• flat chasing (metalwork)

    chasing: …particular form of chasing, called flat chasing, which involves hammering with small, blunt tools to give a low-relief ornamentation, was popular for silver decoration in Europe in the early 18th century and was widely used in the United States during the second half of the same century.

  • flat database (computer science)

    database: In flat databases, records are organized according to a simple list of entities; many simple databases for personal computers are flat in structure. The records in hierarchical databases are organized in a treelike structure, with each level of records branching off into a set of smaller…

  • flat Earth

    flat Earth, the perception that Earth exists as a flat disk, either circular or square-shaped. This view persisted in the ancient world until empirical observations revealed that Earth’s shape was spherical or ellipsoidal. In modern times, however, the notion of a flat Earth has been revived and

  • flat figure (puppetry)

    puppetry: Flat figures: Hitherto, all the types of puppets that have been considered have been three-dimensional rounded figures. But there is a whole family of two-dimensional flat figures. Flat figures, worked from above like marionettes, with hinged flaps that could be raised or lowered, were sometimes…

  • flat glass

    industrial glass: Flat glass: The Romans were perhaps the first to develop flat glass for use as windows: a bathhouse window of greenish blue colour, most likely obtained by casting, was discovered in the ruins of Pompeii. In the Middle Ages the crown process for making window…

  • flat grain beetle (insect)

    flat grain beetle, any member of the insect family Silvanidae (order Coleoptera), closely related to and sometimes included in the flat bark beetle (q.v.) family Cucujidae. These beetles are usually less than 3 millimetres (0.1 inch) in length. Many species live under the bark of trees. Others

  • flat kite (aircraft)

    kite: Kite structure: The flat, bowed, box, sled, and delta require a rigid framework fitted with a sail material, as does the compound, which is formed by integrating two or more of the above types to form one kite. A radical departure in design, the parafoil, a soft airplane-wing…

  • flat knitting (textile)

    knitting: …pattern, and double knits—and the warp knits—including tricot, raschel, and milanese. In knitting, a wale is a column of loops running lengthwise, corresponding to the warp of woven fabric; a course is a crosswise row of loops, corresponding to the filling.

  • flat molding (architecture)

    molding: Flat or angular: of architectural design, as follows: (1) The fascia, face, or band is a continuous member with a flat surface, parallel to the surface that it ornaments and either projecting from or slightly receding into it. (2) The fillet, listel, or regula is a relatively narrow band, usually…

  • flat plate (construction)

    construction: The invention of reinforced concrete: …floor slabs without beams (called flat slabs or flat plates) that used diagonal and orthogonal patterns of reinforcing bars. The system still used today—which divides the bays between columns into column strips and middle strips and uses only an orthogonal arrangement of bars—was devised in 1912 by the Swiss engineer…

  • flat roof (construction)

    roof: …main types of roofs are flat roofs and sloping ones. The flat roof (see the Figure) has historically been widely used in the Middle East, the American Southwest, and anywhere else where the climate is arid and the drainage of water off the roof is thus of secondary importance. Flat…

  • flat shading (art)

    computer graphics: Shading and texturing: In flat shading, no textures are used and only one colour tone is used for the entire object, with different amounts of white or black added to each face of the object to simulate shading. The resulting model appears flat and unrealistic. In Gouraud shading, textures…

  • flat slab (construction)

    construction: The invention of reinforced concrete: …floor slabs without beams (called flat slabs or flat plates) that used diagonal and orthogonal patterns of reinforcing bars. The system still used today—which divides the bays between columns into column strips and middle strips and uses only an orthogonal arrangement of bars—was devised in 1912 by the Swiss engineer…

  • flat stitch (textiles)

    plain stitch, basic knitting stitch in which each loop is drawn through other loops to the right side of the fabric. The loops form vertical rows, or wales, on the fabric face, giving it a sheen, and crosswise rows, or courses, on the back. Plain-stitch knitting is a filling knit construction and

  • flat tax (economics)

    flat tax, a tax system that applies a single tax rate to all levels of income. It has been proposed as a replacement of the federal income tax in the United States, which was based on a system of progressive tax rates in which the percentage of tax taken increases as income rises. Under some flat

  • flat trumpet (musical instrument)

    trumpet: The English flat trumpet (c. 1695), which had a sliding upper bend near the mouthpiece, reappeared as the slide trumpet found in many 19th-century English orchestras. In Austria and Italy after 1801 there was a vogue for the keyed trumpet, with side holes covered by padded keys.

