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best music (award category)
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Best Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Academy Award)
...and SandArt Direction, Black-and-White: Richard Day and Nathan Juran for How Green Was My ValleyArt Direction, Color: Cedric Gibbons and Urie McCleary for Blossoms in the DustMusic Score of a Dramatic Picture: Bernard Herrmann for All That Money Can BuyScoring of a Musical Picture: Frank Churchill and Oliver Wallace for......
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Best Music Score (Substantially Original) (Academy Award)
...Lawrence of ArabiaArt Direction, Black-and-White: Henry Bumstead and Alexander Golitzen for To Kill a MockingbirdArt Direction, Color: John Box and John Stoll Lawrence of ArabiaMusic Score (Substantially Original): Maurice Jarre for Lawrence of ArabiaScoring of Music Adaptation or Treatment: Ray Heindorf for Meredith Willson’s The Music ManSong:......
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Best Musical Score (Academy Award)
...SensibilityCinematography: John Toll for BraveheartArt Direction: Eugenio Zanetti for RestorationOriginal Dramatic Score: Luis Enrique Bacalov for The Postman (Il postino)Original Musical or Comedy Score: Music and Orchestral Score by Alan Menken, lyrics by Stephen Schwartz for PocahontasOriginal Song: “Colors of the Wind” from......
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best of all possible worlds (philosophy)
in the philosophy of the 17th- and 18th-century philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, the present world of monads (infinitesimal psychophysical entities) coordinated in preestablished harmony. Among all possible worlds that God could have created, his actual choice of one over the others required a “sufficient reason,” which, for Leibniz, was t...
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Best Original Comedy Score (Academy Award)
...SensibilityCinematography: John Toll for BraveheartArt Direction: Eugenio Zanetti for RestorationOriginal Dramatic Score: Luis Enrique Bacalov for The Postman (Il postino)Original Musical or Comedy Score: Music and Orchestral Score by Alan Menken, lyrics by Stephen Schwartz for PocahontasOriginal Song: “Colors of the Wind” from......
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Best Original Dramatic Score (Academy Award)
...for The French ConnectionCinematography: Oswald Morris for Fiddler on the RoofArt Direction: Ernest Archer, John Box, Jack Maxsted, Gil Parrondo for Nicholas and AlexandraOriginal Dramatic Score: Michel Legrand for Summer of ’42Scoring—Adaptation and Original Song Score: John Williams for Fiddler on the RoofSong Original for the Picture:......
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Best Original Music Score (Academy Award)
...Man for All SeasonsArt Direction, Black-and-White: Richard Sylbert for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?Art Direction, Color: Dale Hennesy and Jack Martin Smith for Fantastic VoyageOriginal Music Score: John Barry for Born FreeScoring of Music Adaptation or Treatment: Ken Thorne for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the......
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Best Original Musical or Comedy Score (Academy Award)
...SensibilityCinematography: John Toll for BraveheartArt Direction: Eugenio Zanetti for RestorationOriginal Dramatic Score: Luis Enrique Bacalov for The Postman (Il postino)Original Musical or Comedy Score: Music and Orchestral Score by Alan Menken, lyrics by Stephen Schwartz for PocahontasOriginal Song: “Colors of the Wind” from......
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Best Original Musical Score (Academy Award)
...SensibilityCinematography: John Toll for BraveheartArt Direction: Eugenio Zanetti for RestorationOriginal Dramatic Score: Luis Enrique Bacalov for The Postman (Il postino)Original Musical or Comedy Score: Music and Orchestral Score by Alan Menken, lyrics by Stephen Schwartz for PocahontasOriginal Song: “Colors of the Wind” from......
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Best Original Score (Academy Award)
...Story: Eleanore Griffin and Dore Schary for Boys TownCinematography: Joseph Ruttenberg for The Great WaltzArt Direction: Carl J. Weyl for The Adventures of Robin HoodOriginal Score: Erich Wolfgang Korngold for The Adventures of Robin HoodScoring: Alfred Newman for Alexander’s Ragtime BandSong: “Thanks for the Memory” from......
