuge for Moors expelle...
Xauen, Dámaso Berenguer y Fusté, Count de (Spanish statesman)
Spanish general who served briefly as prime minister (January 1930–February 1931) before the establishment of the Second Republic....
Xavante (people)
Brazilian Indian group speaking Xavante, a language of the Macro-Ge language family. The Xavante, who numbered about 10,000 in the early 21st century, live in the southeastern corner of Mato Grosso state, between the Rio das Mortes and the Araguaia River...
Xavi (Spanish athlete)
Spanish football (soccer) player who was widely regarded as one of the best midfielders in the world in the early 21st century....
Xavier, Saint Francis (Christian missionary)
the greatest Roman Catholic missionary of modern times, who was instrumental in the establishment of Christianity in India, the Malay Archipelago, and Japan. In Paris in 1534 he pronounced vows as one of the first seven members of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, unde...
Xavier University (university, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States)
private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. It is affiliated with the Jesuit order (Society of Jesus) of the Roman Catholic church. The university comprises colleges of arts and sciences, business administration, and social sciences. In addition to undergraduate studies,...
Xavier University (university, New Orleans, Lousiana, United States)
private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. It is affiliated with the Jesuit order (Society of Jesus) of the Roman Catholic church. The university comprises colleges of arts and sciences, business administration, and social sciences. In addition to undergraduate studies,...
Xaymaca
island nation of the West Indies. It is the third largest island in the Caribbean Sea, after Cuba and Hispaniola. Jamaica is about 146 miles (235 km) long and varies from 22 to 51 miles (35 to 82 km) wide. It is situated some 100 miles (160 km) west of Haiti, 90 miles (150 km) south of Cuba, and 390 miles (630 km) northeast o...
XB-35 (aircraft)
...fuselage and tail. From the 1920s he experimented with several small prototypes, and during World War II he designed a bomber 172 feet (52 m) wide and 53 feet (16 m) long. First flown in 1946, the XB-35 was powered by pusher propellers; its jet-propelled version, the YB-49, first flew in 1947. The following year the U.S. Air Force rejected the flying wing, citing as one factor the instability.....
Xbox (video game console)
video game console system created by the American company Microsoft. The Xbox, Microsoft’s first entry into the world of console electronic gaming, was released in 2001, which placed it in direct competition with Sony’s PlayStation 2 and Nintendo...
Xbox 360 (video game console)
...dropped the price of its Wii game console by $50, to $199, Sony reduced the price of its most-expensive PlayStation 3 model by $100, to $399, and Microsoft cut the price of its most-expensive Xbox 360 model by $100, to $299....
Xbox Live (gaming network)
In 2001 Microsoft released the Xbox, an electronic game console that quickly captured second place in the video gaming market. In 2002 Microsoft launched Xbox Live, a broadband gaming network for its consoles. A more powerful gaming console, the Xbox 360, was released in 2005. In an intensely competitive market, where the Xbox faced strong pressure from the Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation,......
XBT (instrument)
An expendable bathythermograph (XBT) was developed during the 1970s and has come into increasingly wider use. Unlike the BT, this instrument requires an electrical system aboard the research platform. It detects temperature variations by means of a thermistor (an electrical resistance element made of a semiconductor material) and depends on a known fall rate for depth determination. The sensor......
XCOR Aerospace (American company)
...will include a round-trip to the spaceport, spaceflight participant training, luxury resort accommodation, and a thrilling Mach 3 ride into space. Competing with Virgin Galactic and Astrium is XCOR Aerospace, a California company that in 2008 unveiled the Lynx, a suborbital spaceship that will provide front-seat rides into space by 2014. In Texas, Blue Origin, a privately funded aerospace......
Xe (chemical element)
chemical element, a heavy and extremely rare gas of Group 18 (noble gases) of the periodic table. It was the first noble gas found to form true chemical compounds. More than 4.5 times heavier than air, xenon is colourless, odourles...
