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Masuda

(Encyclopedia)Masuda mäso͞oˈdä [key], city (1990 pop. 52,408), Shimane prefecture, SW Honshu, Japan, on the Sea of Japan at the mouth of the Takutsu River. It is an agricultural and communications center, with ...

Ritz, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Ritz, Walter, 1878–1909, Swiss physicist. He taught at the universities of Zürich and Göttingen. Ritz's combination principle, confirmed by later research, stated that the frequencies of spectral ...

Boston Mountains

(Encyclopedia)Boston Mountains, most rugged part of the Ozarks, NW Ark. and E Okla., rising to 2,700 ft (823 m). Isolated because of its geographical makeup, the region developed its own lifestyle; mountain people ...

Samarai

(Encyclopedia)Samarai sămˈărī [key], small island (59 acres/23.9 hectares), at the southeastern tip of Papua New Guinea, New Guinea island. It is a commercial and shipping center and a port of entry. An importa...

Porkkala

(Encyclopedia)Porkkala pôrkˈkälä [key], small, strategic peninsula, Southern Finland prov., in the Gulf of Finland, near Helsinki. Under the Soviet-Finnish armistice of 1944, Finland leased this area to the USS...

dingo

(Encyclopedia)dingo dĭngˈgō [key], wild dog (Canis lupus dingo) of Australia, believed to have been introduced thousands of years ago from SE Asia by the aboriginal settlers of that continent; currently regarded...

characin

(Encyclopedia)characin –sĭd [key], common name for members of the Characidae, a large and diverse family comprising 700 species of freshwater fishes. The characins are related to the carp and the catfish. They a...

Gorey, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Gorey, Edward, 1925–2000, American illustrator and writer, b. Chicago, grad. Harvard, 1950. He lived and worked in New York City and Cape Cod until 1986 when he moved permanently to the Cape. Gorey ...

marmoset

(Encyclopedia)marmoset märˈməzĕtˌ [key], name for many of the small, squirrellike New World monkeys of the family Callithricidae. Members of this family are all found in tropical South America, with one specie...

lipase

(Encyclopedia)lipase līˈpās [key], any enzyme capable of degrading lipid molecules. The bulk of dietary lipids are a class called triacylglycerols and are attacked by lipases to yield simple fatty acids and glyc...