Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Paraguana Peninsula ... parchment

Paraguana Peninsula: Falcon estado ("state"), northwestern Venezuela. It lies between the Caribbean Sea on the east and the Gulf of Venezuela on the west. Of low elevation, the peninsula has infertile soil and is sparsely populated, but the development of the petroleum ...
Paraguari: city, southern 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 Asuncion. Originally a Jesuit mission, the city was formally organized ...
Paraguay: country in south-central South America. A landlocked country, it is bordered by Bolivia to the northwest and north, Brazil to the northeast and east, and Argentina to the southeast, south, and west. It has a total area of 157,048 square ...
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 m) above sea level, it crosses Paraguay to its confluence with the ...
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 the south and by the Atlantic Ocean on the east. ...
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 the Serra da Mantiqueira and the Serra do Mar and ...
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 subfamily Psittacinae (family Psittacidae) and has influenced another parrot name, ...
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 Niger River. The railway runs northward from Cotonou, Benin's major ...
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.
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 is largely excreted by the lungs and gives an unpleasant ...
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 distance of the body from the Earth (geocentric parallax) and ...
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. See latitude and longitude.
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, made of wood, are oval in cross section, 5 cm ...
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 placental mammals elsewhere. Through the courses of their evolution they ...
parallelism: in rhetoric, component of literary style in both prose and poetry, in which coordinate ideas are arranged in phrases, sentences, and paragraphs that balance one element with another of equal importance and similar wording. The repetition of sounds, meanings, and ...
paralysis: loss or impairment of voluntary muscular movement caused by structural abnormalities of nervous or muscular tissue or by metabolic disturbances in neuromuscular function. Paralysis can affect the legs and lower part of the body (paraplegia) or both arms and both ...
paramagnetism: kind of magnetism characteristic of materials weakly attracted by a strong magnet, named and extensively investigated by the British scientist Michael Faraday beginning in 1845. Most elements and some compounds are paramagnetic. Strong paramagnetism (not to be confused with the ...
Paramanuchit: prince-patriarch of the Siamese Buddhist church who was a prolific writer on patriotic and moralistic themes in verse and prose. He became abbot of Watphra Jetubon and was later created krom somdec-phra Paramanujit, prince-patriarch of the church.
Paramaribo: largest town, capital, and chief port of Suriname (formerly Dutch, or Netherlands, Guiana). It lies 9 miles (15 km) from the Atlantic Ocean on the Suriname River. It originated as an Indian village that became a French settlement (c. 1640) ...
Paramecium: genus of free-living protozoans of the holotrichous order Hymenostomatida. There are at least eight well-defined species; all can be cultivated easily in the laboratory. Although they vary in size, most Paramecium species are about the size of the period at ...
paramedical personnel: health-care workers who provide clinical services to patients under the supervision of a physician. The term generally encompasses nurses, therapists, technicians, and other ancillary personnel involved in medical care but is frequently applied specifically to highly trained persons who share ...
parameter: in mathematics, a variable for which the range of possible values identifies a collection of distinct cases in a problem. Any equation expressed in terms of parameters is a parametric equation. The general equation of a straight line in slope-intercept ...
parameters, variation of: general method for finding a particular solution of a differential equation by replacing the constants in the solution of a related (homogeneous) equation by functions and determining these functions so that the original differential equation will be satisfied.
paramita: in Mahayana ("Greater Vehicle") Buddhism, any of the perfections, or transcendental virtues, practiced by bodhisattvas ("Buddhas-to-be") in advanced stages of their path toward enlightenment. The six virtues are generosity (dana-paramita); morality (sila-paramita); perseverance (ksanti-paramita); vigour (virya-paramita); meditation, or concentration (dhyana-paramita); ...
Paramount Communications Inc.: American corporation that was acquired by Viacom Inc. (q.v.) in 1994.
Paramount Pictures Corporation: one of the first and most successful of the Hollywood motion-picture studios.
Parana: city, capital of Entre Rios provincia, northeastern Argentina. It lies on the Parana River, opposite Sante Fe, with which it is connected by a subfluvial road tunnel. Founded as a parish in 1730 and formerly called Bajada de Santa Fe, ...
Parana: estado ("state") of southern Brazil, bounded to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the state of Santa Catarina, on the southwest by Argentina, on the west by Paraguay, on the northwest by the state of Mato ...
Parana pine: an important evergreen timber conifer of the family Araucariaceae, native to the mountains of southern Brazil. The Parana pine grows to 30 m (100 feet) high and bears branches in a circle about the stems. As the tree matures, the ...
Parana Plateau: lava plateau, one of the world's largest, lying mostly in Rio Grande do Sul and Sao Paulo states, southern Brazil. Its formations of solidified sheets of lava rock (diabase) also appear in Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay. Where the diabase is ...