  • flat truss (construction)

    construction: Steel long-span construction: The flat truss was used also, reaching a maximum span of 91 meters (300 feet) in the Glenn L. Martin Co. Aircraft Assembly Building (1937) in Baltimore. Electric arc welding, another important steel technology, was applied to construction at this time, although the principle had been…

  • flat zither (music)

    stringed instrument: Zithers: …the zither family is the flat zither; in Africa it is usually made either from a hollowed plank over which strings are fastened (board zither) or from individual narrow canes lashed together, each having one idiochordic string (raft zither). The typical box zither is a rectangular or, more often, trapezoid-shaped…

  • flat-coated retriever (breed of dog)

    flat-coated retriever, breed of sporting dog, powerful and deep-chested, strong enough to handle large birds and furred game. The breed was developed in the 1870s in England by S.E. Shirley, a founder of the Kennel Club. It was one of the most popular gun dogs by the turn of the century, but it

  • flat-haired mouse (rodent)

    mouse: General features: …of the largest is the flat-haired mouse (M. platythrix) of peninsular India, weighing about 18 grams (0.6 ounce), with a body 10 to 12 cm (4 to 4.7 inches) long and a shorter tail (7 to 8 cm [2.8 to 3.1 inches]). The smallest is probably the pygmy mouse (M.…

  • flat-headed cat (mammal)

    flat-headed cat, (Felis planiceps), extremely rare Asian cat found in the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo. One of the smallest members of the cat family, Felidae, the adult is from 40 to 60 centimetres (16 to 24 inches) long without the 15–20-cm tail and weighs from 1.5 to 2.5 kilograms (3.3

  • flat-headed frog (amphibian)

    Myobatrachidae: The flat-headed frog (Chiroleptes platycephalus) is a desert-dwelling Australian myobatrachid. It lives in burrows and is noted for its ability to store enough water in its body to take on a ball-like shape. Rheobatrachus silus, an extinct species, swallowed its eggs and brooded them in its…

  • flat-jack method (excavation)

    tunnels and underground excavations: Rock-mechanics investigation: …the drift, the so-called French flat-jack method is preferred. In this, a slot is cut at the surface, and its closure is measured as the geostress is relieved by the slot. Next, a flat hydraulic jack is inserted in the rock. The jack pressure necessary to restore closure of the…

  • flat-lying deposit (ore deposit)

    mining: Mining flat-lying deposits: Many of the ore deposits mined today had their origins in an ocean, lake, or swamp environment, and, although they may have been pressed, compacted, and perhaps somewhat distorted over time, they still retain the basic horizontal orientation in which the minerals were…

  • flat-panel display (computer video terminal)

    electronics: Flat-panel displays: Display devices convey information in visible form from electronic devices to human viewers. Common examples are the faces on digital watches, numerical indicators on stereo equipment, and the picture tubes in television sets and computer monitors. Until recently the most versatile of these…

  • flat-plate collector (technology)

    solar energy: Thermal energy: …it to thermal energy are flat-plate collectors, which are used for solar heating applications. Because the intensity of solar radiation at Earth’s surface is so low, these collectors must be large in area. Even in sunny parts of the world’s temperate regions, for instance, a collector must have a surface…

  • flat-skulled marsupial mouse (mammal)

    marsupial mouse: …the flat-skulled marsupial mice, or planigales (Planigale), are similar to the true shrews (Sorex). The Red Data Book lists the eastern jerboa marsupial, or kultarr (Antechinomys laniger), of Australia as endangered; several other marsupial mice are considered rare.

  • flat-tailed house gecko (reptile)

    gecko: …in only one species, the flat-tailed house gecko (Hemidactylus platyurus), herpetologists argue that many other geckos may also possess it.

  • flat-tailed otter (mammal)

    saro, rare South American species of otter

  • flat-topped piddock (clam)

    piddock: The flat-topped piddock (Penitella penita), from the Arctic Ocean to Lower California, bores into hard clay, sandstone, and cement, sometimes damaging man-made structures. Some Penitella and Diplothyra species bore into the shells of other mollusks, particularly oysters and abalone.

