ammunition: propelling charges used in small arms, artillery, and other guns. Ammunition size is usually expressed in terms of calibre, which is the diameter of the projectile as measured in millimetres or inches. In general, projectiles less than 20 mm or .60 inch in diameter are…

Gaius Helvius Cinna: …is credited with having written Propemptikon Pollionis, a poem in the form of a send-off to his friend Asinius Pollio. In both these poems, his model appears to have been Parthenius of Nicaea, the Greek poet and teacher of Virgil; Cinna apparently met Parthenius while serving in Bithynia in 66…

propylene, a colourless, flammable, gaseous hydrocarbon, C3H6, obtained from petroleum; large quantities of propylene are used in the manufacture of resins, fibres, and elastomers (see polyolefin), and numerous other chemical products. See alsopropylene glycol; glycol; propyl

propensity to consume, in economics, the proportion of total income or of an increase in income that consumers tend to spend on goods and services rather than to save. The ratio of total consumption to total income is known as the average propensity to consume; an increase in consumption caused by

propensity to save, in economics, the proportion of total income or of an increase in income that consumers save rather than spend on goods and services. The average propensity to save equals the ratio of total saving to total income; the marginal propensity to save equals the ratio of a change in

mass: The Proper of the mass includes the scriptural texts that change daily with the liturgical calendar. The Proper texts sung by the choir, with the participation of soloists, are the Introit, Gradual, Alleluia or Tract, Sequence, Offertory, and Communion.

set theory: The Neumann-Bernays-Gödel axioms: …are not sets are called proper classes. Intuitively, sets are intended to be those classes that are adequate for mathematics, and proper classes are thought of as those collections that are “so big” that, if they were permitted to be sets, contradictions would follow. In NBG, the classical paradoxes are…

fraction: In a proper fraction, the numerator is less than the denominator. If the numerator is greater, it is called an improper fraction and can also be written as a mixed number—a whole-number quotient with a proper-fraction remainder. Any fraction can be written in decimal form by carrying…

proper motion, in astronomy, the apparent motion of a star across the celestial sphere at right angles to the observer’s line of sight; any radial motion (toward or away from the Sun) is not included. It is observed with respect to a framework of very distant background stars or galaxies. Proper

South American Indian languages: Vocabulary: Proper names, to which different beliefs are attached, offer a variety of phenomena, among them the practice of naming a parent after a child (called teknonymy) in some Arawakan groups; the repeated change of name according to various fixed stages of development, as in Guayaki;…

noun: Types of nouns: Common nouns contrast with proper nouns, which designate particular beings or things. Proper nouns are also called proper names and are generally capitalized: for example, Felix, Pluto, and Edinburgh.

church year: The major church calendars: …of Christmas, and (2) the Proper of Saints (Sanctorale), other commemorations on fixed dates of the year. Every season and holy day is a celebration, albeit with different emphases, of the total revelation and redemption of Christ, which are “made present at all times” or proclaim “the paschal mystery as…

mass: The Proper of the mass includes the scriptural texts that change daily with the liturgical calendar. The Proper texts sung by the choir, with the participation of soloists, are the Introit, Gradual, Alleluia or Tract, Sequence, Offertory, and Communion.

church year: The major church calendars: …two concurrent cycles: (1) the Proper of Time (Temporale), or seasons and Sundays that revolve around the movable date of Easter and the fixed date of Christmas, and (2) the Proper of Saints (Sanctorale), other commemorations on fixed dates of the year. Every season and holy day is a celebration,…

standing to sue, in law, the requirement that a person who brings a suit be a proper party to request adjudication of the particular issue involved. The test traditionally applied was whether the party had a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy presented and whether the dispute touched

Herbert Spencer: Life and works: …(republished later as a pamphlet, The Proper Sphere of Government [1843]) to The Nonconformist, in which he argued that it is the business of governments to uphold natural rights and that they do more harm than good when they go beyond that. After some association with progressive journalism through such…

set theory: Equivalent sets: …included in, or is a proper subset of, A (symbolized by B ⊂ A). Thus, if A = {3, 1, 0, 4, 2}, both {0, 1, 2} and {0, 1, 2, 3, 4} are subsets of A; but {0, 1, 2, 3, 4} is not a proper subset. A finite…

history of logic: The theory of supposition: …called the theory of “supposition proper,” is a theory of reference and answers the question “To what does a given occurrence of a term refer in a given proposition?” In general (the details depend on the author), three main types of supposition were distinguished: (1) personal supposition (which, despite…

relativistic mechanics: Relativistic space-time: …frame and is called the proper time between the two events. The proper time would be measured by any clock moving along the straight world line between the two events.

