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Talk Talk - Communication terms Category: General technical and industrial Date & country: 28/05/2010, UK Words: 18630

seasonal affective disorder
Form of depression that occurs in winter and is relieved by the coming of spring. Its incidence decreases closer to the Equator. One type of SAD is associated with increased sleeping and appetite. SAD is linked to the circadian clock (see circadian rhythm) mechanism, which not only adjusts our physiological rhythm to day length but also measures da...

sense organ
Any organ that an animal uses to gain information about its surroundings. All sense organs have specialized receptors (such as light receptors in the eye) and some means of translating their response into a nerve impulse that travels to the brain. The main human sense organs are the eye, which detects light and colour (different wavelengths of ligh...

series circuit
Electrical circuit in which the components are connected end to end, so that the current flows through them all one after the other. Current in a series circuit The current flowing through each of the components is the same. This can be written as I_T = &l...

searching
In computing, extracting a specific item from a large body of data, such as a file or table. The method used depends on how the data are organized. For example, a binary search, which requires the data to be in sequence, involves first deciding which half of the data contains the required item, then which quarter, then which eighth, and so on until...

Sennett, Mack
Canadian-born US film director and producer. He is best known for creating the Keystone Kops, a group of hilariously incompetant policemen, for silent film. As a director, Sennett made hundreds of short slapstick comedies, cast Charles Chaplin in his first feature film (Tillie's Punctured Romance in 1914), and started the...

Seventh-Day Adventist
Member of the Protestant religious sect of the same name. It originated in the USA in the fervent expectation of Christ's Second Coming, or advent, that swept across New York State following William Miller's prophecy that Christ would return on 22 October 1844. When this failed to come to pass, a number of Millerites, as his followers were ...

Sendero Luminoso
Maoist guerrilla group active in Peru, formed 1980 to overthrow the government; until 1988 its activity was confined to rural areas. From 1992 its attacks intensified in response to a government crackdown. By 1997 the 17-year war had caused 30,000 deaths. In 1999 the movement was believed to have fewer than 1,000 fighters. The guerrillas ha...

sensitivity
In biology, the ability of an organism, or part of an organism, to detect changes in the environment. All living things are capable of some sensitivity, and any change detected by an organism is called a stimulus. Plant response to stimuli (for example, light, heat, moisture) is by directional growth (tropism). In animals, the body cells that detec...

secret police
Any state security force that operates internally, against political dissenters or subversives; for example, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and the UK Special Branch

seawater
Water of the seas and oceans, covering about 70% of the Earth's surface and comprising about 97% of the world's water (only about 3% is freshwater). Seawater contains large numbers of electrically charged particles, or ions. These may be positively or negatively charged. The most common positive ions are sodium, potassium, magne...

seborrhoeic eczema
Common skin disease affecting any sebum-(natural oil) producing area of the skin. It is thought to be caused by the yeast Pityrosporum, and is characterized by yellowish-red, scaly areas on the skin, and dandruff. Antidandruff shampoos are often helpful

Serb
Largest ethnic group in the former Yugoslavia, found mainly in Serbia, but also in the neighbouring independent republics of Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. Their language is generally recognized to be the same as Croat and is hence known as Serbo-Croat. The Serbs are predominantly Greek Orthodox Christians and write in a Cyrill...

septic shock
Life-threatening fall in blood pressure caused by blood poisoning (septicaemia). Toxins produced by bacteria infecting the blood induce a widespread dilation of the blood vessels throughout the body, and it is this that causes the patient's collapse (see shock). Septic shock can occur following bowel surgery, after a penetrating wound to th...

sentence
(law) In law, the judgement of a court stating the punishment to be imposed following a plea of guilty or a finding of guilt by a jury. Before a sentence is imposed, the antecedents (criminal record) and any relevant reports on the defendant are made known to the judge and the defence may make...

