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  • Declamatio (work by Valla)
    ...at the court of Alfonso of Aragon, king of Naples. He remained 13 years in Alfonso’s service, and it was during this time that Valla, then in his 30s, wrote most of his important books. His Declamatio (Treatise of Lorenzo Valla on the Donation of Constantine), written in 1440, attacked the crude Latin of its anonymous author and from that observation argued that the documen...
  • declaration (American law)
    in law, the plaintiff’s initial pleading, corresponding to the libel in admiralty, the bill in equity, and the claim in civil law. The complaint, called in common law a declaration, consists of a title, a statement showing venue or jurisdiction, one or more counts containing a brief formal exposition of facts giving rise to the claim asserted, and a demand for relief. Thus, it informs the ...
  • Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne (work by Gouges)
    ...her plays was L’Esclavage des noirs (“Slavery of Blacks”), which was staged at the Théâtre-Français. In 1791 she published Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne (“Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the [female] Citizen”) as a reply to the Declaration of the Rig...
  • Déclaration des quatre articles (French history)
    ...general assembly of the French clergy was held to consider this question in 1681–82. Bossuet delivered the inaugural sermon to this body and also drew up its final statement, the Déclaration des quatre articles (“Declaration of Four Articles”), which was delivered, along with his famous inaugural sermon on the unity of the church, to the assembly of the......
  • Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
    foundational document of international human rights law. It has been referred to as humanity’s Magna Carta by Eleanor Roosevelt, who chaired the United Nations (UN) Commission on Human Rights that was responsible for the drafting of the document. After minor changes it was adopted unanimously—though with abst...
  • Declaration of Independence (United States history)
    in U.S. history, document that was approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, and that announced the separation of 13 North American British colonies from Great Britain. It explained why the Congress on July 2 “unanimously” by the votes of 12 colonies (with New York abstaining) had resolved that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be Free and Independe...
  • “Declaration of Independence in Congress, at the Independence Hall, Philadelphia, July 4th, 1776” (painting by Trumbull)
    ...Resigning His Commission, The Surrender of Cornwallis, The Surrender of Burgoyne, and, best known of all, Declaration of Independence. This series, which he completed in 1824, was based on the small and superior originals of these scenes that he had painted in the 1780s and ’90s. In 1831 B...
  • Declaration of Independence, The (work by Becker)
    ...Revolution—the first being the struggle for self-government and the second the ideological battle over the form such government should take. In The Eve of the Revolution (1918) and The Declaration of Independence (1922), he further probed the relationship between 18th-century natural-rights philosophy and the American Revolution....
  • Declaration of Independence, The (painting by Trumbull)
    ...Resigning His Commission, The Surrender of Cornwallis, The Surrender of Burgoyne, and, best known of all, Declaration of Independence. This series, which he completed in 1824, was based on the small and superior originals of these scenes that he had painted in the 1780s and ’90s. In 1831 B...
  • Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens, The (work by Jellinek)
    ...Basel (1890–91), and Heidelberg (1891–1911), he was a capable classroom teacher as well as a distinguished scholar. Internationally, probably his best-known work is The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens (1895; originally in German), in which he hypothesized that the French Revolutionary declaration (approved by the National Constituent......
  • Declaration of War on Terrorism (speech by Bush)
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  • declarative language (computer language)
    Declarative languages, also called nonprocedural or very high level, are programming languages in which (ideally) a program specifies what is to be done rather than how to do it. In such languages there is less difference between the specification of a program and its implementation than in the procedural languages described so far. The two common kinds of declarative languages are logic and......
  • declarative memory (psychology)
    ...all of the other memories stored in the brain. The items stored in long-term memory represent facts as well as impressions of people, objects, and actions. They can be classified as either “declarative” or “nondeclarative,” depending on whether their content is such that it can be expressed by a declarative sentence. Thus, declarative memories, like declarative......
  • Declaratory Act (Great Britain [1720])
    ...in subordination to that of England but ended in asserting its independence. In the 1690s commercial jealousy compelled the Irish Parliament to destroy the Irish woolen export trade, and in 1720 the Declaratory Act affirmed the right of the British Parliament to legislate for Ireland and transferred to the British House of Lords the powers of a supreme court in Irish law cases. By the end of th...
