quadrille, fashionable late 18th- and 19th-century dance for four couples in square formation. Imported by English aristocrats in 1815 from elite Parisian ballrooms, it consisted of four, or sometimes five, contredanses; like the contredanse (q.v.), the quadrille depended more on the cooperative

ombre: …French developed a four-hand version, quadrille. Quadrille in turn adopted the standard 52-card deck associated with whist and gave rise to Boston whist, from which derives solo whist. Other lines of descent and hybridization produced twenty-five, preference, and skat.

flageolet: …added it became the popular quadrille flageolet of the mid-19th century, made famous by the virtuoso Collinet. The English flageolet is a late 18th-century adaptation of the French form, with six front finger holes and, sometimes, keywork. Flageolets were often built as double pipes (the English also as triple pipes),…

Alain Chartier: …is used in the prose Quadrilogue invectif, written in 1422, the dialogue being between France and the three estates of the realm (clergy, nobility, and commoners). This work exposes the sufferings of the peasantry, the misdeeds of the church, and the abuses of the feudal army but maintains that France…

paraplegia: Quadriplegia involves paralysis of both arms and both legs. Respiration may also be affected if the upper cervical region of the spinal cord is damaged.

mathematics: European mathematics during the Middle Ages and Renaissance: …the monastic education called the quadrivium: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music theory. Together with the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric), these subjects formed the seven liberal arts, which were taught in the monasteries, cathedral schools, and, from the 12th century on, universities and which constituted the principal university instruction until modern…

Pete Townshend: The Who: …and the double-album rock opera Quadrophenia (1973), featuring the tracks “The Real Me” and “Love, Reign o’er Me.” Townshend released his first solo album, Who Came First, in 1972, opening with the track “Pure and Easy,” which also appeared on the Who’s 1974 compilation album Odds & Sods. The band…

the Who: … also was made into a film, in 1979, and was revived by the touring Who as a stagy rock spectacle in the 1990s.

Jânio da Silva Quadros was a Brazilian politician who unexpectedly resigned the presidency after serving only seven months (Jan. 31–Aug. 25, 1961). A colourful and sometimes eccentric populist, he campaigned with a broom as a symbol of his pledge to “sweep out corruption.” Quadros graduated from

Benito Mussolini: Rise to power of Benito Mussolini: …to be known as the Quadrumviri. Mussolini himself was not one of the four.

human evolution: The anatomy of bipedalism: …is oriented like that of quadrupedal primates. The early bipedal hominins assumed erect trunk posture by bending the spine upward, particularly in the lower back (lumbar region). In order to transfer full upper-body mass to the lower limbs and to reposition muscles so that one could walk without assistance from…

Quadruple Alliance, alliance formed Aug. 2, 1718, when Austria joined the Triple Alliance of Britain, the Dutch Republic (United Provinces), and France to prevent Spain from altering the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht (1713). Philip V of Spain, influenced by his wife, Elizabeth Farnese of Parma,

Quadruple Alliance, alliance first formed in 1813, during the final phase of the Napoleonic Wars, by Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, for the purpose of defeating Napoleon, but conventionally dated from Nov. 20, 1815, when it was officially renewed to prevent recurrence of French aggression

Quadruple Alliance, alliance formed on April 22, 1834, between Britain, France, and the more liberal claimants to the thrones of Spain and Portugal against the conservative claimants to those thrones. The alliance successfully supported Maria Cristiana, who was acting as regent for Isabella II in

chemical bonding: Metal cluster compounds: …provide the only examples of quadruple bonds in chemistry. Apart from that, their bonding can be treated as a straightforward exercise in MO or VB theory. Indeed, a metal cluster can be regarded as an exceedingly tiny sample of metal, with insufficient atoms present for the molecular orbitals to form…

metre: (34, 38), or quadruple (44, 48). Compound metres are also duple (68, 616), triple (98), or quadruple (128) but have time signatures that indicate the number of beats to be a multiple of three. Thus, in 68,

metre: (34, 38), or quadruple (44, 48). Compound metres are also duple (68, 616), triple (98), or quadruple (128) but have time signatures that indicate the number of beats to be a multiple of three. Thus, in 68,

multiple birth: Other multiple births: Similarly, quadruplets may originate from one up to four zygotes, and quintuplets may derive from one to five zygotes. After being carefully studied, the Canadian Dionne quintuplets (born in 1934) were shown to be a one-zygote set.

