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  • umrubhe (musical instrument)
    ...container. Apart from adapted shooting bows, more specialized types of musical bows are widespread. Most are sounded by plucking or striking the string, but the Xhosa umrubhe is bowed with a friction stick, the xizambi of the Tsonga has serrations along the stave that are scraped with a rattle stick, and the......
  • Umsiligasi (king of the Ndebele)
    South African king who founded the powerful Ndebele (Matabele) kingdom in what is now Zimbabwe. The greatest Bantu warrior after Shaka, king of the Zulus, Mzilikazi took his Kumalo people more than 500 miles (800 km) from what is now South Africa to the region now known as Zimbabwe, creating en route an immense and ethnically diverse nation. Mzilikazi was a statesman of considerable stature, able ...
  • Umtali (Zimbabwe)
    city, eastern Zimbabwe. It originated as Ft. Umtali and was built by prospectors in 1890 near the junction of the Sambi and Umtara rivers. Its name was derived from a local word meaning “metal,” probably referring to the nearby ancient goldworkings. The settlement was moved twice so as to be on the railway between the national capital, Salisbury (now Harare), and Beira (Mozambique), ...
  • Umtata (South Africa)
    town, Eastern Cape province, South Africa. It was the capital of Transkei, a nominally independent but not internationally recognized southern African republic that was reincorporated into South Africa in 1994. Located on the Umtata (“The Taker”) River (so named because of its destructive flooding), the town lies at an elevation of 2,290 feet (698 m) in the Kaffrar...
  • umtshingo (musical instrument)
    ...and elsewhere. End-blown notched flutes, with a U- or V-shaped embouchure, either with or without finger holes, are widely distributed across the continent. The long Zulu umtshingo has an obliquely cut embouchure; there are no finger holes, but a double range of overblown harmonics is produced by alternately stopping and unstopping the lower end with a......
  • umu (Inca religion)
    Priests resided at all important shrines and temples. A chronicler suggests that a priest’s title was umu, but in usage his title was geared to his functions as diviner of lungs, sorcerer, confessor, and curer. The title of the chief priest in Cuzco, who was of noble lineage, was villac umu. He held his post for life, was married, and competed in authority with the Inca. He ha...
  • Umuahia (Nigeria)
    town, capital of Abia state, southern Nigeria. It lies along the railroad from Port Harcourt to Enugu. It is an agricultural market centre and (since 1916) collecting point on the railway for the crops of the surrounding region: yams, cassava, corn (maize), taro, citrus fruits, and palm oil and kernels. The town has a palm-oil-processing plant and several breweries, and the Nati...
  • umuganuro (Burundian festival)
    ...the village council, have lost their force, weakened by political chaos and the wholesale displacement of populations. Once widely celebrated events include the annual sorghum festival (umuganuro), the occasion for a magnificent display of traditional dances by court dancers (intore). Also participating in the festival are drummers beating the......
  • Umulirimbyi wa Nyili-ibiremwa (work by Kagame)
    ...La Philosophie Bantu comparée (1976; “The Bantu Philosophy Compared”). His masterwork, however, a long narrative Christian epic conceived in 1941, is Umulirimbyi wa Nyili-ibiremwa, 3 vol. (1950; “The Singer of the Lord of Creation”), which consists of 35,000 lines arranged into 150 cantos. Lesser-known works include a novella,.....
  • Umur Bey (Aydın ruler)
    ...c. 1308–34) founded the dynasty in territories he conquered in the Aegean region, including Birgi, Ayasoluk (modern Selçuk, Turkey), Tyre, and İzmir. His son and successor, Umur Bey (Umur I; reigned 1334–48), organized a fleet and led expeditions to the Aegean islands, the Balkans, and the Black Sea coasts, intervening in dynastic quarrels and assisting John V...
  • Umur I (Aydın ruler)
    ...c. 1308–34) founded the dynasty in territories he conquered in the Aegean region, including Birgi, Ayasoluk (modern Selçuk, Turkey), Tyre, and İzmir. His son and successor, Umur Bey (Umur I; reigned 1334–48), organized a fleet and led expeditions to the Aegean islands, the Balkans, and the Black Sea coasts, intervening in dynastic quarrels and assisting John V...