  • flatback sea turtle (turtle)

    sea turtle: Physical features and feeding habits: The flatback sea turtle (Natator depressa) occurs in the seas between Australia and New Guinea; it also feeds on a variety of invertebrates. The shells of adults of both species range from 90 to 100 cm (35 to 39 inches).

  • flatbed (cinematic device)

    motion-picture technology: Editing equipment: …the 1930s on, worked with flatbed machines, which use a rotating prism rather than intermittent motion to yield an image. Starting in the 1960s flatbeds such as the KEM and Steenbeck versions became more popular in the United States and Great Britain. These horizontal editing systems are identified by how…

  • flatbed press (printing)

    flatbed press, printing press employing a flat surface for the type or plates against which paper is pressed, either by another flat surface acting reciprocally against it or by a cylinder rolling over it. It may be contrasted to the rotary press (q.v.), which has a cylindrical printing surface.

  • flatbill (bird)

    flatbill, any of six species of Central and South American birds belonging to the tyrant flycatcher family Tyrannidae (order Passeriformes). Flatbills, which constitute the genera Rhynchocyclus and Ramphotrigon, are distinguished by their exceptionally broad and flat bill. All are olive, marked

  • flatbread (food)

    baking: Flat breads: A large part of the world’s population consumes so-called flat breads on a daily basis. Tortillas and pita bread are representative examples. Traditional tortillas are made from a paste of ground corn kernels that have been soaked in hot lime water. Corn tortillas…

  • Flatbush (district, New York City, New York, United States)

    Brooklyn: History: …settlements included New Utrecht (1650), Flatbush (1651), Bushwick, and Williamsburg (1660). The American Revolutionary War Battle of Long Island was fought in Brooklyn on August 27, 1776, with remnants of the American army retreating to Brooklyn Heights overlooking the East River. Early in the 19th century, Brooklyn became the world’s…

  • flatcar (railroad vehicle)

    freight car: The flatcar has long been utilized for hauling heavy construction machinery and military equipment. During the 1950s British Railways and various other European railroad companies developed high-capacity flatcars suitable for carrying huge demountable containers filled with a variety of cargoes and standardized for use on container…

  • Flateyjarbók (Icelandic literature)

    Icelandic literature: Postclassical literature in Iceland: …of all Icelandic manuscripts, the Flateyjarbók (c. 1390), includes versions of sagas of Olaf I Tryggvason and St. Olaf, together with texts from other sagas or about heroes associated with Iceland.

  • flatfish (fish order)

    pleuronectiform, (order Pleuronectiformes), any one of about 680 species of bony fishes characterized by oval-shaped, flattened bodies as in the flounder, halibut, and turbot. The pleuronectiforms are unique among fishes in being asymmetrical. They are strongly compressed, with both eyes on one

  • flatfoot (medical condition)

    flatfoot, congenital or acquired flatness of the longitudinal arch of the foot. Usually associated with loss of the arch is a rolling outward of the foot and heel, resulting in a splayfoot position. Normally the arch is maintained by the shape of the bones and by the ligaments and muscles of the

  • flathead (fish)

    flathead, any of the flattened marine fishes of the families Platycephalidae, Bembridae, and Hoplichthyidae (order Scorpaeniformes), found in the Indo-Pacific and in tropical regions of the eastern Atlantic. Flatheads are elongated, large-mouthed fish with tapered bodies, two dorsal fins, and rough

  • Flathead (people)

    Flathead, North American Indian tribe of what is now western Montana, U.S., whose original territory extended from the crest of the Bitterroot Range to the Continental Divide of the Rocky Mountains and centred on the upper reaches of the Clark Fork of the Columbia River. Although early accounts

  • Flathead Lake (lake, Montana, United States)

    Flathead Lake, lake in the Flathead National Forest of northwestern Montana, U.S. Flathead Lake marks the southern limit of the Rocky Mountain Trench, a structural depression extending northward to the Liard Plain of British Columbia, Canada. Bordered on the eastern shore by the Mission Range and

  • Flathead National Forest (park, Montana, United States)

    Flathead Lake: Flathead National Forest of northwestern Montana, U.S. Flathead Lake marks the southern limit of the Rocky Mountain Trench, a structural depression extending northward to the Liard Plain of British Columbia, Canada. Bordered on the eastern shore by the Mission Range and on the west by…

  • Flathead River (river, North America)

