1585 résultats pour "also"

• Dominican Republic - country.

  Manatees and sea turtles also live in Dominican waters. Common birds include blue herons, glossy ibis, flamingos, and brown pelicans. E Environmental Issues Urban dwellers of the Dominican Republic enjoy good access to safe water, but rural communities do not. While current water use is low relative to available resources,water shortages do occur. Although deforestation was once a serious problem in the Dominican Republic, by the beginning of the 21st century, the annual rate of deforestation h...

• Hungary - country.

  Northern Hungary lacks sufficient water, especially between July and October, when precipitation levels are typically low. Canals irrigate the Great Hungarian Plain,which is subject to drought. Because of the country’s mainly flat terrain, only limited water resources can be harnessed for hydroelectric power. F Environmental Issues Rapid industrialization in Hungary following World War II contributed significantly to a number of major environmental problems, including air, water, and soil pollu...

• North Dakota - geography.

  Bismarck, the growing season averages 134 days, as the average date of the last killing frost is May 11 and that of the first killing frost is September 22. The length ofthe growing season drops to about 110 days in the northerly reaches of the state. The long periods of summer sunshine at this latitude, providing as much as 16 hoursof daylight in summer, help crops to mature quickly, thus compensating somewhat for the relatively short growing season. Temperatures in the north are, on the averag...

• North Dakota - USA History.

  Bismarck, the growing season averages 134 days, as the average date of the last killing frost is May 11 and that of the first killing frost is September 22. The length ofthe growing season drops to about 110 days in the northerly reaches of the state. The long periods of summer sunshine at this latitude, providing as much as 16 hoursof daylight in summer, help crops to mature quickly, thus compensating somewhat for the relatively short growing season. Temperatures in the north are, on the averag...

• South Korea - country.

  forest habitat, and overhunting. The Siberian tiger has not been sighted in the wild in South Korea since the 1920s; the Asiatic black bear can still be found in someremote mountain areas. Several species of deer are indigenous to the peninsula, including the roe deer, water deer, and Siberian musk deer. The musk deer, which hasbeen overhunted for its musk glands, is legally protected as a threatened species. Smaller mammals indigenous to the peninsula include the wild boar, red fox, badger,rabb...

• Bear - biology.

  programs sponsored by zoos or other breeding centers have attempted to breed giant pandas in captivity, although most of these programs have proved unsuccessful.Among the difficulties faced by captive breeders has been the problem of encouraging a female giant panda to mate with a selected male during the two to three daysof the year when she is most fertile, a period known as estrus. B Spectacled Bear Creamy-white rings surrounding the eyes give the spectacled bear its name. Its shaggy coat of...

• Political Parties in the United States.

  quickly enabled the Republican Party to overpower the Know-Nothings. Although the Republicans lost their first campaign for the presidency in 1856, they triumphed in1860 with former congressman Abraham Lincoln. The Republican victory resulted in part from the division of the Democratic Party into Northern and Southern factions,each of which ran its own presidential candidate, and in part from their success at attracting Whigs and Know-Nothings who had opposed the Republicans in 1856.During the C...

• Carbon - chemistry.

  Graphite is black and slippery and conducts electricity. In graphite, the atoms form planar, or flat, layers. Each layer is made up of rings containing six carbon atoms.The rings are linked to each other in a structure that resembles the hexagonal mesh of chicken wire. Each atom has three sigma bonds (with 120° between any two ofthe bonds) and belongs to three neighboring rings. The fourth electron of each atom becomes part of an extensive pi bond system. Graphite conducts electricity,because th...

• Democratic Republic of the Congo - country.

  Except in the high elevations, the country’s climate is very hot and humid. The average annual temperature in the low central area is about 27°C (about 80°F).Temperatures are considerably higher in February, the hottest month. At altitudes above about 1,500 m (about 5,000 ft) the average annual temperature is about 19°C(about 66°F). Average annual rainfall is about 1,500 mm (about 60 in) in the north and about 1,300 mm (about 50 in) in the south. Frequent heavy rains occur fromApril to November...

• American Literature: Poetry I INTRODUCTION Phyllis McGinley American poet and author Phyllis McGinley composed light, witty verse, much of which deals with family life.

  Taylor, a poet of great technical skill, wrote powerful meditative poems in which he tested himself morally and sought to identify and root out sinful tendencies. In“God's Determinations Touching His Elect” (written 1680?), one of Taylor’s most important works, he celebrates God's power in the triumph of good over evil in thehuman soul. All of Taylor’s poetry and much of Bradstreet’s served generally personal ends, and their audience often consisted of themselves and their family andclosest frie...