  • Umvukwe Range (mountains, Zimbabwe)
    mountain range in northern Zimbabwe, extending about 100 miles (160 km) north from the Hunyani River and rising to a high point of 5,748 feet (1,752 m). The range forms the northern section of an enormous tabular block of igneous rock (norite) and is a major chrome-mining area. Major towns in the area are Darwendale, Maryland Junction, and Kildonan....
  • UMWA (American labour union)
    American labour union, founded in 1890, that engaged in bitter, though often successful, disputes with coal mine operators for safe working conditions, fair pay, and other worker benefits. An industrial union, the UMWA includes miners in bituminous and anthracite coal mines, as well as workers outside the mining industry....
  • Umwelt (perceptual environment)
    ...significant to itself and at such times that responses to such stimuli are relevant. This simpler world that actually falls within the animal’s perception at any particular moment is termed its Umwelt....
  • UN (international organization)
    international organization established on October 24, 1945. The United Nations was the second multipurpose international organization established in the 20th century that was worldwide in scope and membership. Its predecessor, the League of Nations, was created by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 and disbanded in 1946. Headquartered in New Y...
  • Un (India)
    ...dynasty, appears to have been the first to develop the bhūmija type of śikhara (10th century). The finest and most representative group of these structures is at Un. Though, unfortunately, they are considerably damaged, judging from the remains, they must have been very elegant structures. The best preserved and easily the finest bhūmija temple......
  • “Un Di Velt Hot Geshvign” (novel by Wiesel)
    ...in France, Wiesel was urged by the novelist François Mauriac to bear witness to what he had experienced in the concentration camps. The outcome was Wiesel’s first book, in Yiddish, Un di velt hot geshvign (1956; “And the World Has Remained Silent”), abridged as La Nuit (1958; Night), a memoir of a young boy’s spiritual re...
  • UN Disengagement Observer Force (United Nations)
    A disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria, signed following the Arab-Israeli War of 1973, established a United Nations buffer zone in the Golan Heights, monitored by a UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). The UNDOF mandate was renewed every six months thereafter. Negotiations between Syria and Israel, initiated during bilateral talks held in Madrid in 1991, continued intermittently......
  • “Un grido lacerante” (novel by Banti)
    ...(1973; “The Burned Shirt”), which returns to the theme of a woman’s insistence on personal freedoms. In 1981 she published Un grido lacerante (A Piercing Cry), in which a woman must determine her real vocation as it relates to her life....
  • Un Heuan (king of Lan Xang)
    great sovereign of the Lan Xang kingdom of Laos, whose reign brought peace, prosperity, and stability to the kingdom....
  • Un Homme si simple… (work by Baillon)
    ...of Westmalle. Par fil spécial (1924; “By Special Cable”) is a sardonic account of the world of journalism based on his own experiences as a newspaper editor. In Un Homme si simple . . . (1925; “Such a Simple Man . . . ”), confessional in style and written while he was hospitalized, and Chalet 1 (1926), he recounts his......
  • UN Special Commission (UN)
    The Security Council established a UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) to inspect and verify that Iraq was complying with the ban on WMD. By mid-1991, however, it was becoming clear that the embargo would very likely last longer than had been originally expected and that, in the meantime, the people of Iraq needed humanitarian aid. Thus, the Security Council passed a pair of......
  • Un-American Activities, Committee on (United States history)
    ...Franklin D. Roosevelt, and she was a strong supporter of national defense and security. Although a staunch anticommunist, she was nevertheless the first Republican senator to condemn Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s anticommunist witch-hunts, delivering a memorable “Declaration of Conscience” on the Senate floor in 1950. Her opinion that President John F. Kennedy should use......
  • Una (river, Europe)
    The principal rivers are the Sava, a tributary of the Danube, which forms the northern boundary with Croatia; the Bosna, Vrbas, and Una, which flow north and empty into the Sava; the Drina, which flows north, forms part of the eastern boundary with Serbia, and is a tributary of the Sava; and the Neretva, which flows from the southeast but assumes a sharp southwestern flow through the Karst......