magnetic resonance: Nuclear magnetic resonance: …electric quadrupole moments (an electric quadrupole consists of a charge distribution equivalent to a special arrangement of two electric dipoles) that interact with the electric fields that exist at the nuclear sites. These interactions provide information on the microscopic distribution of electric charge around the nucleus.

mass spectrometry: Ion-velocity spectrometers: … described the development of a quadrupole mass spectrometer. The application of superimposed radio frequency and constant potentials between four parallel rods can be shown to act as a mass separator in which only ions within a particular mass range will perform oscillations of constant amplitude and be collected at the…

magnetic resonance: Nuclear magnetic resonance: …reveals the existence of nuclear electric quadrupole moments (an electric quadrupole consists of a charge distribution equivalent to a special arrangement of two electric dipoles) that interact with the electric fields that exist at the nuclear sites. These interactions provide information on the microscopic distribution of electric charge around the…

Mössbauer effect: Applications: …on the isomer shift and quadrupole splitting. The former measures the s-electron charge density at the nucleus and gives information on the character of chemical bonds; e.g., valence and covalence. The latter is sensitive both to the symmetry of the structural environment and to the wave function of the outer…

ancient Rome: Changes in provincial administration: …bc), a permanent court (the quaestio repetundarum) was established at Rome to hear complaints against former commanders and, where necessary, to assure repayment of illegal exactions. No penalty for offenders was provided, and there was no derogation from the commander’s powers during his tenure; nevertheless, the step was a landmark…

Marin Mersenne: Mersenne’s earliest publications, such as Quaestiones celeberrime in Genesim (1623; “Frequent Questions Concerning Genesis”) and La vérité des sciences (1625; “The Truth of Science”), defended orthodox theology by distinguishing between the ultimate nature, or essence, of things (knowable only by God) and the contingent facts observable by man. He disagreed,…

Adelard Of Bath: His Quaestiones naturales (76 discussions of human nature, meteorology, astronomy, botany, and zoology) are based on Arabic science. His other writings include works on the abacus and the astrolabe and a translation of an Arabic astronomical table.

Isaac Newton: Influence of the Scientific Revolution: …notes, which he entitled “Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae” (“Certain Philosophical Questions”), begun sometime in 1664, usurped the unused pages of a notebook intended for traditional scholastic exercises; under the title he entered the slogan “Amicus Plato amicus Aristoteles magis amica veritas” (“Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but…

Blessed John Duns Scotus: Years at the University of Paris of Blessed John Duns Scotus: …scope than the Ordinatio, these Quaestiones quodlibetales are scarcely less important because they represent his most mature thinking. Indeed, Duns Scotus’s renown depends principally on these two major works.

quaestor, the lowest-ranking regular magistrate in ancient Rome, whose traditional responsibility was the treasury. During the royal period, the kings appointed quaestores parricidii (quaestors with judicial powers) to handle cases of murder. With the advent of the republic in the year 509 bce,

quaestor: The quaestor intra Palatium of the late empire, newly created under the emperor Constantine I, replaced the praetorian prefect in the internal administration. He headed the consistorium (the imperial council), drew up laws and answers to petitions, and was responsible for the list of minor staff…

quaestor, the lowest-ranking regular magistrate in ancient Rome, whose traditional responsibility was the treasury. During the royal period, the kings appointed quaestores parricidii (quaestors with judicial powers) to handle cases of murder. With the advent of the republic in the year 509 bce,

quaestor, the lowest-ranking regular magistrate in ancient Rome, whose traditional responsibility was the treasury. During the royal period, the kings appointed quaestores parricidii (quaestors with judicial powers) to handle cases of murder. With the advent of the republic in the year 509 bce,

