Artificial pacemaker A pacemaker is a medical device designed to regulate the beating of the heart. The purpose of an artificial pacemaker is to stimulate the heart when either the heart's native pacemaker is not fast enough or if there are blocks in the heart's electrical conduction system preventing the propagation of electrical impulses from the native pacemaker to the lower chambers of the heart, known as the Ventricle.
	Artificial respiration Artificial respiration is a technique for providing air for a person who is not breathing on their own, but whose heart is still beating. The provider breathes into the other person's lungs, preferably with the assistance of a barrier device. Artificial respiration is part of performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation but is also performed separately, especially in near-drowning and similar situations.
	Artillery Historically, artillery refers to any engine used for the discharge of projectiles during war. The term also describes ground-based soldier with the primary function of manning such weapons. Sometimes known as "The King of Battle". The word is derived from the Old French verb attilier, meaning "to equip".
	Artisan An artisan, also called a craftsman, is a skilled manual worker who uses tools and machinery in a particular craft. Artisans were the dominant producers of goods before the Industrial Revolution. One of the sources of the word 'craftsmanship' is 'craftsman'.
	Artocarpus Artocarpus is a genus of about 60 trees of Southeast Asian origin and the Pacific, belonging to the mulberry family Moraceae. This genus is closely related to and rather difficult to distinguish from the genus Ficus. They are all laticiferous trees and a few shrubs, of which the leaves, the twigs and the stem can produce a milky sap.
	Artois Artois is a former provinces of France of northern France. Its territory has an area of around 4000 km and a population of about a million. Its principal cities are Arras, Calais, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Saint-Omer, Lens, Pas-de-Calais and Bthune.
	ARts aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an application software that simulates an analog synthesizer under KDE/Linux. One key component of aRts is the soundserver which mixes several Streaming medias in realtime.
	Artur Schnabel --User:211.29.218.120 23:32, 25 September 2006 Artur Schnabel was a european classical music pianist, who also composer and taught. Schnabel was renowned for his seriousness as a musician, avoiding anything resembling pure technical bravura. He was said to have tended to disregard his own technical limitations in pursuit of his musical ideals.
	Artwork An artwork can refer to: * A design or art object. See Work of art. * In particular, the embodiment of an engineering schematic diagram, such as on a printed circuit, or even the reticles of an integrated circuit Photomask.
	Artworks Artworks is an advanced vector graphics drawing package for RISC OS created by Computer Concepts in 1991. It has been developed by MW Software since 1996.
	Aruba |- | align="center" colspan=2 | |- | Official languages || Dutch language and Papiamento |- | Political status || State of the Kingdom of the Netherlands |- | Capital || Oranjestad, Aruba |- | Dutch monarchy | Beatrix of the Netherlands
	Arugula Rocket, also known as arugula, garden rocket, rocket salad, rugola, rucola and roquette, is a type of leaf vegetable, and although often mistaken for a sort of lettuce, is in fact an herb, being a member of the Mustard plant family.
	Arum Arum is a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants in the family Araceae, native to Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia, with the highest species diversity in the Mediterranean region. They are rhizome, herbaceous perennial plants growing to 20-60 cm tall, with saggitate leaf 10-55 cm long.
	Arum maculatum Arum maculatum is a member the plant family Araceae. It is a common plant in north temperate Europe and is also known as Lord and Ladies and Cuckoo pint. The purple spotted leaves appear in the spring followed by the flowers borne on a type of inflorescence called a spadix.
	Arundinaria Arundinaria is a genus of bamboo, commonly known as canes. The genus comprises about 150 species, is native to the Himalaya, North America and China. This is the only bamboo genus to occur both in the Old World and New World. The genus Oligostachyum is sometimes considered a synonym of Arundinaria.
	Arvicola The water voles are large voles in the genus Arvicola. They are found in both aquatic and dry habitat through Europe and much of northern Asia. A Water Vole found in Western Geography of North America was historically considered a member of this genus, but has been shown to be more closely related to members of the genus Microtus.
	Aryan Aryan is an English language word derived from the Iranian languages and Sanskrit terms ari-, arya-, arya-, and/or the extended form aryana-. The Old Persian and Sanskrit languages both pronounced the word as arya- and aryan. Beyond its use as the ethnic self-designation of the Proto-Indo-Iranians, the meaning "noble/spiritual" has been attached to it in Persian language and Sanskrit.
	Asa Gray Asa Gray is considered the most important United States botany of the 19th century. He was instrumental in unifying the taxonomy knowledge of the plants of North America. Of Gray's many works on botany, the most popular was his Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States, from New England to Wisconsin and South to Ohio and Pennsylvania Inclusive.