    Flathead River, river rising in the MacDonald Range in southeastern British Columbia, Can., and flowing south for 240 miles (385 km) across the Canada–United States boundary into Montana. After passing between the Whitefish Range (west) and Glacier National Park and the Lewis Range (east), it

  • flatiron (textiles)

    clothing and footwear industry: Pressing and molding processes: …major divisions: buck pressing and iron pressing. A buck press is a machine for pressing a garment or section between two contoured and heated pressure surfaces that may have steam and vacuum systems in either or both surfaces. Before 1905 all garment pressing was done by hand irons heated directly…

  • Flatiron Building (building, New York City, New York, United States)

    Flatiron Building, steel-framed skyscraper in New York City that was completed in 1902. It is one of the city’s oldest surviving skyscrapers. The Flatiron Building on Fifth Avenue is significant not only in its unusual appearance but also as one of the key buildings in the Beaux-Arts Classicist

  • Flatley, Michael (American dancer)

    Michael Flatley is an American dancer who transformed traditional Irish dancing into a popular spectator attraction. Flatley, whose grandmother was a champion Irish dancer, began taking dancing lessons at age 11. His first dancing teacher told him he had started too late to achieve real success,

  • Flatliners (film by Schumacher [1990])

    Kevin Bacon: Breakthrough in Footloose and later film career: … (1988), The Big Picture (1989), Flatliners (1990), Tremors (1990), and He Said, She Said (1991). During this period he also took on smaller character roles, including memorable performances in Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), Oliver Stone’s JFK (1991) with Kevin Costner and Tommy Lee Jones, and

  • flats, block of (architecture)

    apartment house, building containing more than one dwelling unit, most of which are designed for domestic use, but sometimes including shops and other nonresidential features. Apartment buildings have existed for centuries. In the great cities of the Roman Empire, because of urban congestion, the

  • Flatt & Scruggs (American musical group)

    Lester Flatt: Flatt and Scruggs parted ways in 1969 when Scruggs joined his sons Gary and Randy (and later Steve) in the Earl Scruggs Revue.

  • Flatt, Lester (American musician)

    Lester Flatt was an American bluegrass and country music guitarist and singer. He worked in textile mills until the late 1930s, when he and his wife, Gladys, began performing as a duo. In 1945 he joined Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys. There he met innovative banjoist Earl Scruggs, and in 1948 the

  • Flatt, Lester Raymond (American musician)

    Lester Flatt was an American bluegrass and country music guitarist and singer. He worked in textile mills until the late 1930s, when he and his wife, Gladys, began performing as a duo. In 1945 he joined Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys. There he met innovative banjoist Earl Scruggs, and in 1948 the

  • flattening (geodesy)

    geoid: Flattening (f) is defined as the difference in magnitude between the semimajor axis (a) and the semiminor axis (b) divided by the semimajor axis, or f = (a − b)/a. For Earth the semimajor axis and semiminor axis differ by about 21 kilometres (13 miles),…

  • flatulence (physiology)

    flatulence, the presence of excessive amounts of gas in the stomach or intestine, which sometimes results in the expulsion of the gas through the anus. Healthy individuals produce significant amounts of intestinal gas (flatus) daily; without rectal release, gases trapped within the digestive system

  • flatus (biology)

    intestinal gas, material contained within the digestive tract that consists principally of swallowed air and partly of by-products of digestion. In humans the digestive tract contains normally between 150 and 500 cubic cm (10 and 30 cubic inches) of gas. During eating, air is swallowed into the

  • flatware (tableware)

    flatware, spoons, forks, and serving implements used at the table. The term flatware was introduced toward the end of the 19th century. Strictly speaking, it excludes knives, which are classified as cutlery, although in common American usage knives are generally included. In the earliest spoons,

  • Flatwoods (region, Mississippi, United States)

    Mississippi: Relief and soils: A low-lying narrow region called Flatwoods skirts the western edges of the Pontotoc Ridge and the Black Prairie. Its heavy clay soils drain poorly, and the area has never developed a prosperous economy. The North Central Hills range through northern and central Mississippi and eastward to Alabama. Their red clay…

  • flatworm (invertebrate)

    flatworm, any of the phylum Platyhelminthes, a group of soft-bodied, usually much flattened invertebrates. A number of flatworm species are free-living, but about 80 percent of all flatworms are parasitic—i.e., living on or in another organism and securing nourishment from it. They are bilaterally