Greece: Late Roman administration: …military command known as the quaestura exercitus, a zone made up of the Islands and Caria, from the diocese of Asiana, together with the province of Moesia II on the Danube; it was designed as a means of providing for the armies based along the northern frontier in regions that…

quagga, (subspecies Equus quagga quagga), subspecies of plains zebra (Equus quagga) formerly found in vast herds on the great plains of South Africa but now extinct. The colour of the head, neck, and upper parts of the body was reddish brown, irregularly banded, and marked with dark brown stripes,

perissodactyl: Zebras: The plains zebra (E. quagga) formerly inhabited a great area of grassland and savanna from the Cape to South Sudan. The southernmost race (E. quagga quagga), which was only partly striped, became extinct in the 19th century. The populations of the other races have been much…

zebra mussel: The quagga mussel (D. rostriformis burgensis), a similar species in both form and habit, was first discovered in the Great Lakes in 1989.

quahog, edible species of clam (q.v.), usually referring to the species Mercenaria mercenaria. Small quahogs are called

Jake Gyllenhaal: Films: Donnie Darko, Brokeback Mountain, and Zodiac: …Tomorrow as the son of Dennis Quaid’s character. Though the movie received only tepid reviews, it was a box-office hit. Gyllenhaal was especially busy in 2005. His credits from that year include Jarhead, about U.S. Marines serving in the Persian Gulf War, and Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain. The latter became…

Ray Davies: Early life: …Ray Davies Quartet with friend Pete Quaife and Quaife’s friend John Start. After a performance at a school dance went well, the band moved on to playing in local pubs. Their classmate Rod Stewart briefly sang lead vocals in their band before starting his own.

Ray Davies: Early life: …Ray Davies Quartet with friend Pete Quaife and Quaife’s friend John Start. After a performance at a school dance went well, the band moved on to playing in local pubs. Their classmate Rod Stewart briefly sang lead vocals in their band before starting his own.

quail, any of roughly 130 species of small short-tailed game birds classified in the families Phasianidae and Odontophoridae (order Galliformes), resembling partridges but generally smaller and less robust. The 95 species of Old World quail are classified in Phasianidae in either of two

columbiform: General habits: …Phaps), to the Old World quail doves (Gallicolumba and various derivatives). Most of these quail doves live on the forest floor, collecting fallen seeds and fruits and seeds from low herbage, but in Australia a few are found in open country. Some aberrant species have evolved even further toward ground…

Kakiemon ware: …foliage and little quails—called the quail pattern. This was exported to Europe by Dutch merchants and significantly influenced the early decorative styles of several European factories, including Chelsea, Bow, and Worcester in England; Meissen in Germany; and Chantilly in France. Designs known as the “Tiger and Wheatsheaf” and the “Hob…

John Carmack: …successful games as Doom and Quake. His company, id Software, developed shareware and Internet distribution channels, revolutionizing how computer games were sold.

earthquake: Aftershocks, foreshocks, and swarms: …series of earthquakes are called earthquake swarms. Earthquakes associated with volcanic activity often occur in swarms, though swarms also have been observed in many nonvolcanic regions.

Quaker, member of the Society of Friends, or Friends church, a Christian group that stresses the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that rejects outward rites and an ordained ministry, and that has a long tradition of actively working for peace and opposing war. George Fox, founder of the Society of

Society of Friends: The rise of Quakerism: From the Quaker Act of 1662 until the de facto toleration of James II in 1686 (de jure toleration came in the Toleration Act of 1689), Friends were hounded by penal laws for not swearing oaths, for not going to the services of the Church of England,…

Quaker Oats Company, former (1901–2001) Chicago-based American manufacturer of oatmeal and other food and beverage products. The company changed its name to Quaker Foods and Beverages after being acquired by PepsiCo, Inc., in 2001. The Quaker Oats trademark was registered in 1877 by Henry Parsons

The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket, poem by Robert Lowell, published in 1946 in the collection Lord Weary’s Castle. This frequently anthologized elegy for a cousin who died at sea during World War II echoes both Herman Melville and Henry David Thoreau in its exploration of innocence, corruption, and

Guilford College, private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Greensboro, North Carolina, U.S., affiliated with the Society of Friends (Quakers). Guilford is a liberal arts college and offers bachelor’s degree programs only. Campus facilities include an observatory, a

Quaker Oats Company, former (1901–2001) Chicago-based American manufacturer of oatmeal and other food and beverage products. The company changed its name to Quaker Foods and Beverages after being acquired by PepsiCo, Inc., in 2001. The Quaker Oats trademark was registered in 1877 by Henry Parsons

parrot: The monk, or green, parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus) is one of the hardiest parrot species. It is native to South America, but some have escaped from captivity in the United States and now nest in several states. Its large stick nest is unique among psittaciforms. Other remarkable…