complement: …the lectin pathway, and the alternative pathway (or properdin system). A different type of signal activates each pathway. The classical pathway is triggered by groups of antibodies bound to the surfaces of a microorganism, while the lectin pathway is spurred into action by mannan-binding lectin, a constituent of serum that…

theatre: Visual and spatial aspects: The earliest properties, such as altars and rocks, could be set up at the edge of the terrace. The first extant drama for which a large building was necessary was Aeschylus’ trilogy the Oresteia, first produced in 458 bce. There has been controversy among historians as to…

Sextus Propertius was the greatest elegiac poet of ancient Rome. The first of his four books of elegies, published in 29 bce, is called Cynthia after its heroine (his mistress, whose real name was Hostia); it gained him entry into the literary circle centring on Maecenas. Very few details of the

theatre: Visual and spatial aspects: The earliest properties, such as altars and rocks, could be set up at the edge of the terrace. The first extant drama for which a large building was necessary was Aeschylus’ trilogy the Oresteia, first produced in 458 bce. There has been controversy among historians as to…

property, an object of legal rights, which embraces possessions or wealth collectively, frequently with strong connotations of individual ownership. In law the term refers to the complex of jural relationships between and among persons with respect to things. The things may be tangible, such as

philosophy of mind: Properties and relations: Objects seem to have properties: a tennis ball is spherical and fuzzy; a billiard ball is spherical and smooth. To a first approximation, a property can be thought of as the thing named by that part of a simple sentence that is…

philosophy of mind: Substance dualism and property dualism: …notably those concerned with mental properties (and sometimes states and events)—that need not involve any commitment to the persistence of mental life after death.

The Awakening: Context and analysis: Also called bodily autonomy, self-ownership was a key tenet of 19th-century feminism. It signified a woman’s right to have control over her own body and identity. So-called first-wave feminists argued that women could gain their freedom only by refusing to allow other people—namely, men—to exercise control over their bodies.…

insurance: Property insurance: Two main types of contracts—homeowner’s and commercial—have been developed to insure against loss from accidental destruction of property. These contracts (or forms) typically are divided into three or four parts: insuring agreements, identification of covered property, conditions and stipulations, and exclusions.

property law, principles, policies, and rules by which disputes over property are to be resolved and by which property transactions may be structured. What distinguishes property law from other kinds of law is that property law deals with the relationships between and among members of a society

Alice Hoffman: Her first novel, Property Of (1977), which traces the one-year relationship of a suburban girl and a gang leader, is both gritty and romantic. Many of Hoffman’s other novels also deal with complex relationships, such as Angel Landing (1980), a love story set near a nuclear power plant…

property law, principles, policies, and rules by which disputes over property are to be resolved and by which property transactions may be structured. What distinguishes property law from other kinds of law is that property law deals with the relationships between and among members of a society

Japan: The Oda regime: Cadastral surveys aimed at strengthening feudal landownership were at this stage carried out not so much to gain control over the complicated landholding and taxation system of the farmers as to define the size of fiefs (chigyō) of Nobunaga’s retainers in order to confirm the…

property tax, levy that is imposed primarily upon land and buildings. In some countries, including the United States, the tax is also imposed on business and farm equipment and inventories. Sometimes the tax extends to automobiles, jewelry, and furniture and even to such intangibles as bonds,

airplane: Jet engines: Propfans, unducted fan jet engines, obtain ultrahigh bypass airflow using wide chord propellers driven by the jet engine. Rockets are purely reactive engines, which usually use a fuel and an oxidizing agent in combination. They are used primarily for research aircraft and as launch vehicles…

episome: …become integrated is called a prophage. See lysogeny.

