radioactivity: Beta-minus decay: In beta-minus decay, an energetic negative electron is emitted, producing a daughter nucleus of one higher atomic number and the same mass number. An example is the decay of the uranium daughter product thorium-234 into protactinium-234:

negative capability, a writer’s ability, “which Shakespeare possessed so enormously,” to accept “uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason,” according to English poet John Keats, who first used the term in an 1817 letter. An author possessing negative

aversion therapy, psychotherapy designed to cause a patient to reduce or avoid an undesirable behaviour pattern by conditioning the person to associate the behaviour with an undesirable stimulus. The chief stimuli used in the therapy are electrical, chemical, or imagined aversive situations. In the

negative externality: …of negative externality is the negative consumption externality, in which the consumption of a good reduces the well-being of others who are not compensated for this harm. Cigarette smoking is a common example, in which one’s consumption affects others as a result of the health hazards of secondhand smoke. The…

servitude: …render some other performance, and negative covenants, which require the landowner to refrain from doing something. Negative covenants that restrict the uses of a parcel of the land are called restrictive covenants. Typical affirmative covenants require landowners to pay assessments for common-area maintenance and covenant-enforcement purposes. Restrictive covenants are commonly…

Trolley problem: ) A negative duty, in contrast, is approximately defined as a moral obligation not to harm or injure others in a given way. Foot contended that this distinction of duties could account for the contrast in moral intuitions in all variants of the tram problem explained by…

property law: Easements and profits: …to do (known as a negative easement). Examples of affirmative easements include rights-of-way, the privilege of using land for pasture, the privilege of using a wall between two properties as a party (common) wall, the privilege of flooding land, and the privilege of maintaining a nuisance on one’s own land…

anode, the terminal or electrode from which electrons leave a system. In a battery or other source of direct current the anode is the negative terminal, but in a passive load it is the positive terminal. For example, in an electron tube electrons from the cathode travel across the tube toward the

electron, one of the three basic subatomic particles—along with protons and neutrons—that make up atoms, the basic building blocks of all matter and chemistry. The negatively charged electrons circle an atom’s central nucleus, which is formed by positively charged protons and the electrically

principles of physical science: Rise of quantum mechanics: …m might exist with any negative energy between −mc2 and −∞. Between −mc2 and +mc2, which is in relativistic theory the energy of an electron at rest, no state is possible. It became clear that other predictions of the theory would not agree with experiment if the negative-energy states were…

map: Scribing: In the negative engraving or scribing process, guide copy is printed on several sheets of plastic coated with an opaque paint, usually yellow. The scriber follows copy on the respective plates by engraving through the coating. Because arc light can pass only through the…

communication: Entropy, negative entropy, and redundancy: Negative entropy may also occur in instances in which incomplete or blurred messages are nevertheless received intact, either because of the ability of the receiver to fill in missing details or to recognize, despite distortion or a paucity of information, both the intent and content…

eugenics: Early history: …proliferation of “good stock,” and negative eugenics, defined as prohibiting marriage and breeding between “defective stock.” For eugenicists, nature was far more contributory than nurture in shaping humanity.

negative externality, in economics, the imposition of a cost on a party as an indirect effect of the actions of another party. Negative externalities arise when one party, such as a business, makes another party worse off, yet does not bear the costs from doing so. Externalities, which can be

hormone: Adrenocorticotropic hormone: …is an example of the negative feedback characteristic of endocrine systems; i.e., a decrease in the level of glucocorticoids circulating in the bloodstream evokes an increase in the secretion of ACTH, which, by stimulating the secretory activity of its target gland (the adrenal cortex), tends to restore to normal the…

automation: Early developments: …elegant early example of a negative feedback control system, in which the increasing output of the system is used to decrease the activity of the system.

philosophical anthropology: The idealism of Kant and Hegel: …is unfavourably contrasted with the “negative” freedom that is, in essence, the ability and the right to say “no,” and to disaffiliate from the institutional contexts into which one may have been born. It should, of course, be kept in mind that the liberal tradition from which these objections derive…

roller coaster: Overview: The so-called negative g-forces create the rider’s sense of weightlessness when lifted from the seat over the peaks of hills. On most roller coasters, riders remain seated beneath a safety bar, but variations include riders’ standing on a platform or hanging from a shoulder harness.