Xe horizon (Mesoamerican culture)
The earliest Middle Formative cultures of the Maya lowlands are called, collectively, the Xe horizon. They apparently developed from antecedent Early Formative cultures of the Maya lowlands that have been discussed above. The problem of the origin of the Mayan-speaking people has not been solved. It may be that they were Olmec people who had been forced out of their homeland to the west by the......
Xema sabini (bird)
...a grayish brown mantle. Ross’s gull (Rhodostethia rosea) is an attractive pinkish white bird that breeds in northern Siberia and wanders widely over the Arctic Ocean. Abounding in the Arctic, Sabine’s gull (Xema sabini) has a forked tail and a habit of running and picking up food like a plover. The swallow-tailed gull (Creagrus furcatus) of the Galapagos Islan...
Xena (astronomy)
large, distant body of the solar system, revolving around the Sun well beyond the orbits of Neptune and Pluto in the Kuiper belt. It was discovered in 2005 in images taken two years earlier at Palomar Observatory in California, U.S. Before it receive...
Xena: Warrior Princess (American television program)
...but sensitive hero—accompanied by his faithful sidekick, Iolaus (played by New Zealand actor Michael Hurst)—helped make the show an instant hit. The spin-off series Xena: Warrior Princess, which starred Lucy Lawless, also gained great success. Young Hercules, with Ryan Gosling portraying the warrior in his training days, ran....
Xenacanthiformes (fossil fish order)
...Devonian orders of primitive sharklike fishes, the Cladoselachiformes and the Cladodontiformes, became extinct by the end of the Permian, about 251 million years ago, while the freshwater order Xenacanthiformes lasted until the end of the Triassic, about 200 million years ago. The final Devonian order, Heterodontiformes, still has surviving members....
Xenacanthus (fossil shark)
long-surviving but now extinct genus of freshwater sharks. Xenacanthus survived from the end of the Devonian Period, some 360 million years ago, to about the end of the Triassic Period, 208 million years ago. Xenacanthus had a slim, elong...
Xenakis, Iannis (French composer)
Romanian-born French composer, architect, and mathematician who originated musique stochastique, music composed with the aid of electronic computers and based upon mathematical probability systems....
Xenakis, Yannis (French composer)
Romanian-born French composer, architect, and mathematician who originated musique stochastique, music composed with the aid of electronic computers and based upon mathematical probability systems....
Xenarchus (Greek philosopher)
...former tutor of the sons of Pompey (106–48 bc) in Nysa (now Sultanhisar in Turkey) on the Maeander. He moved to Rome in 44 bc to study with Tyrannion, the former tutor of Cicero, and with Xenarchus, both of whom were members of the Aristotelian school of philosophy. Under the influence of Athenodorus, former tutor of Octavius, who probably introduced him into ...
Xenarthra (mammal)
an ancient lineage of mammals comprising the armadillos (order Cingulata) and the sloths and anteaters (order Pilosa). The namesake feature shared by all members of Xenarthra is seen in the lower backbone. The lumbar vertebrae are “xenarthrous”; that is, they have extra contacts (joints, or arthroses) that function to strengthe...
xenarthran (mammal)
an ancient lineage of mammals comprising the armadillos (order Cingulata) and the sloths and anteaters (order Pilosa). The namesake feature shared by all members of Xenarthra is seen in the lower backbone. The lumbar vertebrae are “xenarthrous”; that is, they have extra contacts (joints, or arthroses) that function to strengthe...
Xenia (Ohio, United States)
city, seat (1804) of Greene county, southwestern Ohio, U.S., near the Little Miami River, about 15 miles (25 km) east-southeast of Dayton. It was founded in 1803 by Joseph C. Vance, who gave it a Greek name meaning “hospitality.” The arrival of the railroads in the 1840s provided impetus for its growth as a trading centre for farmers and stock raisers. Small manufa...
xenia (sociology)
If the earlier Archaic period was an age of hospitality, the later Archaic age was an age of patronage. Instead of individual or small-scale ventures exploiting relationships of xenia (hospitality), there was something like free internationalism. Not that the old xenia ties disappeared—on the contrary, they were solidified, above all by the tyrants themselves....
