Fruit

In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. 　Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. 　Edible fruits in particular have long propagated using the movements of humans and animals in a symbiotic relationship that is the means for seed dispersal for the one group and nutrition for the other; in fact, humans and many animals have become dependent on fruits as a source of food. 　Consequently, fruits account for a substantial fraction of the world's agricultural output, and some (such as the apple and the pomegranate) have acquired extensive cultural and symbolic meanings. 　In common language usage, fruit normally means the seed-associated fleshy structures (or produce) of plants that typically are sweet or sour and edible in the raw state, such as apples, bananas, grapes, lemons, oranges, and strawberries. 　In botanical usage, the term fruit also includes many structures that are not commonly called 'fruits' in everyday language, such as nuts, bean pods, corn kernels, tomatoes, and wheat grains.

Lincoln

Look up Lincoln in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. 　Lincoln most commonly refers to: Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. Lincoln (name), a surname and given name Lincoln Motor Company, a Ford brand Lincoln may also refer to:

Possession (trilogy)

Possession is a young adult dystopian novel trilogy written by Elana Johnson and published by Simon Pulse. 　The first book in the series, Possession, was published on 7 June 2011, and was followed by Surrender (5 June 2012) and Abandon (4 June 2013). 　The series follows Vi, a rebellious teen girl who is unwilling to follow the rules set out by the oppressive 'Thinkers' yet unable to leave her prospective mate Zenn behind. 　After the release of Possession Johnson issued a 20-page short story entitled Resist, which serves as a prequel to the series.

Log

Look up log, -log, or logs in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. 　Log most often refers to: Trunk (botany), the stem and main wooden axis of a tree, called logs when cut Logging, cutting down trees for logs Firewood, logs used for fuel Lumber or timber, converted from wood logs Logarithm, in mathematics Log, LOG or LoG may also refer to:

Argument

An argument is a statement or group of statements called premises intended to determine the degree of truth or acceptability of another statement called a conclusion. 　Arguments can be studied from three main perspectives: the logical, the dialectical and the rhetorical perspective. 　In logic, an argument is usually expressed not in natural language but in a symbolic formal language, and it can be defined as any group of propositions of which one is claimed to follow from the others through deductively valid inferences that preserve truth from the premises to the conclusion. 　This logical perspective on argument is relevant for scientific fields such as mathematics and computer science. 　Logic is the study of the forms of reasoning in arguments and the development of standards and criteria to evaluate arguments. 　Deductive arguments can be valid, and the valid ones can be sound: in a valid argument, premisses necessitate the conclusion, even if one or more of the premises is false and the conclusion is false; in a sound argument, true premises necessitate a true conclusion. 　Inductive arguments, by contrast, can have different degrees of logical strength: the stronger or more cogent the argument, the greater the probability that the conclusion is true, the weaker the argument, the lesser that probability. 　The standards for evaluating non-deductive arguments may rest on different or additional criteria than truth—for example, the persuasiveness of so-called "indispensability claims" in transcendental arguments, the quality of hypotheses in retroduction, or even the disclosure of new possibilities for thinking and acting. 　In dialectics, and also in a more colloquial sense, an argument can be conceived as a social and verbal means of trying to resolve, or at least contend with, a conflict or difference of opinion that has arisen or exists between two or more parties. 　For the rhetorical perspective, the argument is constitutively linked with the context, in particular with the time and place in which the argument is located. 　From this perspective, the argument is evaluated not just by two parties (as in a dialectical approach) but also by an audience. 　In both dialectic and rhetoric, arguments are used not through a formal but through natural language. 　Since classical antiquity, philosophers and rhetoricians have developed lists of argument types in which premises and conclusions are connected in informal and defeasible ways.

Legislature

A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. 　They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government. 　Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known as primary legislation. 　In addition, legislatures may observe and steer governing actions, with authority to amend the budget involved. 　The members of a legislature are called legislators. 　In a democracy, legislators are most commonly popularly elected, although indirect election and appointment by the executive are also used, particularly for bicameral legislatures featuring an upper chamber.

Angel

In various theistic religious traditions, an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. 　Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. 　Other roles include protectors and guides for humans, such as guardian angels, and servants of God. 　Abrahamic religions describe angelic hierarchies, which vary by religion and sect. 　Some angels have specific names (such as Gabriel or Michael) or titles (such as seraph or archangel). 　Those expelled from Heaven are called fallen angels, distinct from the heavenly host. 　Angels in art are usually shaped like humans of extraordinary beauty, though this is not always the case—sometimes, they can be portrayed in a frightening, inhuman manner. 　They are often identified in Christian artwork with bird wings, halos, and divine light.