human behaviour: Personality: This latter option is called negative identity formation and is often associated with delinquent behaviour. Resolution of the adolescent identity crisis has a profound influence on development during later adulthood.

social security: Negative income tax: Partly because of the stigma attached to social assistance, the difficulty the potential beneficiaries have in understanding eligibility, and their reluctance to apply, it is often proposed that the information provided to the state from income tax returns should be used by…

anion, atom or group of atoms carrying a negative electric charge. See

Christianity: Eastern Christianity: …on the “apophatic” or “negative” approach to God. Through a gradual process of ascension from material things to spiritual realities and an eventual stripping away of all created beings in “unknowing,” the soul arrives at “union with Him who transcends all being and all knowledge” (Mystical Theology, chapter 1).…

algebra: The equation in India and China: …for operating with positive and negative numbers and for treating zero like any other number. Several hundred years passed before European mathematicians fully integrated such ideas into the developing discipline of algebra.

book club: …them—usually use a technique called negative option, whereby the subscriber must exercise his right to refuse the offered special of the month by returning a refusal notice by mail; otherwise, the book is shipped and the subscriber billed automatically.

negative externality: …pay the costs of this negative production externality, the factory will produce a higher quantity of goods than would be socially optimal, leading to higher social costs—parents paying for asthma treatment, farmers experiencing crop damage from acid rain, global warming, and so on.

history of logic: Categorical forms: ” Universal negative: “Every β is not an α,” or equivalently “No β is an α.” Particular affirmative: “Some β is an α.” Particular negative: “Some β is not an α.” Indefinite affirmative: “β is an α.” Indefinite negative: “β is not an α.” Singular

metamaterial: …a positive-index medium to a negative-index medium, the light is refracted on the same side of the normal as the incident light. In other words, light is bent “negatively” at the interface between the two media; that is, negative refraction takes place.

economic statecraft: Forms and uses: Negative sanctions are actual or threatened punishments, whereas positive sanctions are actual or promised rewards. Examples of negative sanctions include the following: refusing to export (embargoes), refusing to import (boycotts), covert refusals to trade (blacklists), purchases intended to keep goods out of the hands of…

Soviet Union: Postwar: …20th-century Russian publications as “negative selection.”

Uralic languages: Negative sentences and questions: Negative sentences in Early Uralic were indicated by means of a marker known as an auxiliary of negation, which preceded the main verb and was marked with suffixes that agreed with the subject and perhaps tense. This is best reflected in…

painting: Shape and mass: The negative spaces between shapes and masses are also carefully considered by the artist, since they can be so adjusted as to enhance the action and character of the positive images. They can be as important to the design as time intervals in music or the…

virus: The nucleic acid: …genomic single-stranded RNA, termed a negative strand, which is complementary to mRNA. All of these negative-strand RNA viruses have an enzyme, called an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (transcriptase), which must first catalyze the synthesis of complementary mRNA from the virion genomic RNA before viral protein synthesis can occur. These variations in…

conductive ceramics: Thermistors: Negative TCR, or NTCR, ceramics are materials whose electric resistance decreases as temperatures rise. These ceramics are usually spinels based on oxides of iron, cobalt, and manganese that exhibit small polaron conduction. Under normal temperatures there is an energy barrier to moving electrons from site…

conductive ceramics: Thermistors: Negative TCR, or NTCR, ceramics are materials whose electric resistance decreases as temperatures rise. These ceramics are usually spinels based on oxides of iron, cobalt, and manganese that exhibit small polaron conduction. Under normal temperatures there is an energy barrier to moving electrons from site…

Scholasticism: Roots of Scholasticism: …corrective exercised by the “negative theology” of the so-called Pseudo-Dionysius, around whose writings revolved some of the strangest events in the history of Western culture. The true name of this protagonist is, in spite of intensive research, unknown. Probably it will remain forever an enigma why the author of…

thought: Obstacles to effective thinking: Negative transfer occurs when the process of solving an earlier problem makes later problems harder to solve. It is contrasted with positive transfer, which occurs when solving an earlier problem makes it easier to solve a later problem. Learning a foreign language, for example, can…