Society of Friends, Christian group that arose in mid-17th-century England, dedicated to living in accordance with the “Inner Light,” or direct inward apprehension of God, without creeds, clergy, or other ecclesiastical forms. As most powerfully expressed by George Fox (1624–91), Friends felt that

aspen: tremula) and the American quaking, or trembling, aspen (P. tremuloides) are similar, reaching a height of 27 metres (90 feet). P. tremuloides is distinguished by its leaves, which have more pointed tips, and it grows by root suckers. Individual clones of the plants persist for thousands of years even…

quaking grass, (genus Briza), genus of four species of slender annual or perennial grasses in the family Poaceae, native to Eurasia. Quaking grasses are so named for the spikelets of open flower clusters and dry seedheads, borne on long stalks, that quiver in even slight breezes. Most are

mobile telephone: Development of cellular systems: …third approach, developed originally by Qualcomm, Inc., but also adopted as a standard by the TIA. This third approach used a form of spread spectrum multiple access known as code-division multiple access (CDMA)—a technique that, like the original TIA approach, combined digital voice compression with digital modulation. (For more information…

qualia, in linguistics, and specifically the theory of generative lexicon pioneered by the American computational linguist James Pustejovsky, four distinct dimensions or aspects of a word’s meaning, consisting of concepts typically associated with and bearing a particular relation to the concept

philosophy of mind: Qualitative states: “Qualiaphilia” is the view that no functionalist theory of consciousness can capture phenomenal consciousness; in conscious experience one is aware of “qualia” that are not relational but rather are intrinsic features of experience in some sense. These features might be dualistic, as suggested by David…

Jonathan Edwards: Dismissal from Northampton of Jonathan Edwards: …controversy he wrote two books, Qualifications for Communion (1749) and Misrepresentations Corrected, and Truth Vindicated, in a Reply to the Rev. Mr. Solomon Williams’s Book (1752), one to convince his congregation, the other to correct what he considered misrepresentations of his views by a kinsman, the pastor at Lebanon, Connecticut.…

plant breeding: Qualitative characters: The easiest characters, or traits, to deal with are those involving discontinuous, or qualitative, differences that are governed by one or a few major genes. Many such inherited differences exist, and they frequently have profound effects on plant value and utilization. Examples are…

qualitative chemical analysis, branch of chemistry that deals with the identification of elements or grouping of elements present in a sample. The techniques employed in qualitative analysis vary in complexity, depending on the nature of the sample. In some cases it is necessary only to verify the

statistics: …how many of something, and qualitative data provide labels, or names, for categories of like items. For example, suppose that a particular study is interested in characteristics such as age, gender, marital status, and annual income for a sample of 100 individuals. These characteristics would be called the variables of…

marketing: Market research firms: Qualitative research focuses on descriptive words and symbols and usually involves observing consumers in a marketing setting or questioning them about their product or service consumption experiences. For example, a marketing researcher may stop a consumer who has purchased a particular type of detergent and…

philosophy of mind: Qualitative states: “Qualiaphilia” is the view that no functionalist theory of consciousness can capture phenomenal consciousness; in conscious experience one is aware of “qualia” that are not relational but rather are intrinsic features of experience in some sense. These features might be dualistic, as suggested…

analysis: Dynamical systems theory and chaos: …differential equations, otherwise known as dynamical systems theory, which seeks to establish general properties of solutions from general principles without writing down any explicit solutions at all. Dynamical systems theory combines local analytic information, collected in small “neighbourhoods” around points of special interest, with global geometric and topological properties of…

statistics: Estimation of other parameters: For qualitative variables, the population proportion is a parameter of interest. A point estimate of the population proportion is given by the sample proportion. With knowledge of the sampling distribution of the sample proportion, an interval estimate of a population proportion is obtained in much the…

variation: …in human populations); or as discontinuous, or qualitative (composed of well-defined classes, as blood groups vary in humans). A discontinuous variation with several classes, none of which is very small, is known as a polymorphic variation. The separation of most higher organisms into males and females and the occurrence of…

quality, In philosophy, a property that applies to things taken singly, in contrast to a relation, which applies to things taken in pairs, triples, etc. The distinction drawn by Galileo and John Locke between primary and secondary qualities is motivated by the fact that modern science seems to

sound: Beats: Second-order beats occur between the two notes of a mistuned octave, and binaural beats involve beating between tones presented separately to the two ears, so that they do not mix physically.