  • Una (India)
    city, southwestern Himāchal Pradesh state, northern India. It lies along the Soān River at an elevation of 1,815 feet (550 m), about 60 miles (95 km) northwest of Simla, the state capital. Formerly an important commercial centre, it declined after the construction of all-weather roads that bypass the city. Agriculture and horticulture, mainly orchards, are the basis of the economy. ...
  • una corda (music)
    ...all the dampers by the ordinary damper pedal. On three-pedal pianos, this device is included as the middle pedal, with the damper (“loud”) pedal at the right and the action-shifting (una corda, or “soft”) pedal at the left....
  • Una, The (American periodical)
    American publication, founded by Paulina W. Davis in 1853, that was widely recognized as the first periodical of the women’s rights movement. Though several similar journals had appeared the previous year, The Una was the first to be owned, edited, and published by a woman. The inaugural issue was released in February 1853 with a masthead re...
  • Unabhängige Sozialdemocratische Partei Deutschlands (political party, Germany)
    ...War I, the SPD played a central role in the formation of the Weimar Republic and in its brief and tragic history. In the general election of 1919 the SPD received 37.9 percent of the vote (while the Independent Social Democrats received another 7.6 percent), but the party’s failure to win favourable terms from the Allies at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 (terms embodied in the Treaty...
  • Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, The (work by Plath)
    ...1977, and The Collected Poems, which includes many previously unpublished poems, appeared in 1981. Plath kept a journal for much of her life, and in 2000 The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, covering the years from 1950 to 1962, was published....
  • unaccented rhyme (linguistics)
    .../ grind). Feminine pararhyme has two forms, one in which both vowel sounds differ, and one in which only one does (ran in / run on; blindness / blandness). Weakened, or unaccented, rhyme occurs when the relevant syllable of the rhyming word is unstressed (bend / frightened). Because of the way in which lack of stress affects the sound, a......
  • UNAIDS (UN program)
    ...the quality of drugs and to ensure the availability of lower-cost generics, and efforts to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS. The UN has responded to the AIDS epidemic through the establishment of UNAIDS, a concerted program of cosponsoring agencies, including UNICEF, WHO, UNDP, UNESCO, and the World Bank. UNAIDS is the leading advocate of global action on AIDS, supporting programs to prevent......
  • Unaka Mountains (mountains, United States)
    segments of the Blue Ridge and Appalachian mountain systems in the southeastern United States. They extend from southwestern Virginia along the Tennessee–North Carolina border into northern Georgia. The main ridges average 5,000 feet (1,500 m), rising in the Great Smoky Mountains to Clingmans Dome (6,643 feet [2,025 m]), Tennessee’s highest point. Other features i...
  • Unalaska (Alaska, United States)
    The oldest and largest permanent settlement is that of Unalaska (Dutch Harbor) on Unalaska Island, where Russians built a village in the 1770s. Unalaska is the former headquarters of a large U.S. Coast Guard fleet that patrolled the sealing grounds of the Pribilof Islands to the north; the city’s Russian Orthodox Church of the Holy Ascension, one of the oldest Russian churches in the United...
  • Unalaska (island, Alaska, United States)
    ...long Aleutian chain that separates the North Pacific from the Bering Sea. The chain includes 14 large islands, 55 significant but smaller ones, and numerous islets. The largest are Unimak, Unalaska, and Umnak. On the occasionally clear summer days, active volcanoes and such glacier-covered peaks as symmetrical Shishaldin Volcano (9,372 feet [2,857 metres]) on Unimak can be seen. Such......
  • UNAM (university, Mexico City, Mexico)
    government-financed coeducational institution of higher education in Mexico City founded in 1551. The original university building, dating from 1584, was demolished in 1910, and the university was moved to a new campus in Mexico City in 1954....
  • Unam Sanctam (papal bull)
    ...and the pope needed the revenue. In 1301, Philip violated long-standing tradition by trying the bishop of Pamiers in a royal court. Boniface responded in 1302 with the bull Unam Sanctam (“One Holy Church”), the most extreme assertion by any pope of the supremacy of spiritual over secular authority. Revealing how much had changed since the time of......