Ansel Adams: Maturity: …edition of his often-reprinted book The Negative was published in 1948; written for photographers and not the general reader, the book expresses Adams’s technical and aesthetic views in an uncompromising manner.

positive-sum game: The term negative-sum game describes situations in which the total of gains and losses is less than zero, and the only way for one party to maintain the status quo is to take something from another party. It is in the context of negative-sum games that the…

radioactivity: Beta-minus decay: In beta-minus decay, an energetic negative electron is emitted, producing a daughter nucleus of one higher atomic number and the same mass number. An example is the decay of the uranium daughter product thorium-234 into protactinium-234:

Negev, arid region in the southern part of Israel and occupying almost half of Palestine west of the Jordan River and about 60 percent of Israeli territory under the 1949–67 boundaries. The name is derived from the Hebrew verbal root n-g-b, “to dry” or “to wipe dry.” The Negev is shaped like a

Negeri Sembilan, state (negeri), southwestern Peninsular (West) Malaysia (Malaya), bounded by the states of Selangor (northwest), Pahang (north), Johor (east), and Melaka (south). Its area of is drained by the Linggi and Mirar rivers and has a 30-mile (48-km) coastline on the Strait of Malacca. Its

Negev, arid region in the southern part of Israel and occupying almost half of Palestine west of the Jordan River and about 60 percent of Israeli territory under the 1949–67 boundaries. The name is derived from the Hebrew verbal root n-g-b, “to dry” or “to wipe dry.” The Negev is shaped like a

Beersheba: Beersheba is the site of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (1965) and of the Negev Institute for Arid Zone Research. The railway from northern and central Israel runs through the city. It is one of the largest cities in Israel outside of metropolitan Tel Aviv–Yafo, Jerusalem, and Haifa. Pop. (2008)…

Even: …reindeer-breeding group, and the riverine Negidals, who are primarily fishermen and hunters.

Negishi Ei-ichi was a Japanese chemist who was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work in using palladium as a catalyst in producing organic molecules. He shared the prize with fellow Japanese chemist Suzuki Akira and American chemist Richard F. Heck. Negishi received a bachelor’s

Alexander I: Ascent to the throne: …and Nikolay Novosiltsev—he formed the Private Committee (Neglasny Komitet). Its avowed purpose was to frame “good laws, which are the source of the well-being of the Nation.”

tropical disease: Neglected tropical diseases: Numerous tropical diseases have been described, and they collectively affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide each year. However, while many tropical diseases have been eliminated from more-developed countries, some of those diseases have remained major sources of illness and mortality in…

negligee, informal gown, usually of a soft sheer fabric, worn at home by women. When the corset was fashionable, the negligee was a loose-fitting gown worn during the rest period after lunch. Women’s dresses were also referred to as negligés after the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, when the

negligence, in law, the failure to meet a standard of behaviour established to protect society against unreasonable risk. Negligence is the cornerstone of tort liability and a key factor in most personal injury and property-damage trials. Roman law used a similar principle, distinguishing

insurance: Liability law: …a substitute doctrine known as comparative negligence. Under this, each party is held responsible for a portion of the loss corresponding to the degree of blame attached to that party; a person who is judged to be 20 percent to blame for an accident may be required to pay 20…

contributory negligence, in law, behaviour that contributes to one’s own injury or loss and fails to meet the standard of prudence that one should observe for one’s own good. Contributory negligence of the plaintiff is frequently pleaded in defense to a charge of negligence. Historically the

Moscow: Foundation and medieval growth: … and a small tributary, the Neglinnaya. The triangular piece of land between the rivers was protected on the eastern side by a moat joining them. The Neglinnaya now flows through an underground conduit, but part of its course is traced by a street of the same name.