  • Declaratory Act (Great Britain [1766])
    (1766), declaration by the British Parliament that accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act. It stated that the British Parliament’s taxing authority was the same in America as in Great Britain. Parliament had directly taxed the colonies for revenue in the Sugar Act (1764) and the Stamp Act (1765). Parliament mollified the recalcitrant colonists by repealing the distasteful Stamp Act, but it...
  • declaratory judgment (law)
    in law, a judicial judgment intended to fix or elucidate litigants’ rights that were previously uncertain or doubtful. A declaratory judgment is binding but is distinguished from other judgments or court opinions in that it lacks an executory process. It simply declares or defines rights to be observed or wrongs to be eschewed by a plaintiff, a defendant, or both, or expresses the court...
  • declaratory theory of recognition (international law)
    ...may buttress a claim to statehood even in circumstances where the conditions for statehood have been fulfilled imperfectly (e.g., Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992). According to the “declaratory” theory of recognition, which is supported by international practice, the act of recognition signifies no more than the acceptance of an already-existing factual......
  • declension (grammar)
    Not counting the vocative case, the Greek declension in the Mycenaean period still contained five cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative-locative, and instrumental. Between the Mycenaean period and the 8th century the instrumental ceased to exist as a distinct case, its role having been taken over by the dative....
  • “Déclin de l’empire américain, Le” (film by Arcand)
    In 1986 Arcand earned international attention with Le Déclin de l’empire américain (The Decline of the American Empire). The movie, which was nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign-language film, centres on a gourmet dinner with a group of intellectuals—the same friends featured in The Barbaria...
  • declination (compass)
    ...needle did not point true north from all locations but made an angle with the local meridian. This phenomenon was originally called by seamen the northeasting of the needle but is now called the variation or declination. For a time, compass makers in northern countries mounted the needle askew on the card so that the fleur-de-lis indicated true north when the needle pointed to magnetic......
  • declination (astronomy)
    in astronomy, the angular distance of a body north or south of the celestial equator. Declination and right ascension, an east-west coordinate, together define the position of an object in the sky. North declination is considered positive and south, negative. Thus, +90° declination marks the north celestial pole, 0° the celestial equator, and -90° the south ...
  • declination axis (astronomy)
    ...a telescope to be pointed at a celestial object for viewing.) In the equatorial mounting, the polar axis of the telescope is constructed parallel to the Earth’s axis. The polar axis supports the declination axis of the instrument. Declination is measured on the celestial sky north or south from the celestial equator. The declination axis makes it possible for the telescope to be pointed ...
  • “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, History of the” (work by Gibbon)
    English rationalist historian and scholar best known as the author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88), a continuous narrative from the 2nd century ad to the fall of Constantinople in 1453....
  • Decline of the American Empire, The (film by Arcand)
    In 1986 Arcand earned international attention with Le Déclin de l’empire américain (The Decline of the American Empire). The movie, which was nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign-language film, centres on a gourmet dinner with a group of intellectuals—the same friends featured in The Barbaria...
  • Decline of the West, The (work by Spengler)
    Oswald Spengler’s 1918–22 best-seller The Decline of the West mourned the engulfing of Kultur by the cosmopolitan anthill of Zivilisation and argued that only a dictatorship could arrest the decline. Sociologist Max Weber hoped for charismatic leadership to overcome bureaucracy. Much painting, music, and film of the 1920s illustrated the theme of decline: Paul Kl...
  • decline phase (bacteria)
    ...stationary phase, the rate of bacterial cell growth is equal to the rate of bacterial cell death. When the rate of cell death becomes greater than the rate of cell growth, the population enters the decline phase....
  • declining-charge depreciation (accounting)
    Depreciation is usually computed by some simple formula. Two popular formulas are straight-line depreciation, in which the same amount of depreciation is recognized each year, and declining-charge depreciation, in which more depreciation is recognized during the early years of life than during the later years, on the assumption that the value of the asset’s service declines as it gets older...
