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paralysis

(Encyclopedia)paralysis or palsy pôlˈzē [key], complete loss or impairment of the ability to use voluntary muscles, usually as the result of a disorder of the nervous system. The nervous tissue that is injured m...

calculus of variations

(Encyclopedia)calculus of variations, branch of mathematics concerned with finding maximum or minimum conditions for a relationship between two or more variables that depends not only on the variables themselves, a...

Posse Comitatus Act

(Encyclopedia)Posse Comitatus Act, 1878, U.S. federal law that makes it a crime to use the military as a domestic police force in the United States under most circumstances. The law was designed to end the use of f...

ring, mathematical system

(Encyclopedia)ring, in mathematics, system consisting of a set R of elements and two binary operations, such that addition makes R a commutative group and multiplication is associative and distributes over addition...

logic

(Encyclopedia)logic, the systematic study of valid inference. A distinction is drawn between logical validity and truth. Validity merely refers to formal properties of the process of inference. Thus, a conclusion w...

McBain, Howard Lee

(Encyclopedia)McBain, Howard Lee, 1880–1936, American political scientist, b. Toronto, Ont., grad. Richmond (Va.) College, 1900, Ph.D. Columbia, 1907. After teaching at George Washington and Wisconsin universitie...

Ames, James Barr

(Encyclopedia)Ames, James Barr, 1846–1910, American jurist, b. Boston, grad. Harvard Law School, 1873. At Harvard he became associate professor (1873), professor (1877), and dean (1895). A disciple of C. C. Langd...

Traynor, Roger John

(Encyclopedia)Traynor, Roger John, 1900–1983, American jurist, b. Park City, Utah, grad. Univ. of California at Berkeley (A.B., 1923, Ph.D., 1926, J.D., 1927.) After teaching political science and law at the Univ...

bar, the

(Encyclopedia)bar, the, originally, the rail that enclosed the judge in a court; hence, a court or a system of courts. The persons qualified and authorized to conduct the trial of cases are also known collectively ...

leaching

(Encyclopedia)leaching, method of extraction in which a solvent is passed through a mixture to remove some desired substance from it. A simple example is the passage of boiling water through ground coffee to dissol...