Sand

Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. 　Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. 　Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. 　Sand can also refer to a textural class of soil or soil type; i.e., a soil containing more than 85 percent sand-sized particles by mass. 　The composition of sand varies, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal settings is silica (silicon dioxide, or SiO2), usually in the form of quartz. 　Calcium carbonate is the second most common type of sand, for example, aragonite, which has mostly been created, over the past 500 million years, by various forms of life, like coral and shellfish. 　For example, it is the primary form of sand apparent in areas where reefs have dominated the ecosystem for millions of years like the Caribbean. 　Somewhat more rarely, sand may be composed of calcium sulfate, such as gypsum and selenite, as is found in places like White Sands National Park and Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge in the U.S. Sand is a non-renewable resource over human timescales, and sand suitable for making concrete is in high demand. 　Desert sand, although plentiful, is not suitable for concrete. 　50 billion tons of beach sand and fossil sand is used each year for construction.

Column

A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. 　In other words, a column is a compression member. 　The term column applies especially to a large round support (the shaft of the column) with a capital and a base or pedestal, which is made of stone, or appearing to be so. 　A small wooden or metal support is typically called a post. 　Supports with a rectangular or other non-round section are usually called piers. 　For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces. 　Other compression members are often termed "columns" because of the similar stress conditions. 　Columns are frequently used to support beams or arches on which the upper parts of walls or ceilings rest. 　In architecture, "column" refers to such a structural element that also has certain proportional and decorative features. 　A column might also be a decorative element not needed for structural purposes; many columns are engaged, that is to say form part of a wall. 　A long sequence of columns joined by an entablature is known as a colonnade.

Samuel

Samuel is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the biblical judges to the United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, and again in the monarchy's transition from Saul to David. 　He is venerated as a prophet in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. 　In addition to his role in the Hebrew scriptures, Samuel is mentioned in Jewish rabbinical literature, in the Christian New Testament, and in the second chapter of the Quran (although Islamic texts do not mention him by name). 　He is also treated in the fifth through seventh books of Antiquities of the Jews, written by the Jewish scholar Josephus in the first century. 　He is first called "the Seer" in 1 Samuel 9:9.

Honour

Honour (Commonwealth English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is the idea of a bond between an individual and a society as a quality of a person that is both of social teaching and of personal ethos, that manifests itself as a code of conduct, and has various elements such as valour, chivalry, honesty, and compassion. 　It is an abstract concept entailing a perceived quality of worthiness and respectability that affects both the social standing and the self-evaluation of an individual or institutions such as a family, school, regiment or nation. 　Accordingly, individuals (or institutions) are assigned worth and stature based on the harmony of their actions with a specific code of honour, and the moral code of the society at large. 　Samuel Johnson, in his A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), defined honour as having several senses, the first of which was "nobility of soul, magnanimity, and a scorn of meanness". 　This sort of honour derives from the perceived virtuous conduct and personal integrity of the person endowed with it. 　On the other hand, Johnson also defined honour in relationship to "reputation" and "fame"; to "privileges of rank or birth", and as "respect" of the kind which "places an individual socially and determines his right to precedence". 　This sort of honour is often not so much a function of moral or ethical excellence, as it is a consequence of power. 　Finally, with respect to sexuality, honour has traditionally been associated with (or identical to) "chastity" or "virginity", or in case of married men and women, "fidelity". 　Some have argued that honour should be seen more as a rhetoric, or set of possible actions, than as a code.

Algebra

Algebra (from Arabic ‏الجبر‎ (al-jabr) 'reunion of broken parts, bonesetting') is the study of variables and the rules for manipulating these variables in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. 　Elementary algebra deals with the manipulation of variables (commonly represented by Roman letters) as if they were numbers and is therefore essential in all applications of mathematics. 　Abstract algebra is the name given, mostly in education, to the study of algebraic structures such as groups, rings, and fields. 　Linear algebra, which deals with linear equations and linear mappings, is used for modern presentations of geometry, and has many practical applications (in weather forecasting, for example). 　There are many areas of mathematics that belong to algebra, some having "algebra" in their name, such as commutative algebra, and some not, such as Galois theory. 　The word algebra is not only used for naming an area of mathematics and some subareas; it is also used for naming some sorts of algebraic structures, such as an algebra over a field, commonly called an algebra. 　Sometimes, the same phrase is used for a subarea and its main algebraic structures; for example, Boolean algebra and a Boolean algebra. 　A mathematician specialized in algebra is called an algebraist.

