Choerilus: …a lost verse chronicle, the Persica, which probably related the story of the Persian wars as narrated in prose by the historian Herodotus. Because Choerilus’s work treated recent historical events, it represented a notable innovation in epic poetry; earlier epics derived their subject matter from Greek mythology. According to the…

Vincent Persichetti was an American composer noted for his succinct polyphonic style (based on interwoven melodic lines), forceful rhythms, and generally diatonic melodies (moving stepwise; not atonal or highly chromatic). Persichetti began piano lessons at the age of 5, studied theory at 8, and

Colombo crime family: …and paralyzed in 1974, and Carmine J. (“The Snake”) Persico, one of Profaci’s soldiers from the 1960 Gallo War, took over as boss. In 1986 Persico was convicted on extortion and federal racketeering charges. Despite serving concurrent prison sentences with no hope of release—139 years combined—Persico maintained his leadership. He…

Jean-Gilbert-Victor Fialin, duke de Persigny was a French statesman who helped pave the way for Louis-Napoléon’s rise to power as the emperor Napoleon III. Born of a petty noble family, he served in the hussars from 1825 to 1831, when he was dismissed for participation in a political rebellion.

persimmon, either of two trees of the genus Diospyros (family Ebenaceae) and their edible fruits. Persimmons are eaten fresh as a dessert fruit, often with sugar or liqueur, or are stewed or cooked as jam. The Japanese persimmon (Diospyros kaki), an important and extensively grown fruit in China

Persis, ancient country in the southwestern part of Iran, roughly coextensive with the modern region of Fārs. Its name was derived from the Iranian tribe of the Parsua (Parsuash; Parsumash; Persians), who settled there in the 7th century bc. Herodotus lists the leading Persian tribes as the

weather forecasting: Techniques: Persistence (warm summers follow warm springs) or anti-persistence (cold springs follow warm winters) also were used, even though, strictly speaking, most forecasters consider persistence forecasts “no-skill” forecasts. Yet, they too have had limited success.

persistence hunting, a form of hunting in which a hunter drives prey to exhaustion with a combination of walking and running, usually in a hot environment. A number of instances of persistence hunting have been noted among modern hunter-gatherer groups. Some scholars argue that persistence hunting

Herbert Spencer: The synthetic philosophy in outline of Herbert Spencer: …called the law of the persistence of force, from which it follows that nothing homogeneous can remain as such if it is acted upon, because any external force must affect some part of it differently from other parts and cause difference and variety to arise. From that, he continued, it…

The Persistence of Memory, painting by Salvador Dali completed in 1931. Dalí was a Catalan Spanish artist who became one of the most important painters of the 20th century. He was also an accomplished sculptor, draftsman, and designer whose imagery came to influence not only the art world but also

animation: Early history: …entertainment, discovered the principle of persistence of vision. If drawings of the stages of an action were shown in fast succession, the human eye would perceive them as a continuous movement. One of the first commercially successful devices, invented by the Belgian Joseph Plateau in 1832, was the phenakistoscope, a…

persistent depressive disorder, mental disorder characterized by symptoms of depression that are present for two or more years. Although captured by different names and diagnoses throughout history, persistent depressive disorder was first recognized as such in the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and

patent ductus arteriosus, congenital heart defect characterized by the persistence of the ductus arteriosus, a channel that shunts blood between the pulmonary artery and the aorta. Normally, after birth the pulmonary artery carries blood depleted of oxygen and laden with carbon dioxide from the

toxic waste: Types: …and environmentalists, are categorized as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Several POPs are pesticides: aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, mirex, and toxaphene. Other POPs are produced during the combustion process. For example, dioxins and furans are by-products of chemical production and the burning of chlorinated substances, and polychlorinated biphenyls

soil seed bank: The role of seed dormancy: Persistent seed banks are common in annual plants and some woody plants, in which the failure of seed to establish the next generation would mean the collapse of the population. Scientists sometimes further classify persistent seed banks based on the extent or pattern of dormancy.