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Best Original Score and Its Adaptation or Adaptation Score (Academy Award)
...the President’s MenCinematography: Haskell Wexler for Bound for GloryArt Direction: George Jenkins for All the President’s MenOriginal Score: Jerry Goldsmith for The OmenOriginal Score and Its Adaptation or Adaptation Score: Leonard Rosenman for Bound For GloryOriginal Song: “Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)” from A Sta...
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Best Original Score for a Motion Picture (Academy Award)
...Screenplay: James Goldman for The Lion in WinterCinematography: Pasqualino De Santis for Romeo and JulietArt Direction: John Box and Terence Marsh for Oliver!Original Score for a Motion Picture: John Barry for The Lion in WinterScore of a Musical Picture Original or Adaptation: John Green for Oliver!Song Original for the Picture: “The......
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Best Original Screenplay (Academy Award)
Screenplay: Donald Ogden Stewart for The Philadelphia StoryOriginal Story: Benjamin Glazer and John S. Toldy for Arise, My LoveOriginal Screenplay: Preston Sturges for The Great McGintyCinematography, Black-and-White: George Barnes for RebeccaCinematography, Color: Georges Perinal for The Thief of BagdadArt Direction, Black-and-White:......
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Best Original Song (Academy Award)
...CleopatraArt Direction: Cedric Gibbons and Frederic Hope for The Merry WidowScoring: Columbia Studio Music Department, Louis Silvers, head of department, for One Night of LoveSong: “The Continental” from The Gay Divorcée; music by Con Conrad, lyrics by Herb MagidsonHonorary Award: Shirley Temple...
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Best Original Song Score (Academy Award)
...Jr., for M*A*S*HCinematography: Freddie Young for Ryan’s DaughterArt Direction: Urie McCleary and Gil Parrondo for PattonOriginal Score: Francis Lai for Love StoryOriginal Song Score: The Beatles for Let It BeSong Original for the Picture: “For All We Know” from Lovers and Other Strangers; music by Fred Karlin, lyrics by......
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Best Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Adaptation Score (Academy Award)
...KramerCinematography: Vittorio Storaro for Apocalypse NowArt Direction: Philip Rosenberg and Tony Walton for All That JazzOriginal Score: Georges Delerue for A Little RomanceOriginal Song Score and Its Adaptation or Adaptation Score: Ralph Burns for All That JazzOriginal Song: “It Goes Like It Goes” from Norma Rae; music by David......
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Best Original Story (Academy Award)
Original Story: Ben Hecht for UnderworldAdaptation: Benjamin Glazer for 7th HeavenTitle Writing: Joseph FarnhamCinematography: Charles Rosher and Karl Struss for......
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Best, Pete (British musician)
...Scotland—d. April 10, 1962Hamburg, West Germany) and Pete Best (b. November 24, 1941Madras [now Chennai], India)....
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Best Picture (Academy Award)
Other Nominees...
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Best Score of a Musical Picture Original or Adaptation (Academy Award)
...Pasqualino De Santis for Romeo and JulietArt Direction: John Box and Terence Marsh for Oliver!Original Score for a Motion Picture: John Barry for The Lion in WinterScore of a Musical Picture Original or Adaptation: John Green for Oliver!Song Original for the Picture: “The Windmills of Your Mind” from The Thomas Crown Affair; music by......
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Best Scoring (Academy Award)
...MelodramaAdaptation: Robert Riskin for It Happened One NightCinematography: Victor Milner for CleopatraArt Direction: Cedric Gibbons and Frederic Hope for The Merry WidowScoring: Columbia Studio Music Department, Louis Silvers, head of department, for One Night of LoveSong: “The Continental” from The Gay Divorcée; music by Con Conra...
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Best Scoring—Adaptation and Original Song Score (Academy Award)
...for Fiddler on the RoofArt Direction: Ernest Archer, John Box, Jack Maxsted, Gil Parrondo for Nicholas and AlexandraOriginal Dramatic Score: Michel Legrand for Summer of ’42Scoring—Adaptation and Original Song Score: John Williams for Fiddler on the RoofSong Original for the Picture: “Theme from Shaft” from Shaft; music and lyrics b...