Făgăraş Mountains: … (8,346 feet [2,544 m]) and Negoiu (8,317 feet [2,535 m]) are the highest peaks. On the northern face many short streams fall precipitously into the Olt; on the southern face rise several rivers, the major one being the Argeş. The 30-mile- (48-kilometre-) long range is relatively isolated and inaccessible in…

negotiable instrument, Transferable document (e.g., a bank note, check, or draft) containing an unconditional promise or order to pay a specified amount to its holder upon demand or at a specified time. In the U.S., the Uniform Commercial Code governs negotiable

police: Methods of crowd policing: …1970s, when the strategy of negotiated management emerged. The success of the latter strategy depends on two key factors: the willingness of the police and the groups involved to negotiate control of the event and, more fundamentally, the availability of group representatives with whom to negotiate. Such people are easily…

marketing: Purchasing procedures: In negotiated-contract buying, a government agency negotiates directly with one or more companies regarding a specific project or supply need. In most cases, contracts are negotiated for complex projects that involve major research-and-development costs and in matters where there is little effective competition.

Margaret Atwood: Other fiction and nonfiction works: Her nonfiction includes Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing (2002), which grew out of a series of lectures she gave at the University of Cambridge; Payback (2008; film 2012), an impassioned essay that treats debt—both personal and governmental—as a cultural issue rather than as a political…

law of war: Cessation of hostilities: Hostilities may be suspended pending negotiation between the parties. Negotiation may, or may not, be preceded by the display of a white flag, which merely means that one side wishes to enter into communication with the other. The parties may then enter into an armistice, and, when all matters are…

Frederick Forsyth: Fourth Protocol (1984; film 1987), The Negotiator (1989), The Fist of God (1994), Icon (1996; TV movie 2005), Avenger (2003; TV movie 2006), The Kill List (2013), and The Fox (2018). Among his short-story collections were No Comebacks (1982) and

Samuel L. Jackson: (1996), Tarantino’s Jackie Brown (1997), The Negotiator (1998), and Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace (1999), as Mace Windu. He reprised that role in Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith (2005). In addition, he provided the voice of that character…

Roman law: Delict and contract: …most noticeable examples were, first, negotiorum gestio, which enabled one who intervened without authority in another’s affairs for the latter’s benefit to claim reimbursement and indemnity, and second, the group of cases in which an action (condictio) was allowed for the recovery by A from B of what would otherwise…

Cordillera Negra, range of the Andes Mountains in west-central Peru. It extends for about 110 miles (180 km) southeast from the mouth of the Santa River and rises to an elevation of 14,764 feet (4,430 metres). The upper Santa River Valley, also known as the Callejón de Huaylas, separates the

Bernard Binlin Dadié: Un Nègre à Paris (1959), his examination of Parisian society, is presented in epistolary form. Dadié’s love of Africa’s oral traditions caused him to collect and publish several more volumes of legends, fables, folktales, and proverbs, which he felt provided the moral backbone of African…

Charles Nègre was a French painter and photographer best known for his photographs of Paris street scenes and architectural monuments, notably the Notre-Dame and Chartres cathedrals. Nègre first went to Paris in 1839 to study painting in the studio of Paul Delaroche. His fellow students there

Philippe Soupault: His novels centre on the concepts of freedom and revolt. Les Frères Durandeau (1924; “The Durandeau Brothers”) is a scathing portrait of the middle class. Le Nègre (1927; “The Negro”) traces a black man’s pursuit of liberty. Les Moribonds (1934; “The Dying”) is a semiautobiographical description of…

Jean Genet: …The Balcony), Les Nègres (1958; The Blacks), and Les Paravents (1961; The Screens), are large-scale, stylized dramas in the Expressionist manner, designed to shock and implicate an audience by revealing its hypocrisy and complicity. This “Theatre of Hatred” attempts to wrest the maximum dramatic power from a social or political…

Kara Walker: …a series of watercolours titled Negress Notes (Brown Follies) (1996–97), caused a stir. Some African American artists, particularly those who participated in the civil rights movement, deplored her use of racist caricatures. Walker made it clear that her intent as an artist was not to create pleasing images or to…