  • Unamuno, Miguel de (Spanish educator, philosopher, and author)
    educator, philosopher, and author whose essays had considerable influence in early 20th-century Spain....
  • Unamuno y Jugo, Miguel de (Spanish educator, philosopher, and author)
    educator, philosopher, and author whose essays had considerable influence in early 20th-century Spain....
  • Unangam Tunuu language
    one of two branches of the Eskimo-Aleut languages. Two mutually intelligible dialects survive, Eastern Aleut and Atkan Aleut. A third dialect, Attu, now extinct in Alaska, survives on Bering Island (one of the Komandor Islands) in a creolized form that incorporates Russian verbal inflections. Aleut is spoken from the Alaska Peninsula through Umnak Island and on Atka Island in th...
  • Unanimism (French literary movement)
    French literary movement based on the psychological concept of group consciousness and collective emotion and the need for the poet to merge with this transcendent consciousness. Founded by Jules Romains about 1908, Unanimism particularly influenced some members of the Abbaye group, a loose organization of young artists and writers interested in printing and ...
  • Unanimisme (French literary movement)
    French literary movement based on the psychological concept of group consciousness and collective emotion and the need for the poet to merge with this transcendent consciousness. Founded by Jules Romains about 1908, Unanimism particularly influenced some members of the Abbaye group, a loose organization of young artists and writers interested in printing and ...
  • Unanswered Question, The (work by Ives)
    In The Unanswered Question (composed before 1908), a string quartet or string orchestra repeats simple harmonies; placed apart from them, a trumpet reiterates a question-like theme that is dissonantly and confusedly commented upon by flutes (optionally with an oboe or a clarinet). In the second movement of Three Places in New England (also titled First Orchestral Set and......
  • Unarm, Eros (work by Tiller)
    Of his major poetry collections, The Inward Animal (1943) and especially Unarm, Eros (1947) contain his most highly acclaimed poems, noted for their strong formal pattern, heraldic imagery, and striking sensuousness. Later volumes include Reading a Medal (1957), Notes for a Myth (1968), and That Singing Mesh (1979)....
  • unary system (chemistry and physics)
    ...exist stably at this pressure and temperature. All phases in Figure 1 have the same composition—that of silicon dioxide, SiO2. The diagram is a representation of a one-component (unary) system, in contrast to a two-component (binary), three-component (ternary), or four-component (quaternary) system. The phases coesite, low quartz, high quartz, tridymite, and cristobalite are.....
  • Unas (king of Egypt)
    last king of the 5th dynasty (c. 2465–c. 2325 bce) of ancient Egypt and the first pharaoh to inscribe the interior of his pyramid at Ṣaqqārah with religious and magical texts known as Pyramid Texts. According to later king lists, Unas was the last ruler of...
  • unau (mammal)
    Both species of two-toed sloth (family Megalonychidae), also called unaus, belong to the genus Choloepus. Linnaeus’ two-toed sloth (C. didactylus) lives in northern South America east of the Andes and south to the central Amazon basin. Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth (C. hoffmanni) is fou...
  • unavoidable configuration (mathematics)
    ...of Illinois, directed by Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken, after four years of unprecedented synthesis of computer search and theoretical reasoning. Appel and Haken created a catalog of 1,936 “unavoidable” configurations, at least one of which must be present in any graph, no matter how large. Then they showed how each of these configurations could be reduced to a smaller one so.....
  • Unbearable Bassington, The (work by Saki)
    ...anthologized works are “Tobermory,” “The Open Window,” “Sredni Vashtar,” “Laura,” and “The Schartz-Metterklume Method.” His novel The Unbearable Bassington (1912) describes the adventures of a fastidious and likable but maladjusted hero, in a manner anticipating that of the early work of the English satirist Evelyn Wau...
  • Unbedingten (German student organization)
    ...Expelled for his political views in 1815, he went to Heidelberg, where he was among the founders of the political student association Teutonia. With his brother, Karl, he was also the leader of the Unbedingten (Uncompromising Ones), or Schwarzen (Blacks), a radical student group whose ideas resulted in the assassination of the conservative dramatist August Kotzebue in 1819. Based on an......