Security Council
The most important body of the United Nations; see United Nations

sexually transmitted disease
Any disease transmitted by sexual contact, involving transfer of body fluids. STDs include not only traditional venereal disease, but also a growing list of conditions, such as AIDS and scabies, which are known to be spread primarily by sexual contact. Other diseases that are transmitted sexually include viral hepatitis. The World Health Organizati...

sensor
In computing, a device designed to detect a physical state or measure a physical quantity, and produce an input signal for a computer. For example, a sensor may detect the fact that a printer has run out of paper or may measure the temperature in a kiln. In electronics, a sensor is triggered by changes outside an electronic system. There are many d...

sequential file
In computing, a file in which the records are arranged in order of a key field and the computer can use a searching technique, like a binary search, to access a specific record. See file access

serial file
In computing, a file in which the records are not stored in any particular order and therefore a specific record can be accessed only by reading through all the previous records. See file access

seismic wave
Energy wave generated by an earthquake or an artificial explosion. There are two types of seismic waves: body waves that travel through the Earth's interior; and surface waves that travel through the surface layers of the crust and can be felt as the shaking of the ground, as in an earthq...

serial device
In computing, a device that communicates binary data by sending the bits that represent each character one by one along a single data line, unlike a parallel device

sector
(mathematics) In geometry, part of a circle enclosed by two radii and the arc that joins them. A minor sector has an angle at the centre of the circle of less than 180°. A major sector has an angle at the centre of the circle of more than 180°. The area of a sector is found by dividi...

Seles, Monica
Yugoslav-born US tennis player. She won her first Grand Slam title, the French Open, at the age of 16. She dominated the major events in 1991 but withdrew from Wimbledon and consequently missed the chance to achieve the Grand Slam. In 1991 she became the youngest woman player ever to achieve number one ranking. In 1993 she was stabbed by a fan ...

secondary data
Information that has been collected by another agency. Examples of secondary data include government reports and statistics, company reports and accounts, and weather reports in newspapers

service industry
Sector of the economy that supplies services such as retailing, banking, and education

sex chromosome
Chromosome that differs between the sexes and serves to determine the sex of the individual. In humans, whether a person is male or female is determined by the combination of the two sex chromosomes in the body cells. In females both chromosomes are the same – two X chromosomes (XX). In males the two chromosomes are different – one X chro...

sex hormone
Any one of the steroid hormones produced and secreted by the gonads (testes and ovaries). Sex hormones control development and reproductive functions and influence sexual and other behaviour. Examples include testosterone, progesterone, and oestrogen. The German biochemist Adolf Butenandt was the first to isolate sex hormones and to elucidate their...

sentence
(grammar) In grammar, a unit of words that makes sense in itself, usually containing a finite verb, beginning with a capital letter, and ending with a full stop. It is distinguished from a phrase because it contains a complete thought. Grammatical rules concerning parts of speech and punctuati...

sentence structure
Formation of a sentence. Traditionally, a sentence can be divided into two parts: subject and predicate. In the sentence `Jack and Jill went up the hill`, the subject is `Jack and Jill`, and the predicate is `went up the hill`, and the sentence structure is simple. In more complex structures, the subject and predic...

Sesshu, Toyo
Japanese painter. Influenced by several Chinese landscape painters, he established a tradition of realism in landscape painting that was maintained by succeeding generations of Japanese painters. A pupil of the Zen Buddhist monk Strubun, he visited China 1467–68, where he acquired an intimate knowledge of landscapes of the Tung dynasty. The na...

sepia
Brown pigment produced from the black fluid of cuttlefish. After 1870 it replaced the use of bistre (made from charred wood) in wash drawings due to its warmer range of colours. Sepia fades rapidly in bright light

sermon
In Christianity and Buddhism, spoken or written discourse on a religious subject. The Sermon on the Mount is the summary of Jesus' teachings recorded in Matthew 5:7; this formed the core of subsequent Christian teaching on discipleship. In many churches the sermon is preached from the pulpit, and is based on current issues or passages o...

sexual harassment
Unwanted offensive and persistent conduct of a sexual nature. Originally seen as a personal rather than a social problem, the term appeared in the US in the early 1970s following protests by women's groups about their treatment in the workplace. The term began to be used in the UK in the 1980s. Sexual harassment can be verbal (the most common f...

search engine
In computing, online program to help users find information on the Internet. Commercial search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and Lycos comprise databases of documents, Usenet articles, images, and news stories, which can be searched by keying in a key word or phrase. The databases are compiled ...

serif font
Typeface, such as Times or Palatino, the strokes of which terminate in ornamental curves or cross-strokes. These are said to aid legibility, especiallyl in printed materials

settlement
Click images to enlargeCollection of dwellings forming a community. There are many different types of settlement and most owe their origin to historical and geographical factors. The growth and development of a settlement is greatly influenced by its location, site, situation, and function. Human settlements can be identi...