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Best Scoring of a Musical Picture (Academy Award)
...Green Was My ValleyArt Direction, Color: Cedric Gibbons and Urie McCleary for Blossoms in the DustMusic Score of a Dramatic Picture: Bernard Herrmann for All That Money Can BuyScoring of a Musical Picture: Frank Churchill and Oliver Wallace for DumboSong: “The Last Time I Saw Paris” from......
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Best Scoring of Music Adaptation or Treatment (Academy Award)
...Golitzen for To Kill a MockingbirdArt Direction, Color: John Box and John Stoll Lawrence of ArabiaMusic Score (Substantially Original): Maurice Jarre for Lawrence of ArabiaScoring of Music Adaptation or Treatment: Ray Heindorf for Meredith Willson’s The Music ManSong: “Days of Wine and Roses” from Days of Wine and Roses; music by......
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Best Scoring—Original Song Score and Adaptation or Scoring (Academy Award)
...for Fiddler on the RoofArt Direction: Ernest Archer, John Box, Jack Maxsted, Gil Parrondo for Nicholas and AlexandraOriginal Dramatic Score: Michel Legrand for Summer of ’42Scoring—Adaptation and Original Song Score: John Williams for Fiddler on the RoofSong Original for the Picture: “Theme from Shaft” from Shaft; music and lyrics b...
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Best Screenplay (Academy Award)
Screenplay: Dudley Nichols for The InformerOriginal Story: Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur for The ScoundrelCinematography: Hal Mohr for A Midsummer Night’s DreamArt Direction: Richard Day for The Dark......
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Best Screenplay—Adaptation (Academy Award)
Original Story: Ben Hecht for UnderworldAdaptation: Benjamin Glazer for 7th HeavenTitle Writing: Joseph FarnhamCinematography: Charles Rosher and Karl Struss for SunriseArt Direction: William Cameron Menzies for......
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Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published (Academy Award)
Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen: Cameron Crowe for Almost FamousScreenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published: Stephen Gaghan for TrafficCinematography: Peter Pau for Crouching Tiger, Hidden DragonArt Direction: Tim Yip for Crouching Tiger, Hidden DragonOriginal Score:......
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Best Screenplay—Original (Academy Award)
Screenplay: Donald Ogden Stewart for The Philadelphia StoryOriginal Story: Benjamin Glazer and John S. Toldy for Arise, My LoveOriginal Screenplay: Preston Sturges for The Great McGintyCinematography, Black-and-White: George Barnes for RebeccaCinematography, Color: Georges Perinal for The Thief of BagdadArt Direction, Black-and-White:......
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Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Academy Award)
Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen: Cameron Crowe for Almost FamousScreenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published: Stephen Gaghan for TrafficCinematography: Peter Pau for Crouching Tiger, Hidden DragonArt Direction: Tim Yip for......
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best-seller
book that, for a time, leads all others of its kind in sales, a designation that serves as an index of popular literary taste and judgment. Bookman, an American magazine of literature and criticism, began running best-seller lists in 1895, when it began publication. The list was compiled from reports of sales at bookstores throughout the country. Similar lists began to appear in other lite...
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Best Song (Academy Award)
...CleopatraArt Direction: Cedric Gibbons and Frederic Hope for The Merry WidowScoring: Columbia Studio Music Department, Louis Silvers, head of department, for One Night of LoveSong: “The Continental” from The Gay Divorcée; music by Con Conrad, lyrics by Herb MagidsonHonorary Award: Shirley Temple...
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Best Song Original for the Picture (Academy Award)
...Smith for Fantastic VoyageOriginal Music Score: John Barry for Born FreeScoring of Music Adaptation or Treatment: Ken Thorne for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the ForumSong Original for the Picture: “Born Free” from Born Free; music by John Barry, lyrics by Don BlackHonorary Award: Yakima Canutt and Y. Frank Freeman...
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Best Story and Screenplay (Academy Award)
Screenplay: Joseph L. Mankiewicz for A Letter to Three WivesMotion Picture Story: Douglas Morrow for The Stratton StoryStory and Screenplay: Robert Pirosh for BattlegroundCinematography, Black-and-White: Paul C. Vogel for BattlegroundCinematography, Color: Winton Hoch for She Wore a Yellow RibbonArt Direction, Black-and-White: Harry Horner......