Xenia (work by Martial)
...scarcely improved by their gross adulation of the latter emperor. In the year 84 or 85 appeared two undistinguished books (confusingly numbered XIII and XIV in the collection) with Greek titles Xenia and Apophoreta; these consist almost entirely of couplets describing presents given to guests at the December festival of the Saturnalia. In the next 15 or 16 years, however,......
Xenicidae (bird family)
bird family of the order Passeriformes; its members are commonly known as New Zealand wrens. The three living species are the rock wren (Xenicus gilviventris) and the rare bush wren (X. l...
Xenicus gilviventris (Xenicus genus)
New Zealand bird belonging to the family Xenicidae; also, a true wren of North America (Salpinctes obsoletus; see wren)....
Xenisthmidae (fish family)
...fins separate; chin of lower jaw large, pointed, forming terminal end of head; eyes small, on top of head; 2 genera with about 8 species, Indo-Pacific. Family Xenisthmidae Lower lip with free ventral margin; 6 branchiostegal rays. Marine, Indo-Pacific. 6 genera with about 12 species.Fa...
Xenius (Catalan author and philosopher)
Catalan essayist, philosopher, and art critic who was a leading ideologue of the Catalan cultural renaissance of the early 20th century....
Xenobalanus globicipitis (crustacean)
...turtles, and others are specific to cetaceans. Commensal barnacles are most visible on humpbacks and gray whales, although they occur to a lesser extent on many other baleen and toothed whales. Xenobalanus globicipitis, a unique type of small pseudo-stalked barnacle, occurs on the appendages of cetaceans, including the common bottlenose dolphin. Stalked barnacles can also occur on......
xenobiology (science)
a multidisciplinary field dealing with the nature, existence, and search for extraterrestrial life (life beyond Earth). Astrobiology encompasses areas of biology, astronomy, and geology....
xenobiotic chemical (chemistry)
The presence of substances in soil that are not naturally produced by biological species is of great public concern. Many of these so-called xenobiotic (from Greek xenos, “stranger,” and bios, “life”) chemicals have been found to be carcinogens or may accumulate in the environment with toxic effects on ecosystems (see the tabl...
Xenocongridae (eel)
...bones of skull paired, scales absent; reduced gill arch elements and reduced lateral line.Family Chlopsidae (Xenocongridae) (false morays)Burrowing. 8 genera with 18 species. Pantropical.Family Muraenidae......
Xenocrates (Greek philosopher)
Greek philosopher, pupil of Plato, and successor of Speusippus as the head of the Greek Academy, which Plato founded about 387 bc. In the company of Aristotle he left Athens after Plato’s death in 348/347, returning in 339 on his election as head of the Academy, where he remained until his death....
xenocryst (geology)
...were not crystallized from the host magma but rather were accidentally torn from the country rock by the magma as it rose to the surface. When this has occurred, these phenocrysts are referred to as xenocrysts, while the aggregates can be termed xenoliths. The size of phenocrysts is essentially independent of their abundance relative to the groundmass, and they range in external form from......
Xenogenesis trilogy (work by Butler)
...Kindred (1979) a contemporary black woman is sent back in time to a pre-Civil War plantation, becomes a slave, and rescues her white, slave-owning ancestor. Her later novels include the Xenogenesis trilogy—Dawn: Xenogenesis (1987), Adulthood Rites (1988), and Imago (1989)—and The Parable of the Sower (1993), Th...
xenograft (surgery)
...in which one, two, or even three cardiac valves may be removed and replaced with the appropriate artificial valve. The use of both homograft valves (obtained from human beings after death) and heterograft valves (secured from animals) is widespread. One of the advantages of both types is the absence of clotting, which occurs occasionally with the use of artificial valves. Most homograft......