prophase, the initial stage of mitosis and of the mitotic division of meiosis, characterized by the formation of the mitotic spindle and the condensation of the chromosomes. Prophase is followed by metaphase. Mitosis begins at prophase with the thickening and coiling of the chromosomes. During this

John Frankenheimer: The 1970s and ’80s: …next films were disappointments, including Prophecy (1979), an absurd horror movie, and The Holcroft Covenant (1985), an adaptation of the Robert Ludlum espionage novel. The brutal dramas 52 Pick-Up (1986) and Dead Bang (1989) were also critical and commercial failures.

prophecy, in religion, a divinely inspired revelation or interpretation. Although prophecy is perhaps most commonly associated with Judaism and Christianity, it is found throughout the religions of the world, both ancient and modern. In its narrower sense, the term prophet (Greek prophētēs,

The Book of Daniel, a book of the Old Testament found in the Ketuvim (Writings), the third section of the Jewish canon, but placed among the Prophets in the Christian canon. The first half of the book (chapters 1–6) contains stories in the third person about the experiences of Daniel and his

The Book of Ezekiel, one of the major prophetical books of the Old Testament. According to dates given in the text, Ezekiel received his prophetic call in the fifth year of the first deportation to Babylonia (592 bc) and was active until about 570 bc. Most of this time was spent in exile. The

The Book of Habakkuk, the eighth of 12 Old Testament books that bear the names of the Minor Prophets. The book betrays the influence of liturgical forms, suggesting that either Habakkuk was a cult prophet or that those responsible for the final form of the book were cult personnel. It is difficult

The Book of Jeremiah, one of the major prophetical writings of the Old Testament. Jeremiah, a Judaean prophet whose activity spanned four of the most tumultuous decades in his country’s history, appears to have received his call to be a prophet in the 13th year of the reign of King Josiah (627/626

The Book of Malachi, the last of 12 books of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) that bear the names of the Minor Prophets, grouped together as the Twelve in the Jewish canon. The author is unknown; Malachi is merely a transliteration of a Hebrew word meaning “my messenger.” The book consists of six

St. Malachy: …ascribed to him is the Prophecy of the Popes, a 16th-century forgery consisting of a list of mottoes supposedly describing each pontiff from the mid-12th century to the end of time. The prophecy has routinely been used to fuel conspiracy theories regarding the Catholic Church, the succession of popes, and…

Prophet Dance, North American Plateau Indian ritual of the early 19th century during which the participants danced in order to hasten the return of the dead and the renewal of the world, particularly the world as it was before European contact. The Prophet Dance was a precursor of the famous Ghost

Margaret Laurence: The Prophet’s Camel Bell (1963; also published as New Wind in a Dry Land) is an account of her life in Africa. The Tomorrow-Tamer (1963) is a collection of African stories.

Prophet’s Mosque, courtyard of the Prophet Muhammad in Medina, Arabian Peninsula, which was the model for later Islamic architecture. The home of Muhammad and his family was a simple structure, made of raw brick, that opened on an enclosed courtyard where people gathered to hear him. In 624

Jacques Audiard: …2009 film Un Prophète (A Prophet) is a gangster drama about a young Arab convict (Tahar Rahim) who falls in with the leader (Arestrup) of a Corsican prison gang. The story of the young man’s rise under the gangster’s tutelage led many critics to compare Un Prophète favorably to…

Companions of the Prophet, in Islam, followers of Muhammad who had personal contact with him, however slight. In fact, any Muslim who was alive in any part of the Prophet’s lifetime and saw him may be reckoned among the Companions. The first 4 caliphs, who are the aṣḥāb held in highest esteem among

Church Universal and Triumphant: The church was founded by Mark L. Prophet (1918–73) and, after his death, was led by his wife, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, until her retirement in 1999. Like many new religious movements, it has faced great criticism but has managed to survive and grow. Although the church does not release statistics…

Church Universal and Triumphant: …was led by his wife, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, until her retirement in 1999. Like many new religious movements, it has faced great criticism but has managed to survive and grow. Although the church does not release statistics on membership, it is reasonable to conclude that there are between 30,000 and…

Pablo Gargallo: In these works, such as The Prophet (1930) and Picador (1928), Gargallo used Cubist techniques without adopting complete abstraction. After his death he was honoured with four major posthumous exhibitions: in Madrid (1935), Paris (1935 and 1947), and at the Venice Biennale (1955).