Persius was a Stoic poet whose Latin satires reached a higher moral tone than those of other classical Latin poets (excepting Juvenal). A pupil and friend of the Stoic philosopher Lucius Annaeus Cornutus and a fellow student of the poet Lucan, who admired all he wrote, Persius discovered his

Lauren Bacall was an American actress known for her portrayals of provocative women who hid their soft core underneath a layer of hard-edged pragmatism. Bacall started modeling in 1941 and supplemented her income with jobs as a theatre usher and as a hostess at the Stage Door Canteen, which kept

Shimon Peres was a Polish-born Israeli statesman, who served as both prime minister (1984–86 and 1995–96) and president (2007–14) of Israel and as leader of the Israel Labour Party (1977–92, 1995–97, and 2003–05). In 1993, in his role as Israeli foreign minister, Peres helped negotiate a peace

kinship: Personhood, cohesion, and the matrilineal puzzle: The differences between matrilineal and patrilineal systems nonetheless drew the nature of personhood to the attention of descent theorists. Studies of matrilineal systems suggested that a particular nexus of problems might arise regarding political continuity in a context where…

Peter Taylor Forsyth: Forsyth’s most famous book, The Person and Place of Jesus Christ (1909), attempted “to moralize dogma,” to express in terms of modern personal experience the meaning of the doctrine of Christ’s divinity. In Christ on Parnassus (1911), dealing with theology and the arts, and in The Justification of God…

orangutan, (genus Pongo), any of three species of Asian great apes found in rainforests on the Southeast Asian islands of Sumatra and Borneo. The Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) inhabits large portions of Borneo, whereas the Sumatran orangutan (P. abelii) and the Tapanuli orangutan (P.

John Frankenheimer: Early work: …broadcasts to shows that included Person to Person, See It Now, and You Are There. From 1954 to 1960 he directed live dramas for such series as Playhouse 90 (42 shows, including The Days of Wine and Roses and The Turn of the Screw) and Studio One. Frankenheimer also worked…

nondirective psychotherapy, an approach to the treatment of mental disorders that aims primarily toward fostering personality growth by helping individuals gain insight into and acceptance of their feelings, values, and behaviour. The function of the therapist is to extend consistent, warm,

radiation: Units for measuring ionizing radiation: …a population, the person-Sv and person-rem are the units used. These units represent the product of the average dose per person times the number of people exposed (e.g., 1 Sv to each of 100 persons = 100 person-Sv = 10,000 person-rem).

radiation: Units for measuring ionizing radiation: …dose to a population, the person-Sv and person-rem are the units used. These units represent the product of the average dose per person times the number of people exposed (e.g., 1 Sv to each of 100 persons = 100 person-Sv = 10,000 person-rem).

persona, in literature, the person who is understood to be speaking (or thinking or writing) a particular work. The persona is almost invariably distinct from the author; it is the voice chosen by the author for a particular artistic purpose. The persona may be a character in the work or merely an

Ingmar Bergman: Life: …series of films that included Persona (1966), Vargtimmen (1968; Hour of the Wolf), Skammen (1968; Shame), and En passion (1969; A Passion, or The Passion of Anna), all dramas of inner conflicts involving a small, closely knit group of characters. With The Touch (1971; Beröringen), his first English-language film,

persona, in psychology, the personality that an individual projects to others, as differentiated from the authentic self. The term, coined by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, is derived from the Latin persona, referring to the masks worn by Etruscan mimes. One of the Jungian archetypes, the persona

Jorge Edwards: …notoriety with the publication of Persona non grata (1973; Eng. trans. Persona non grata), a memoir of his experiences as the Chilean ambassador to Cuba in the early 1970s. Critical of the revolutionary socialist regime of Cuba’s Fidel Castro, the book created controversy among Latin American writers. In 1999, Edwards…

Personae, anthology of short verse by Ezra Pound, published in 1926. The work contains many of his shorter poems, including selections from the earlier collections A lume spento (1908), A Quinzaine for This Yule (1908), Personae (1909), Exultations (1909), Canzoni (1911), Ripostes (1912), and

stagecraft: Classical theatrical costume: Their masks, known as personae, were decorated with hair; they were not worn by professional actors until introduced by the actor Roscius in the 1st century bce. Before the introduction of masks, wigs (galeri) were worn. Also, Italian comedians wore a flat slipper called the succus.