Seaman, David Andrew
English footballer whose goalkeeping performances in the 1996 European Championships won him recognition as a world-class player. He made his England debut in 1988 and gained 75 England caps. An Arsenal player from 1990, he helped the club to win eight major trophies including three league championships. He had previously played for Leeds Unite...

sentence analysis
Breaking down the construction of a sentence, in order to understand the relationship of its parts. There are two main methods. Graphical analysis is used for simple sentences, demonstrating visually how the subject, predicate, and their qualifying adjectives, adverbs and clauses are related, using a form of `spider` diagram. Tabular anal...

sequence
(mathematics) List of numbers that are generated by a rule. Each number in the sequence is a term. For example, 3, 7, 11, 15, 19 is a sequence of five terms generated by adding 4 to the previous term. To generate a sequence, it is nec...

sewing
Process of joining two or more pieces of fabric together with a needle and thread. There are many different sewing techniques, namely different stitches such as running stitch or blanket stitch. Lockstitch sewing machines were invented in the USA in the mid-19th century

serial imagery
In art, the same image repeated several times in a single artwork, sometimes with slight variations. Serial imagery may be figurative, such as Andy Warhol's silk-screen The Six Marilyns (1962), or abstract, as in the minimal sculptures of Donald Judd

segment
Separation of a word down into its component phonemes

Sevilla
Spanish for Seville, a city in southern Spain

Sermon on the Mount
In the New Testament, the summary of Jesus' teachings recorded in Matthew 5–7. It forms the basis of Christian teaching on discipleship, and includes the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3–11), that lay down the spiritual qualities held by a true Christian

seva
Sikh concept of service for others with no thought of recognition or reward. To truly be seva, a person must do the service selflessly, with no ego, and with no hope for a particular outcome. Any Sikh can give his or her time, money, or skills to help others or the community, and all work should be done with pride, and to the best of one's abil...

settlement hierarchy
The arrangement of settlements within a given area in order of importance. Hamlets form the base of the hierarchy followed by villages, small towns, large towns, and cities. A country's capital or largest city forms the top. The range and number of services in a settlement is proportionate to the...

settlement functions
The main activities of a settlement. As a settlement grows in size it often develops specific functions. These relate to economic and social development. Functions may change over time and the growth of a settlement may have been based on an activity that no longer exists, such as coalmining. Many towns and cities in more developed countries are mu...

separation
In chemistry, a process that separates mixtures into individual substances. It may be used to obtain a pure material or determine the chemical properties of a mixture. Techniques include filtration, evaporation, distillation, fractional distillation, chromatography, and separation by centrifuge. The method used will depend on the physical propertie...

separating funnel
Chemistry apparatus used to separate two or more liquids that are immiscible (do not mix together). For example, a mixture of oil and water forms two layers when mixed; the oil being less dense floats on the water's surface. To separate them, the mixture is added to a separating funnel. The funnel is usually a glass tube with a tap at the b...

Sefer Torah
In Judaism, elaborately decorated and dressed Torah scroll housed in the ark in every synagogue. The scrolls are handwritten in Hebrew on vellum (calf, lamb, or kid skin) by a scribe who has trained for seven years. No mistakes can be made in the writing, although small errors can be erased. A synagogue may have one or several Sefer Torahs in its a...