Desert

A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. 　The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. 　About one-third of the land surface of the Earth is arid or semi-arid. 　This includes much of the polar regions, where little precipitation occurs, and which are sometimes called polar deserts or "cold deserts". 　Deserts can be classified by the amount of precipitation that falls, by the temperature that prevails, by the causes of desertification or by their geographical location. 　Deserts are formed by weathering processes as large variations in temperature between day and night put strains on the rocks, which consequently break in pieces. 　Although rain seldom occurs in deserts, there are occasional downpours that can result in flash floods. 　Rain falling on hot rocks can cause them to shatter, and the resulting fragments and rubble strewn over the desert floor are further eroded by the wind. 　This picks up particles of sand and dust, which can remain airborne for extended periods – sometimes causing the formation of sand storms or dust storms. 　Wind-blown sand grains striking any solid object in their path can abrade the surface. 　Rocks are smoothed down, and the wind sorts sand into uniform deposits. 　The grains end up as level sheets of sand or are piled high in billowing sand dunes. 　Other deserts are flat, stony plains where all the fine material has been blown away and the surface consists of a mosaic of smooth stones, often forming desert pavements, and little further erosion takes place. 　Other desert features include rock outcrops, exposed bedrock and clays once deposited by flowing water. 　Temporary lakes may form and salt pans may be left when waters evaporate. 　There may be underground sources of water, in the form of springs and seepages from aquifers. 　Where these are found, oases can occur. 　Plants and animals living in the desert need special adaptations to survive in the harsh environment. 　Plants tend to be tough and wiry with small or no leaves, water-resistant cuticles, and often spines to deter herbivory. 　Some annual plants germinate, bloom and die in the course of a few weeks after rainfall, while other long-lived plants survive for years and have deep root systems able to tap underground moisture. 　Animals need to keep cool and find enough food and water to survive. 　Many are nocturnal, and stay in the shade or underground during the heat of the day. 　They tend to be efficient at conserving water, extracting most of their needs from their food and concentrating their urine. 　Some animals remain in a state of dormancy for long periods, ready to become active again during the rare rainfall. 　They then reproduce rapidly while conditions are favorable before returning to dormancy. 　People have struggled to live in deserts and the surrounding semi-arid lands for millennia. 　Nomads have moved their flocks and herds to wherever grazing is available, and oases have provided opportunities for a more settled way of life. 　The cultivation of semi-arid regions encourages erosion of soil and is one of the causes of increased desertification. 　Desert farming is possible with the aid of irrigation, and the Imperial Valley in California provides an example of how previously barren land can be made productive by the import of water from an outside source. 　Many trade routes have been forged across deserts, especially across the Sahara, and traditionally were used by caravans of camels carrying salt, gold, ivory and other goods. 　Large numbers of slaves were also taken northwards across the Sahara. 　Some mineral extraction also takes place in deserts, and the uninterrupted sunlight gives potential for the capture of large quantities of solar energy.

Colony (biology)

In biology, a colony is composed of two or more conspecific individuals living in close association with, or connected to, one another. 　This association is usually for mutual benefit such as stronger defense or the ability to attack bigger prey. 　Colonies can form in various shapes and ways depending on the organism involved. 　For instance, the bacterial colony is a cluster of identical cells (clones). 　These colonies often form and grow on the surface of (or within) a solid medium, usually derived from a single parent cell. 　Colonies, in the context of development, may be composed of two or more unitary (or solitary) organisms or be modular organisms. 　Unitary organisms have determinate development (set life stages) from zygote to adult form and individuals or groups of individuals (colonies) are visually distinct. 　Modular organisms have indeterminate growth forms (life stages not set) through repeated iteration of genetically identical modules (or individuals), and it can be difficult to distinguish between the colony as a whole and the modules within. 　In the latter case, modules may have specific functions within the colony. 　In contrast, solitary organisms do not associate with colonies; they are ones in which all individuals live independently and have all of the functions needed to survive and reproduce. 　Some organisms are primarily independent and form facultative colonies in reply to environmental conditions while others must live in a colony to survive (obligate). 　For example, some carpenter bees will form colonies when a dominant hierarchy is formed between two or more nest foundresses (facultative colony), while corals are animals that are physically connected by living tissue (the coenosarc) that contains a shared gastrovascular cavity.