  • “Unbehagen in der Kultur, Das” (work by Freud)
    ...novelist Romain Rolland, Freud came to acknowledge a more intractable source of religious sentiment. The opening section of his next speculative tract, Das Unbehagen in der Kultur (1930; Civilization and Its Discontents), was devoted to what Rolland had dubbed the oceanic feeling. Freud described it as a sense of indissoluble oneness with the universe, which mystics in particular....
  • unbranched hydrocarbon
    For a given number of carbon atoms, an unbranched alkane has a higher boiling point than any of its branched-chain isomers. This effect is evident upon comparing the boiling points (bp) of selected C8H18 isomers. An unbranched alkane has a more extended shape, thereby increasing the number of intermolecular attractive forces that must be broken in order to go from the......
  • UNC (political party, Trinidad and Tobago)
    ...economic and social policies inaugurated by its NAR predecessors. In 1995 the prime minister called an early general election. The result was a tie between the PNM and the main opposition party, the United National Congress (UNC), which was supported chiefly by Indo-Trinidadians; the two Tobago seats went to the NAR, led by Robinson. The latter gave his support to the UNC, whose leader, Basdeo....
  • UNC (military force)
    It was not until the first weeks of August that the United Nations Command, or UNC, as MacArthur’s theatre forces had been redesignated, started to slow the North Koreans. The Eighth Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Walton H. Walker, one of the best corps commanders in Europe in 1944–45, and the ROKA, led by Major General Chung Il-kwon, rallied and fought back with more success....
  • UNC (political party, Cameroon)
    Cameroon was a de facto one-party state from 1966 and was dominated by the Cameroon National Union, a merger of six political parties; it was renamed the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement in 1985. After much political unrest and many violent clashes, a constitutional amendment in 1990 established a multiparty system; main opposition groups included the Social Democratic Front, the Natio...
  • Uncaria gambir (plant)
    ...Cinchona species; coffee, from the seeds of Coffea species; ipecac, obtained from the roots of Psychotria ipecacuanha; and gambier, a substance that is used in tanning, from Uncaria gambir. Some trees in the family provide useful timber. Species that are cultivated as ornamentals include those of Gardenia, Ixora, Nertera, Crucianella, Bouvardia,......
  • Uncas (Mohegan chief)
    ...time of the first European settlement of New England early in the 17th century, the Mohegan and the Pequot tribes were ruled jointly by the Pequot chief, Sassacus; later a rebellion by the subchief Uncas led to Mohegan independence. After the destruction of the Pequot in 1637, most of the Pequot survivors and the former Pequot territories came under Mohegan control. Uncas strengthened his......
  • Uncataquisset (Massachusetts, United States)
    town (township), Norfolk county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies along the Neponset River, just south of Boston. Settled in 1636 as a part of Dorchester, it was early known as Uncataquisset, from an Algonquian word meaning “head of tidewater,” and was separately incorporated in 1662. At Vose (Suffolk Resolves) House in Milton, delegates met o...
  • UNCDF (international organization)
    United Nations (UN) organization established by the General Assembly in 1966 and fully operational in 1974. Headquartered in New York City, the UNDF, a semi-autonomous unit of the United Nations Development Programme, provides grants and loans to the least-developed members of the UN for projects in areas such as agriculture and agro-industry, drinking-water s...
  • UNCED (international organization)
    conference held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (June 3–14, 1992), to reconcile worldwide economic development with protection of the environment. The Earth Summit was the largest gathering of world leaders in history, with 117 heads of state and representatives of 178 nations in all attending. By means of treaties and other documents signed at the conference, most of the world’s nations n...
  • uncertainty principle (physics)
    statement, articulated (1927) by the German physicist Werner Heisenberg, that the position and the velocity of an object cannot both be measured exactly, at the same time, even in theory. The very concepts of exact position and exact velocity together, in fact, have no meaning in nature....
  • uncia (ancient unit of length)
    ...in terms of these equivalents, the digit (digitus), or 116 foot, was 18.5 mm (0.73 inch); the inch (uncia or pollicus), or 112 foot, was 24.67 mm (0.97 inch); and the palm (......
