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utility, public

(Encyclopedia)utility, public, industry required by law to render adequate service in its field at reasonable prices to all who apply for it. Public utilities frequently operate as monopolies in their market. In th...

Chávez Frías, Hugo Rafael

(Encyclopedia)Chávez Frías, Hugo Rafael o͞oˈgō räfäĕlˈ chäˈvĕs frēˈäs [key], 1954–2013, Venezuelan political leader, president of Venezuela (1999–2013). Raised in poverty, he was educated at the ...

brake, in technology

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Shoe brake CE5 Disk brake brake, in technology, device to slow or stop the motion of a mechanism or vehicle. The vacuum brake system, or vacuum brake, depends upon the use of a vacuum to ...

electromotive force

(Encyclopedia)electromotive force, abbr. emf, difference in electric potential, or voltage, between the terminals of a source of electricity, e.g., a battery from which no current is being drawn. When current is dr...

nucleotide

(Encyclopedia)nucleotide no͞oˈklēətīdˌ, nyo͞oˈ– [key], organic substance that serves as a monomer in forming nucleic acids. Nucleotides consist of either a purine or a pyrimidine base, a ribose or deoxyri...

Soleri, Paolo

(Encyclopedia)Soleri, Paolo, 1919–2013, Italian-American architect. He studied architecture in his native Turin (Ph.D., 1946). Soleri's works have been influenced by both Frank Lloyd Wright, with whom he apprenti...

Fermi, Enrico

(Encyclopedia)Fermi, Enrico ĕnrēˈkō fĕrˈmē [key], 1901–54, American physicist, b. Italy. He studied at Pisa, Göttingen, and Leiden, and taught physics at the universities of Florence and Rome. He contribu...

Kean, Edmund

(Encyclopedia)Kean, Edmund, 1787?–1833, English actor. Kean's acting expressed the ideal of the romantic temperament. A small man with a wild spirit and a gruff voice, he was lauded for his facial mobility; accor...

Nakamura, Shuji

(Encyclopedia)Nakamura, Shuji, 1954–, Japanese physicist and electronics engineer, grad. Univ. of Tokushima (D.Eng., 1994). Nakamura joined the Nichia Corporation in 1977, and it was there that he began his life-...

Uppsala

(Encyclopedia)Uppsala ŭpˈsələ, –säˌlä [key], city (1990 pop. 109,500), capital of Uppsala co., E Sweden, on the Fyrisån River. It is an industrial and cultural center and a railroad junction. Manufactures...