Colony

In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. 　Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the metropolitan state (or "mother country"). 　This administrative colonial separation makes colonies neither incorporated territories nor client states. 　Some colonies have been organized either as dependent territories that are not sufficiently self-governed, or as self-governed colonies controlled by colonial settlers. 　The term colony originates from the ancient Roman colonia, a type of Roman settlement. 　Derived from colon-us (farmer, cultivator, planter, or settler), it carries with it the sense of 'farm' and 'landed estate'. 　Furthermore the term was used to refer to the older Greek apoikia (Ancient Greek: ἀποικία, lit. 'home away from home'), which were overseas settlements by ancient Greek city-states. 　The city that founded such a settlement became known as its metropolis ("mother-city"). 　Since early-modern times, historians, administrators, and political scientists have generally used the term "colony" to refer mainly to the many different overseas territories of particularly European states between the 15th and 20th centuries CE, with colonialism and decolonization as corresponding phenomena. 　While colonies often developed from trading outposts or territorial claims, such areas do not need to be a product of colonization, nor become colonially organized territories. 　Some historians use the term informal colony to refer to a country under the de facto control of another state, although this term is often contentious.

Confidence

Confidence is a state of being clear-headed either that a hypothesis or prediction is correct or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective. 　Confidence comes from a Latin word 'fidere' which means "to trust"; therefore, having self-confidence is having trust in one's self. 　Arrogance or hubris, in comparison, is the state of having unmerited confidence—believing something or someone is correct or capable when evidence or reasons for this belief are lacking. 　Overconfidence or presumptuousness is excessive belief in someone (or something) succeeding, without any regard for failure. 　Confidence can be a self-fulfilling prophecy as those without it may fail or not try because they lack it and those with it may succeed because they have it rather than because of an innate ability. 　The concept of self-confidence is commonly defined as self-assurance in one's personal judgment, ability, power, etc. 　One's self-confidence increases as a result of experiences of having satisfactorily completed particular activities. 　Self-confidence involves a positive belief that in the future, one can generally accomplish what one wishes to do. 　Self-confidence is not the same as self-esteem, which is an evaluation of one's own worth, whereas self-confidence is more specifically trust in one's ability to achieve some goal, which one meta-analysis suggested is similar to generalization of self-efficacy. 　Abraham Maslow and many others after him have emphasized the need to distinguish between self-confidence as a generalized personality characteristic, and self-confidence with respect to a specific task, ability or challenge (i.e. self-efficacy). 　Self-confidence typically refers to general self-confidence. 　This is different from self-efficacy, which psychologist Albert Bandura has defined as a "belief in one's ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task" and therefore is the term that more accurately refers to specific self-confidence. 　Psychologists have long noted that a person can possess self-confidence in their ability to complete a specific task (self-efficacy) (e.g. cook a good meal or write a good novel) even though they may lack general self-confidence, or conversely be self-confident though they lack the self-efficacy to achieve a particular task (e.g. write a novel). 　These two types of self-confidence are, however, correlated with each other, and for this reason can be easily conflated.

Kevin

Kevin (/ˈkɛvɪn/) is the anglicized form of the Irish masculine given name Caoimhín (Modern Irish: [ˈkiːvʲiːnʲ]; Middle Irish: Caoimhghín [ˈkəiṽʲʝiːnʲ]; Old Irish: Cóemgein [ˈkoiṽʲɣʲinʲ]; Latinized as Coemgenus). 　It is composed of caomh "dear; noble"; Old Irish cóem and -gin ("birth"; Old Irish gein). 　The variant Kevan is anglicized from Caoimheán, an Irish diminutive form. 　The feminine version of the name is Caoimhe (anglicised as Keeva or Kweeva).

Variable

Look up Variable, variable, or variables in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. 　Wikiversity has learning resources about Variable Variable may refer to: Variable (computer science), a symbolic name associated with a value and whose associated value may be changed Variable (mathematics), a symbol that represents a quantity in a mathematical expression, as used in many sciences Variable (research), a logical set of attributes Variable star, a type of astronomical star "The Variable", an episode of the television series Lost

Steam

Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase,: 7  and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. 　This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. 　Steam that is saturated or superheated is invisible; however, wet steam or water vapor, a visible mist or aerosol of water droplets, is often referred to as "steam".　: 6  Water increases in volume by 1,700 times at standard temperature and pressure; this change in volume can be converted into mechanical work by steam engines such as reciprocating piston type engines and steam turbines, which are a sub-group of steam engines. 　Piston type steam engines played a central role in the Industrial Revolution and modern steam turbines are used to generate more than 80% of the world's electricity. 　If liquid water comes in contact with a very hot surface or depressurizes quickly below its vapor pressure, it can create a steam explosion.