	Asafoetida Asafoetida is a species of Ferula native to Iran. It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 2 m tall, with stout, hollow, somewhat succulent stems 5-8 cm diameter at the base of the plant. The leaves are 30-40 cm long, tripinnate or even more finely divided, with a stout basal sheath clasping the stem.
	Asana Asana is Sanskrit for "seat". It is no accident that this word be chosen to describe the "posture" of Yoga. The idea of the "seat" in this context refers not only to the physical position of the body, but to the position of the spirit in relation to Divinity. This idea is often referred to as the "One Seat", by Yogis and Buddhists alike.
	Asaph Hall Asaph Hall was an United States astronomy who is most famous for having discovered the moons of Mars in 1877. He determined the orbits of satellites of other planets and of double stars, the rotation of Saturn, and the mass of Mars.
	Asarum europaeum Asarum europaeum, or Asarabacca, European Wild Ginger, Haselwort, and Wild Spikenard, is a European species of wild ginger with single axillary dull purple flowers, lying on the ground. The stems are 10-15 cm long. The leaves are petiolate and reniform and about 10 cm wide.
	Asbestos Asbestos describes any of a group of fibrous metamorphic rock of the hydrous magnesium silicate variety. The name is derived for its historical use in lamp wicks; the resistance of asbestos to fire has long been exploited for a variety of purposes. Asbestos was used in fabrics such as Egyptian burial cloths and Charlemagne's tablecloth which according to legend, he threw in a fire to clean.
	Asbestosis Asbestosis is a chronic Inflammation medical condition affecting the parenchymal Biological tissue of the lungs. It occurs after long-term, heavy exposure to asbestos, e.g. in mining. Sufferers have severe dyspnea and are at an increased risk regarding several different types of lung cancer.
	Ascariasis Ascariasis is a human disease caused by the parasite roundworm Ascaris lumbricoides. Perhaps as many as one quarter of the world's people are infected, and ascariasis is particularly prevalent in tropics and in areas of poor hygiene.
	Ascendancy ----
	Ascendant The ascendant of a given geographic location at a particular point in time is the point on the zodiac which is ascending over the Eastern horizon as viewed from that place and time. The astrology ascendant, or rising sign, is the Zodiac sign that was ascending on the Eastern horizon at a particular moment.
	Ascender In typography, an ascender is the portion of a grapheme in a Latin-derived alphabet that extends above the midline of a typeface. That is, the part of the letter that is taller than the font's x-height. See also: Descender
	Asceticism Asceticism describes a life characterized by abstaining from worldly pleasures. Those who practice ascetic lifestyles often perceive their practices as virtue and pursue them to achieve greater spirituality. Many ascetics believe the action of purifying the body helps to purify the soul, and thus obtain a greater connection with the Divine or find inner peace.
	ASCII ASCII , generally IPA for English , is a character encoding based on the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent character in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices that work with text. Most modern character encodings have a historical basis in ASCII.
	Asclepiadaceae The Asclepiadaceae is a former plant family, now included in the dogbane family Apocynaceae, according to the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. Asclepiadaceae is nested within the Apocynaceae sensu lato, and is treated as the subfamily Asclepiadoideae. They form a group of perennial herbs, twining shrubs, lianas, or rarely trees but notably also contain a significant number of leafless stem succulents, all belonging to the order Gentianales.
	Asclepias Asclepias Carolus Linnaeus, the milkweeds, is a genus of herbaceous perennial, dicotyledonous plants that contains over 140 known species. It used to belong to the family Asclepiadaceae, but is now classified in the subfamily Asclepiadoideae of the dogbane family Apocynaceae.
	Asclepias curassavica Mexican Butterfly Weed, Blood-flower or Scarlet Milkweed is a species of milkweed.
	Asclepius Asklepios was the demigod of medicine and healing in ancient Greek mythology. Asclepius represents the healing aspect of the medical arts, while his daughters Hygieia, Meditrine, and Panacea symbolize the forces of cleanliness, medicine and healing, respectively.
	Ascocarp An ascocarp, or ascoma, is the fruiting body of an ascomycota fungus. It consists of very tightly interwoven hyphae and may contain millions of ascus, each of which contains typically eight ascospores. Ascocarps are most commonly bowl-shaped, but may take on a number of other designs.
	Ascomycota Members of the Division Ascomycota are known as the Sac Fungi and are fungi that produce spores in a distinctive type of microscopic sporangium called an ascus . This monophyletic grouping was formerly known as the Ascomycetae, or Ascomycetes, and is an extremely significant and successful group of organisms , accounting for some 75% of all described fungi.