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Best Supporting Actor (Academy Award)
Other Nominees...
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Best Supporting Actress (Academy Award)
Other Nominees...
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Best Title Writing (Academy Award)
Original Story: Ben Hecht for UnderworldAdaptation: Benjamin Glazer for 7th HeavenTitle Writing: Joseph FarnhamCinematography: Charles Rosher and Karl Struss for SunriseArt Direction: William Cameron Menzies for The Dove and TempestHonorary Award:......
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Best Writing (Academy Award)
Writing: Hans Kraly for The PatriotCinematography: Clyde De Vinna for White Shadows in the South SeasArt Direction: Cedric Gibbons for The Bridge of San Luis Rey and other pictures...
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Best Years of Our Lives, The (film by Wyler [1946])
Other Nominees...
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Bestam (Iran)
small historic town, northern Iran. It lies just south of the Elburz Mountains in a well-watered plain. Clustered around the tomb of the poet and mystic Abū Yazīd al-Bisṭāmī (d. 874) are a mausoleum, a 12th-century minaret and mosque wall, a superb portal (1313), and a 15th-century college. Nearby are interesting ruins, inclu...
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Bestām (Sasanian king)
...Hormizd was executed. New unrest broke out, in which Bahrām Chūbīn—though not of royal lineage—attempted to secure the throne. Simultaneously another pretender, Prince Bestām, decided to try his luck. Khosrow fled to Byzantium, and the emperor Maurice undertook to restore him by military force. Bahrām Chūbīn was routed (591) and fle...
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Besṭāmī, Bāyazīd al- (Ṣūfī mystic)
...punishment that a Sufi can imagine. Sufis regard their life before attaining mushāhadah as having been wasted. According to one anecdote, when the famous mystic Bāyazīd al-Besṭāmī (d. 874) was asked how old he was, he replied “four years.” When asked for an explanation, he answered, “I have been veiled from God by this world ...
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Bester, Alfred (American author)
innovative American writer of science fiction whose output, though small, was highly influential....
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“Bestiaires, Les” (work by Montherlant)
...as playing a similar female role with the bull in the ring, teasing and seducing the male animal to its death. Henry de Montherlant’s Les Bestiaires (1926; The Bullfighters) also deals with the matador’s ever-present threat of death in the ring....
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bestiality (sexual behaviour)
sexual relations between a human being and an animal. Although the practice is illegal in most countries, occasional zoophilic encounters are fairly common, especially in rural areas, where 17 percent of U.S. males in the Kinsey report of 1948 acknowledged sexual experience with animals at least once. Sexual contacts between women and animals occur less frequently....
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Bestiario (short story by Cortázar)
Cortázar was the son of Argentine parents and was educated in Argentina, where he taught secondary school and worked as a translator. Bestiario (1951; “Bestiary”), his first short-story collection, was published the year he moved to Paris, an act motivated by dissatisfaction with the Perón government and what he saw as the general stagnation of....
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Bestiary (Middle English work)
...and alliterative lines, and it is hardly likely that any of the material they contain actually originated with the king whose wisdom they celebrate. The early 13th-century Bestiary mixes alliterative lines, three- and four-stress couplets, and septenary (heptameter) lines, but the logic behind this mix is more obvious than in the ......
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bestiary (medieval literary genre)
literary genre in the European Middle Ages consisting of a collection of stories, each based on a description of certain qualities of an animal, plant, or even stone. The stories presented Christian allegories for moral and religious instruction and admonition....
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Bestie von Belsen (Nazi commander)
German commander of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp (1944–45), notorious for his cruelty....
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“Bestimmung des Menschen, Die” (work by Fichte)
...to 1806. Among his friends were the leaders of German Romanticism, A.W. and F. Schlegel and Friedrich Schleiermacher. His works of this period include Die Bestimmung des Menschen (1800; The Vocation of Man), in which he defines God as the infinite moral will of the universe who becomes conscious of himself in individuals; Der geschlossene Handelsstaat (also 1800), an......