Gender

Look up gender in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. 　Gender includes the social, psychological, cultural and behavioral aspects of being a man, woman, or other gender identity. 　Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender expression. 　Most cultures use a gender binary, in which gender is divided into two categories, and people are considered part of one or the other (boys/men and girls/women); those who are outside these groups may fall under the umbrella term non-binary. 　Some societies have specific genders besides "man" and "woman", such as the hijras of South Asia; these are often referred to as third genders (and fourth genders, etc.). 　Most scholars agree that gender is a central characteristic for social organization. 　Sexologist John Money is often regarded as the first to introduce a terminological distinction between biological sex and gender role (which, as originally defined, includes the concepts of both gender role and what would later become known as gender identity) in 1955 although Madison Bentley had already in 1945 defined gender as the "socialized obverse of sex", and Simone de Beauvoir's 1949 book The Second Sex has been interpreted as the beginning of the distinction between sex and gender in feminist theory, although this interpretation is contested. 　Before Money's work, it was uncommon to use the word gender to refer to anything but grammatical categories. 　However, Money's meaning of the word did not become widespread until the 1970s, when feminist theory embraced the concept of a distinction between biological sex and the social construct of gender. 　Most contemporary social scientists, behavioral scientists and biologists, many legal systems and government bodies, and intergovernmental agencies such as the WHO, make a distinction between gender and sex. 　In other contexts, the term gender has been used as a synonym for sex without representing a clear conceptual difference. 　For instance, in non-human animal research, gender is commonly used to refer to the biological sex of the animals. 　This change in the meaning of gender can be traced to the 1980s. 　In 1993, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) started to use gender instead of sex to avoid confusion with sexual intercourse. 　Later, in 2011, the FDA reversed its position and began using sex as the biological classification and gender as "a person's self-representation as male or female, or how that person is responded to by social institutions based on the individual's gender presentation." 　The social sciences have a branch devoted to gender studies. 　Other sciences, such as sexology and neuroscience, are also interested in the subject. 　The social sciences sometimes approach gender as a social construct, and gender studies particularly do, while research in the natural sciences investigates whether biological differences in females and males influence the development of gender in humans; both inform the debate about how far biological differences influence the formation of gender identity and gendered behavior. 　In some English literature, there is also a trichotomy between biological sex, psychological gender, and social gender role. 　This framework first appeared in a feminist paper on transsexualism in 1978.

Cousin

Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. 　Commonly, "cousin" refers to a first cousin – a relative of the same generation whose most recent common ancestor with the subject is a grandparent. 　Degrees and removals are separate measures used to more precisely describe the relationship between cousins. 　Degree measures the separation, in generations, from the most recent common ancestor(s) to a parent of one of the cousins (whichever is closest), while removal measures the difference in generations between the cousins themselves, relative to their most recent common ancestor(s). 　To illustrate usage, a second cousin is a cousin with a degree of two; there are three (not two) generations from the common ancestor(s). 　When the degree is not specified, first cousin is assumed. 　A cousin "once removed" is a cousin with one removal. 　When the removal is not specified, no removal is assumed. 　Various governmental entities have established systems for legal use that can precisely specify kinship with common ancestors any number of generations in the past; for example, in medicine and in law, a first cousin is a type of third-degree relative.　[citation needed]

Loan

In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. 　The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that debt until it is repaid as well as to repay the principal amount borrowed. 　The document evidencing the debt (e.g., a promissory note) will normally specify, among other things, the principal amount of money borrowed, the interest rate the lender is charging, and the date of repayment. 　A loan entails the reallocation of the subject asset(s) for a period of time, between the lender and the borrower. 　The interest provides an incentive for the lender to engage in the loan. 　In a legal loan, each of these obligations and restrictions is enforced by contract, which can also place the borrower under additional restrictions known as loan covenants. 　Although this article focuses on monetary loans, in practice, any material object might be lent. 　Acting as a provider of loans is one of the main activities of financial institutions such as banks and credit card companies. 　For other institutions, issuing of debt contracts such as bonds is a typical source of funding.

Cash

In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins. 　In bookkeeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-immediately (as in the case of money market accounts). 　Cash is seen either as a reserve for payments, in case of a structural or incidental negative cash flow or as a way to avoid a downturn on financial markets.

Begun

For Begun farmer's movement see Begun movement. 　For people with Begun surname see Begun (surname). 　Begun is a city and a municipality in Chittaurgarh district in the state of Rajasthan, India. 　Begun was offered along with Gothlai to Chunda ji, who renounced his right to the throne for his brother Rana Mokal in 15th century. 　Since then, Begun was ruled by Chundawat Sisodia Rajputs of Mewar. 　It is also one of the historical towns of Chittorgarh district. 　One of Mewar's important rivers, Brahmani, flows through Begun. 　Begun also has a fort which is surrounded by a small river.