Jacopo Palma was a Venetian painter of the High Renaissance, noted for the craftsmanship of his religious and mythological works. He may have studied under Giovanni Bellini, the originator of the Venetian High Renaissance style. Palma specialized in the type of contemplative religious picture known

Negeri Sembilan, state (negeri), southwestern Peninsular (West) Malaysia (Malaya), bounded by the states of Selangor (northwest), Pahang (north), Johor (east), and Melaka (south). Its area of is drained by the Linggi and Mirar rivers and has a 30-mile (48-km) coastline on the Strait of Malacca. Its

Giuditta Pasta was the reigning Italian soprano of her time, acclaimed for her vocal range and expressiveness. She studied with Bonifazio Asioli and Giuseppe Scappa at Milan and made her debut there in 1815 in Scappa’s Le tre Eleonore. She gave a brilliant performance in 1821 at the Théâtre-Italien

antiglobalization: The antiglobalization movement: Michael Hardt and Toni Negri used the term multitude to describe the antiglobalization movement as a whole of singularities that act in common, a decentred authority, a polyphonic dialogue, a constituent cooperative power of a global democracy from below, an open-source society, and a direct democratic government by…

Juan Negrín López was the Republican prime minister (1937–39) of Spain who held office during the last two years of the Spanish Civil War. He was a determined wartime leader but was forced to rely heavily on communist support during his time in power. His policies as prime minister have been the

Philippines: Ethnic groups: …of the islands were the Negritos, a term referring collectively to numerous peoples of dark skin and small stature, including the Aeta, Ita, Agta, and others. Those communities now constitute only a tiny percentage of the total population. From the 10th century, contacts with China resulted in a group of…

Negritude, literary movement of the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s that began among French-speaking African and Caribbean writers living in Paris as a protest against French colonial rule and the policy of assimilation. Its leading figure was Léopold Sédar Senghor (elected first president of the Republic of

Negritude, literary movement of the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s that began among French-speaking African and Caribbean writers living in Paris as a protest against French colonial rule and the policy of assimilation. Its leading figure was Léopold Sédar Senghor (elected first president of the Republic of

Noble Sissle: From bandleader to mayor of Harlem: Meanwhile, he helped found the Negro Actors Guild of America and became its first president in 1937. In 1950 he assumed the honorary post of mayor of Harlem.

baseball: Segregation: …in that decade, and the Negro American League, formed in 1936, ultimately had Eastern and Western divisions that in 1952 played a Negro East-West game. Among the most famous players in the various Negro leagues were Josh Gibson (who was credited with hitting 89 home runs in one season), Satchel…

burrower bug: Sometimes the subfamily Thyreocorinae is elevated to the family level (Thyreocoridae). Its members, slightly smaller than those of the burrower-bug subfamily Cydninae, at one time were commonly called negro bugs but are now called thyreocorids. They are found on vegetation, flowers, and fruits, especially raspberries. These are usually…

John H. Johnson: …1942 he began publication of Negro Digest. Its first issue sold some 3,000 copies, and within a year the monthly circulation was 50,000. From that beginning, Johnson launched Ebony, a general-interest magazine catering to an African American audience, in 1945. Ebony’s initial pressrun of 25,000 copies was completely sold out.…

baseball: Segregation: …Negro National League and the Negro Eastern League played in New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City (Missouri), Detroit, and other cities that had absorbed a large influx of African Americans from the South during and after World War I. In the 1920s a Negro World Series was begun…

African American English (AAE), a language variety that has also been identified at different times in dialectology and literary studies as Black English, black dialect, and Negro (nonstandard) English. Since the late 1980s, the term has been used ambiguously, sometimes with reference to only

Regina M. Anderson: …Krigwa Players evolved into the Negro Experimental Theatre (also known as the Harlem Experimental Theatre), which in 1931 produced Anderson’s one-act play Climbing Jacob’s Ladder, about a lynching that happened while people prayed in church. The next year the theatre produced her one-act play Underground, about the Underground Railroad. Both…