Parana River: river of South America, the second longest after the Amazon, rising on the plateau of southeast-central Brazil and flowing generally south to the point where, after a course of 3,032 miles (4,880 km), it joins the Uruguay River to form ...
Paranagua: port, southeastern Parana estado (state), southern Brazil, on Paranagua Bay. The city lies at the foot of the coastal Serra do Mar, 18 miles (29 km) from the open Atlantic Ocean. It was founded in 1585 by ...
Paranaiba River: south central Brazil, rising on the western slopes of the Serra da Mata da Corda and flowing west-southwestward for about 600 mi (1,000 km); it collects eight sizable tributaries along its course to join the Grande River and form the ...
Paranapanema River: river, rising south of Sao Paulo in the Serra do Paranapiacaba, southeastern Brazil, and flowing in a west-northwesterly direction for 560 mi (900 km) before entering the Parana River at Porto Sao Jose. After receiving the Itarare, it forms part ...
Paranaque: city, central Luzon, Philippines, on the southeastern shore of Manila Bay. Its site was occupied by small vegetable farms until the mid-20th century, when expanding urbanization transformed the town into a southern suburb of Manila. The Manila International Airport to ...
Parandowski, Jan: Polish writer, essayist, and translator.
Parangaba: city, northern Ceara state, northeastern Brazil, immediately southwest of Fortaleza, the state capital, and part of its metropolitan area. Until the 1940s it was a small cotton-producing centre on the site of an old Indian village, Parangaba (formerly Porangaba), but ...
paranoia: the central theme of a group of psychotic disorders characterized by systematic delusions and of the nonpsychotic paranoid personality disorder. The word paranoia was used by the ancient Greeks, apparently in much the same sense as the modern popular term ...
paraphrase: in music, the recomposition of a phrase, melody, section, or entire piece for use in another, favoured especially during the Renaissance for masses and motets, but also for keyboard works, where the melody is frequently broken up, with new notes ...
paraplegia: paralysis of the legs and lower part of the body. Paraplegia often involves loss of sensation (of pain, temperature, vibration, and position) as well as loss of motion. It may also include paralysis of the bladder and bowel. Paraplegia may ...
parapsychological phenomenon: any of several types of events that cannot be accounted for by natural law or knowledge apparently acquired by other than usual sensory abilities. The discipline concerned with investigating such phenomena is called parapsychology.
Paraschwagerina: genus of extinct fusulinid foraminiferans (protozoans with a relatively large shell readily preservable in the fossil record), the fossils of which are restricted to marine rocks; the animal probably lived in clear water, far from the shoreline. The various species ...
parasitism: relationship between two species of plants or animals in which one benefits at the expense of the other, without killing it. Parasitism is differentiated from parasitoidism, a relationship in which the host is killed by the parasite; parasitoidism occurs in ...
parasitology: the study of animal and plant parasitism as a biological phenomenon. Parasites occur in virtually all major animal groups and in many plant groups, with hosts as varied as the parasites themselves. Many parasitologists are concerned primarily with particular taxonomic ...
Parasurama: (Sanskrit: "Rama with the Ax"), sixth of the 10 avataras (incarnations) of the Hindu god Vishnu. The Mahabharata ("Great Epic of the Bharata Dynasty") and the Puranas ("Ancient Lore") record that Parasurama was born to the Brahman sage Jamadagni in ...
parathion: an organic phosphorus compound well known as an insecticide that is extremely toxic to humans. The compound acts in mammals, as in insects, as a cholinesterase inhibitor (cholinesterase being the enzyme that controls the normal functioning of the nervous system), ...
parathyroid adenoma: uncommon disorder characterized by loss of mineral materials from the skeleton, the development of brown cystic bone tumours and of kidney stones, and progressive kidney insufficiency. Increase in the number (hyperplasia) of secretory cells of one or more of the ...
parathyroid gland: endocrine gland occurring in all vertebrate species from amphibia upward, usually located close to and behind the thyroid gland and secreting parathormone, a hormone that regulates and maintains a normal calcium level in the blood serum. Human parathyroid tissue is ...
paratyphoid fever: infectious disease similar to typhoid, though usually milder, caused by any of several organisms: Salmonella paratyphi (paratyphoid A), S. schottmulleri (paratyphoid B), or S. hirschfeldii (paratyphoid C). The means of infection, spread, clinical course, pathology, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment are ...
Parbhani: city, east-central Maharashtra state, western India, on the Manmad-Hyderabad railway, about 10 miles (16 km) south of the Dudna River. Its name refers to the Prabhavati Temple, which was forcibly converted to a mosque during the Mughal period. Now a ...
parchment: the processed skins of certain animals-chiefly sheep, goats, and calves-that have been prepared for the purpose of writing on them. The name apparently derives from the ancient Greek city of Pergamum (modern Bergama, Turkey), where parchment is said to have ...