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Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Aleksey Petrovich, Count (Russian statesman)
diplomat and statesman who controlled Russia’s foreign affairs during the reign of the empress Elizabeth....
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“Besy” (novel by Dostoyevsky)
Dostoyevsky’s next novel, Besy (1872; The Possessed), earned him the permanent hatred of the radicals. Often regarded as the most brilliant political novel ever written, it interweaves two plots. One concerns Nikolay Stavrogin, a man with a void at the centre of his being. In his younger years Stavrogin, in a futile quest for meaning, had embraced and cast off a st...
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Beszterce ostroma (work by Mikszáth)
...tót atyafiak (1881; “The Slovak Kinsfolk”), and A jó palócok (1882; “The Good Palócs”). In 1894 he published his first novel, Beszterce ostroma (“The Siege of Beszterce”), the story of an eccentric Hungarian aristocrat. Mikszáth’s early art is romantic. Toward the end of the century h...
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Besztercebánya (Slovakia)
town, capital of Střední Slovensko kraj, Slovakia. It lies in the Hron River valley, surrounded by mountains. An ancient town, it has been an important mining centre since the 13th century, when it was chartered. Gothic and Renaissance-style buildings, including burghers’ houses and the castle group (in the heart of town), date from the 15th and 16th centuries, when the...
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bet (floodplain)
...torrents, locally known as cos, several of which terminate in the plain below without joining any stream, and (3) the flat tract, with fertile alluvial soils. The low-lying floodplains (bet) along the rivers and the slightly elevated flat uplands between them are distinguishable within the plain. Sand dunes, now mostly stabilized, are found in the southwest and from 6 to 9 miles.....
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BET (American company)
American cable television network and multimedia group providing news, entertainment, and other programming developed primarily for African American viewers. BET also operates a jazz network, BET Jazz, features contemporary music through BET Gospel and BET Hip-Hop, produces documentaries and movies for distribution on the BET channel, and sponsors the BET Awards. The company...
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Bet Alfa (archaeological site, Israel)
ancient site in northeastern Israel, noted for the remains of a synagogue (founded 6th century ad) that was discovered in 1928 by kibbutz workers digging drainage ditches. The kibbutz was founded in 1922 by Polish Jewish immigrants, who revived the historical name of Bet Alfa for their settlement....
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bet din (Judaism)
Jewish tribunal empowered to adjudicate cases involving criminal, civil, or religious law. The history of such institutions goes back to the time the 12 tribes of Israel appointed judges and set up courts of law (Deuteronomy 16:18)....
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bet ha-sheʾuvah (Judaism)
...Sukka, include the daily recitation of Hallel, daily circumambulation of the Temple altar, a daily water libation ceremony, and the nightly bet ha-shoʾeva or bet ha-sheʾuvah (“place of water drawing”) festivities starting on the evening preceding the second day.......
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bet ha-shoʾeva (Judaism)
...Sukka, include the daily recitation of Hallel, daily circumambulation of the Temple altar, a daily water libation ceremony, and the nightly bet ha-shoʾeva or bet ha-sheʾuvah (“place of water drawing”) festivities starting on the evening preceding the second day.......
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Bet Hillel (Judaism)
...remembered for the school, Bet Shammai (“House of Shammai”), that he founded. His school, which advocated a strict, literal interpretation of Jewish law, competed with that of Hillel (Bet Hillel), which advocated more flexible interpretations. Shammai is cited in the Talmud and its commentaries in such a way as to emphasize his austere views. Bet Shammai opposed the Bet Hillel......
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Bet Leẖem (Israeli-occupied territory)
town in ancient Judah, central Palestine. It is situated in the Judaean Hills, 5 miles (8 km) south of Jerusalem. Bethlehem was the site of the nativity of Jesus Christ according to the Gospels (Matthew 2; Luke 2); Christian theology has linked this with the belief that his birth there fulfills the Old Testament prophecy of Israel’s future ruler coming from Bethlehem Ephr...
