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para-xylene ... parallel lines
para-xylene
(from the article "chemical industry") ...an important intermediate that leads principally to various coatings and plastics. The least valued of the isomers is meta-xylene, but it has uses in the manufacture of coatings and plastics. ...
parabasis
an important choral ode in Greek Old Comedy delivered by the chorus at an intermission in the action while facing and moving toward the audience. It was used to express ... [2 Related Articles]
Parabel
(from the article "Ob River") ...right-bank tributary, the Chulym, shortly below the confluence of the Shegarka River from the left. Successive tributaries along the northwesterly course, after the Chulym, include the Chaya and the Parabel ...
Parablastoidea
(from the article "echinoderm") ...about 460,000,000 years ago; with stem, theca, and arms with barblike structures (pinnules); plates of theca with pore system of unique type.Lower to Middle Ordovician about 460,000,000-500,000,000 years ago; ...
parable
(from the article "fable, parable, and allegory") any form of imaginative literature or spoken utterance constructed in such a way that readers or listeners are encouraged to look for meanings hidden beneath the literal surface of the ...
parabola
open curve, a conic section produced by the intersection of a right circular cone and a plane parallel to an element of the cone. As a plane curve, it may ... [7 Related Articles]
parabolic antenna
(from the article "radar") A widely used form of radar antenna is the parabolic reflector, the principle of which is shown in cross section in part A of the figure. A horn antenna or ...
parabolic equation
any of a class of partial differential equations arising in the mathematical analysis of diffusion phenomena, as in the heating of a slab. The simplest such equation in one dimension, ...
parabolic microphone
(from the article "sound") ...of purposes or effects. For example, a parabolic reflector will focus a parallel wave of sound onto a specific point, allowing a very weak sound to be more easily heard. ...
parabolic orbit
(from the article "comet") Newton's friend, the astronomer Edmond Halley, endeavoured to compute the orbits of 24 comets for which he had found accurate enough historical documents. Applying Newton's method, he presupposed a parabola ...
parabolic ski
(from the article "skiing") ...for strength, and finally adding a plastic base. As early as the 19th century, Norwegians and others had designed skis with sides that curved up to form parabolic profiles when ...
paraboloid
an open surface generated by rotating a parabola (q.v.) about its axis. If the axis of the surface is the z axis and the vertex is at the origin, the ... [1 Related Articles]
paracanthopterygian
any member of the superorder Paracanthopterygii, a predatory, primarily marine group that forms one of about six major branches of the Teleostei, or bony fishes, the dominant modern aquatic vertebrates. ...
Paracas
culture centred on the peninsula of the same name, located in present-day southern Peru in the vicinity of Ica, during the Early Horizon and the Early Intermediate periods (c. 900 ... [3 Related Articles]
Paracatu
(from the article "Sao Francisco River") ...Minas Gerais and Bahia, through the extensive Sobradinho Reservoir, to the twin cities of Juazeiro and Petrolina. In this stretch the river receives its main left-bank tributaries-the Paracatu, Urucuia, Corrente, ...
Paracel Islands
group of about 130 small coral islands and reefs in the South China Sea. They lie about 250 miles (400 km) east of central Vietnam and about 220 miles (350 ...
Paracelsus
German-Swiss physician and alchemist who established the role of chemistry in medicine. He published Der grossen Wundartzney ("Great Surgery Book") in 1536 and a clinical description of syphilis in 1530. [14 Related Articles]
Paracentrotus
(from the article "sea urchin") ...ventricosus-are eaten raw or fried; in the Mediterranean region, frutta di mare is the egg mass of Paracentrotus lividus (the best known rock borer) and other Paracentrotus species; and, on ...
Paracentrotus lividus
(from the article "sea urchin") ...at a time. In the West Indies, sea eggs-the ovaries of Tripneustes ventricosus-are eaten raw or fried; in the Mediterranean region, frutta di mare is the egg mass of Paracentrotus ...
parachute
device that slows the vertical descent of a body falling through the atmosphere or the velocity of a body moving horizontally. The parachute increases the body's surface area, and this ... [4 Related Articles]
Parachute Creek
(from the article "oil shale") ...also been limited in large part because of falling oil prices resulting from increased world crude oil production. The only completed plant capable of producing shale oil is the Unishale ...