xenolith (geology)
rock fragment within an intrusive igneous body that is unrelated to the igneous body itself. Xenoliths, which represent pieces of older rock incorporated into the 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 ...
xenomorphic crystal (geology)
The degree to which mineral grains show external crystal faces can be described as euhedral or panidiomorphic (fully crystal-faced), subhedral or hypidiomorphic (partly faced), or anhedral or allotriomorphic (no external crystal faces). Quite apart from the presence or absence of crystal faces, the shape, or habit, of individual mineral grains is described by such terms as equant, tabular,......
Xenomystus nigri (fish)
...Notopterids are predacious and nocturnal and in some areas are sought as food. The largest (Notopterus chitala) may grow to a length of about 80 cm (32 inches). The species Xenomystus nigri is sometimes kept in aquariums....
xenon (chemical element)
chemical element, a heavy and extremely rare gas of Group 18 (noble gases) of the periodic table. It was the first noble gas found to form true chemical compounds. More than 4.5 times heavier than air, xenon is colourless, odourles...
xenon tetrafluoride (chemical compound)
...is predicted and found to be a regular octahedron, and PCl5 (phosphorus pentachloride), with five bonding pairs, is predicted and found to be a trigonal bipyramid. The XeF4 (xenon tetrafluoride) molecule is hypervalent with six electron pairs around the central xenon (Xe) atom. These pairs adopt an octahedral arrangement. Four of the pairs are bonding pairs, and two are......
xenon-129 (chemical isotope)
Natural xenon is a mixture of nine stable isotopes in the following percentages: xenon-124 (0.096), xenon-126 (0.090), xenon-128 (1.92), xenon-129 (26.44), xenon-130 (4.08), xenon-131 (21.18), xenon-132 (26.89), xenon-134 (10.44), and xenon-136 (8.87). The mass numbers of the known isotopes of xenon range from 118 to 144. The xenon found in some stony meteorites shows a large proportion of......
Xenopeltis unicolor (snake)
any of two species of primitive, nonvenomous, burrowing snakes of family Xenopeltidae distributed geographically from Southeast Asia to Indonesia and the Philippines. Sunbeam snakes belong to a single genus (Xenopeltis) and are characterized by smooth, glossy, iridescent ...
Xenophanes (Greek poet and philosopher)
Greek poet and rhapsode, religious thinker, and reputed precursor of the Eleatic school of philosophy, which stressed unity rather than diversity and viewed the separate existences of material things as apparent rather than real....
Xenophon (Greek historian)
Greek historian and philosopher whose numerous surviving works are valuable for their depiction of late Classical Greece. His Anabasis (“Upcountry March”) in particular was highly regarded in antiquity and had a strong influence on Latin literature....
Xenopoulos, Grigorios (Greek author)
...the rural population. From about 1910 this critical attitude is further reflected in the prose writing of Konstantínos Chatzópoulos and Konstantínos Theotókis. Meanwhile Grigórios Xenópoulos wrote novels with an urban setting and devoted considerable effort to drama, a medium that received a substantial boost from the demoticist movement....
Xenopsylla cheopis (insect)
...that rat fleas carried the plague bacillus. The following year Paul-Louis Simond, a French researcher sent by the Pasteur Institute to India, announced the results of experiments demonstrating that Oriental rat fleas (Xenopsylla cheopis) carried the plague bacillus between rats. It was then demonstrated definitively that rat fleas would infest humans and transmit plague through....
Xenopus (amphibian)
(genus Xenopus), any member of 6 to 14 species of tongueless, aquatic African frogs (family Pipidae) having small black claws on the inner three toes of the hind limbs....
Xenopus laevis (amphibian)
One of the more important species is the platanna (X. laevis) of southern Africa, a smooth-skinned frog about 13 cm (5 inches) long. It is a valuable mosquito control because it eats the eggs and young of these insects. Native to sub-Saharan Africa, X. laevis was introduced to the United States and Britain....