  • decoction mashing (beverage production)
    ...malt, however, benefits from a period of mashing at lower temperatures to permit the breakdown of proteins and glucans. This requires some form of temperature programming, which is achieved by decoction mashing. After grist is mashed in at 35 to 40 °C (95 to 105 °F), a proportion is removed, boiled, and added back. Mashing with two or three of these decoctions raises the......
  • decoder (telecommunications)
    ...(FEC). In this method information bits are protected against errors by the transmitting of extra redundant bits, so that if errors occur during transmission the redundant bits can be used by the decoder to determine where the errors have occurred and how to correct them. The second method of error control is called automatic repeat request (ARQ). In this method redundant bits are added to......
  • Decodon verticillatus (plant)
    ...It is now considered a noxious weed in many parts of the United States and Canada, where it forms dense colonies and crowds out native wetland vegetation that provides food and habitat for wildlife. Swamp loosestrife, water willow, or wild oleander (Decodon verticillatus) is a perennial herb native to swamps and ponds of eastern North America....
  • decoherence (physics)
    ...A quantum computer must maintain coherence between its qubits (known as quantum entanglement) long enough to perform an algorithm; because of nearly inevitable interactions with the environment (decoherence), practical methods of detecting and correcting errors need to be devised; and, finally, since measuring a quantum system disturbs its state, reliable methods of extracting information......
  • decoking (chemical engineering)
    Decoking is a routine daily occurrence accomplished by a high-pressure water jet. First the top and bottom heads of the coke drum are removed. Next a hole is drilled in the coke from the top to the bottom of the vessel. Then a rotating stem is lowered through the hole, spraying a water jet sideways. The high-pressure jet cuts the coke into lumps, which fall out the bottom of the drum for......
  • decolonization
    Islāmic and South Asian nationalism, first awakened in the era of the first World War, triumphed in the wake of the second, bringing on in the years 1946–50 the first great wave of decolonization. The British and French fulfilled their wartime promises by evacuating and recognizing the sovereignty of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria in 1946 and Iraq in 1947. (Oman and Yemen......
  • decolorization (chemistry)
    Melt syrup is clarified either by phosphatation, in which phosphoric acid and lime are added to form calcium phosphates, which are removed by surface scraping in a flotation clarifier, or by carbonatation, in which carbon dioxide gas and lime form calcium carbonate, which is filtered off. Colour precipitants are added to each process....
  • decomposer (biology)
    ...CO2 directly to the atmosphere as a by-product of their respiration. The carbon present in animal wastes and in the bodies of all organisms is released as CO2 by decay, or decomposer, organisms (chiefly bacteria and fungi) in a series of microbial transformations....
  • decomposition (biology)
    ...as it passes from towns through drains to sewers and sewage systems, then to rivers, and finally to the sea. It has caused difficulties with river navigation; and, because the foam retards biological degradation of organic material in sewage, it caused problems in sewage-water regeneration systems. In countries where sewage water is used for irrigation, the foam was also a problem.......
  • decomposition reaction (chemistry)
    Decomposition reactions are processes in which chemical species break up into simpler parts. Usually, decomposition reactions require energy input. For example, a common method of producing oxygen gas in the laboratory is the decomposition of potassium chlorate (KClO3) by heat....
  • decompression chamber
    sealed chamber in which a high-pressure environment is used primarily to treat decompression sickness, gas embolism, carbon monoxide poisoning, gas gangrene resulting from infection by anaerobic bacteria, tissue injury arising from radiation therapy for cancer (see cancer: Radiation thera...
  • decompression sickness
    physiological effects of the formation of gas bubbles in the body because of rapid transition from a high-pressure environment to one of lower pressure. Pilots of unpressurized aircraft, underwater divers, and caisson workers are highly susceptible to the sickness because their activities subject them to pressures different from the normal atmospheric pressure experienced on land....