  • uncia (unit of weight)
    ...The abbreviation lb for pound is derived from libra. One-twelfth of the libra, the Roman uncia, is the ancestor of the English ounce....
  • uncial (calligraphy)
    in calligraphy, ancient majuscular book hand characterized by simple, rounded strokes. It apparently originated in the 2nd century ad when the codex form of book developed along with the growing use of parchment and vellum as writing surfaces. Unlike its prototype square roman, uncial is adapted to direct strokes of the pen held in one position and was thus the na...
  • uncinariasis
    a parasitic infestation of humans, dogs, or cats caused by bloodsucking worms (see ) living in the small intestine—sometimes associated with secondary anemia. Several species of hookworm can cause the disease. Necator americanus, which ranges in size from 5 to 11 millimetres (0.2 to 0.4 inch), is responsible for about 90 percent of human h...
  • uncinate process (biology)
    ...vertebral rib articulating with the vertebra and with the ventral sternal rib, which in turn articulates with the breastbone (sternum). Each vertebral rib bears a flat, backward-pointing spur, the uncinate process, characteristic of birds. The sternum, ribs, and their articulations form the structural basis for a bellows action, by which air is moved through the lungs. Posterior to the......
  • Uncinula necator (fungus)
    ...(as saprobes). The largest and most commonly known ascomycetes include the morel (see cup fungus) and the truffle (q.v.). Other ascomycetes include such important plant pathogens as powdery mildew of grape (Uncinula necator), Dutch elm disease (Ophiostoma ulmi), and the chestnut blight (Endothia parasitica). Venturia inequalis, the cause of apple......
  • UNCIO (international politics)
    (April 25–June 26, 1945), international meeting that established the United Nations. The basic principles of a worldwide organization that would embrace the political objectives of the Allies had been proposed at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in 1944 and reaffirmed at the Yalta Conference in early 1945....
  • uncle (kinship)
    ...her sons, that prevails in many societies. The term is derived from the Latin avunculus, meaning “uncle.” It typically involves for the maternal uncle a measure of authority over his nephews (and sometimes his nieces), coupled with specific responsibilities in their upbringing, initiation, and marriage. These children, in turn, often enjoy......
  • Uncle Dan (American illustrator and author)
    American illustrator, author, and outdoor enthusiast who was a pioneer of the youth scouting movement in the United States. Beard’s article on woodcraft appeared in the 14th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (see the Britannica Classic: woodcraft)....
  • Uncle Moses (work by Asch)
    ...in 1910 but banned elsewhere. Asch visited the United States in 1910, returned there in 1914, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1920. To this period belong Onkl Mozes (1918; Uncle Moses), Khayim Lederers tsurikkumen (1927; Chaim Lederer’s Return), and Toyt urteyl (1926; “Death Sentence”; Eng. trans. Judge Not—). These....
  • Uncle Remus (fictional character)
    ...inspired by his reading of William Owens’ work on black folklore, appeared in the Atlanta Constitution and created a vogue for a distinctive type of dialect literature. This and successive Uncle Remus stories won for Harris a secure place in American literature. The pattern was new: Uncle Remus, the wise, genial old black man, tells stories about Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and other.....
  • Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings (work by Harris)
    ...Remus, the wise, genial old black man, tells stories about Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and other animals to the little son of a plantation owner and interweaves his philosophy of the world about him. Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings was published in book form in 1880, followed by others. Included in a series of children’s books were: Little Mr. Thimblefinger and His Queer Coun...
  • Uncle Sam (United States symbol)
    popular U.S. symbol usually associated with a cartoon figure having long white hair and chin whiskers and dressed in a swallow-tailed coat, vest, tall hat, and striped trousers. His appearance is derived from two earlier symbolic figures in American folklore—Brother Jonathan and Yankee Doodle....
  • Uncle Tom’s Cabin (work by Stowe)
    ...prostitution during the period. If the work is strongly weighted to convert the reader to the author’s stand on a social question, as is the case with Harriet Beecher Stowe’s antislavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), it is sometimes called a propaganda novel. Usually a social problem novel limits itself to exposure of a problem. A personal solution may be arr...