• George Frideric Handel I INTRODUCTION Handel's Water Music In addition to his popular operas and oratorios, German-born composer George Frideric Handel wrote music in the 1700s for the church and for royal celebrations.

  During the 1720s and 1730s Handel worked primarily as a composer and producer of operas for the London stage. This extremely productive phase of his career beganwith the opening of the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1719. The Royal Academy was founded with the support of the king and aristocratic subscribers for theproduction of Italian operas. Its directors sent Handel to continental Europe to hire some of the world’s greatest singers. Handel was not the only composer writingoperas for Aca...

• Syria - country.

  D Education Primary education is free and compulsory for all children aged 6 through 12. Some 78 percent of the adult Syrian population was estimated to be literate in 2005.Primary schools enrolled 2.8 million pupils in the 2000 school year, and 1.1 million students attended secondary schools and vocational institutes. In 1998, 94,110 Syrian students were enrolled in institutes of higher education. Syria has universities in Damascus, Ḩalab, Ḩim ş, and Al L ādhiq īyah. Also in Damascus isthe Ar...

• Camel - biology.

  of water in the stomach or hump as was once commonly believed. Unlike other mammals, however, the camel can survive as long as three weeks without drinking,depending on the water content of its food. It can survive a water loss of about 40 percent of its normal body weight. In comparison, a loss of 15 percent is usually fatalfor humans. Camels can go without water due to several unique adaptations to their environment. The camel conserves more water in its body than any other mammal. It excretes...

• Tiger - biology.

  have a simple digestive system designed to process meat so that the nutrients can be readily absorbed into the bloodstream. With the exception of white tigers, which have blue eyes, all tigers have yellow eyes. Tigers mainly use vision to find prey. Although tigers see about as well as humansduring the day, their large eye openings gather more light than do human eyes, making tiger night vision far superior to that of humans. In addition, a special structurein the tiger’s eye, called the tapetu...

• Endangered Species - biology.

  Red List database assesses the status of, and threats to, animal species worldwide. To add to this and other biodiversity databases, nongovernmental organizationssuch as Conservation International and World Wildlife Fund conduct periodic rapid assessments (focused, intensive evaluations) of biodiversity in varioushotspots— regions like Madagascar that are both rich in endemic species and environmentally threatened. This information is used in the administration of international agreements such...

• Jamaica - country.

  majority, the Church of God, Baptists, Anglicans, Seventh-day Adventists, Pentecostalists, and Roman Catholics predominate. Several well-established Jewish, Muslim,and Hindu communities exist. A number of popular sects, such as Pocomania and Rastafarianism, are a significant and famous feature of the national religious life. C Education School attendance by children between the ages of 6 and 11 is nearly universal, and 84 percent of all 12- to 18-year-olds attend secondary institutions. In 2000...

• Giant Panda - biology.

  In 2007 conservationists announced that a parasitic roundworm was responsible for a significant number of the panda deaths reported in the wild since 1990. Theparasite Baylisascaris schroederi causes the disease visceral larval migrans, which results in bleeding in the lungs, the liver, and the intestines, and can also affect the brain. It is not known if other recent pandas deaths were caused by the same parasite or by a different contagious disease. Loss of habitat from deforestation is forc...

• Shrimp - biology.

  shrimp have a maximum length of about 20 cm (8 in). On the West Coast, the Franciscan Bay shrimp is caught commercially. Freshwater shrimp are most common in warm parts of the world. They include river shrimp, edible shrimp that are trapped or farmed in the tropics, and also all trueshrimp that have become adapted for life in caves. Cave shrimp are typically pale, with vestigial (nonfunctioning) eyes, and they find their way mainly by touch. Decapod shrimp also include animals that are rarely ea...

• Interstellar Matter - astronomy.

  silhouette of a cloud of dust. At other times, it blocks only a percentage of the light from behind it, a process known by astronomers as extinction . The long, narrow dark lanes in the Milky Way as seen from Earth are examples of extinction. The amount of extinction is different for different wavelengths of light. A2 Reddening Starlight that does not get completely absorbed by interstellar dust can still be changed by the dust’s effects. As light passes through less dense patches of interstel...

• Camping.

  Commercial campgrounds serve as campsites for RV and car campers on the outskirts of national and state parks and along highways throughout North America.Owners of commercial campgrounds charge campers on a daily or weekly basis, and provide campsites equipped with hookups for electricity and water. They may alsoprovide such amenities as showers, laundry facilities, or a swimming pool. Many commercial campgrounds belong to a club or network that allows its members toreserve campsites in advance....