  • decongestant (drug)
    any drug used to relieve swelling of the nasal mucosa accompanying such conditions as the common cold and hay fever. When administered in nasal sprays or drops or in devices for inhalation, decongestants shrink the mucous membranes lining the nasal cavity by contracting the muscles of blood vessel walls, thus reducing blood flow to the infla...
  • deconstruction (criticism)
    form of philosophical and literary analysis, derived mainly from work begun in the 1960s by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, that questions the fundamental conceptual distinctions, or “oppositions,” in Western philosophy through a close examination of the language and logic of philosophical and literary texts. In the 1970s the term was applied to work by Der...
  • Deconstruction and Criticism (essays)
    ...Jacques Derrida found a welcome in the less-political atmosphere, marked by skepticism and defeat, that followed the 1960s. Four Yale professors joined Derrida to publish a group of essays, Deconstruction and Criticism (1979). Two of the contributors, Paul de Man and J. Hillis Miller, became leading exponents of deconstruction in the United States. The other two, Harold Bloom and.....
  • decontamination (chemical warfare)
    A number of methods have been found useful in decontaminating areas and people covered with chemical agents, including spraying with supertropical bleach (chlorinated lime) or washing contaminated surfaces or garments with warm soapy water. The challenge is finding and using a decontamination solution that is strong enough to neutralize the chemical agent without damaging the equipment or......
  • décor bois (pottery)
    (French: “wood decoration”), in decorative arts, trompe l’oeil decoration of porcelain and faience to simulate grained and knotted wood with the likeness of an engraving “nailed” to it. This device appeared in the mid-18th century on cups, plates, and jars from the French factories of Niderviller and Tournai; it became a specialty of the Thuringian factory of Ge...
  • décor simultané (stage design)
    staging technique used in medieval drama, in which all the scenes were simultaneously in view, the various locales being represented by small booths known as mansions, or houses, arranged around an unlocalized acting area, or platea. To change scenes, actors simply moved from one mansion to another; by convention, the audience regarded the platea...
  • Decorated Gothic style (architecture)
    The second phase of Gothic architecture began with a subdivision of the style known as Rayonnant (ad 1200–80) on the Continent and as the Decorated Gothic (ad 1300–75) style in England. This style was characterized by the application of increasingly elaborate geometrical decoration to the structural forms that had been established during the preceding cent...
  • Decoration Day (American holiday)
    in the United States, holiday (last Monday in May) honouring those who have died in the nation’s wars. It originated during the American Civil War (1861–64) when citizens placed flowers on the graves of those who had been killed in battle. A number of places claimed to have been the birthplace of the holiday. Among them, Columbus, Mississippi, held a formal observa...
  • Decorations (work by Dowson)
    ...and a book of short stories, Dilemmas (1895), but his reputation rests on his poetry: Verses (1896), the verse play The Pierrot of the Minute (1897), and Decorations in Verse and Prose (1899). His lyrics, much influenced by French poet Paul Verlaine and marked by meticulous attention to melody and cadence, turn the conventional world-weariness of......
  • decorative art
    any of those arts that are concerned with the design and decoration of objects that are chiefly prized for their utility, rather than for their purely aesthetic qualities. Ceramics, glassware, basketry, jewelry, metalware, furniture, textiles, clothing, and other such goods are the objects most commonly associated with the decorative arts. Many decorative arts, such as basketry or pottery, are als...
  • Decorative Arts, Museum of (museum, Paris, France)
    ...A master of anatomy and characterization, he was a highly sought-after portraitist. He also was a major force behind the establishment in the early 1860s of what later became the Museum of Decorative Arts, an institution that elevated the status of the applied arts in France. For his role in this he was made an officer of the Legion of Honour in 1855 and further elevated in......
  • Decorative Arts, Museum of (museum, Prague, Czech Republic)
    ...the republic’s many museums, three in Prague are especially noteworthy: the National Museum (founded 1818), the National Gallery (1796; whose collection is exhibited in several locations), and the Museum of Decorative Arts (1885), the latter housing one of the world’s largest collections of glass. The Prague Zoological Garden is known for Przewalski’s horse, the last of a w...