  • Flaubert’s Parrot (work by Barnes)

    Julian Barnes: Novels and short stories: Flaubert’s Parrot (1984) is a humorous mixture of biography, fiction, and literary criticism as a scholar becomes obsessed with the 19th-century French writer Gustave Flaubert and with the stuffed parrot that Flaubert used as inspiration in writing the short story “Un Coeur simple.” Barnes’s later…

  • Flaubert, Gustave (French author)

    Gustave Flaubert was a novelist regarded as the prime mover of the realist school of French literature and best known for his masterpiece, Madame Bovary (1857), a realistic portrayal of bourgeois life, which led to a trial on charges of the novel’s alleged immorality. Flaubert’s father, Achille

  • flaunch (heraldry)

    heraldry: Ordinaries: The flaunch, or flanch, is a segment of a circle drawn from the top of the shield to the base. The lozenge is a parallelogram having equal sides and two acute and two obtuse angles, and a mascle is a lozenge voided. Lozengy is the field…

  • flauto piccolo (musical instrument)

    piccolo, highest-pitched woodwind instrument of orchestras and military bands. It is a small transverse (horizontally played) flute of conical or cylindrical bore, fitted with Boehm-system keywork and pitched an octave higher than the ordinary concert flute. The piccolo’s compass extends three

  • flauto traverso (musical instrument)

    flute: In transverse, or cross, flutes (i.e., horizontally held and side blown), the stream of breath strikes the opposite rim of a lateral mouth hole. Vertical flutes such as the recorder, in which an internal flue or duct directs the air against a hole cut in the side of…

  • Flavia Neapolis (city, West Bank)

    Nablus, city in the West Bank. It lies in an enclosed fertile valley and is the market centre of a natural oasis that is watered by numerous springs. Founded under the auspices of the Roman emperor Vespasian in 72 ce and originally named Flavia Neapolis, the city prospered in particular because of

  • Flavian Amphitheatre (arena, Rome, Italy)

    Colosseum, giant amphitheater built in Rome under the Flavian emperors. Construction of the Colosseum was begun sometime between 70 and 72 ce during the reign of Vespasian. It is located just east of the Palatine Hill, on the grounds of what was Nero’s Golden House. The artificial lake that was the

  • Flavian dynasty (ancient Rome)

    Flavian dynasty, (ad 69–96), the ancient Roman imperial dynasty of Vespasian (reigned 69–79) and his sons Titus (79–81) and Domitian (81–96); they belonged to the Flavia gens. The fall of Nero (ad 68) and the extinction of the Julio-Claudian dynasty had been followed by a war of succession that

  • Flavian I Of Antioch (Syrian bishop)

    Flavian I Of Antioch was the bishop of Antioch from 381 to 404, whose election perpetuated the schism originated by Meletius of Antioch (q.v.), a crucial division in the Eastern Church over the nature of the Trinity. With his friend Diodorus, later bishop of Tarsus (Tur.), Flavian defended the

  • Flavian II Of Antioch (patriarch of Antioch)

    Flavian II Of Antioch was the patriarch of Antioch probably from 498 to 512. He was chosen patriarch by the emperor Anastasius I after he accepted the evasive Henotikon, the decree of union between the Miaphysites (seeomonophysite) and the Chalcedonians. In deference to orthodoxy, however, Flavian

  • Flavian, Saint (patriarch of Constantinople)

    Saint Flavian ; feast day February 18) was the patriarch of Constantinople from 446 to 449, who opposed the heretical doctrine of the Monophysites (q.v.). He presided at the Synod of Constantinople (448), which condemned the monk Eutyches (q.v.), proponent of an extreme form of Monophysitism. Pope

  • flavin (biology)

    flavin, any of a group of pale-yellow, greenly fluorescent biological pigments (biochromes) widely distributed in small quantities in plant and animal tissues. Flavins are synthesized only by bacteria, yeasts, and green plants; for this reason, animals are dependent on plant sources for them,

  • flavin adenine dinucleotide (biochemistry)

    cell: Formation of the electron donors NADH and FADH2: …nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), yielding NADH and FADH2. It is the subsequent oxidation of these hydrogen acceptors that leads eventually to the production of ATP.