Serif PagePlus
Desktop publishing (DTP) program. It was launched by Serif in 1990, with very powerful DTP features at a price of around 10% that of its competitors, and captured much of the home and small-business user markets. Serif PagePlus adopted a flexible approach to controlling the display, creating a changebar that allowed real-time interactio...

seam
Line along which two pieces or sections of fabric are sewn together. Different types of seam are used in different situations. In most factory-produced clothing, plain machine-sewn seams are used

Second World
Former term for the industrialized communist countries of the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc, used by the West during the Cold War, alongside the terms First World (industrialized free-market countries of the West) and Third World (non-aligned, developing nations). Originally denoting political alignment, the classifications later took on ec...

Sforza family
Italian family that ruled the duchy of Milan 1450–99, 1512–15, 1521–24, and 1529–35. Its court was a centre of Renaissance culture and its rulers prominent patrons of the arts

Sfax
Port and second-largest city in Tunisia, about 240 km/150 mi southeast of Tunis; population (2004) 265,100. It is the capital of Sfax district, on the Gulf of Gabès. Products include leather, soap, and carpets; there are also salt works and phosphate workings nearby. Exports include phosphates, fertilizers, olive oil, dates, al...

sfumato
In art, having delicate gradations of shadow rather than firm outlines. Sfumato was used to subtle effect by Leonardo da Vinci, for example

SGML
International Standards Organization standard describing how the structure (features such as headers, columns, margins, and tables) of a text can be identified so that it can be used, probably via filters, in applications such as desktop publishing and electronic publishing. HTML and VRML are both ty...

shrike
Bird of the family Laniidae, of which there are over 70 species, living mostly in Africa, but also in Eurasia and North America. They often impale insects and small vertebrates on thorns. They can grow to 35 cm/14 in long, have grey, black, or brown plumage, sharply clawed feet, and hooked beaks

shrew
Insectivorous mammal of the family Soricidae, order Insectivora, found in the Americas and Eurasia. It is mouselike, but with a long nose and pointed teeth. Its high metabolic rate means that it must eat almost constantly. The common shrew Sorex araneus is about 7.5 cm/3 in long with a long, supple, pointed snout bearing nume...

shoveler
Fresh-water duck Anas clypeata, family Anatidae, order Anseriformes, so named after its long and broad flattened beak used for filtering out small organisms from sand and mud. The male has a green head, white and brown body plumage, black and white wings, greyish bill, orange feet, and can grow up to 50 cm/20 in long. The...

shellfish
Popular name for molluscs and crustaceans, including the whelk and periwinkle, mussel, oyster, lobster, crab, and shrimp

shelduck
Duck Tadorna tadorna of family Anatidae, order Anseriformes. It has a dark-green head and red bill, with the rest of the plumage strikingly marked in black, white, and chestnut. The drake is about 60 cm/24 in long. Widely distributed in Europe and Asia, it lays 10–12 white eggs in rabbit burrows on sandy coasts, and ...

sheepdog
Any of several breeds of dog, bred originally for herding sheep. The dog now most commonly used by shepherds and farmers in Britain to tend sheep is the border collie. Non-pedigree dogs of the border collie type, though more variable in size and colour, are referred to as working sheepdogs. Other...

sheep
Click images to enlargeAny of several ruminant, even-toed, hoofed mammals of the family Bovidae. Wild species survive in the uplands of central and eastern Asia, North Africa, southern Europe and North America. The domesticated breeds are all classified as Ovis aries. Various breeds of sheep are rea...

shearwater
Any sea bird of the genus Puffinus. All the species are oceanic, and either dark above and white below or all dark. Shearwaters are members of the same family (Procellariidae), as the diving petrels, order Procellariiformes. They get their name from their habit of skimming low over the sea on still wings. The sooty shearwater <...

shark
Click images to enlargeAny member of various orders of cartilaginous fishes (class Chondrichthyes), found throughout the oceans of the world. There are about 400 known species of shark. They have tough, usually grey skin covered in denticles (small toothlike scales). A shark's streamlined body has side pectoral fins, ...

shag
Waterbird Phalacrocorax aristoclis, order Pelecaniformes, related to the cormorant. It is smaller than the cormorant, with a green tinge to its plumage and in the breeding season has a crest. Its food consists mainly of sand eels for which it dives, staying underwater for up to 54 seconds. It breeds on deeply fissured cliffs, and...