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Bet Shammai (Judaism)
...Hillel, he was a member of the Pharisees, a scholarly religious party with popular backing (as opposed to the Sadducees, a group of priestly aristocrats). Shammai is best remembered for the school, Bet Shammai (“House of Shammai”), that he founded. His school, which advocated a strict, literal interpretation of Jewish law, competed with that of Hillel (Bet Hillel), which advocated...
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Bet Sheʾan (Israel)
town, northeastern Israel, principal settlement in the low ʿEmeq Bet Sheʾan (ʿemeq, “valley”), site of one of the oldest inhabited cities of ancient Palestine. It is about 394 ft (120 m) below sea level. Overlooking the town to the north is Tel Bet Sheʾan (Arabic Tall al-Ḥuṣn), one of the most important stratified mo...
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Bet Sheʾan, Tel (archaeological site, Israel)
...Bronze II being cross-dated by finds to the time of the 1st dynasty, c. 2925 bc. Evidence of the early phases of the Early Bronze Age comes mainly from Megiddo, Jericho, Tall al-Farʿah, Tel Bet Sheʾan, Khirbat al-Karak, and Ai (Khirbat ʿAyy). All these sites are in northern or central Palestine, and it was there that the Early Bronze Age towns seem to h...
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Bet Sheʿarim (Israel)
agricultural cooperative settlement (moshav) and archaeological site in northern Israel, near the western end of the Plain of Esdraelon. Ancient Bet Sheʿarim (Hebrew: House [of the] Gates), about 3 mi (5 km) east-northeast of the modern settlement (founded in 1936), is frequently mentioned in rabbinic sources. These recount that Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi (c. a...
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Bet Yerah (ancient site, Palestine)
ancient fortified settlement located at the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee. Beth Yerah was settled in the Early Bronze Age (c. 3100–2300 bc) and was also populated from the Hellenistic to the Arab periods (c. 2nd century bc to 12th century ad). Archaeological findings suggest that it may be the location of Philoteria, a town built ...
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Bet Yosef (work by Karo)
Spanish-born Jewish author of the last great codification of Jewish law, the Bet Yosef (“House of Joseph”). Its condensation, the Shulḥan ʿarukh (“The Prepared Table,” or “The Well-Laid Table”), is still authoritative for Orthodox Jewry....
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beta (investment risk)
...theory showed that the market pricing of risky assets enabled them to fit into an investor’s portfolio because they could be combined with less-risky investments. His theories led to the concept of “beta,” a measurement of portfolio risk. Investment analysts frequently use a beta coefficient to compare the risk of one stock against the risk of the broader stock market....
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beta-1,4′ galactosidic link (chemistry)
Lactose (milk sugar) is hydrolyzed to galactose and glucose. These units are joined by a glycosidic bond from the β position of the anomeric carbon (C1) of lactose to C4 of glucose: a β-1,4′-galactosidic linkage. (Galactose is easily identified by the axial position of its hydroxyl group on C4.) Mammalian infants synthesize a β-galactosidase enzyme ...
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beta-adrenergic blocking agent (drug)
any of a group of synthetic drugs used in the treatment of a wide range of diseases and conditions of the sympathetic nervous system. Stimulation by epinephrine of beta-adrenoreceptors, which are predominately found in cells of the heart and also are present in vascular and other smooth muscles, results in excitation of the sympathetic nervo...
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beta-adrenergic receptor (microbiology)
...two major types of adrenergic receptors (adrenoceptors) on the surface of target organs and tissues. The receptors are known as alpha-adrenergic and beta-adrenergic receptors, or alpha receptors and beta receptors, respectively (see human nervous system: Anatomy of the human nervous system). In general, activation of alpha-adrenergic receptors results in the constriction of blood vessels...
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beta-adrenoreceptor (microbiology)
...two major types of adrenergic receptors (adrenoceptors) on the surface of target organs and tissues. The receptors are known as alpha-adrenergic and beta-adrenergic receptors, or alpha receptors and beta receptors, respectively (see human nervous system: Anatomy of the human nervous system). In general, activation of alpha-adrenergic receptors results in the constriction of blood vessels...