  • decorum (art)
    in literary style, the appropriate rendering of a character, action, speech, or scene. The concept of literary propriety, in its simplest stage of development, was outlined by Aristotle. In later classical criticism, the Roman poet Horace maintained that to retain its unity, a work of art must be consistent in every aspect: the subject or theme must be dealt with in the proper diction, metre, for...
  • decoupage (art)
    (French: “cutting out”), the art of cutting and pasting cutouts to simulate painting on a wood, metal, or glass surface. There are many variations in technique, but the four basic steps of decoupage generally are cutting out the pictures, arranging them to depict a scene or tell a story, pasting them on a surface, and applying several (sometimes up to 12) thin coats of varnish or la...
  • Decoux, Jean (French governor-general of Indochina)
    governor-general of French Indochina for the provisional (Vichy) French government during World War II (1940–45). His reforms, which were designed to undermine Japanese influence in the area, unwittingly helped lay the groundwork for Vietnamese nationalist resistance to French rule after the war....
  • decoy (electronics)
    ...cloud consisting of a large number of tiny metallic reflecting strips that create strong echoes over a large area to mask the presence of real target echoes or to create confusion, and (4) decoys, which are small, inexpensive air vehicles or other objects designed to appear to the radar as if they are real targets. Military radars are also subject to direct attack by conventional......
  • decreasing marginal utility (mathematics)
    ...them was Nicolas’s cousin Daniel Bernoulli, whose solution depended on the idea that a ducat added to the wealth of a rich man benefits him much less than it does a poor man (a concept now known as decreasing marginal utility; see utility and value: Theories of utility)....
  • decree, interlocutory (law)
    generally, a judicial decision that is not final or that deals with a point other than the principal subject matter of the controversy at hand. An interlocutory decree of divorce in the United States or a decree nisi in England, for example, is a judicial decree pronouncing the divorce of the parties provisionally but not terminating the marriage until the expiration of a certa...
  • decree nisi (law)
    ...a judicial decision that is not final or that deals with a point other than the principal subject matter of the controversy at hand. An interlocutory decree of divorce in the United States or a decree nisi in England, for example, is a judicial decree pronouncing the divorce of the parties provisionally but not terminating the marriage until the expiration of a certain period. The purpose......
  • Decree on the Adapted Renovation of the Life of Religious (Roman Catholicism)
    ...are a comparatively recent form of the religious state, alongside religious orders and congregations, in which the members take public vows and live in community. The second Vatican Council, in its “Decree on the Adapted Renovation of the Life of Religious” (1965), called for secular institutes to remain constantly in touch with their original inspiration and yet adapt to the......
  • decreolization (linguistics)
    ...American Southeast, or a descendant of 17th-century West African Pidgin English. The possibility that the structure of modern Ebonics is the result of decreolization has also been widely studied. (Decreolization, or debasilectalization, is the process by which a vernacular loses its basilectal, or “creole,” features under the influence of the language from which it inherited most....
  • decreta (Roman law)
    ...or instructions to subordinates, especially provincial governors, (3) rescripta, written answers to officials or others who consulted the emperor, in particular on a point of law, and (4) decreta, or decisions of the emperor sitting as a judge. ...
  • decretal (Roman Catholicism)
    a reply in writing by the pope to a particular question of church discipline that has been referred to him. In modern usage, such a document is referred to as a rescript (reply). Decretals issued in response to particular questions were authentic decisions for the case in question only and did not have the force of general law. This is true of rescripts in modern church law. Nevertheless, the dec...
  • Decretum (work by Ivo)
    His importance as a canonist is displayed in his influential Decretum and his Panormia (17 and 8 books, respectively). His 288 letters reveal contemporary political, religious, and liturgical questions....
  • Decretum Gelasianum (medieval document)
    ...not authoritative Scripture. A contrary view of Augustine (354–430), one of the greatest Western theologians, prevailed, however, and the works remained in the Latin Vulgate version. The Decretum Gelasianum, a Latin document of uncertain authorship but recognized as reflecting the views of the Roman Church at the beginning of the 6th century, includes Tobit, Judith, the Wisdom of....