	Ascorbic acid Ascorbic acid is an organic chemistry acid with antioxidant properties. Its appearance is white to light yellow crystals or powder. It is water soluble. The L-enantiomer of ascorbic acid is commonly known as vitamin C. The name is drived from a- and scorbuticus as a shortage of this molecule may lead to scurvy.
	Ascus An ascus is the spore-bearing container produced in Ascomycota fungi. Each ascus normally contains eight ascospores, produced by a meiosis cell division followed by a mitosis cell division. In some cases the asci are formed in a regular layer, the hymenium, in a fruiting body which is visible to the naked eye, here called an ascocarp or ascoma.
	Asexual reproduction Asexual reproduction is a form of reproduction which does not involve meiosis, gamete formation, or fertilization. In laymen's terms, there is only one "parent" involved. This form of reproduction is common among simple organisms such as amoeba and other single-celled organisms, although most plants reproduce asexually as well .
	Ash tree An ash can be any of four different tree genus from four very distinct family , but originally and most commonly refers to trees of the genus Fraxinus in the olive family Oleaceae. The ashes are usually medium to large trees, mostly deciduous though a few subtropical species are evergreen.
	Ash Wednesday In the Western Christianity calendar, Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. It occurs forty-six days before Easter, but Lent is nevertheless considered forty days long, because Sundays in this period are not counted among the days of Lent. It falls on different dates from year to year, according to the Computus; it can occur as early as February 4 or as late as March 10.
	Ashcan School The Ashcan School was a Realism artistic movement that came into prominence in the United States in the early 20th century, best known for works capturing scenes of daily life in poor urban neighborhoods. The movement is most associated with a group known as "The Eight", whose members were Robert Henri, Arthur B. Davies, Maurice Prendergast, Ernest Lawson, William Glackens, Everett Shinn, John French Sloan, and George Luks.
	Ashlar Ashlar is dressed stone work of any type of stone. Ashlar blocks are large rectangular blocks of masonry sculpted to have Perpendicular edges and even faces. The blocks are generally 13 or 15 inches square, when smaller than 11 inches they are usually called "small ashlar".
	Ashley Montagu Category:1999 deaths Category:British anthropologists Category:Genital integrity activists Category:Harvard University faculty Category:New York University faculty Category:Princeton University faculty
	Ashtray An ashtray is a receptacle used by tobacco smoking to deposit the ash and butts of cigarettes and cigars. Many ashtrays feature three notches at the edges, two of which correspond to the width of a cigarette and one to that of the diameter of a cigar. These notches serve as rests for the cigarette(s) or cigar while still burning.
	Ashurbanipal Ashurbanipal, Assurbanipal or Sardanapal, in Akkadian Aur-bani-apli,, the son of Esarhaddon and Naqi'a-Zakutu, was the last great monarch of ancient Assyria. He is famous as one of the few kings in antiquity who could himself read and write. Assyrian sculpture reached its apogee under his rule.
	Asia Asia is the largest and most populous continent or region, depending on the definition. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area, or 29.4% of its land area, and it contains more than 60% of the world's human population. Asia is traditionally defined as part of the landmass of Africa-Eurasia with the western portion of the latter occupied by Europe lying east of the Suez Canal, east of the Ural Mountains, and south of the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian Sea and Black Sea
	Asian American An Asian American is generally defined as a person of Asian people who was born in or is an immigrant to the United States. The term Asian American was used informally by activists in the 1960s who sought an alternative to the term Oriental arguing that the term was derogatory and colonialist.
	Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus, the Asian tiger mosquito or forest day mosquito, is characterized by its black and white striped legs and small, black and white body. It was native to Southeast Asia, and occupied a habitat that spread from Madagascar eastward to New Guinea, and north to the latitude of Korea.
	Asiatic Black Bear The Asiatic Black Bear, also known as the Tibetan black bear, the Himalayan black bear, or the moon bear, is a medium sized, sharp-clawed, black-coloured bear with a distinctive white or cream "V" marking on its chest. It is a close relative of the American black bear with which it is thought to share a European common ancestor.
	Asilidae Flies in the Diptera family Asilidae are commonly known as robber flies. The family Asilidae contains about 7,100 described species worldwide. All robber flies have stout, spiny legs, a dense moustache of bristles on the face, and 3 simple eyes in a characteristic depression between their two large compound eyes.
	Asimina triloba The Common pawpaw is a large shrub or small tree native to North America.
	Asio Asio is a genus of typical owls, or true owls, in family Strigidae. The genus Asio contains the eared owls, which are characterised by feather tufts on the head which have the appearance of ears. This group has representatives over most of the planet, and the Short-eared Owl is one of the most widespread of all bird species, breeding in Europe, Asia, North America and South America, the Caribbean, Hawaii and the Galápagos Islands.