Paraclete
(from the article "Abelard, Peter") Heloise had meanwhile become the head of a new foundation of nuns called the Paraclete. Abelard became the abbot of the new community and provided it with a rule and ...
Paraclinus marmoratus
(from the article "perciform") ...Ocean from the California coast to Japan or the reverse. Spawning in perciforms generally takes place in shallow coastal areas or in rivers and ponds among rocks, seaweeds, and aquatic ...
paracompactness
(from the article "topology") ...period. The metrization problem, which sought a topological description of the spaces for which the topology could be induced by a metric, was settled following considerable work on the notion ...
paracontrast
(from the article "eye, human") ...background will appear to be missing its blue light-white minus blue is a mixture of red and green-i.e., yellow. Particularly interesting from this viewpoint are the phenomena of metacontrast; by ...
paracrine function
(from the article "cell") Chemical signals secreted by cells can act over varying distances. In the autocrine signaling process, molecules act on the same cells that produce them. In paracrine signaling, they act on ...
Paracrinoidea
(from the article "echinoderm") ...stem, theca with 18-21 plates arranged in 4 rings; numerous feeding brachioles; distinctive infoldings of theca (hydrospires) well developed.Middle Ordovician about 460,000,000 years ago; with stem, theca, and arms ...
parade
(from the article "parade") a type of pageant (q.v.) whose main feature is a public procession.PHOTOGRAPHRingling Bros. Circus
paradigm
(from the article "Kuhn, Thomas S.") ...theory of the solar system during the Renaissance. In his landmark second book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, he argued that scientific research and thought are defined by "paradigms," or ...
Paradip
town and major port of east-central Orissa state, eastern India, on the Bay of Bengal. It is situated on the delta of the Mahanadi River at the mouth of one ...
paradise
in religion, a place of exceptional happiness and delight. The term paradise is often used as a synonym for the Garden of Eden before the expulsion of Adam and Eve. ... [4 Related Articles]
paradise flycatcher
(from the article "monarch") The most striking monarchines are the paradise flycatchers (Terpsiphone, or Tchitrea) found in tropical Africa and Asia, north through eastern China and Japan. About 10 species are recognized, but the ...
Paradise Island
(from the article "Nassau") ...natural vegetation includes scarlet poinciana trees, poinsettias, and purple bougainvillea. The Ardastra Gardens and Zoo, west of the city, contain flamingos and many rare tropical plants. Paradise Island, a luxury ...
paradise palm
(from the article "houseplant") Because of their majestic beauty and distinctive decorative appeal many palms are grown indoors. Best known of the feather palms is the paradise palm (Howea, or Kentia), which combines grace ...
paradise tanager
(from the article "tanager") ...has a greater breeding range: from southern Arizona to central Argentina. The most striking tropical genus is Tangara: about 50 small species sometimes called callistes. An example is the paradise ...
paradise tree
(from the article "Christmas tree") The modern Christmas tree, though, originated in western Germany. The main prop of a popular medieval play about Adam and Eve was a "paradise tree," a fir tree hung with ...
Paradise Valley
(from the article "Western architecture") ...of echoing spaces, culminating in the forest of graceful "mushroom" columns in the main hall; the Johnson House (1937), aptly called Wingspread, also at Racine; and Taliesin West at Paradise ...
Paradiso
(from the article "stage machinery") In the late 14th century Italian artists, architects, and engineers began to design elaborate machinery for spectacles produced in the churches on holy days. One such device was the Paradiso, ...
paradox
apparently self-contradictory statement, the underlying meaning of which is revealed only by careful scrutiny. The purpose of a paradox is to arrest attention and provoke fresh thought. The statement "Less ... [1 Related Articles]
paradox
(from the article "complexity") Paradoxes typically arise from false assumptions, which then lead to inconsistencies between observed and expected behaviour. Sometimes paradoxes occur in simple logical or linguistic situations, such as the famous Liar ...
paradoxes of Zeno
statements made by the Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea, a 5th-century-BC disciple of Parmenides, a fellow Eleatic, designed to show that any assertion opposite to the monistic teaching of Parmenides ... [9 Related Articles]
paradoxical cold and heat
(from the article "sensory reception, human") ...within a given patch of skin provides a basis for the concept of adequate stimulation. Sometimes, for example, a cold spot responds to a very warm stimulus, and one experiences ...