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beta-alanine (chemical compound)
...several so-called nonessential amino acids for birds and mammals; i.e., they can synthesize it from pyruvic acid (formed in the breakdown of carbohydrates) and do not require dietary sources. Beta-alanine is not found in proteins but occurs naturally in two peptides, carnosine and anserine, found in mammalian muscle. It is an important constituent of the vitamin pantothenic acid. ...
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beta alloy (metallurgy)
Using the common phases present at room temperature, titanium alloys are divided into four classes: commercially pure, alpha, alpha-beta, and beta. Each class has distinctive characteristics. Pure titanium, although very ductile, has low strength and is therefore used when strength is not critical and corrosion resistance is desired. The alpha alloys are weldable and have good......
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beta-alumina (mining)
In most industrial applications corundum has been replaced by synthetic materials such as alumina, an aluminum oxide made from bauxite. Artificial corundum may be produced as a specialty product, as for gem use, by slow accretion and controlled growth on a boule in an oxyhydrogen flame. This procedure is known as the Verneuil process (q.v.)....
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beta-aminoisobutyric acid excretion
a metabolic process under simple genetic control in human beings and the higher primates, the significance of which is not currently fully understood. Beta-aminoisobutyric acid (BAIB), an amino acid end product of pyrimidine metabolism, is excreted in trace quantities into the urine in almost all human beings, but the excretion of relatively large quantities of BAIB appears to be the result of a s...
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β-amylase (enzyme)
Beta-amylases are present in yeasts, molds, bacteria, and plants, particularly in the seeds. They are the principal components of a mixture called diastase that is used in the removal of starchy sizing agents from textiles and in the conversion of cereal grains to fermentable sugars....
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beta-amylase (enzyme)
Beta-amylases are present in yeasts, molds, bacteria, and plants, particularly in the seeds. They are the principal components of a mixture called diastase that is used in the removal of starchy sizing agents from textiles and in the conversion of cereal grains to fermentable sugars....
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beta-blocker (drug)
any of a group of synthetic drugs used in the treatment of a wide range of diseases and conditions of the sympathetic nervous system. Stimulation by epinephrine of beta-adrenoreceptors, which are predominately found in cells of the heart and also are present in vascular and other smooth muscles, results in excitation of the sympathetic nervo...
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beta brass (alloy)
...with a greater zinc content, which require hot working. The former group, known as the alpha brasses, are widely used in the manufacture of pins, bolts, screws, and ammunition cartridge cases. The beta brasses are less ductile but stronger and thus are suitable for the manufacture of faucet handles, sprinkler heads, window and door fittings, and other fixtures. A third group of brasses......
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Beta Canis Majoris variable star (astronomy)
Finally, among the various types of pulsating variable stars, the Beta Canis Majoris variables are high-temperature stars (spectral type B) that often show complicated variations in spectral-line shapes and intensities, velocity curves, and light. In many cases, they have two periods of variation so similar in duration that complex interference or beat phenomena are observed, both in radial......
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beta-carotene (vitamin)
Naturally occurring organic compounds that are highly coloured contain an extensive system of conjugated π bonds. The compound largely responsible for the bright orange colour of carrots, β-carotene, contains 11 conjugated π bonds. UV-visible spectroscopy is especially informative for molecules that contain conjugated π bonds....
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beta cell (biology)
...German physician Paul Langerhans, who first described them in 1869. The normal human pancreas contains about 1,000,000 islets. The islets consist of four distinct cell types, of which three (alpha, beta, and delta cells) produce important hormones; the fourth component (C cells) has no known function....
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Beta Centauri (star)
...German physician Paul Langerhans, who first described them in 1869. The normal human pancreas contains about 1,000,000 islets. The islets consist of four distinct cell types, of which three (alpha, beta, and delta cells) produce important hormones; the fourth component (C cells) has no known function.......
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beta-cristobalite (mineral)
...C (2,678° F), below which tridymite is the stable form. Cristobalite has two modifications: low-cristobalite, which occurs naturally up to 268° C (514° F) but is not stable; and high-cristobalite, which occurs above 268° C but is only stable above 1,470° C. Natural low-cristobalite usually occurs in sub-microcrystalline masses (see opal) or fibrous to c...