Plastic Man: …Lev Gleason Publications before joining Quality Comics. In mid-1941, owner Everett “Busy” Arnold asked Cole to create a new hero for Quality’s upcoming new Police Comics title—something in the tradition of Will Eisner’s Spirit. Cole responded with his own sort of super-detective, a hero who always got his man in…

computer science: Social and professional issues: …should be linked to a quality-control system that maintains a database of quality information and alerts the manager if quality is deteriorating and possibly even provides a diagnosis as to the source of any problems that arise. Automatically tracking the flow of products from station to station on the factory…

electricity: Piezoelectricity: …of the crystals have a quality factor Q of several hundred, and, in the case of quartz, the value can be 106. The result is a piezoelectric coefficient a factor Q higher than for a static electric field. The very large Q of quartz is exploited in electronic oscillator circuits…

quality of life, the degree to which an individual is healthy, comfortable, and able to participate in or enjoy life events. The term quality of life is inherently ambiguous, as it can refer both to the experience an individual has of his or her own life and to the living conditions in which

timbre, quality of auditory sensations produced by the tone of a sound wave. The timbre of a sound depends on its wave form, which varies with the number of overtones, or harmonics, that are present, their frequencies, and their relative intensities. The illustration shows the wave form that

Andrew Salkey: Salkey’s first novel, A Quality of Violence (1959), is set in a remote area of Jamaica about 1900, when a prolonged drought leads Christians to turn toward the older, “darker” ways of voodoo and obeah. Like many of his other books, it is narrated in a distinctive Jamaican…

George Stevens: Swing Time, Gunga Din, and Woman of the Year: …string of hits ended with Quality Street (1937), a tasteful but rather bland adaptation of the J.M. Barrie play. It starred Hepburn as an “old maid” who tricks a former beau (Franchot Tone) into falling in love with her. Moviegoers also largely avoided A Damsel in Distress (1937), a musical…

quality of life: Applications: …component for the calculation of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), in which quality of life is combined with years of life gained as a result of an intervention. Costs of treatment can be linked with the number of QALYs gained to give a cost per QALY.

Paracel Islands, group of about 130 small coral islands and reefs in the South China Sea. They lie about 250 miles (400 km) east of central Vietnam and about 220 miles (350 km) southeast of Hainan Island, China. Apart from a few isolated, outlying islands (Triton in the south, Lincoln in the east),

Spratly Islands, large group of reefs, shoals, atolls, and small islets in the South China Sea of the Pacific Ocean. They are located north of insular Malaysia and are roughly midway between Vietnam and the Philippines, and they are claimed—wholly or in part—by several countries in the region. The

Alain Delon: title Send a Woman When the Devil Fails), and he had his first starring role in the romance Christine (1958), opposite Romy Schneider. Delon quickly won international attention in Plein soleil (1960; “Bright Sun”; U.S. title Purple Noon), based on Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel The Talented…

quandong, (Santalum acuminatum), small hemiparasitic tree of the sandalwood family (Santalaceae), useful for its edible fruit and seeds. The plant is native to Australia and has a long history of use by Aboriginal peoples. The nutritious red pulpy flesh of the fruit has a distinctive flavour and is

BMW: …its financial slump; German entrepreneur Herbert Quandt acquired a controlling interest in the firm, and BMW introduced its 700 series, soon followed by the equally successful 1500 model. At about the same time, the company introduced a new series of motorcycles that were particularly popular in the United States.