shield
(geology) In geology, alternative name for craton, the ancient core of a continent

shad
Any of several marine fishes, especially the genus Alosa, the largest (60 cm/2 ft long and 2.7 kg/6 lb in weight) of the herring family (Clupeidae). They migrate in shoals to breed in rivers

shelf sea
Relatively shallow sea, usually no deeper than 200 m/650 ft, overlying the continental shelf around the coastlines. Most fishing and marine mineral exploitations are carried out in shelf seas

shrub
Perennial woody plant that typically produces several separate stems, at or near ground level, rather than the single trunk of most trees. A shrub is usually smaller than a tree, but there is no clear distinction between large shrubs and small trees

shoebill
Large, grey, long-legged, swamp-dwelling African bird Balaeniceps rex. Up to 1.5 m/5 ft tall, it has a large wide beak 20 cm/8 in long and more than 10 cm/4 in wide, with which it scoops fish, molluscs, reptiles, and carrion out of the mud. Shoebills occupy larg...

shoot
In botany, the parts of a vascular plant growing above ground, comprising a stem bearing leaves, buds, and flowers. The shoot develops from the plumule of the embryo

shale
Fine-grained and finely layered sedimentary rock composed of silt and clay. It is a weak rock, splitting easily along bedding planes to form thin, even slabs (by contrast, mudstone splits into irregular flakes). Oil shale contains kerogen, a solid bituminous material that yields petroleum when heated

shock absorber
In technology, any device for absorbing the shock of sudden jarring actions or movements. Shock absorbers are used in conjunction with coil springs in most motor-vehicle suspension systems and are usually of the telescopic type, consisting of a piston in an oil-filled cylinder. The resistance to movement of the piston through the oil create...

Shinkansen
Fast railway network operated by Japanese Railways, on which the `bullet` trains run. The network, opened in 1964, uses specially built straight and level track, on which average speeds of 160 kph/100 mph are attained. The Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka carried 270,000 passengers a ...

Shrove Tuesday
In the Christian calendar, the day before the beginning of Lent (Ash Wednesday). It is also known as Mardi Gras. In the UK, Shrove Tuesday is known as Pancake Day, when people eat pancakes made from eggs and flour. It used to be the custom to empty the cupboards of any rich food and feast upon it before the Lenten fast

Shropshire
Click images to enlargeCounty of western England on the Welsh border, which has contained the unitary authority of Telford and Wrekin since April 1998. Shropshire was officially known as Salop from 1974 to 1980. Area 3,490 sq km/1,347 sq mi Towns Shrewsbury (administrative headquarters), Ludlow, Oswestry; these, a...

Shrewsbury
Market town on the River Severn, Shropshire, England, 244 km/152 mi northwest of London; population (2001) 67,100. It is the administrative headquarters of Shropshire. There are service industries and light manufacturing, and tourism is important. To the east at Wroxeter is the site of the Roman city of Viroconium. Features Landmarks includ...

Shrapnel, Henry
British army officer who invented shells containing bullets, to increase the spread of casualties, first used in 1804; hence the word shrapnel to describe shell fragments

Shostakovich, Dmitri Dmitrievich
Russian composer. His music is chromatically tonal/modal, expressive, and sometimes highly dramatic; it was not always to official Soviet taste. He wrote 15 symphonies, chamber and film music, ballets, and operas, the latter including Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (first performed in 1934), which was suppressed as ...

shorthand
Any system of rapid writing, such as the abbreviations practised by the Greeks and Romans. The first perfecter of an entirely phonetic system was Isaac Pitman, by which system speeds of about 300 words a minute are said to be attainable. The earliest recorded instance of shorthand being used is the system used by the historian Xenophon to write the...

shop steward
Trade-union representative in a `shop`, or department of a factory, elected by his or her fellow workers. Shop stewards are unpaid and usually conduct union business in their own time. They recruit for the union, inspect contribution cards, and report grievances to the district committee. They represent their members' interests to...

shingles
Common name for herpes zoster, a disease characterized by infection of sensory nerves, with pain and eruption of blisters along the course of the affected nerves

Shijiazhuang
Capital of Hebei province, China, at the foot of the Taihang Mountains; population (2000) 1,935,600. It is a major railway junction and agricultural distribution point. Industrialization, and accompanying population growth, took place rapidly in the later 20th century. Industries include coal-mining, printing, light engineering, and the man...