  • “Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly” (work by Stowe)
    ...prostitution during the period. If the work is strongly weighted to convert the reader to the author’s stand on a social question, as is the case with Harriet Beecher Stowe’s antislavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), it is sometimes called a propaganda novel. Usually a social problem novel limits itself to exposure of a problem. A personal solution may be arr...
  • Uncle Tom’s Children (work by Wright)
    ...American literature from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. A migrant from Mississippi with barely a ninth-grade education, Wright set the tone for the post-New Negro era with Uncle Tom’s Children (1938), a collection of novellas set in the Jim Crow South that evidenced Wright’s strong affinity with Marxism and the influence of American Naturalist writers ...
  • Uncle Vanya (work by Chekhov)
    ...Demon (1888–89) is a long-winded and ineptly facetious four-act play, which somehow, by a miracle of art, became converted—largely by cutting—into Dyadya Vanya (Uncle Vanya), one of his greatest stage masterpieces. The conversion—to a superb study of aimlessness in a rural manor house—took place some time between 1890 and 1896; the play wa...
  • Uncle Wiggily (fictional character)
    author, creator of the Uncle Wiggily series of children’s stories, who began his career as a newspaperman on the Newark Evening News in 1896. Shortly after, he began writing a daily bedtime story about Uncle Wiggily—a rabbit hero—and his friends. He averaged a story a day (except Sunday) until he retired in 1947. In all, he turned out more than 15,000 stories and about ...
  • UNCLOS
    ...on the development of the Dutch economy. The gas fields are in the northeastern Netherlands—with the largest field at Slochteren—and beneath the Dutch sector of the North Sea. Under the Geneva Convention of 1958, The Netherlands was allocated a 22,000-square-mile (57,000-square-km) block of the continental shelf of the North Sea, an area larger than the country itself. Technologic...
  • Uncommon Women and Others (work by Wasserstein)
    ...Can’t (1973), is a cutting farce on one of her major themes—a woman’s attempts to succeed in an environment traditionally dominated by men. Two other early works are Uncommon Women and Others (1975; revised and expanded, 1977) and Isn’t It Romantic (1981), which explore women’s attitudes toward mar...
  • Uncompahgre Peak (mountain, Colorado, United States)
    ...River, in northern New Mexico. Many peaks in the northern section exceed 14,000 ft (4,300 m), including Mts. Eolus, Sneffels, Handies, Sunshine, Wetterhorn, Redcloud, San Luis, and Windom, with Uncompahgre Peak (14,309 ft) being the highest. Few summits in New Mexico reach 11,000 ft. Composed mainly of volcanic rocks, which are highly mineralized in the north, the mountains serve as a......
  • uncomputability (science)
    The kinds of behaviours seen in models of complex systems are the result of following a set of rules. This is because these models are embodied in computer programs, which must necessarily follow well-defined rules. By definition, any behaviour seen in such worlds is the outcome of following the rules encoded in the program. Although computing machines are de facto rule-following devices,......
  • unconditional most-favoured-nation trade clause (economics)
    The advantages granted under the MFN clause may be conditional or unconditional. If unconditional, the clause operates automatically whenever appropriate circumstances arise. The country drawing benefit from it is not called on to make any fresh concession. By contrast, the partner invoking a conditional MFN clause must make concessions equivalent to those extended by the third country. A......
  • unconditional response (physiology)
    ...the dog secretes during test trials in which food powder is omitted after the bell has rung. The dog’s original response of salivation upon the introduction of food into its mouth is called the unconditioned response (UR) to food, which is the unconditioned stimulus (US)....
  • unconditional stimulus (psychology)
    ...food powder is omitted after the bell has rung. The dog’s original response of salivation upon the introduction of food into its mouth is called the unconditioned response (UR) to food, which is the unconditioned stimulus (US)....
  • “Unconditional Surrender” (trilogy by Waugh)
    ...Helena, published in 1950, is a novel about the mother of Constantine the Great, in which Waugh re-created one moment in Christian history to assert a particular theological point. In a trilogy—Men at Arms (1952), Officers and Gentlemen (1955), and Unconditional Surrender (1961)—he analyzed the character of World War II, in......