Matthew Alexander Henson: Henson’s account of the journey, A Negro Explorer at the North Pole, appeared in 1912. The following year, by order of Pres. William Howard Taft, Henson was appointed a clerk in the U.S. Customs House in New York City, a post he held until his retirement in 1936. Henson received…

Daniel Patrick Moynihan: …the Department of Labor, cowrote The Negro Family: The Case for National Action, popularly called the Moynihan Report, which held that many of the educational problems of American blacks resulted from the instability of black urban families. The report caused a storm of controversy and made Moynihan famous. He became…

Ida B. Wells-Barnett: …the first president of the Negro Fellowship League, which aided newly arrived migrants from the South. In 1913 she founded what may have been the first Black women’s suffrage group, Chicago’s Alpha Suffrage Club. From 1913 to 1916 she served as a probation officer of the Chicago municipal court. She…

Black History Month: Together they organized a Negro History Week, beginning in February 1926. They selected the month of February for this celebration because it was close to the birthdays of U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln, who had been responsible for the Emancipation Proclamation, and the African American orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass

Archibald Motley: Career: …was compelled to write “The Negro in Art,” an essay on the limitations placed on Black artists that was printed in the July 6, 1918, edition of the influential Chicago Defender, a newspaper by and for African Americans. The long and violent Chicago race riot of 1919, though it…

Charles Spurgeon Johnson: His first important writing, The Negro in Chicago (1922), was a sociological study of the race riot in that city in July 1919. His research technique, called “community self-survey of race relations,” facilitated the gathering of sociological data and interpretations from both blacks and whites. After directing research for…

Negro league, any of the associations of African American baseball teams active largely between 1920 and the late 1940s, when Black players were at last contracted to play major and minor league baseball. The principal Negro leagues were the Negro National League (1920–31, 1933–48), the Eastern

Negro league: Legacy: In 1990 the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum opened in Kansas City, Missouri.

the Green Book, travel guide published (1936–67) during the segregation era in the United States that identified businesses that would accept African American customers. Compiled by Victor Hugo Green (1892–1960), a Black postman who lived in the Harlem section of New York City, the Green Book

Negro league: The Negro National League and the Eastern Colored League: Foster was a visionary who dreamed that the champion of his Black major league would play the best of the white league clubs in an interracial world series. His original plan called for a Black major league…

Aleksandr Pushkin: The early years: …novel, Arap Petra Velikogo (1827; The Negro of Peter the Great). Like many aristocratic families in early 19th-century Russia, Pushkin’s parents adopted French culture, and he and his brother and sister learned to talk and to read in French. They were left much to the care of their maternal grandmother,…

Talented Tenth: …first appeared in Du Bois’ The Negro Problem (New York, 1903).

American civil rights movement, mass protest movement against racial segregation and discrimination in the southern United States that came to national prominence during the mid-1950s. This movement had its roots in the centuries-long efforts of enslaved Africans and their descendants to resist

Negro River, major tributary of the Amazon. It originates in several headstreams, including the Vaupés (Mapés) and the Guainía, which rise in the rain forest of eastern Colombia. The Guainía flows east and then arches northeast and southeast, forming the Colombian–Venezuelan border. Below its

Chixoy River, river in central Guatemala, rising as the Negro River in the southern part of the Altos (mountains) Cuchumatanes, west of Huehuetenango. First flowing eastward, it forms part of the borders between the Quiché and Huehuetenango regions and between Quiché and Baja Verapaz. Southwest of

Negro River, river, southern Argentina, whose major headstreams, the Neuquén and the Limay, rise in the Andes Mountains near the Chilean border. At Neuquén city they meet to form the Negro, which flows generally east-southeastward across northern Patagonia and empties into the Atlantic Ocean

Nicaragua: Drainage: …the most important are the Negro and Estero Real rivers, which empty into the Gulf of Fonseca, and the Tamarindo River, which flows into the Pacific.

Negro River, river in Uruguay, rising in the southern highlands of Brazil just east of Bagé. The Negro flows southwestward into Uruguay, where it is dammed near Paso de los Toros to create the Rincón del Bonete Reservoir (also called the Gabriel Terra Reservoir or the Rio Negro Reservoir), which is