• Labor Union.

  B The Legal Environment The legal environment, which permits certain types of union activities and prohibits others, also influences the extent of union organization. States with right-to-worklaws have much lower unionization rates than other states. In the United States, the states with the lowest unionization rates are North Carolina, South Carolina, SouthDakota, and Arkansas—states that have right-to-work laws. In 2000 the unionization rate in these states ranged from 4.44 percent to 6.7 per...

• Natural Satellite - astronomy.

  Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, also has few impact craters. Although icy volcanism from water and ammonia may occur along with some tectonic activity, Titan’s youngsurface is most likely the result of weather processes. Titan’s dense, cold atmosphere precipitates particles of complex organic molecules that accumulate as dunes andmountains. Methane rain erodes the surface and creates lakes at the moon’s poles. Triton’s young surface also may result from processes in its atmosphere, as well aserupt...

• Supernova - astronomy.

  The term hypernova has been proposed for an extremely massive core-collapse supernova—possibly more than 100 times the mass of the Sun. A hypernova is thought to form a black hole. Just before it explodes, a hypernova may release a huge burst of gamma rays in a jet from the rotating black hole at its center. These jets mayexplain the so-called long gamma-ray bursts detected by astronomers. According to some researchers, massive stars with over 40 solar masses may sometimescollapse directly int...

• Federal Reserve System.

  and their powers were also expanded. For example, discount rates now had to be approved periodically by the board. Sales and purchases of governmentsecurities—the open-market operation that previously had been managed solely at the discretion of the presidents of the reserve banks—were centralized in the FederalOpen Market Committee (FOMC), consisting of the seven governors, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and four other reserve bank presidentsserving on a rotating basis....

• Human Evolution.

  Strepsirhines are the most primitive types of living primates. The last common ancestors of strepsirhines and other mammals—creatures similar to tree shrews andclassified as Plesiadapiformes—evolved at least 65 million years ago. The earliest primates evolved by about 55 million years ago, and fossil species similar to lemursevolved during the Eocene Epoch (about 55 million to 38 million years ago). Strepsirhines share all of the basic characteristics of primates, although their brains are notpa...

• Human Evolution - biology.

  classified as Plesiadapiformes—evolved at least 65 million years ago. The earliest primates evolved by about 55 million years ago, and fossil species similar to lemursevolved during the Eocene Epoch (about 55 million to 38 million years ago). Strepsirhines share all of the basic characteristics of primates, although their brains are notparticularly large or complex and they have a more elaborate and sensitive olfactory system (sense of smell) than do other primates. B Haplorhines B1 Tarsiers T...

• Brain.

  The hypothalamus lies beneath the thalamus on the midline at the base of the brain. It regulates or is involved directly in the control of many of the body's vital drivesand activities, such as eating, drinking, temperature regulation, sleep, emotional behavior, and sexual activity. It also controls the function of internal body organs bymeans of the autonomic nervous system, interacts closely with the pituitary gland, and helps coordinate activities of the brain stem. D Brain Stem The brain st...

• Nanotechnology.

  ever-finer method of reducing material to the nanoscale size. Instead, nanostructures would be assembled atom by atom and molecule by molecule, from the atomiclevel up, just as occurs in nature. However, assembly at this scale has its own challenges. In school, children learn about some of these challenges when they study the random Brownian motion seen in particles suspended in liquids such as water. Theparticles themselves are not moving. Rather, the water molecules that surround the particles...

• Fungus - biology.

  Many fungi can reproduce by the fragmentation of their hyphae. Each fragment develops into a new individual. Yeast, a small, single-celled fungus, reproduces bybudding, in which a bump forms on the yeast cell, eventually partitioning from the cell and growing into a new yeast cell. V CLASSIFICATION OF FUNGI Scientists have long disagreed about how to classify fungi, and the classification systems are still developing. The first description of fungi was published in 1729 byItalian botanist Pier...

• International Law.

  merchants), modernized the rights of neutrals during maritime war, and required blockades to be effective. The Declaration of Paris also initiated the practice of allowingnations other than the original signatories to accede (become a party to) to an agreement. In 1864 a conference convened in Geneva, Switzerland, at the invitation of the Swiss government. The conference approved a convention for the proper treatment ofwounded soldiers on the battlefield and the protection of medical personnel;...

• Sexual Harassment.