  • unconditioned reflex (physiology)
    ...the dog secretes during test trials in which food powder is omitted after the bell has rung. The dog’s original response of salivation upon the introduction of food into its mouth is called the unconditioned response (UR) to food, which is the unconditioned stimulus (US)....
  • unconditioned response (physiology)
    ...the dog secretes during test trials in which food powder is omitted after the bell has rung. The dog’s original response of salivation upon the introduction of food into its mouth is called the unconditioned response (UR) to food, which is the unconditioned stimulus (US)....
  • unconditioned stimulus (psychology)
    ...food powder is omitted after the bell has rung. The dog’s original response of salivation upon the introduction of food into its mouth is called the unconditioned response (UR) to food, which is the unconditioned stimulus (US)....
  • unconfined aquifer (hydrology)
    A groundwater aquifer is said to be unconfined when its upper surface (water table) is open to the atmosphere through permeable material. As opposed to a confined aquifer, the water table in an unconfined aquifer system has no overlying impervious rock layer to separate it from the atmosphere. ...
  • unconjugated jaundice (pathology)
    ...in the blood is significantly above normal. This condition is evident in three different types of disorders, more than one of which may be present simultaneously in a single person. The first type, unconjugated, or hemolytic, jaundice, appears when the amount of bilirubin produced from hemoglobin by the destruction of red blood cells or muscle tissue (myoglobin) exceeds the normal capacity of.....
  • Unconquerables, The (work by Auslander)
    ...(1929), which he coedited with F.E. Hill, became a classroom favourite. Auslander often wrote about war, and his poetry was used to sell U.S. war bonds during World War II. The Unconquerables (1943), a collection dedicated to Nazi-occupied countries, was particularly notable to the effort. Auslander also wrote novels in collaboration with his second wife, Audrey......
  • Unconquered Sun (Roman god)
    in Roman religion, name of two distinct sun gods at Rome. The original Sol, or Sol Indiges, had a shrine on the Quirinal, an annual sacrifice on August 9, and another shrine, together with Luna, the moon goddess, in the Circus Maximus. Although the cult appears to have been native, the Roman poets equated him with the Greek sun god Helios....
  • unconscious (psychology)
    the complex of mental activities within an individual that proceed without his awareness. Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, stated that such unconscious processes may affect a person’s behaviour even though he cannot report on them. Freud and his followers felt that dreams and slips of the tongue were really concealed examples of unconscious content too threat...
  • uncontrolled canal (irrigation)
    There are three kinds of canals: controlled canals, receiving water from regulators on the main river in all seasons; uncontrolled canals, taking water only when the river is in flood; and raised concrete flumes, usually requiring pumps. The principal canal systems are the following: (1) a series of left-bank Euphrates canals between Al-Ramādī and Al-Musayyib, the most important......
  • unconventional gas
    Substantial amounts of gas have accumulated in geologic environments that differ from conventional petroleum traps. This gas is termed unconventional gas and occurs in “tight” (i.e., relatively impermeable) sandstones, in joints and fractures or absorbed into the matrix of shales (often of the Devonian Period [about 360,000,000 to 408,000,000 years old]), dissolved or......
  • UNCTAD (international organization)
    permanent organ of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, established in 1964 to promote trade, investment, and development in developing countries. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, UNCTAD has approximately 190 members....
  • unctio extrema (Christianity)
    ...The dying person makes his last confession to a priest and receives absolution; then he is anointed with consecrated oil: the rite is known as “anointing of the sick” (formerly called extreme unction). According to medieval Christian belief, the last moments of life were the most critical, for demons lurked about the deathbed ready to seize the unprepared soul as it emerged with.....
  • unction (religion)
    ritual application of oil or fat to the head or body of a person or to an object; an almost universal practice in the history of religions, although both the cultic practice followed and the sacred substance employed vary from one religion to another. It is possible to recognize three distinct, though not separate, meanings ascribed to ritual anointments by the devotees of various religions....
  • uncus (anatomy)
    ...parts of the area. The transverse gyri are surrounded by a less finely tuned secondary auditory area. A medial, or inner, protrusion near the ventral surface of the temporal lobe, known as the uncus, constitutes a large part of the primary olfactory area....
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