Xenosauridae (reptile)
...11–25 cm (4–10 in.). California and Baja California. 4 subfamilies, 13 genera, and just over 100 species.Family Xenosauridae (knob-scaled lizards)Shape of interclavicle bone and presence of tubercles in the osteoderms distinguishes the family. Late Cretaceous from North America. Pres...
xenotime (mineral)
widely distributed phosphate mineral, yttrium phosphate (YPO4), though large proportions of erbium commonly replace yttrium), that occurs as brown, glassy crystals, crystal aggregates, or rosettes in igneous rocks and associated pegmatites, in quartzose and micaceous gneiss, and commonly in detrital material. Occu...
xenotransplant (surgery)
...in which one, two, or even three cardiac valves may be removed and replaced with the appropriate artificial valve. The use of both homograft valves (obtained from human beings after death) and heterograft valves (secured from animals) is widespread. One of the advantages of both types is the absence of clotting, which occurs occasionally with the use of artificial valves. Most homograft......
xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (virus)
...system dysfunction, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), chronic hypotension (low blood pressure), allergies, and altered hormone production. Some cases of CFS have been associated with a virus known as XMRV (xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus). However, the relationship between the syndrome and the virus remains unclear. It has been suggested that CFS itself represents a broad category....
Xeración Nós (Galician cultural movement)
...consciousness. In the years just before Franco came to power, a group of Galician writers born in the 1880s formed the core of the Galician cultural movement. Known as the Xeración Nós (“The We Generation”), these writers promoted their objectives in the literary and artistic journal Nós (1920;......
Xerénte (people)
Brazilian Indian group speaking Xerénte, a Macro-Ge language. The Xerénte live in northern Goias state, on a hilly upland plateau that is broken up by strips of forest that trace the courses of the rivers flowing through the region. They numbered approximately 500 in the late 20th century....
xeroderma (disease)
a hereditary condition involving dryness and scaliness of the skin brought about by excessive growth of the horny outermost covering of the skin. The dead cells of this horny layer do not slough off at the normal rate but tend instead to adhere to the skin surface to form scales; horny plaques and papules may also be present in more severe cas...
xeroderma pigmentosum (dermatology)
rare, recessively inherited skin condition in which resistance to sunlight and other radiation beyond the violet end of the spectrum is lacking. On exposure to such radiation the skin erupts into numerous pigmented spots, resembling freckles, which tend to develop into multiple carcinomas. The condition may occur in mild or severe forms. Protection from direct sunlight and surgical destruction of...
xerography (image-forming process)
Image-forming process that relies on a photoconductive substance whose electrical resistance decreases when light falls on it. Xerography is the basis of the most widely used document-copying machines (see photocopier). The process was invented in the 1930s by U.S. physicist Chester F. Carl...
xeromorphic plant (plant)
any plant adapted to life in a dry or physiologically dry habitat (salt marsh, saline soil, or acid bog) by means of mechanisms to prevent water loss or to store available water. Succulents (plants that store water) such as cacti and agaves have thick, fleshy stems or leaves. Other xerophytic adaptations i...
xerophile (biology)
...or barophilic (optimal growth at high hydrostatic pressure); oligotrophic (growth in nutritionally limited environments); endolithic (growth within rock or within pores of mineral grains); and xerophilic (growth in dry conditions, with low water availability). Some extremophiles are adapted simultaneously to multiple stresses (polyextremophile); common examples include thermoacidophiles......
xerophilic organism (biology)
...or barophilic (optimal growth at high hydrostatic pressure); oligotrophic (growth in nutritionally limited environments); endolithic (growth within rock or within pores of mineral grains); and xerophilic (growth in dry conditions, with low water availability). Some extremophiles are adapted simultaneously to multiple stresses (polyextremophile); common examples include thermoacidophiles......
xerophthalmia (pathology)
...thereby reducing resistance to disease. Night blindness is an early sign of vitamin A deficiency, followed by abnormal dryness of the eye and ultimately scarring of the cornea, a condition known as xerophthalmia. Other symptoms include dry skin, hardening of epithelial cells elsewhere in the body (such as mucous membranes), and impaired growth and development. In many areas where vitamin A......