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Beta Cygni (star)
...Aldebaran (“the Follower”), Algenib (“the Side”), Alhague (“the Serpent Bearer”), and Algol (“the Demon”). A conspicuous exception is Albireo in Cygnus, possibly a corruption of the words ab ireo in the first Latin edition of the Almagest in 1515. Most star names are in fact Arabic and are frequently derived from......
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beta decay (physics)
any of three processes of radioactive disintegration by which some unstable atomic nuclei spontaneously dissipate excess energy and undergo a change of one unit of positive charge without any change in mass number. The three processes are electron emission, positron (positive electron) emission, and electron capture. Beta decay was named (1899) by Ernest Rutherford when he obser...
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beta-delayed alpha emission (physics)
...to emission of an alpha particle. Thus, these species exhibit alpha radiation with the half-life of the beta emission. Both the positron decay from boron-8 and electron decay from lithium-8 are beta-delayed alpha emission, because ground as well as excited states of beryllium-8 are unstable with respect to breakup into two alpha particles. Another example, sodium-20......
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beta-delayed neutron emission (physics)
One such process is beta-delayed neutron emission, which is exemplified by the following reaction:...
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beta-delayed proton emission (physics)
In a few cases, positron decay leads to an excited nuclear state not able to bind a proton. In these cases, proton radiation appears with the half-life of the beta transition. The combination of high positron-decay energy and low proton-binding energy in the daughter ground state is required. In the example given below, tellurium-111 (111Te) yields antimony-111......
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beta effect (science)
...Central Water. The shape of the lens of water is distorted by other dynamical effects, the principal one being the change in the vertical component of the Coriolis force with latitude known as the beta effect. This effect involves the displacement of the warm water lens toward the west, so that the deepest part of the lens is situated to the north of the island of Bermuda rather than in the......
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beta emission (physics)
any of three processes of radioactive disintegration by which some unstable atomic nuclei spontaneously dissipate excess energy and undergo a change of one unit of positive charge without any change in mass number. The three processes are electron emission, positron (positive electron) emission, and electron capture. Beta decay was named (1899) by Ernest Rutherford when he obser...
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beta-endorphin (chemical compound)
...which increases skin pigmentation; beta-lipotropin, which stimulates the release of fatty acids from adipose tissue; a small fragment of corticotropin, which is thought to improve memory; and beta-endorphin, which suppresses pain....
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beta-galactosidase (enzyme)
...(C1) of lactose to C4 of glucose: a β-1,4′-galactosidic linkage. (Galactose is easily identified by the axial position of its hydroxyl group on C4.) Mammalian infants synthesize a β-galactosidase enzyme that hydrolyzes the lactose found in their mothers’ milk. Some people stop producing this enzyme when they reach adulthood and can no longer hydrolyze l...
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β-galactosidase (enzyme)
...(C1) of lactose to C4 of glucose: a β-1,4′-galactosidic linkage. (Galactose is easily identified by the axial position of its hydroxyl group on C4.) Mammalian infants synthesize a β-galactosidase enzyme that hydrolyzes the lactose found in their mothers’ milk. Some people stop producing this enzyme when they reach adulthood and can no longer hydrolyze l...
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Beta Geminorum (star)
brightest star in the zodiacal constellation Gemini. A reddish giant star, it has an apparent visual magnitude of 1.15. The stars Castor and Pollux are named for the mythological twins. Pollux is about 34 light-years from the Earth....
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beta globulin (protein)
Three types of globulin have been identified—alpha, beta, and gamma. Alpha and beta globulins are transport proteins, serve as substrates upon which other substances are formed, and perform other diverse functions. Gamma globulins have a vital role in natural and acquired immunity to infection. See also gamma globulin....
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beta-hydroxyacyl ACP (chemical compound)
...ACP (1). The loss of carbon dioxide makes the process irreversible, since carbon dioxide is a gas and leaves the solution. The resulting β-ketoacyl ACP is then reduced to the β-hydroxyacyl ACP (2) and then dehydrated to the α,β-unsaturated ACP ester (3). The carbon-carbon double bond is then reduced to form the saturated carboxylic acid......