  • “Decretum Gratiani” (canon law)
    collection of nearly 3,800 texts touching on all areas of church discipline and regulation compiled by the Benedictine monk Gratian about 1140. It soon became the basic text on which the masters of canon law lectured and commented in the universities....
  • Decroly method (education)
    The Decroly method can be characterized as a program of work based on centres of interest and educative games. Its basic feature is the workshop-classroom, in which children can go freely about their own occupations. Behind the complex of individual activities there is a carefully organized scheme of work based on an analysis of the fundamental needs of the child. The principle of giving......
  • Decroly, Ovide (Belgian educator)
    Belgian pioneer in the education of children, including those with physical disabilities. Through his work as a physician, Decroly became involved in a school for disabled children and consequently became interested in education. One outcome of this interest was his establishment in 1901 of the Institute for Abnormal Children in Uccle, Belg. Decroly credited the school’s ...
  • decryption (communications)
    the process of disguising information as “ciphertext,” or data unintelligible to an unauthorized person. Conversely, decryption, or decipherment, is the process of converting ciphertext back into its original format. Manual encryption has been used since Roman times, but the term has become associated with the disguising of information via electronic computers. Encryption is a......
  • DECT system
    ...the European Conference on Posts and Telecommunications (CEPT) began work on another personal communication system, which became known as the digital European cordless telephone (DECT) system. The DECT system was designed initially to provide cordless telephone service for office environments, but its scope soon broadened to include campuswide communications and telepoint services. DECT has......
  • Decticinae (insect)
    any of a group of insects in the family Tettigoniidae (order Orthoptera) that are cricketlike in appearance, more than 2.5 cm (1 inch) long, and brown or black in colour. Their pronotum (dorsal surface of the prothorax) extends back to the abdomen. Most species have short wings, although some species are wingless....
  • decubitus ulcer (ulceration)
    an ulceration of skin and underlying tissue caused by pressure that limits the blood supply to the affected area. As the name indicates, bedsores are a particular affliction for persons who have been bedridden for a long time. The interference with normal blood flow is caused by the prolonged pressure of the body upon the bed and the friction against the bedclothes. Bedsores are more likely to aff...
  • DeCuir, John (American art director)
    ...Color: Lionel Lindon for Around the World in 80 DaysArt Direction, Black-and-White: Malcolm F. Brown and Cedric Gibbons for Somebody up There Likes MeArt Direction, Color: John DeCuir and Lyle R. Wheeler for The King and IMusic Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture: Victor Young for Around the World in 80 DaysScoring of a Musical Picture:......
  • decurio (ancient Roman official)
    in ancient Rome, the head of a group of 10. The title had two applications, one civil, the other military. In the first usage decurio was applied to a member of the local council or senate of a colonia (a community established by Roman citizens and having full citizenship rights) or a municipium (a corporation and community established by non-Romans but granted certain rights of citi...
  • decuriones (ancient Roman official)
    in ancient Rome, the head of a group of 10. The title had two applications, one civil, the other military. In the first usage decurio was applied to a member of the local council or senate of a colonia (a community established by Roman citizens and having full citizenship rights) or a municipium (a corporation and community established by non-Romans but granted certain rights of citi...
  • Dedalus, Stephen (fictional character)
    ...(1914). Three stories, The Sisters, Eveline, and After the Race, had appeared under the pseudonym Stephen Dedalus before the editor decided that Joyce’s work was not suitable for his readers. Meanwhile Joyce had met a girl named Nora Barnacle, with whom he fell in love on June 16, the day that he......
  • Dedān (Saudi Arabia)
    ...research centres mainly on sites of the historic period, which is also attested by written records beginning in the first half of the 1st millennium bc. Some sites in the northern Hejaz, such as Dedān (now Al-ʿUlā), Al-Ḥijr (now Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ, barely six miles north of Dedān), and Taymāʾ to the nor...
  • Dede Korkut (literary character)
    ...had as its basis the Turco-Iranian legend of an 8th-century hero, Abū Muslim, another the Turkish tales of the knight Dānishmend. Other epics, such as the traditional Turkish tale of Dede Korkut, were preserved by storytellers who improvised certain parts of their tales (which were noted down only afterward). Also, the role of the Ṣūfī orders and of the......