  A person who believes he or she has experienced sexual harassment on the job has a limited period of time in which to file a complaint with the EEOC. After the EEOCinvestigates the matter, it issues a right to sue letter, regardless of its conclusions about the matter. The victim then has 90 days to file a lawsuit against the employer in federal court. If he or she is successful in the lawsuit, the victim can receive up to $300,000 in compensatory damages for each incident of unlawful harassme...

• Alphabet I INTRODUCTION Bengali Script India developed a number of different writing systems over the course of its history.

  A Pictographic and Ideographic Systems Early systems of writing used pictures to represent things and then to represent the sounds of those things. Pictographic writing, in which a simplified picture of the sunstood for the word sun, was probably the first step toward a written language. Chinese began as a pictographic language. To represent abstract ideas, the Chinese writing system combined pictographs. For example, the pictographs for sun and tree were combined to represent the concept of...

• World Wide Web.

  browser does not display the URL for the user. Instead, to indicate that an item is selectable, the browser changes the color of the item on the screen and keeps theURL associated with the link hidden. When a user clicks on an item that corresponds to a selectable link, the browser consults the hidden information to find theappropriate URL, which the browser then follows to the selected page. Because a link can point to any page in the Web, the links are known as hyperlinks. See also Hypermedia...

• Global Warming.

  some of the warming influence of increasing greenhouse gases. A1 Carbon Dioxide Carbon dioxide is the second most abundant greenhouse gas, after water vapor. Carbon dioxide constantly circulates in the environment through a variety of naturalprocesses known as the carbon cycle. It is released into the atmosphere from natural processes such as eruptions of volcanoes; the respiration of animals, whichbreathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide; and the burning or decay of plants and other organic...

• German Literature I INTRODUCTION German Literature, literature written in the German language from the 8th century to the present, and including the works of German, Austrian, and Swiss authors.

  Till EulenspiegelThe medieval peasant Till Eulenspiegel appears in many German folktales as a trickster who outwits people in positions ofauthority. In this image his first name is spelled Tyll.Keystone Pressedienst GmbH The rise of the middle class in the 14th and 15th centuries and the struggles of the peasants against the nobility culminated in the great 16th-century religiousrevolution known as the Reformation. This movement was reflected in literature, especially by Martin Luther, whose tra...

• Heart.

  situation. A Cardiac Cycle Although the right and left halves of the heart are separate, they both contract in unison, producing a single heartbeat. The sequence of events from the beginning ofone heartbeat to the beginning of the next is called the cardiac cycle. The cardiac cycle has two phases: diastole, when the heart’s chambers are relaxed, and systole,when the chambers contract to move blood. During the systolic phase, the atria contract first, followed by contraction of the ventricles. T...

• Plate Tectonics.

  ridges. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is an underwater mountain range created at a divergent plate boundary in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of a worldwidesystem of ridges made by seafloor spreading. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is currently spreading at a rate of 2.5 cm per year (1 in per year). The mid-ocean ridges today are60,000 km (about 40,000 mi) long, forming the largest continuous mountain chain on earth. Earthquakes, faults, underwater volcanic eruptions, and vents, oropenings, along...

• Bicycle.

  narrow as possible to minimize weight and interference with pedaling. F Specialty Bicycles Many other types of bicycles are designed for special purposes. Although not as common as standard single-rider racing, touring, mountain, or recreational bicycles,they nonetheless have significant niches. Recumbent bicycles are bicycles on which the rider sits upright as if in a chair, with legs and feet stretched out in front. Because they support the rider’s lower back,recumbents allow the rider far mo...

• Cell (biology) - biology.

  proteins, or other proteins required by the cell. While relatively simple in construction, prokaryotic cells display extremely complex activity. They have a greater range of biochemical reactions than those found in theirlarger relatives, the eukaryotic cells. The extraordinary biochemical diversity of prokaryotic cells is manifested in the wide-ranging lifestyles of the archaebacteria andthe bacteria, whose habitats include polar ice, deserts, and hydrothermal vents—deep regions of the ocean un...

• Earth (planet).

  Milky Way to complete one revolution around the Galaxy’s center. Earth’s axis of rotation is inclined (tilted) 23.5° relative to its plane of revolution around the Sun. This inclination of the axis creates the seasons and causes the height of the Sun in the sky at noon to increase and decrease as the seasons change. The Northern Hemisphere receives the most energy from the Sun when it is tiltedtoward the Sun. This orientation corresponds to summer in the Northern Hemisphere and winter in the S...

• Earth (planet) - astronomy.