Paradoxides
genus of trilobites (an extinct group of arthropods) found as fossils in Middle Cambrian rocks of North America and western Europe (the Cambrian Period lasted from 540 to 505 million ...
Paradoxides harlani
(from the article "trilobite") Some trilobites were active predators, whereas others were scavengers, and still others probably ate plankton. Some trilobites grew to large size; Paradoxides harlani, which has been found near Boston in ...
Paradoxides Series
rocks deposited during the Middle Cambrian Period in western Europe and Scandinavia and in eastern North America (the Middle Cambrian Period lasted from 520 to 512 million years ago). The ...
Paradoxurus
(from the article "palm") ...in Florida, U.S. Fruits of Euterpe in northern South America are sought by fish and by the electric eel (Electrophorus electricus). Wild dogs (family Canidae) and palm civets (Paradoxurus) devour ...
Paradzhanov, Sergey Yosifovich
Armenian director of lyrical, visually powerful films whose career was curtailed by official harassment and censorship. [2 Related Articles]
paraffin hydrocarbon
any of the saturated hydrocarbons having the general formula CnH2n+2, C being a carbon atom, H a hydrogen atom, and n an integer. The paraffins are major constituents of natural ... [7 Related Articles]
paraffin wax
colourless or white, somewhat translucent, hard wax consisting of a mixture of solid straight-chain hydrocarbons ranging in melting point from about 48° to 66° C (120° to 150° F). Paraffin ... [4 Related Articles]
paraflagellar rod
(from the article "protist") ...scales or hairs (mastigonemes) on its own outer surface, presumably functionally important to the organism and valuable as taxonomic characters. A fibrillar structure within the flagella, known as a paraflagellar, ...
parafollicular cell
(from the article "endocrine system, human") Calcitonin is a protein containing 32 amino acids that is synthesized by and secreted from special cells called parafollicular cells (or C cells), which lie between the thyroid follicular cells ...
parafovea
(from the article "eye, human") ...fovea is characterized by an exclusive population of very densely packed cones; here, also, the cones are very thin and in form very similar to rods. The region surrounding the ...
Parafusulina
genus of extinct fusulinid foraminiferans (single-celled animals with a hard, complexly constructed shell) found as fossils in Permian marine rocks (the Permian Period began 286 million years ago and ended ...
Paraga, Dobroslav
(from the article "fascism") In the early 1990s the main spokesman for neofascism in Croatia was Dobroslav Paraga, founder in 1990 of the Croatian Party of Rights (Hrvatska Stranka Prava; HSP). A former seminary ...
paragenesis
the sequence in which the minerals are formed in an ore deposit. Variations in the pressure and temperature and in the chemical constituents of a hydrothermal solution will result in ...
paragliding
sport of flying parachutes with design modifications that enhance their gliding capabilities. Unlike hang gliders, their close relations, paragliders have no rigid framework; the parachute canopy acts as a wing ...
Paraglomerales
(from the article "fungus") ...mycorrhizal; forms single spores, loose clusters of spores, or compact sporocarps (fruiting bodies); example genus is Glomus.Arbuscular mycorrhizal; forms complexes of spores; example genus is Paraglomus.
paragneiss
(from the article "Precambrian time") The granulites and gneisses enclose a wide variety of other minor rock types in layers and lenses. These types include schists and paragneisses that were originally deposited on the Earth's ...
paragonimiasis
infection caused by Paragonimus westermani, or lung fluke, a parasitic worm some 8 to 12 mm (0.3 to 0.5 inch) long. It is common in Japan, Korea, China, the Philippines, ...