Sholem Asch: …“handmaid of the Lord”; and The Prophet (1955), on the Second (Deutero-) Isaiah, whose message of comfort and hope replaces the earlier prophecies of doom. In the presentation of this unknown prophet, conjectures based on archaeology and theology are blended by Asch’s depth of psychological insight.

The Prophet was a North American Indian religious revivalist of the Shawnee people, who worked with his brother Tecumseh to create a pan-tribal confederacy to resist U.S. encroachment in the Northwest Territory. The Prophet’s declaration in 1805 that he had a message from the “Master of Life,”

The Prophet, book of 26 poetic essays by Khalil Gibran, published in 1923. A best-selling book of popular mysticism, The Prophet was translated into more than a dozen languages. Although many critics thought Gibran’s poetry mediocre, The Prophet achieved cult status among American youth for several

Jacques Audiard: …2009 film Un Prophète (A Prophet) is a gangster drama about a young Arab convict (Tahar Rahim) who falls in with the leader (Arestrup) of a Corsican prison gang. The story of the young man’s rise under the gangster’s tutelage led many critics to compare Un Prophète favorably to…

Max Apple: …stories Free Agents (1984) and The Propheteers (1987), a colourful satire of the entrepreneurs who shaped American fast-food culture. Apple’s later novels Roommates: My Grandfather’s Story (1994) and I Love Gootie: My Grandmother’s Story (1998) are highly autobiographical narratives about growing up in the United States with first-generation Jewish grandparents.…

eschatology: Nativistic movements: Other scholars use the term prophetic movements because many movements are started or propagated by prophetlike leaders. There is also a tendency among modern anthropologists to label messianic movements in premodern and world cultures as protonationalist.

Rage Against the Machine: …turntablist DJ Lord to form Prophets of Rage, playing their first concert as a protest of that year’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. Their first album appeared the following year.

Neviʾim, the second division of the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, the other two being the Torah (the Law) and the Ketuvim (the Writings, or the Hagiographa). In the Hebrew canon the Prophets are divided into (1) the Former Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) and (2) the Latter Prophets

The Lives of the Prophets, pseudepigraphal collection (not in any scriptural canon) of folk stories and legends about the major and minor biblical prophets and a number of other prophetic figures from the Old Testament books of I Kings, II Chronicles, and Nehemiah. The work demonstrates the

antimicrobial agent: Other antimicrobials: Prophylactics also are agents used to prevent infections and diseases. Vaccination is the administration of harmless amounts of disease-causing microorganisms into animals, including humans, to prevent diseases. (See vaccine.) Sterile filtration usually removes large microorganisms (e.g., bacteria, fungi, and their spores) from heat-sensitive solutions,

immune system: Prophylactic immunization: Prophylactic immunization refers to the artificial establishment of specific immunity, a technique that has significantly reduced suffering and death from a variety of infectious diseases. There are two types of prophylactic immunization: passive immunization, in which protection is conferred by introducing preformed antibodies…

preventive medicine, efforts directed toward the prevention of disease, either in the individual or in the community as a whole—an important part of what is more broadly known as public health. Preventive medicine, in addition to reducing the risk of disease, has important roles in preventing

lactone: …important lactones include diketene and β-propanolactone used in the synthesis of acetoacetic acid derivatives and β-substituted propanoic (propionic) acids, respectively; the perfume ingredients pentadecanolide and ambrettolide; vitamin C; and the antibiotics methymycin, erythromycin, and carbomycin.

bacteria: Bacteria in food: Streptococcus thermophilus, and Propionibacterium shermanii is responsible for the ripening of Swiss cheese and the production of its characteristic taste and large gas bubbles. In addition, Brevibacterium linens is responsible for the flavor of Limburger cheese, and molds (Penicillium species) are used in the manufacture of

carboxylic acid: Nomenclature of carboxylic acids and their salts: …carbon atoms and is called propanoic acid, from propane, the name for a three-carbon chain, with -oic acid, the suffix for this class of compounds, appended. If the carboxylic acid contains a carbon-carbon double bond, the ending is changed from -anoic acid to -enoic acid to indicate the presence of…