	Asker Asker is a municipalities of Norway in the counties of Norway of Akershus, Norway and a suburb of Oslo. Its main parts are Asker, Gullhella, Vollen, Vettre, Blakstad, Borgen, Holmen, Hvalstad, Nesya, Nesbru and Heggedal. Asker is a notably coastal place with many beautiful beaches, but it is also a place of hills and woods.
	Asmara Asmara is the capital city and largest settlement in Eritrea, home to a population of around 579,000 people. Textiles and clothing, processed meat, beer, shoes, and ceramics are the major industrial products.
	Asparagaceae Asparagaceae is the botanical name of a family of flowering plants. Such a family has been recognized by quite a few taxonomists, but hardly universally: often the plants involved are treated as belonging to the family Liliaceae. The APG II system, of 2003 also recognizes this family and places it in the order Asparagales, in the clade monocots.
	Asparaginase Asparaginase is an enzyme which is used to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia. It is marketed under the brand name Elspar®. It can be given intramuscularly or intravenously.
	Asparagine Asparagine is one of the 20 most common natural amino acids on Earth. It has carboxamide as the side chain's functional group. It is considered a non-essential amino acid. Its three-letter abbreviation is Asn, and its one-letter abbreviation is N. A three-letter designation for either asparagine or aspartic acid is Asx .
	Asparagus Asparagus is a type of vegetable obtained from one species within the genus Asparagus , specifically the young shoots of Asparagus officinalis. It has been used from very early times as a culinary vegetable, owing to its delicate flavour and diuretic properties.
	Aspartame Aspartame, , is the name for an artificial, non-carbohydrate sweetener, aspartyl-phenylalanine-1-methyl ester; i.e., the methyl ester of the dipeptide of the amino acids aspartic acid and the essential amino acid phenylalanine. It is marketed under a number of trademark names, such as Equal , and Canderel, and is an ingredient of approximately 6,000 consumer foods and beverages sold worldwide.
	Aspartic acid Aspartic acid , also known as aspartate, the name of its anion, is one of the 20 natural proteinogenic amino acids which are the building blocks of proteins. As with each of the 20 natural amino acids, there are two abbreviations commonly used to designate aspartic acid: Asp and D .
	Aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a two-dimensional shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. The term is most commonly used with reference to: *aspect ratio *paper size *pixel aspect ratio *aspect ratio of aircraft or birds
	Aspen Aspens are trees of the Salicaceae family and comprise a section of the poplar genus, Populus sect. Populus. There are six species in the section, one of them atypical, and one hybrid: *Populus tremula - Common, Trembling or Eurasian Aspen *Populus tremuloides - Quaking, Trembling or American Aspen
	Aspergillus Aspergillus is a genus of around 200 fungi found worldwide. Unlike yeasts, which are single round Cells, Aspergilli are filamentous fungi made of chains of cells, called hyphae. Its natural habitat is in hay and compost. Aspergillus was first catalogued in 1729 by the Italian priest and biologist Pietro Antonio Micheli as Nova plantarum genera juxta Tournafortii methodum disposita.
	Aspergillus fumigatus Aspergillus fumigatus is a fungus of the genus Aspergillus, and it is one of the most common Aspergillus species to cause disease in immunocompromised individuals. A. fumigatus has a stable haploid genome, with no known sexual cycle, and reproduces by forming conidaspores that are released into the environment.
	Asphalt Asphalt is a sticky, black and highly viscosity liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits. Asphalt is composed almost entirely of bitumen. There is some disagreement amongst chemists regarding the structure of asphalt, but it is most commonly modeled as a colloid, with asphaltenes as the dispersed phase and maltenes as the continuous phase.
	Asphodel The Asphodel is the flower said to fill the plains of Hades, the Greek mythology Greek underworld. As it was the favourite food of the dead, the ancient Greeks would often plant it near graves. The Asphodel is sacred to Persephone, or Proserpina in Roman mythology, who was forcefully taken to the underworld by Hades.
	Asphodelaceae Asphodelaceae is the botanical name of a family of flowering plants. Such a family has not been recognized by very many taxonomists and the wiktionary:circumscription of the family has varied. The APG II system, of 2003, does not recognize this family as such, but allows it to be segregated from the family Xanthorrhoeaceae, as an optional segregate.
	Asphodelus Asphodelus is a genus of mainly perennial plants native to central and southern Europe, but are now spread worldwide. Asphodels are popular garden plants, which grow in well-drained soils with abundant natural light. Species * Asphodelus acaulis Branched asphodel,
	Asphyxia Asphyxia is a condition of severely deficient supply of oxygen to the body that arises from being unable to breath normally. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which primarily affects the tissues and organs most sensitive to hypoxia first, such as the brain, hence resulting in cerebral hypoxia.