Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) chorionic villus sampling (CVS) or chorionic villus biopsy (CVB) kōrˌē-ŏnˈĭk, kôrˌ– [key], diagnostic procedure in which a sample of chorionic villi from the developing placenta is removed f...

(Encyclopedia) Correggio kərĕjˈō [key], c.1494–1534, Italian painter, whose real name was Antonio Allegri, called Correggio for his birthplace. He learned the rudiments of art from his uncle Lorenzo Allegri. H...

(Encyclopedia) Ferrante, Elena, pseud. of the contemporary writer often considered the finest Italian novelist of her generation; the details of her personal life are a closely guarded secret. Her novels, the first ...

(Encyclopedia) Health and Human Services, United States Department of, federal executive department charged with administering government health programs. Successor to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfar...

(Encyclopedia) Kienholz, Edward kēnˈhóltz [key], 1927–94, American sculptor, b. Fairfield, Wash. He moved to Los Angeles in 1953 and was a painter until the late 1950s, when he began to create sculptural relief...

(Encyclopedia) stuttering or stammering, speech disorder marked by hesitation and inability to enunciate consonants without spasmodic repetition. Known technically as dysphemia, it has sometimes been attributed to a...

(Encyclopedia) sweating system, method of exploiting labor by supplying materials to workers and paying by the piece (see piecework) for work done on those materials in the workers' homes or in small workshops (swea...

(Encyclopedia) toxoplasmosis, infection caused by Toxoplasma gondii, a single-celled parasitic microorganism that can infect most warm-blooded animals but reproduces only in animals of the cat family, who shed the p...

(Encyclopedia) Truffaut, François fräNswäˈ trüfōˈ [key], 1932–84, French film director and critic. Known in his early 20s as a writer for the influential French film journal Cahiers du Cinéma, he was noted...

(Encyclopedia) Tz'u Hsi, Tsu Hsi, Tse Hsi, or Cixi all: tso͝o shē [key], 1834–1908, dowager empress of China (1861–1908) and regent (1861–73, 1874–89, 1898–1908). Her failure to realize the gravity of ...