metabolic disease: Organic acidemias: Propionic acidemia is caused by a deficiency of the enzyme propionyl-CoA carboxylase, which results in an accumulation of propionic acid. Individuals with this disorder usually present with life-threatening illness early in infancy. Acidemia, dehydration, low white blood cell count, low muscle tone, and lethargy progressing…

metabolism: Fragmentation of fatty acyl coenzyme A molecules: …into acetyl coenzyme A and propionyl coenzyme A, which has three carbon atoms. In many bacteria, this propionyl coenzyme A can be transformed either to acetyl coenzyme A and carbon dioxide or to pyruvate. In other microorganisms and in animals, propionyl coenzyme A has a different fate: carbon dioxide is…

sifaka, (genus Propithecus), any of nine species of leaping arboreal lemurs found in coastal forests of Madagascar. Sifakas are about 1 metre (3.3 feet) long, roughly half the length being tail. They have a small head, large eyes, and large ears that in most species are partially hidden in their

sifaka: Coquerel’s sifaka (P. coquereli) is somewhat similar; it lives in the thorny forests of Madagascar’s southern desert. Two other species live in the dry forests of western Madagascar. The larger diademed sifaka (P. diadema), silky sifaka (P. candidus), and Milne-Edwards’s sifaka (P. edwardsi) live in…

sifaka: The larger diademed sifaka (P. diadema), silky sifaka (P. candidus), and Milne-Edwards’s sifaka (P. edwardsi) live in the rainforests of eastern Madagascar. Milne-Edwards’s sifaka is black or brown, generally with a white patch on the back and flanks, whereas the diademed sifaka, or simpoon, has a beautiful…

sifaka: candidus), and Milne-Edwards’s sifaka (P. edwardsi) live in the rainforests of eastern Madagascar. Milne-Edwards’s sifaka is black or brown, generally with a white patch on the back and flanks, whereas the diademed sifaka, or simpoon, has a beautiful coat of white, which becomes silvery on the back,…

sifaka: …highlands of Ankarana, and the golden-crowned, or Tattersall’s, sifaka (P. tattersalli), first described scientifically in 1988, lives only in the Daraina region of the northeast. Both species are critically endangered. Sifakas are related to avahis and the indri; all are primates of the leaping lemur family, Indridae.

sifaka: Verreaux’s sifaka (P. verreauxi) is white with dark shoulders and sides, sometimes with a dark crown cap. Coquerel’s sifaka (P. coquereli) is somewhat similar; it lives in the thorny forests of Madagascar’s southern desert. Two other species live in the dry forests of western Madagascar.…

animism: Particularism: …of the many taboos and propitiatory observances of an almost mechanical nature that abound in some societies. When trouble is at last encountered, the responsible witch, demon, or disgruntled spirit must be identified, and this is the task of the diviner. The cure may rely upon ritual cleansing, propitiation, or…

Oort cloud: …the outer part of the protoplanetary disk and were then scattered far away by the gravity of the incipient giant planets. How far the Oort cloud extends into space is not known, although Marsden’s results suggest that it is almost empty beyond 50,000 AU, which is about one-fifth of the…

gastropod: The foot: …an anterior-posterior division into a propodium and a metapodium, with the former capable of being reflexed over the shell. In Strombus the foot is greatly narrowed; in limpets and abalones it is broadly expanded and serves as an adhesive disk. In pelagic gastropods, especially the heteropods and pteropods, the foot…

propofol, anesthetic drug used to induce and maintain general anesthesia and to sedate patients for certain medical procedures. Propofol was first tested clinically in 1977. When administered by intravenous injection, it quickly induced anesthesia, with fast and smooth recovery afterward. Animal

beekeeping: Honeybees: Honeybees also collect propolis, a resinous material from buds of trees, for sealing cracks in the hive or for covering foreign objects in the hive that they cannot remove. They collect water to air-condition the hive and to dilute the honey when they consume it. A populous colony…

Sea of Marmara, inland sea partly separating the Asian and European parts of Turkey. It is connected through the Bosporus on the northeast with the Black Sea and through the Dardanelles on the southwest with the Aegean Sea. It is 175 miles (280 km) long from northeast to southwest and nearly 50

proportionality, In algebra, equality between two ratios. In the expression a/b = c/d, a and b are in the same proportion as c and d. A proportion is typically set up to solve a word problem in which one of its four quantities is unknown. It is solved by multiplying one numerator by the opposite