  • Flavin, Dan (American artist)

    Dan Flavin was an American artist whose installations featuring fluorescent lighting tubes in geometric arrays emit a rich ambient monochrome or multicoloured light that subtly reshapes the interior spaces in which they are displayed, creating intense visual sensations for the viewer. He was one of

  • flavine adenine dinucleotide (biochemistry)

    cell: Formation of the electron donors NADH and FADH2: …nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), yielding NADH and FADH2. It is the subsequent oxidation of these hydrogen acceptors that leads eventually to the production of ATP.

  • Flavio (work by Parks)

    Gordon Parks: Photography: …with poetry (1978), both titled Flavio. Parks was also noted for his intimate portraits of such public figures as Langston Hughes, Ingrid Bergman, Barbra Streisand, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Muhammad Ali.

  • Flavius (fictional character)

    Timon of Athens: …visited by his loyal servant Flavius, by the churlish philosopher Apemantus, and by two mistresses of the general Alcibiades, all of whom sympathize to some degree with Timon’s plight, but to no avail; Timon has turned his back on ungrateful humankind. While digging for roots to eat, Timon uncovers gold,…

  • Flavius Ancius Petronius Maximus (Roman emperor)

    Petronius Maximus was the Western Roman emperor from March 17 to May 31, 455. He was not recognized as emperor by the Eastern empire. Maximus was prefect of Rome in 420 and twice served as consul. In 454 he and the eunuch Heraclius engineered the assassination of the powerful patrician Aetius.

  • Flavius Arrianus (Greek historian)

    Arrian was a Greek historian and philosopher who was one of the most distinguished authors of the 2nd-century Roman Empire. He was the author of a work describing the campaigns of Alexander the Great. Titled Anabasis, presumably in order to recall Xenophon’s work of that title, it describes

  • Flavius Honorius (Roman emperor)

    Honorius was a Roman emperor in the West from 393 to 423, a period when much of the Western Empire was overrun by invading tribes and Rome was captured and plundered by the Visigoths. The younger son of Theodosius I (emperor 379–395) and Aelia Flacilla, Honorius was elevated to the rank of augustus

  • Flavius Jovianus (Roman emperor)

    Jovian was a Roman emperor from 363 to 364. Jovian took part in the expedition of the emperor Julian against Sāsānian Persia. He held the rank of senior staff officer and was proclaimed emperor by his troops after Julian was killed on June 26, 363. To extricate his army from Persia, the new ruler

  • Flavius Julius Constans (Roman emperor)

    Constans I was a Roman emperor from 337 to 350. The youngest son of Constantine the Great (reigned 306–337), Constans was proclaimed caesar by his father on December 25, 333. When Constantine died on September 9, 337, Constans and his two brothers, Constantius II and Constantine II, each adopted

  • Flavius Julius Constantius (Roman emperor)

    Constantius II was a Roman emperor from ad 337 to 361, who at first shared power with his two brothers, Constantine II (d. 340) and Constans I (d. 350), but who was the sole ruler from 353 to 361. The third son of Constantine I the Great and Fausta, Constantius served under his father as caesar

  • Flavius Julius Constantius (Roman emperor)

    Constantius I was a Roman emperor and father of Constantine I the Great. As a member of a four-man ruling body (tetrarchy) created by the emperor Diocletian, Constantius held the title of caesar from 293 to 305 and caesar augustus in 305–306. Of Illyrian descent, Constantius had a distinguished

  • Flavius Julius Crispus (Roman ruler)

    Crispus was the eldest son of Constantine the Great who was executed under mysterious circumstances on his father’s orders. Crispus’s mother, Minerva (or Minervina), was divorced by Constantine in 307. Crispus received his education from the Christian writer Lactantius. On March 1, 317, Constantine

  • Flavius Magnus Magnentius (Roman emperor)

    Magnentius was a usurping Roman emperor from Jan. 18, 350, to Aug. 11, 353. His career forms one episode in the struggles for imperial power that occurred after the death of Constantine the Great (ruled 306–337). Magnentius was a pagan of German descent who had achieved distinction as a soldier

  • Flavius Ricimer (Roman general)

    Ricimer was a general who acted as kingmaker in the Western Roman Empire from 456 to 472. Ricimer’s father was a chief of the Suebi (a Germanic people) and his mother was a Visigothic princess. Early in his military career he befriended the future emperor Majorian. After turning back an attempted