  • Dedeagac (Greece)
    seaport, capital of the nomós (department) of Évros, western Thrace (Thráki), Greece. It is situated northwest of the Évros (Maritsa) River estuary on the Gulf of Ainos (Enez), an inlet of the Thracian Sea. Founded by the Turks as Dedeağaƈ in 1860, it began to grow with the marketing of its valonia oak after 1871 and further prospered with the arri...
  • Dedeaux, Raoul Martial (American baseball coach)
    American baseball coach (b. Feb. 17, 1914, New Orleans, La.—d. Jan. 5, 2006, Glendale, Calif.), modeled his coaching style on that of his friend and major league baseball coach Casey Stengel and guided the University of Southern California (USC) Trojans to a record 11 College World Series championships and a record five consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Association championships (197...
  • Dedeaux, Rod (American baseball coach)
    American baseball coach (b. Feb. 17, 1914, New Orleans, La.—d. Jan. 5, 2006, Glendale, Calif.), modeled his coaching style on that of his friend and major league baseball coach Casey Stengel and guided the University of Southern California (USC) Trojans to a record 11 College World Series championships and a record five consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Association championships (197...
  • Dedekind cut (mathematics)
    ...that the character of the continuum need not depend on the quantity of points on a line segment (or continuum) but rather on how the line submits to being divided. His method, now called the Dedekind cut, consisted in separating all the real numbers in a series into two parts such that each real number in one part is less than every real number in the other. Such a cut, which corresponds......
  • Dedekind, Julius Wilhelm Richard (German mathematician)
    German mathematician who developed a major redefinition of irrational numbers in terms of arithmetic concepts. Although not fully recognized in his lifetime, his treatment of the ideas of the infinite and of what constitutes a real number continues to influence modern mathematics....
  • Dedekind, Richard (German mathematician)
    German mathematician who developed a major redefinition of irrational numbers in terms of arithmetic concepts. Although not fully recognized in his lifetime, his treatment of the ideas of the infinite and of what constitutes a real number continues to influence modern mathematics....
  • Dedford (Rhode Island, United States)
    town (township), Kent county, central Rhode Island, U.S., on Greenwich Bay, south of Providence city. It was settled and incorporated as a town in 1677, following King Philip’s (Indian) War. Called Dedford in 1686–89, it was renamed for Greenwich in London. Farming, fishing, pottery making, and tanning were early industries. Du...
  • Dedham (Massachusetts, United States)
    town (township), Norfolk county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S., on the Charles River, just southwest of Boston. One of the oldest inland settlements of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, it was founded in 1635 and named for Dedham, Essex, England, and incorporated in 1636. Its Fairbanks House (1636) is believed to be the oldest e...
  • Dedham Vale: Morning (painting by Constable)
    ...discrete studies, or, befitting academic practice, they were made in preparation for preconceived easel paintings. The most significant large easel painting of the period was Dedham Vale: Morning (1811), which married closely observed naturalistic effect to a scene composed according to the academic criteria established by 17th-century French painter Claude......
  • Dedication, Feast of (Judaism)
    Jewish festival that begins on Kislev 25 (in December, according to the Gregorian calendar) and is celebrated for eight days. Hanukkah reaffirms the ideals of Judaism and commemorates in particular the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the lighting of candles on each day of the festival. Although not mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures, Hanukkah...
  • dedifferentiation (biology)
    ...changed environment, cartilage may lose its matrix, and its cells may come to resemble the more primitive tissue from which it arose. Nevertheless, despite such reversal and apparent simplification (“dedifferentiation”), these cells retain their former histological specificity. Under suitable environmental conditions they can differentiate again but can only regain their previous....
  • deductible (insurance clause)
    ...changed environment, cartilage may lose its matrix, and its cells may come to resemble the more primitive tissue from which it arose. Nevertheless, despite such reversal and apparent simplification (“dedifferentiation”), these cells retain their former histological specificity. Under suitable environmental conditions they can differentiate again but can only regain their previous....