Quang Ngai, city, central Vietnam, on the South China Sea coast. It is a minor port on the south bank of the Tra Khuc River estuary, 125 miles (200 km) southeast of Hue. The town has lighter (barge) facilities, a hospital, and a commercial airport. Across the river at Sin Tinh a highway penetrates

Tay Son Brothers: Nguyen Hue (later Emperor Quang Trung), the youngest and most capable of the brothers, overthrew the imperial Le dynasty (see Later Le dynasty) and the two rival feudal houses of the Nguyen in the south and the Trinh in the north, reuniting all of Vietnam. Reigning from about 1788…

Mary Quant was an English fashion designer of youth-oriented fashions, responsible in the 1960s for the “Chelsea look” of England and the widespread popularity of the miniskirt and “hot pants.” Quant attended Goldsmith’s College of Art, London, and spent two years designing hats for the Danish

Mary Quant was an English fashion designer of youth-oriented fashions, responsible in the 1960s for the “Chelsea look” of England and the widespread popularity of the miniskirt and “hot pants.” Quant attended Goldsmith’s College of Art, London, and spent two years designing hats for the Danish

quantum, in physics, discrete natural unit, or packet, of energy, charge, angular momentum, or other physical property. Light, for example, appearing in some respects as a continuous electromagnetic wave, on the submicroscopic level is emitted and absorbed in discrete amounts, or quanta; and for

Pius IX: Ultramontanism of Pius IX: …1864, he issued the encyclical Quanta Cura with, attached to it, the famous Syllabus listing 80 of the “principal errors of our times.” As the errors listed had already been condemned in allocutions, encyclicals, and other apostolic letters, the Syllabus said nothing new and so could not be contested. Its…

Arthur Cayley: …quantic, known today as an algebraic form, is a polynomial with the same total degree for each term; for example, every term in the following polynomial has a total degree of 3: x3 + 7x2y − 5xy2 + y3. Alongside work produced by his friend James Joseph Sylvester, Cayley’s study…

Priyanka Chopra Jonas: …a result, she appeared in Quantico (2015–18), playing the leading role of an FBI recruit turned suspect. The prime-time series was the first in American network television to feature a person of South Asian descent as a lead. Chopra’s international fame took off, even as she continued to star in…

Quantico, town, Prince William county, northeastern Virginia, U.S. It lies along the Potomac River, about 35 miles (55 km) southwest of Washington, D.C. Quantico is adjacent to a U.S. Marine Corps installation that extends into other counties. European settlers obtained their first grants of land

quantification, in logic, the attachment of signs of quantity to the predicate or subject of a proposition. The universal quantifier, symbolized by (∀-) or (-), where the blank is filled by a variable, is used to express that the formula following holds for all values of the particular variable

logic: Scope and basic concepts: …most important logical constants are quantifiers, propositional connectives, and identity. Quantifiers are the formal counterparts of English phrases such as “there is …” or “there exists …,” as well as “for every …” and “for all …” They are used in formal expressions such as (∃x) (read as “there is…

formal logic: Logical manipulations in LPC: …be called the rule of quantifier rearrangement.

formal logic: Logical manipulations in LPC: …be called the rule of quantifier transformation. It reflects, in a generalized form, the intuitive connections between some and every that were noted above.

predicate calculus, that part of modern formal or symbolic logic which systematically exhibits the logical relations between sentences that hold purely in virtue of the manner in which predicates or noun expressions are distributed through ranges of subjects by means of quantifiers such as “all”

numerical analysis, area of mathematics and computer science that creates, analyzes, and implements algorithms for obtaining numerical solutions to problems involving continuous variables. Such problems arise throughout the natural sciences, social sciences, engineering, medicine, and business.

plant breeding: Quantitative characters: In other cases, however, plant traits grade gradually from one extreme to another in a continuous series, and classification into discrete classes is not possible. Such variability is termed quantitative. Many traits of economic importance are of this type; e.g., height, cold and…

quantitative chemical analysis, branch of chemistry that deals with the determination of the amount or percentage of one or more constituents of a sample. A variety of methods is employed for quantitative analyses, which for convenience may be broadly classified as chemical or physical, depending

statistics: Graphical methods: …most common graphical presentation of quantitative data that have been summarized in a frequency distribution. The values of the quantitative variable are shown on the horizontal axis. A rectangle is drawn above each class such that the base of the rectangle is equal to the width of the class interval…

quantitative easing (QE), a set of unconventional monetary policies that may be implemented by a central bank to increase the money supply in an economy. Quantitative easing (QE) policies include central-bank purchases of assets such as government bonds (see public debt) and other securities,