Xerophyllum (plant genus)
one of two species of North American plants constituting the genus Xerophyllum of the family Melanthiaceae. The western species, X. tenax, also is known as elk grass, squaw grass, and fire lily. It is a smooth, light-green mountain perennial with a stout, unbranched stem, from 0.6 to 2 metres (2 to 6 feet) high, which rises from a woody, tuber-like rootstock and cordlike roots.......
Xerophyllum tenax (plant)
one of two species of North American plants constituting the genus Xerophyllum of the family Melanthiaceae. The western species, X. tenax, also is known as elk grass, squaw grass, and fire lily. It is a smooth, light-green mountain perennial with a stout, unbranched stem, from 0.6 to 2 metres (2 to 6 feet) high, which rises from a woody, tuber-like rootstock and cordlike roots.......
Xerophyllum tenax (plant)
one of two species of North American plants constituting the genus Xerophyllum of the family Melanthiaceae. The western species, X. tenax, also is known as elk grass, squaw grass, and fire lily. It is a smooth, light-green mountain perennial with a stout, unbranched stem, from 0.6 to 2 metres (2 to 6 feet) high, which rises from ...
xerophyte (plant)
any plant adapted to life in a dry or physiologically dry habitat (salt marsh, saline soil, or acid bog) by means of mechanisms to prevent water loss or to store available water. Succulents (plants that store water) such as cacti and agaves have thick, fleshy stems or leaves. Other xerophytic adaptations i...
xerostomia (pathology)
Sjögren syndrome, or sicca syndrome, is an autoimmune disorder characterized by dryness of the eyes (keratoconjunctivitis sicca); dryness of the mouth (xerostomia), often coupled with enlargement of the salivary glands; and rheumatoid arthritis. Sometimes the dryness of the eyes and mouth is associated with other connective tissue diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus,......
xerothermic (geology)
...appear to have been relatively warm—indeed, perhaps warmer than today in some parts of the world and during certain seasons. For this reason, this interval is sometimes referred to as the Mid-Holocene Climatic Optimum. The relative warmth of average near-surface air temperatures at this time, however, is somewhat unclear. Changes in the pattern of insolation favoured warmer summers at......
Xerox Corporation (American corporation)
major American corporation that was the first manufacturer of xerographic plain-paper copiers. Headquarters are in Norwalk, Conn....
Xerox Corporation Palo Alto Research Center (research centre, Palo Alto, California, United States)
division established in 1970 by Xerox Corporation in Palo Alto, California, U.S., to explore new information technologies that were not necessarily related to the company’...
Xerox PARC (research centre, Palo Alto, California, United States)
division established in 1970 by Xerox Corporation in Palo Alto, California, U.S., to explore new information technologies that were not necessarily related to the company’...
Xerox Star (computer workstation)
...Corporation’s Palo Alto (California) Research Center (PARC), to which several of Engelbart’s team moved in the 1970s. The new interface ideas found their way to a computer workstation called the Xerox Star, which was introduced in 1981. Though the process was expensive, the Star (and its prototype predecessor, the Alto) used a technique called “bit mapping” in which ...
Xerus (rodent)
...ground squirrel (Atlantoxerus getulus) lives in rocky habitats from sea level to 4,000 metres (13,000 feet) in the Atlas Mountains of northwestern Africa, and the four species of African ground squirrels (genus Xerus) inhabit savannas and rocky deserts in northern, eastern, and southern Africa. Central Asia’s sandy deserts are home to the single species of.....