  • Flavius Rufinus (Roman official)

    Rufinus was a minister of the Eastern Roman emperor Arcadius (ruled 383–408) and rival of Stilicho, the general who was the effective ruler of the Western Empire. The conflict between Rufinus and Stilicho was one of the factors leading to the official partition of the empire into Eastern and

  • Flavius Sabinus (Roman prefect)

    Vespasian: Early life: …overshadowed by his older brother, Flavius Sabinus, who rose to hold an important command on the Danube about ad 48 and was prefect of Rome for many years under Nero. Although Vespasian is said to have hesitated before following his brother into the Senate, his career was in no sense…

  • Flavius Valerius Constantius (Roman emperor)

    Constantius I was a Roman emperor and father of Constantine I the Great. As a member of a four-man ruling body (tetrarchy) created by the emperor Diocletian, Constantius held the title of caesar from 293 to 305 and caesar augustus in 305–306. Of Illyrian descent, Constantius had a distinguished

  • Flavius Vegetius Renatus (Roman military author)

    Vegetius was a Roman military expert who wrote what was perhaps the single most influential military treatise in the Western world. His work exercised great influence on European tactics after the Middle Ages. A patrician and reformer with little actual military experience, Vegetius lived in an era

  • Flavius, Gnaeus (Roman law scholar)

    Gnaeus Flavius was a Roman legal writer and politician who made public the technical rules of legal procedure, which had been kept secret by the patricians and the pontifices (advisers to the king, dictator, or emperor) so that they could maintain their advantage over the plebeians. Flavius learned

  • Flaviviridae (virus group)

    flavivirus, any virus belonging to the family Flaviviridae. Flaviviruses have enveloped and spherical virions (virus particles) that are between 40 and 60 nm (1 nm = 10−9 metre) in diameter. The flavivirus genome consists of nonsegmented single-stranded positive-sense RNA (ribonucleic acid).

  • Flavivirus (virus genus)

    flavivirus: Flaviviridae contains three genera: Flavivirus, Hepacivirus, and Pestivirus. Species of Flaviviridae are transmitted by either insects or arachnids and cause severe diseases such as yellow fever, dengue, tick-borne encephalitis, and Japanese B encephalitis.

  • flavivirus (virus group)

    flavivirus, any virus belonging to the family Flaviviridae. Flaviviruses have enveloped and spherical virions (virus particles) that are between 40 and 60 nm (1 nm = 10−9 metre) in diameter. The flavivirus genome consists of nonsegmented single-stranded positive-sense RNA (ribonucleic acid).

  • flavone (biology)

    flavonoid, any of a class of nonnitrogenous biological pigments extensively represented in plants. Flavonoids are water-soluble phenolic compounds (having a –OH group attached to an aromatic ring) and are found in the vacuoles of plant cells. More than 3,000 different flavonoids have been

  • flavonoid (biology)

    flavonoid, any of a class of nonnitrogenous biological pigments extensively represented in plants. Flavonoids are water-soluble phenolic compounds (having a –OH group attached to an aromatic ring) and are found in the vacuoles of plant cells. More than 3,000 different flavonoids have been

  • flavoprotein (biochemistry)

    Axel Hugo Teodor Theorell: …pure sample of the “old yellow enzyme,” which is instrumental in the oxidative interconversion of sugars by the cell. Theorell found that the enzyme is composed of two parts: a nonprotein coenzyme—the yellow riboflavine (vitamin B2) phosphate—and a protein apoenzyme. His discovery (1934) that the coenzyme actively facilitates oxidation of…

  • flavor (sensation)

    flavor, attribute of a substance that is produced by the senses of smell, taste, and touch and is perceived within the mouth. Tasting occurs chiefly on the tongue through the taste buds. The taste buds are stimulated by five fundamental taste sensations—sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami.

  • flavor (particle physics)

    flavour, in particle physics, property that distinguishes different members in the two groups of basic building blocks of matter, the quarks and the leptons. There are six flavours of subatomic particle within each of these two groups: six leptons (the electron, the muon, the tau, the

  • flavor enhancer

    food additive: flavorings: flavor enhancers are compounds that are added to a food in order to supplement or enhance its own natural flavor. The concept of flavor enhancement originated in Asia, where cooks added seaweed to soup stocks in order to provide a richer flavor to certain foods.…