  Milky Way to complete one revolution around the Galaxy’s center. Earth’s axis of rotation is inclined (tilted) 23.5° relative to its plane of revolution around the Sun. This inclination of the axis creates the seasons and causes the height of the Sun in the sky at noon to increase and decrease as the seasons change. The Northern Hemisphere receives the most energy from the Sun when it is tiltedtoward the Sun. This orientation corresponds to summer in the Northern Hemisphere and winter in the S...

• United Arab Emirates - country.

  III PEOPLE Most people living in the UAE (known as Emiris) are Arabs, a large majority of whom are city and town dwellers. A small number are nomadic (having no permanent home). The population has grown dramatically since the mid-1960s, largely due to the influx of oil workers to the country. Four-fifths of the UAE’s inhabitants areforeign workers and their families. The UAE also has a very youthful population, due to the large numbers of young foreign workers, a cultural preference for larg...

• Extrasolar Planets - astronomy.

  When a planet passes in a front of the star it orbits—an event called a transit—it causes a small dip in the brightness of the star. Measuring the slight change in thebrightness can be used not only to directly detect a planet, but to determine its size and orbit. However, the planet needs to orbit in a plane that lies in a telescope’sline of sight on the star. Despite long odds, Earth-based telescopes have detected and studied a few exoplanets using this method. The first space telescope design...

• Manitoba - Geography.

  E Plant Life Forests cover 66 percent of Manitoba. The main forest area is divided into the boreal forest and the mixed-wood forest. The boreal, or northern, forest containsconiferous (cone-bearing) trees, especially white and black spruce, balsam fir, and jack pine. South of the boreal forest is the mixed-wood forest, which contains conifers as well as such deciduous trees as white birch, aspen, poplar, and Manitoba maple. Prairie land is found in the southwest, where the natural vegetation i...

• Manitoba - Canadian History.

  E Plant Life Forests cover 66 percent of Manitoba. The main forest area is divided into the boreal forest and the mixed-wood forest. The boreal, or northern, forest containsconiferous (cone-bearing) trees, especially white and black spruce, balsam fir, and jack pine. South of the boreal forest is the mixed-wood forest, which contains conifers as well as such deciduous trees as white birch, aspen, poplar, and Manitoba maple. Prairie land is found in the southwest, where the natural vegetation i...

• Ear. I INTRODUCTION Ear, organ of hearing and balance. Only vertebrates, or animals

  line or rotates in any direction. Each canal also contains sensory areas with sensory hair cells that project into a cone-shaped cap of gelatin. Two of the semicircularcanals are in a vertical position and are used to detect vertical movement, such as jumping or falling. The third canal is horizontal and detects horizontal movement,such as turning or spinning. The action of the canals depends on the inertia of the fluid inside. When the motion of the body changes, the fluid lags behind, causing...

• Hydrogen - chemistry.

  Hydrogen gas does not usually react with other chemicals at room temperature. That is, it does not split into two hydrogen atoms to combine with other chemicals. Thebond between the hydrogen atoms is very strong and can only be broken with a large amount of energy. However, when heated with a flame or a spark, hydrogen gaswill react violently with oxygen in the air to produce water in the following reaction: 2H2 + O 2 → 2H 2O This chemical equation shows that two hydrogen molecules (H 2) and o...

• Advertising.

  Advertising agencies make money in a variety of ways. When the agency uses the client’s advertising budget to buy time for an ad on the radio or on television or whenit buys space for an ad in a newspaper or magazine, the media outlet allows the agency to keep 15 percent of the cost of the space or the time as a commission. The15 percent commission has become an advertising industry standard and usually accounts for the largest portion of the agency’s income. Agencies also charge clientsfor the...

• Gardening - biology.

  of synthetic and organic fertilizers, see Organic Farming.) Fertilizers usually are sold in packages, on which the percentage by weight of the macronutrients nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) are listed on thelabel—always in the order N-P-K. For example, a fertilizer that is labeled 10-5-3 is 10 percent nitrogen, 5 percent phosphorus, and 3 percent potassium. V PLANTING AND TRANSPLANTING Before planting seeds, gardeners prepare, or till, the soil using a variety of methods. Some...

• Himalayas - geography.

  result of deforestation the habitat of most of the wildlife has been destroyed. They are now restricted to special protected areas such as the Jaldapara and Kazirangasanctuaries in India ( see Kaziranga National Park) and the Chitawan preserve in Nepal. There are few animals in the Middle Himalayas because of extensive deforestation. In the Great Himalayas musk deer, wild goats, sheep, wolves, and snow leopards are found. The existence of the Abominable Snowman or Yeti has beenreported by highla...