Xerxes I (king of Persia)
Persian king (486–465 bc), the son and successor of Darius I. He is best known for his massive invasion of Greece from across the Hellespont (480 bc), a campaign marked by the battles of Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea. His ultimate defeat spelled the beginning of the decline of the Achaemenid Empire....
Xerxes II (king of Persia)
The three kings that followed Xerxes on the throne—Artaxerxes I (reigned 465–425 bc), Xerxes II (425–424), and Darius II Ochus (423–404)—were all comparatively weak as individuals and as kings, and such successes as the empire enjoyed during their reigns were mainly the result of the efforts of subordinates or of the troubles faced by their adversar...
Xerxes the Great (king of Persia)
Persian king (486–465 bc), the son and successor of Darius I. He is best known for his massive invasion of Greece from across the Hellespont (480 bc), a campaign marked by the battles of Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea. His ultimate defeat spelled the beginning of the decline of the Achaemenid Empire....
Xestobium rufovillosum (insect)
an anobiid, or borer insect, of the family Anobiidae (insect order Coleoptera) that makes a ticking or clicking sound by bumping its head or jaws against the sides of the tunnels as it bores in old furniture and wood. According to superstition, the sound, actually a mating call, was believed to forecast an approaching death. Its name is derive...
Xexauen (Morocco)
town, northern Morocco, situated in the Rif mountain range. Founded as a holy city in 1471 by the warrior Abū Youma and later moved by Sīdī ʿAlī ibn Rashīd to its present site at the base of Mount El-Chaouene, it became a refuge for Moors expelle...
XFL (American sports organization)
In 2000 McMahon shifted his focus to the gridiron. Looking to end the stranglehold the National Football League (NFL) had on the sport, he announced the creation of the Extreme Football League (XFL). While many questioned the move, citing the failure of past ventures to compete with the NFL, McMahon displayed his signature bravado and marketing muscle, slamming the NFL as dull and calling it......
Xg blood group system (biology)
classification of human blood based on the presence of proteins called Xg antigens on the surfaces of red blood cells. The Xg blood group system is the only blood group in which the antigen-encoding genes are located on the X chromosome. Discovery of the system in 19...
Xga (antigen)
The group consists of one identifiable antigen, Xga; two phenotypes, Xg(a+) and Xg(a−); and a pair of alleles, Xga, which is dominant to Xg. This blood group follows the pattern for sex-chromosome inheritance: daughters may receive a gene for Xga from either the mother or the father, but sons may only inherit Xga from the......
Xhosa (people)
a cluster of related peoples living primarily in Eastern Cape province, South Africa, and forming part of the southern Nguni group of Bantu-speaking peoples. The main Xhosa groups are the Gcaleka, Ngika, N...
Xhosa language (African language)
a Bantu language spoken by seven million people in South Africa, especially in Eastern province. Xhosa is a member of the Southeastern, or Nguni, subgroup of the Bantu group of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. Other Southeastern ...
Xhosa-Ciskei (former republic, Africa)
former republic (though never internationally recognized as such) and Bantustan that was inhabited principally by Xhosa-speaking people in Southern Africa. It bordered the Indian Ocean on the southeast and was bounded by the Republic of South Africa...
Xi Bo (ruler of Zhou)
father of Ji Fa (the Wuwang emperor), the founder of the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 bc) and one of the sage rulers regarded by Confucian historians as a model king....
Xi Chao (Chinese Daoist)
discussion of Buddhist precepts written in the 4th century ce by Xi Chao, who, though a Daoist, was a great admirer of Buddhism. One of the earliest discourses on the subject by a non-Buddhist, it is regarded as a milestone in the advance of Buddhist thought in China. Although it contains some erroneous interpretations of Buddhist ideas, the Fengfayao is comparable in its accu...
Xi Chaoxian Wan (bay, Yellow Sea)
inlet that forms the northeastern arm of the Yellow Sea between the Liao-tung Peninsula (in Liaoning province), China, and western North Korea....