Personae, anthology of short verse by Ezra Pound, published in 1926. The work contains many of his shorter poems, including selections from the earlier collections A lume spento (1908), A Quinzaine for This Yule (1908), Personae (1909), Exultations (1909), Canzoni (1911), Ripostes (1912), and

armour: Modern body armour systems: Army developed the Personnel Armor System for Ground Troops (PASGT), which was composed of a newly designed Kevlar helmet and a Kevlar vest. Although the vest weighed 9 pounds (4 kg), slightly more than the M-1969 vest it replaced, it provided superior protection against shell fragments. In 2003,…

telephone: Personal communication systems: In a number of countries throughout the world, a wireless service called the personal communication system (PCS) is available. In the broadest sense, PCS includes all forms of wireless communication that are interconnected with the public switched telephone network, including mobile telephone…

personal computer (PC), a digital computer designed for use by only one person at a time. A typical personal computer assemblage consists of a central processing unit (CPU), which contains the computer’s arithmetic, logic, and control circuitry on an integrated circuit; two types of computer

propaganda: Modern research and the evolution of current theories: …smartphones, collected massive amounts of personal data about the consumers who used them, generally without their informed consent. Such data potentially included consumers’ ages, genders, marital status, medical histories, employment histories and other financial information, personal and professional interests, political affiliations and opinions, and even geographic locations on a minute-by-minute…

PDA, an electronic handheld organizer used in the 1990s and 2000s to store contact information, manage calendars, communicate by e-mail, and handle documents and spreadsheets, usually in communication with the user’s personal computer (PC). The first PDAs were developed in the early 1990s as

PDA, an electronic handheld organizer used in the 1990s and 2000s to store contact information, manage calendars, communicate by e-mail, and handle documents and spreadsheets, usually in communication with the user’s personal computer (PC). The first PDAs were developed in the early 1990s as

Ashton Kutcher: Stardom: …appeared in the little-seen drama Personal Effects, about a relationship that forms between two people grieving murdered family members. After Garry Marshall’s Valentine’s Day (2010), Kutcher starred with Katherine Heigl in the romantic thriller Killers (2010).

finance: …standards, and goals: business finance, personal finance, and public finance. In developed nations, an elaborate structure of financial markets and institutions exists to serve the needs of these areas jointly and separately.

gender identity: …and other languages of gender-neutral pronouns (they, them, and their) in place of masculine or feminine pronouns (he, she, him, her, his, hers). Such usage, it is argued, enables speakers and writers to avoid attributing a false gender identity to a person based on perceived biological sex. The adoption of…

telephone: Personal communication systems: …on the DECT concepts, the Personal Handy-Phone System (PHS), was introduced to the public in 1994. The PHS became popular throughout urban areas as an alternative to cellular systems. Supporting data traffic at 32 and 64 kilobits per second, it could perform as a high-speed wireless modem for access to…

David Copperfield, novel by English writer Charles Dickens, published serially in 1849–50 and in book form in 1850. David Copperfield has always been among Dickens’s most popular novels and was his own “favourite child.” The work is semiautobiographical, and, although the title character differs

Hugh Laurie: Dick in The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019), which was inspired by Charles Dickens’s novel.

computer science: Social and professional issues: …providing the proper card and personal identification number (PIN).

personal identity, in metaphysics, the problem of the nature of the identity of persons and their persistence through time. One makes a judgment of personal identity whenever one says that a person existing at one time is the same as a person existing at another time: e.g., that the president of

personal income tax, a tax imposed by public authorities on the incomes of individuals or family units. See income

two-step flow model of communication: …Elihu Katz in the book Personal Influence (1955). The book explains that people’s reactions to media messages are mediated by interpersonal communication with members of their social environment. A person’s membership in different social groups (family, friends, professional and religious associations, etc.) has more influence on that person’s decision-making processes…

propaganda: Modern research and the evolution of current theories: …smartphones, collected massive amounts of personal data about the consumers who used them, generally without their informed consent. Such data potentially included consumers’ ages, genders, marital status, medical histories, employment histories and other financial information, personal and professional interests, political affiliations and opinions, and even geographic locations on a minute-by-minute…