Shiah
See Shiite

Shi Huangdi
Click images to enlargeEmperor of China. He succeeded to the throne of the state of Qin 246 BC and had reunited China as an empire by 228 BC. He burned almost all existing books in 213 to destroy ties with the past; rebuilt the Great Wall of China; and was buried in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, in a tomb complex g...

Shevardnadze, Edvard Amvrosievich
Georgian politician, president 1992–2003. He was Soviet foreign minister 1985–91. A supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, he was first secretary of the Georgian Communist Party from 1972 and an advocate of economic reform. In 1985 he became a member of the Politburo, working for détente and disarmament. In July 1991 he resigned from the So...

Shetland Islands
Click images to enlargeIslands and unitary authority off the north coast of Scotland, 80 km/50 mi northeast of the Orkney Islands, an important centre of the North Sea oil industry, and the most northerly part of the UK. Area 1,452 sq km/560 sq mi Towns Lerwick (administrative headquarters), on Mainland, largest o...

Sheraton, Thomas
English designer of elegant inlaid neoclassical furniture. He was influenced by his predecessors Hepplewhite and Chippendale

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft
English writer. She is best known as the author of the gothic novel Frankenstein (1818), which is considered to be the origin of modern science fiction, and her other novels include The Last Man (1826) and Valperga (1823). She was the daughter of the English writers Mary Wollstonecraft and Wi...

Sheba
Ancient name for southern Yemen (Sha'abijah). It was once renowned for gold and spices. According to the Old Testament, its queen visited Solomon; until 1975 the Ethiopian royal house traced its descent from their union

Sharpeville
Black township in South Africa, 65 km/40 mi south of Johannesburg and north of Vereeniging; 69 people were killed here when police fired on a crowd of anti-apartheid demonstrators 21 March 1960

Shatt-al-Arab
Waterway formed by the confluence of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris; length 190 km/120 mi to the Gulf. Basra, Khorramshahr, and Abadan stand on it. Its main tributary is the Karun River. Its lower reaches form a border of disputed demarcation between Iran and Iraq. In 1975 the two countries agreed on the deepest water line as the frontier,...

Shari'a
The law of Islam believed by Muslims to be based on divine revelation. It consists of the Koran (or Quran or Qur'an), with the Sunna, the Hadith, and the Sirah as written secondary sources. Other sources include the usual custom of the Muslim community, and the agreement of Muslim lawyers or the opinion of one pious Muslim lawyer. Under the Sha...

Shanxi
Province of north China, bounded to the north by Inner Mongolia, to the east by Hebei, to the south by Henan, and to the west by Shaanxi; area 157,100 sq km/60,700 sq mi; population (2000 est) 32,970,000. The capital is Taiyuan. There are coal, iron and steel, heavy machinery, mining equi...

Shantung
Alternative transliteration of the Chinese province of Shandong

Shantou
Port and industrial city in Guangdong province, southeast China; population (2000) 3,070,400. It was opened as a special economic zone in 1979. Industries include food-processing, and the export-oriented manufacture of clothes, shoes, and electronic goods. Other exports include timber, food products, fish, and fruit

Shandong
Province of east China, bounded to the north by the Bohai Gulf, to the east by the Yellow Sea, to the south by Jiangsu and Anhui, and to the west by Henan and Hebei provinces; area 153,300 sq km/59,200 sq mi; population (2000 est) 90,790,000. It is one of the most densely populated provinces of China. The capital is Jinan. There are coa...

Shan
Member of a people of the mountainous borderlands separating Thailand, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), and China. They are related to the Laos and Thais, and their language belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family. Settled in fertile valleys, they grow wet rice and opium, and raise cattle. The Shan are stratified into commoners, aristocrats, and princes. The ...