  • deduction (reason)
    in logic, a rigorous proof, or derivation, of one statement (the conclusion) from one or more statements (the premises)—i.e., a chain of statements, each of which is either a premise or a consequence of a statement occurring earlier in the proof. This usage is a generalization of what the Greek philosopher Aristotle called the syllogism, but a syllogism is now rec...
  • deduction (taxation)
    ...on a flat per capita basis or in accordance with a schedule. When income is taxed at graduated rates, exemptions are worth more to high-income than to low-income families. In order to provide equal tax allowances for dependents to families of the same size at different income levels, each exemption can be multiplied by the standard or basic rate of tax and so be converted into a uniform tax......
  • deductive inference (reason)
    in logic, a rigorous proof, or derivation, of one statement (the conclusion) from one or more statements (the premises)—i.e., a chain of statements, each of which is either a premise or a consequence of a statement occurring earlier in the proof. This usage is a generalization of what the Greek philosopher Aristotle called the syllogism, but a syllogism is now rec...
  • deductive reasoning (reason)
    in logic, a rigorous proof, or derivation, of one statement (the conclusion) from one or more statements (the premises)—i.e., a chain of statements, each of which is either a premise or a consequence of a statement occurring earlier in the proof. This usage is a generalization of what the Greek philosopher Aristotle called the syllogism, but a syllogism is now rec...
  • deductive-nomological theory (historical analysis)
    ...reason or experience. This doctrine may be said to have been given more rigorous expression among Positivist philosophers of the present century in the shape of what is variously known as the “deductive-nomological” or “covering law” theory of explanation; as originally applied to history by Carl Hempel, it amounted to the claim that explaining a given historical......
  • deductivism (philosophy)
    ...paraphrase nominalists think that these sentences do not make straightforward claims about objects. There are several different versions of paraphrase nominalism, of which the best known is “if-thenism,” or deductivism. According to this view, the sentence “4 is even” can be paraphrased by the sentence “If there were such things as numbers, then 4 would be......
  • Dedza (Malawi)
    town, central Malawi, at the foot of Dedza Mountain (7,211 feet [2,198 metres]). Situated in an area with a cool, healthy climate and a perennial supply of mountain water, the town is near the Mozambique border, on the traditional route between Ntcheu and Lilongwe, and is the trade centre for a fertile agricultural area (rice and potatoes). Extensive softwood plantations cover D...
  • Dedza (district, Malawi)
    ...is near the Mozambique border, on the traditional route between Ntcheu and Lilongwe, and is the trade centre for a fertile agricultural area (rice and potatoes). Extensive softwood plantations cover Dedza Mountain; there are sawmills in the town and a forestry training school nearby. The region was sparsely inhabited until the 1920s and ’30s brought an influx of refugees, mostly emigrant...
  • Dedza Mountain (mountain, Malaŵi)
    ...about three-quarters of the total land area. The highland areas are mainly isolated tracts that rise as much as 8,000 feet above sea level. They comprise the Nyika, Viphya, and Dowa highlands and Dedza-Kirk Mountain Range in the north and west and the Shire Highlands in the south. The isolated massifs of Mulanje (9,849 feet) and Zomba (6,841 feet) represent the fourth physical region.......
  • dee (electrode)
    ...accelerator of this type was developed in the early 1930s by the American physicists Ernest O. Lawrence and M. Stanley Livingston. A cyclotron consists of two hollow semicircular electrodes, called dees, mounted back to back, separated by a narrow gap, in an evacuated chamber between the poles of a magnet. An electric field, alternating in polarity, is created in the gap by a radio-frequency......
  • Dee, Frances (American actress)
    American actress (b. Nov. 26, 1907, Los Angeles, Calif.—d. March 6, 2004, Norwalk, Conn.), was a movie star of the 1930s and ’40s who was known for her serene beauty, which was showcased in such films as An American Tragedy (1931), Little Women (1933), Of Human Bondage (1934), and the cult classic I Walked with a Zombie (1943). She was married to actor Joe...
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