PDA: Those PIMs, or personal information managers, were more user-friendly and could connect to PCs, and they had stylus interfaces and upgrade capabilities. In addition, later versions offered e-mail access and the option to download e-books. These improved devices still faced compatibility issues, however.

Scott Turow: …age in the 1960s, and Personal Injuries (1999), a story of deception and corruption. In Ordinary Heroes (2005) a crime reporter discovers papers that reveal the truth about his father’s court-martial during World War II. Innocent (2010; television film 2011) is a sequel to Presumed Innocent. Identical (2013) concerns a…

the personal is political, political slogan expressing a common belief among feminists that the personal experiences of women are rooted in their political situation and gender inequality. Although the origin of the phrase “the personal is political” is uncertain, it became popular following the

insurance: Personal liability insurance: The most common form of personal liability insurance is issued as part of the homeowner’s liability insurance policy. It is an all-risk agreement and contains relatively few exclusions. The policy covers any act of negligence of the insured or residents of the…

Ōe Kenzaburō: …finest novel, Kojinteki-na taiken (1964; A Personal Matter), a darkly humorous account of a new father’s struggle to accept the birth of his brain-damaged child. A visit to Hiroshima resulted in the work Hiroshima nōto (1965; Hiroshima Notes), which deals with the survivors of the atomic bombing of that city.…

Translating Thought into Action: Grant’s Personal Memoirs:

Translating Thought into Action: Grant’s Personal Memoirs:

name: Forms of personal names: There are many subdivisions and terms within the category of personal names. Originally, one name was given to a person at an early period of life—in Europe (and later in America), normally at baptism. This is called simply the name, the baptismal or…

Jonathan Edwards: Early life and ministry: In his “Personal Narrative” he confesses that, from his childhood on, his mind “had been full of objections” against the doctrine of predestination—i.e., that God sovereignly chooses some to salvation but rejects others to everlasting torment; “it used to appear like a horrible doctrine to me.” Though…

personal pronoun, any of various descriptive nouns that reflect an individual’s gender identity. In English personal pronouns have been used mainly to refer to a person without repeatedly stating the person’s name. As a result, their usage is closely linked to gender. He/him/his and she/her/hers

real and personal property: personal property, a basic division of property in English common law, roughly corresponding to the division between immovables and movables in civil law. At common law most interests in land and fixtures (such as permanent buildings) were classified as real-property interests. Leasehold interests in land,…

W.S. Van Dyke: Powell and Loy, Eddy and MacDonald: …Dyke directed Jean Harlow in Personal Property, but it was one of her weaker vehicles. The romantic comedy was perhaps most notable for being the last film the actress completed before her death. They Gave Him a Gun (1937) combined several genres, notably war drama and film noir, as Tone…

mass transit: New technology: These personal rapid transit (PRT) systems function like “horizontal elevators,” coming to a station in response to a traveler’s demand and moving directly from origin to destination. Because of this service pattern and the small size of the vehicles, PRT systems indeed offer personalized service much…

Mark Twain: Old age: Clemens published his next novel, Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (serialized 1895–96), anonymously in hopes that the public might take it more seriously than a book bearing the Mark Twain name. The strategy did not work, for it soon became generally known that he was the author; when the…

Joseph Conrad: Early years: In A Personal Record Conrad relates that his first introduction to the English language was at the age of eight, when his father was translating the works of Shakespeare and Victor Hugo in order to support the household. In those solitary years with his father he…

prison: Emergence of the penitentiary: …a place of punishment and personal reform) was advocated in this period by the English jurist and philosopher Jeremy Bentham, among others. The appalling conditions and official corruption in many local prisons of late 18th-century England and Wales were exposed by the English prison reformer John Howard, whose works The…