Paragonimus westermani
(from the article "paragonimiasis") infection caused by Paragonimus westermani, or lung fluke, a parasitic worm some 8 to 12 mm (0.3 to 0.5 inch) long. It is common in Japan, Korea, China, the Philippines, ...
paragonite
mica mineral similar to muscovite, a basic silicate of sodium and aluminum; a member of the common mica group. It was thought to be an uncommon mineral, but experiment and ... [2 Related Articles]
paragraphos
(from the article "punctuation") ...BC, phrases were sometimes separated by a vertical row of two or three points. In the oldest Greek literary texts, written on papyrus during the 4th century BC, a horizontal ...
Paraguacu River
river, in central and eastern Bahia estado ("state"), eastern Brazil. It rises in the Diamantina Upland and flows northward and then eastward for approximately 300 miles (500 km). The river ...
Paraguana Peninsula
peninsula in Falcon estado (state), northwestern Venezuela. It lies between the Caribbean Sea on the east and the Gulf of Venezuela on the west. The largest peninsula in Venezuela, it ...
Paraguari
town, central Paraguay. It lies on the southern slopes of the forested extension of the Brazilian Highlands, including the Cordillera de los Altos, a mountainous chain that reaches westward to ...
Paraguay
landlocked country in south-central South America. Paraguay's recent history has been characterized by turbulence and authoritarian rule. It was involved in two of the three major wars on the continent-the ... [25 Related Articles]
Paraguay River
the fifth largest river in South America and the principal tributary of the Parana River (q.v.). Rising in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil at 980 feet (300 metres) above ... [8 Related Articles]
Paraguay River basin
(from the article "Plata, Rio de la") At Paso de Patria, on the right (Paraguayan) bank, the Parana receives its greatest tributary, the Paraguay River. The fifth largest river in South America, the Paraguay (Spanish: Rio Paraguay; ...
Paraguay, Congress of
(from the article "Paraguay") The legislative body is the Congress, composed of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. All its members are elected by popular vote for five-year terms on the same date ...
Paraguay, flag of
horizontally striped red-white-blue national flag. It is distinctive among national flags in having a central coat of arms on the obverse side but a different seal on the reverse. The ...
Paraguay, history of
(from the article "Paraguay") The Guarani occupied the region between the Paraguay and Parana rivers long before the arrival of Europeans (about 2000-1000 BC). They were a Tupian-speaking people, and in most respects their ...
Paraguay-Parana-Plata river system
(from the article "Brazil") The Paraguay-Parana-Plata is the second of the great river systems of Brazil; it also drains large parts of Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay. In Brazil the system rises in the ...
Paraguayan Workers, Confederation of
(from the article "Paraguay") ...Stroessner (1954-89), labour unions were strictly controlled, which helped to keep wage increases low. For most of his rule, the country had one large, government-recognized trade union, the Confederation of ...
Paragymnomma
(from the article "orchid") The South American orchid Trichoceros antennifer has flowers that simulate the female flies of the genus Paragymnomma to a remarkable degree. The column and base of the lip are narrow, ...
Parahippus
(from the article "horse") It was a different branch, however, that led from Miohippus to the modern horse. The first representative of this line, Parahippus, appeared in the ...
parahormone
(from the article "hormone") ...carbon dioxide, for example, is involved in the regulation of the respiratory activity of which it is a product, in insects as well as in vertebrates. Substances such as carbon ...
Paraiba
estado (state) of northeastern Brazil. Primarily an agricultural state, Paraiba is bounded by the states of Rio Grande do Norte on the north, Ceara on the west, and Pernambuco on ...
Paraiba do Sul River
river, in eastern Brazil, formed by the junction of the Paraibuna and Paraitinga rivers, east of Sao Paulo, between Mogi das Cruzes and Jacarei. It flows east-northeastward, receiving tributaries from ... [2 Related Articles]
parainfluenza virus
(from the article "croup") Viral infections are the most common cause of croup, the most frequent being those with the parainfluenza and influenza viruses. Such infections are most prevalent among children under the age ...
parakeet
any of numerous seed-eating parrots of small size, slender build, and long, tapering tail. In this sense the name is given to some 115 species in 30 genera of the ... [3 Related Articles]
Parakidograptus acuminatus
(from the article "Silurian Period") ...or other physical phenomena that might have left a stratigraphic signature. Instead, in 1985 the working group on the Ordovician-Silurian boundary ratified its decision to use the base of the ...
parakiyarati
(from the article "Vaisnava-Sahajiya") The Vaisnava-Sahajiyas elevated parakiya-rati (literally, "the love of a man for a woman who legally belongs to another") above svakiya-rati (conjugal love) as the more intense of the two. Parakiyarati, ...