Francesco Borromini: An independent architect: …likeness, it was argued, the proportions of buildings should be derived from those of the body of man and woman. Borromini, however, based his buildings on geometric configurations in an essentially medieval manner that he probably learned in Lombardy, where medieval building procedures had been handed down from generation to…

proportional counter, type of ionization chamber capable of differentiating between various kinds of charged particles and energies (see ionization

proportional counter, type of ionization chamber capable of differentiating between various kinds of charged particles and energies (see ionization

David Cox: In the Cox proportional hazards model, which was introduced in 1972, Cox proposed a hazard function that was separated into time-dependent and time-independent parts. The analysis of medical data was greatly eased by the separation of inputs that depend on time from those that do not, and the…

elasticity: …in principle different from the proportional limit, which marks the end of the kind of elastic behaviour that can be described by Hooke’s law, namely, that in which the stress is proportional to the strain (relative deformation) or equivalently that in which the load is proportional to the displacement. The…

punishment: Individual deterrence: …idea that punishments should be proportionate to the gravity of the crime, a principle of practical importance. If all punishments were the same, there would be no incentive to commit the lesser rather than the greater offense. The offender might as well use violence against the victim of a theft…

proportional representation, electoral system that seeks to create a representative body that reflects the overall distribution of public support for each political party. Where majority or plurality systems effectively reward strong parties and penalize weak ones by providing the representation of

Euclidean geometry: Similarity of triangles: ) The fundamental theorem of similarity states that a line segment splits two sides of a triangle into proportional segments if and only if the segment is parallel to the triangle’s third side.

taxation: Proportional, progressive, and regressive taxes: A proportional tax is one that imposes the same relative burden on all taxpayers—i.e., where tax liability and income grow in equal proportion. A progressive tax is characterized by a more than proportional rise in the tax liability relative to the increase in income, and a…

proportional counter, type of ionization chamber capable of differentiating between various kinds of charged particles and energies (see ionization

proportionality, In algebra, equality between two ratios. In the expression a/b = c/d, a and b are in the same proportion as c and d. A proportion is typically set up to solve a word problem in which one of its four quantities is unknown. It is solved by multiplying one numerator by the opposite

midget, in human anatomy, a person of very small stature whose bodily proportions, intelligence, and sexual development are within the normal range. Diminutive stature occurs sporadically in families the rest of whose members are of ordinary size. The children of midgets are usually of ordinary

analysis: Zeno’s paradoxes and the concept of motion: …a logical framework called the theory of proportions and using the method of exhaustion.

George Berkeley: His American venture and ensuing years: …Indians, publishing the plan in A Proposal for the Better Supplying of Churches… (1724). The scheme caught the public imagination; King George I granted a charter; the archbishop of Canterbury acted as trustee; subscriptions poured in; and Parliament passed a contingent grant of £20,000. But there was opposition; an alternative…

Sandra Bullock: Academy Award: …appearing in the romantic comedies The Proposal and All About Steve, Bullock starred as a determined mother in the sports drama The Blind Side; she won numerous accolades for her performance, including an Academy Award for best actress. Another maternal role followed in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011), a…

United States: The visual arts and postmodernism: …his series of drawings called Proposals for Monumental Buildings, 1965–69, Oldenburg drew ordinary things—fire hydrants, ice-cream bars, bananas—as though they were as big as skyscrapers. His pictures combined a virtuoso’s gift for drawing with a vision, at once celebratory and satirical, of the P.T. Barnum spirit of American life. Warhol…

Benjamin Franklin: Achievements and inventions of Benjamin Franklin: In 1749 he published Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsilvania; in 1751 the Academy of Philadelphia, from which grew the University of Pennsylvania, was founded. He also became an enthusiastic member of the Freemasons and promoted their “enlightened” causes.

philosophy of mind: Thoughts and propositions: It was noted above that understanding is a relation that someone can bear to a thought. But what sort of thing is a thought? This is a topic of enormous controversy, but one can begin to get a grasp of it by noticing that…