War Refugee Board: …and his staff entitled “Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of This Government in the Murder of the Jews.” It charged that the State Department had used the machinery of the government to prevent the rescue of Jews and to prevent news of the Holocaust from reaching the…

entitlement: With passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (PRWORA) in 1996, most needs-based assistance programs, including AFDC, were replaced by state-controlled systems funded by federal block grants. (See also social insurance; welfare.)

entitlement: With passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (PRWORA) in 1996, most needs-based assistance programs, including AFDC, were replaced by state-controlled systems funded by federal block grants. (See also social insurance; welfare.)

English Civil Wars: Personal Rule and the seeds of rebellion (1629–40): Compared with the chaos unleashed by the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48) on the European continent, the British Isles under Charles I enjoyed relative peace and economic prosperity during the 1630s. However, by the later 1630s, Charles’s regime…

safety, those activities that seek either to minimize or to eliminate hazardous conditions that can cause bodily injury. Safety precautions fall under two principal headings, occupational safety and public safety. Occupational safety is concerned with risks encountered in areas where people work:

Kristen Stewart: Background and early career: …starred in Assayas’s Parisian thriller Personal Shopper (2016).

history of logic: The theory of supposition: …of supposition were distinguished: (1) personal supposition (which, despite the name, need not have anything to do with persons), (2) simple supposition, and (3) material supposition. These types are illustrated, respectively, by the occurrences of the term horse in the statements “Every horse is an animal” (in which the term…

trust company: They distinguish between personal trusts and corporate trusts, often having separate departments for the two classes. In serving as trustee, the company usually takes legal title to property conveyed to it and manages it according to the instructions of the creator of the trust, the prescriptions of state…

personal-liberty laws, in U.S. history, pre-Civil War laws passed by Northern state governments to counteract the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Acts and to protect escaped slaves and free blacks settled in the North. Contravening the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which did not provide for trial by

personalism, a school of philosophy, usually idealist, which asserts that the real is the personal, i.e., that the basic features of personality—consciousness, free self-determination, directedness toward ends, self-identity through time, and value retentiveness—make it the pattern of all reality.

personalismo, in Latin America, the practice of glorifying a single leader, with the resulting subordination of the interests of political parties and ideologies and of constitutional government. Latin American political parties have often been constituted by the personal following of a leader

Lloyd Price: “Personality” (1959) remains one of the most delightful of all New Orleans rhythm-and-blues hits, and his cover of the traditional ballad “Stagolee,” which tells of a turn-of-the-century murder, became the best-known version of that often-recorded song. Price renamed it “Stagger Lee” (1958), turned the song’s…

personality, a characteristic way of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Personality embraces moods, attitudes, and opinions and is most clearly expressed in interactions with other people. It includes behavioral characteristics, both inherent and acquired, that distinguish one person from another and

Raymond B. Cattell: Personality and Learning Theory, 2 vol. (1979–80), is considered Cattell’s most important work. In it he proposed a theory of human development that integrates the intellectual, temperamental, and dynamic aspects of personality in the context of environmental and cultural influences. He was able to synthesize…

Neal E. Miller: …Learning and Imitation (1941) and Personality and Psychotherapy (1950), he and Dollard presented their results, which suggested that behaviour patterns were produced through the modification of biologically or socially derived drives by conditioning and reinforcement. Miller was appointed professor of psychology at Yale in 1950, resigning the position in 1966…

personality assessment, the measurement of personal characteristics. Assessment is an end result of gathering information intended to advance psychological theory and research and to increase the probability that wise decisions will be made in applied settings (e.g., in selecting the most promising

cult of personality, a deliberately created system of art, symbolism, and ritual centred on the institutionalized quasi-religious glorification of a specific individual. Since the 20th century, “cult of personality” has been most often used to refer to charismatic leader cults, a type of

personality disorder, mental disorder that is marked by deeply ingrained and lasting patterns of inflexible, maladaptive, or antisocial behaviour. A personality disorder is an accentuation of one or more personality traits to the point that the trait significantly impairs an individual’s social or

personality assessment: Self-report tests: So-called personality inventories (see below) tend to have these characteristics, in that they are relatively restrictive, can be scored objectively, and are convenient to administer. Other techniques (such as inkblot tests) for evaluating personality possess these characteristics to a lesser degree.