Parakou
town and administrative capital of Borgou province, central Benin (formerly Dahomey), West Africa. It is the terminus of the so-called Benin-Niger Railway, which was originally planned to extend to the ... [1 Related Articles]
Parakrama Pandita
(from the article "South Asian arts") ...but it had a life of its own in Sinhalese. The most important, and possibly the oldest, of such chronicles is the Thupavamsaya ("Chronicle of the Great Stupa"), by Parakrama ...
Parakrama Samudra
(from the article "Sri Lanka") ...works became a regular preoccupation of kings. Reservoirs and canals studded the northern and north-central plains, tapping every source of water. Among the most noteworthy was the magnificent Parakrama Samudra ...
Parakramabahu I
Sinhalese king of Ceylon (1153-86) who united the island under one rule, reformed Buddhist practices, and sent successful expeditionary forces to India and Burma. [2 Related Articles]
Parakramabahu II
(from the article "Sri Lanka") ...(all part of the Dambadeniya dynasty) ruled from there. They made occasional successful raids into Rajarata to attack the Kalinga and Tamil rulers but did not attempt to reoccupy Polonnaruwa. ...
Parakramabahu VI
(from the article "Kotte") Sinhalese kingdom that flourished in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) during the 15th century. Its king, Parakramabahu VI (1412-67), was the last native sovereign to unify all of Ceylon under one rule. ...
paraldehyde
colourless liquid of disagreeable taste and pungent odour used in medicine as a sedative-hypnotic drug and in chemistry in the manufacture of organic chemicals. When administered as a medicine, it ...
paraliageosyncline
(from the article "geosyncline") ...more common of these are the taphrogeosyncline, a depressed block of the Earth's crust that is bounded by one or more high-angle faults and that serves as a site of ...
parallax
in astronomy, the difference in direction of a celestial object as seen by an observer from two widely separated points. The measurement of parallax is used directly to find the ... [17 Related Articles]
parallel
(from the article "parallel") imaginary line extending around the Earth parallel to the equator; it is used to indicate latitude. The 38th parallel, for example, has a latitude of 38° N or 38° S. ...
parallel bars
gymnastics apparatus invented in the early 19th century by the German Friedrich Jahn, usually considered the father of gymnastics. It is especially useful in improving upper-body strength. The two bars, ... [2 Related Articles]
parallel bus
(from the article "input/output device") ...integrated drive electronics (IDE) and enhanced integrated drive electronics (EIDE) are common interfaces, or buses, for magnetic disk drives. A bus (also known as a port) can be either serial ...
parallel circuit
(from the article "electric circuit") ...carries current that pulsates back and forth many times each second, as in most household circuits. A series circuit comprises a path along which the whole current flows through each ...
parallel cousin
(from the article "cross-cousin") ...siblings are patrilateral cousins, and those of a mother's siblings are matrilateral cousins; the children of a mother's sister or of a father's brother are parallel cousins (sometimes called ortho-cousins); ...
parallel displacement
(from the article "Levi-Civita, Tullio") ...In 1917, inspired by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, Levi-Civita made his most important contribution to this branch of mathematics, the introduction of the concept of parallel displacement in ...
parallel distributed processing
(from the article "artificial intelligence") Another name for connectionism is parallel distributed processing, which emphasizes two important features. First, a large number of relatively simple processors-the neurons-operate in parallel. Second, neural networks ...
parallel drain system
(from the article "irrigation and drainage") The field drains of a surface system may be arranged in many patterns. Probably the two most widely used are parallel drains and random drains. Parallel drains are channels running ...
parallel evolution
the evolution of geographically separated groups in such a way that they show morphological resemblances. A notable example is the similarity shown by the marsupial mammals of Australia to the ... [1 Related Articles]
parallel lines
(from the article "projective geometry") A theorem from Euclid's Elements (c. 300 BC) states that if a line is drawn through a triangle such that it is parallel to one side (see ...