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erythroblastosis fetalis

(Encyclopedia)erythroblastosis fetalis ərĭthˌrəblăstōˈsĭs [key], hemolytic disease of a newborn infant caused by blood group incompatibility between mother and child. Although the Rh factor is responsible f...

mumps

(Encyclopedia)mumps (epidemic parotitis), acute contagious viral disease, manifesting itself chiefly in pain and swelling of the salivary glands, especially those at the angle of the jaw. Other symptoms are fever, ...

cholera

(Encyclopedia)cholera kŏlˈərə [key] or Asiatic cholera, acute infectious disease caused by strains of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae that have been infected by bacteriophages. The bacteria, which are found in fe...

rinderpest

(Encyclopedia)rinderpest or cattle plague, an acute and highly infectious viral disease of cattle. It less frequently affects other ruminants, such as sheep, goats, and wild game. After an incubation period of thre...

enteritis

(Encyclopedia)enteritis ĕnˌtərīˈtĭs [key], inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. Acute enteritis is not usually serious except in infants and older people, in whom the accompanying diarrhea can cause de...

leafhopper

(Encyclopedia)leafhopper, common name for small, wedge-shaped leaping insects, cosmopolitan in distribution, belonging to the family Cicadellidae, which comprises some 5,500 species of insects. Some are brightly co...

l-dopa

(Encyclopedia)l-dopa ĕl-dōˈpə [key], drug used to alleviate some of the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, particularly trembling, rigidity, and slow movements; the drug is also called levodopa. Parkinson's disea...

Szostak, Jack William

(Encyclopedia)Szostak, Jack William, 1952–, American molecular biologist, b. London, England, Ph.D. Cornell, 1977. Szostak has been a professor at Harvard Medical School and a researcher at Massachusetts General ...

alcoholism

(Encyclopedia)alcoholism, 04/00 disease characterized by impaired control over the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Alcoholism is a serious problem worldwide; in the United States the wide availability of alcoho...

gluten

(Encyclopedia)gluten, mixture of proteins present in the cereal grains. The long molecules of gluten, insoluble in water, are strong and flexible and form many cross linkages. This gives flour its characteristic ch...