personality assessment, the measurement of personal characteristics. Assessment is an end result of gathering information intended to advance psychological theory and research and to increase the probability that wise decisions will be made in applied settings (e.g., in selecting the most promising

personality disorder: …accentuation of one or more personality traits to the point that the trait significantly impairs an individual’s social or occupational functioning. Personality disorders are not, strictly speaking, illnesses, since they need not involve the disruption of emotional, intellectual, or perceptual functioning. In many cases, an individual with a personality disorder…

cult of personality, a deliberately created system of art, symbolism, and ritual centred on the institutionalized quasi-religious glorification of a specific individual. Since the 20th century, “cult of personality” has been most often used to refer to charismatic leader cults, a type of

business law: …law: the concept of legal personality and the theory of limited liability. Nearly all statutory rules are intended to protect either creditors or investors.

personality: … (1937) by Ross Stagner and Personality: A Psychological Interpretation (1937) by Gordon W. Allport, followed by Henry A. Murray’s Explorations in Personality (1938), which contained a set of experimental and clinical studies, and by Gardner Murphy’s integrative and comprehensive text, Personality: A Biosocial Approach to Origins and Structure (1947). Yet…

cancer: …treatment, with notable progress toward personalized medicine, in which therapy is tailored to individuals according to biological anomalies unique to their disease. Personalized medicine is considered a promising area of progress yet for modern cancer therapy.

personalized medicine, field of medicine in which decisions concerning disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment are tailored to individual patients based on information derived from genetic and genomic data. Personalized medicine centres on the concept that information about a patient’s genes

kinship: Personhood, cohesion, and the matrilineal puzzle: The differences between matrilineal and patrilineal systems nonetheless drew the nature of personhood to the attention of descent theorists. Studies of matrilineal systems suggested that a particular nexus of problems might arise regarding political continuity in a context where…

personification, figure of speech in which human characteristics are attributed to an abstract quality, animal, or inanimate object. An example is “The Moon doth with delight / Look round her when the heavens are bare” (William Wordsworth, “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of

armoured vehicle: Armoured personnel carriers: Armoured personnel carriers (APCs) are tracked armoured vehicles that are used for transporting infantry into battle. APCs first appeared in large numbers early in World War II, when the German army adopted them to carry the infantry contingents of their panzer and…

human resources management, the management of the people in working organizations. It is also frequently called personnel management, industrial relations, employee relations, manpower management, and personnel administration. It represents a major subcategory of general management, focusing

United States: Normalizing relations with Cuba, the USA FREEDOM Act, and the Office of Personnel Management data breach: …on the records of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Initially it was believed that data relating to some four million current and former federal employees had been put at risk. Later it was learned that personal information regarding more than 21 million people had been compromised. The data breach—first…

human resources management, the management of the people in working organizations. It is also frequently called personnel management, industrial relations, employee relations, manpower management, and personnel administration. It represents a major subcategory of general management, focusing

George Santayana: Santayana’s system of philosophy: …and began a three-volume autobiography, Persons and Places (1944, 1945, 1953). When Rome was liberated in 1944, the 80-year-old author found himself visited by an “avalanche” of American admirers. By now he was immersed in Dominations and Powers (1951), an analysis of man in society; and then with heroic tenacity—for…

Persons Case, constitutional ruling that established the right of women to be appointed to the Senate of Canada. The case was initiated in 1927 by the Famous 5, a group of prominent women activists. In 1928, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that women were not “persons” according to the British

Robert Parsons was a Jesuit who, with Cardinal William Allen, organized Roman Catholic resistance in England to the Protestant regime of Queen Elizabeth I. He favoured armed intervention by the Continental Catholic powers as a means of restoring Catholicism in England, and he probably encouraged