South Africa: …era the South African poet Mongane Wally Serote remarked,

brown bat: …North American species, and the serotine (E. serotinus) is a stoutly built Eurasian form.

serotine, (genus Eptesicus), any of 23 species of vesper bats (family Vespertilionidae). Frequently, the name serotine is used for Old World members of the genus, and brown bat is used for New World

serotonin, a chemical substance that is derived from the amino acid tryptophan. It occurs in the brain, intestinal tissue, blood platelets, and mast cells and is a constituent of many venoms, including wasp venom and toad venom. Serotonin is a potent vasoconstrictor and functions as a

nervous system: Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine): Serotonin receptors, or 5HT receptors, activate calcium and potassium channels through linking proteins and the cAMP second-messenger systems. After acting on the postsynaptic receptors, the neurotransmitter is taken up by the presynaptic terminal and enzymatically degraded.

antidepressant: SSRIs were introduced in the 1980s, and shortly thereafter they became some of the most commonly used antidepressants, primarily because they have fewer side effects than tricyclics or MAOIs. SSRIs include fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil), and sertraline (Zoloft). SSRIs are also used in the treatment…

trazodone: …levels, a condition known as serotonin syndrome may develop. If left untreated, severe serotonin syndrome can cause death; milder forms of the syndrome can be treated by stopping medications until serotonin decreases to a safe level.

salivary gland: Salivary glands may be predominantly serous, mucous, or mixed in secretion. Mucus is a thick, clear, and somewhat slimy substance. Serous secretion is a more liquid opalescent fluid composed of water and proteins, such as the digestive enzyme amylase. Depending on the types of cells present, the glands may be…

extracellular fluid: …in body cavities lined with serous (moisture-exuding) membrane, in the cavities and channels of the brain and spinal cord, and in muscular and other body tissues. It differs from intracellular fluid (fluid within the cells) in that it generally has a high concentration of sodium and low concentration of potassium,…

Serov, city, Sverdlovsk oblast (region), western Russia. It lies along the Kakva River, a tributary of the Sosva River. The city developed in the 1890s into the largest pre-Revolutionary ironworking centre in the Ural Mountains, producing rails for the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Today, with a large,

Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov was a Russian artist whose works reflect a turning point in the style and weltanschauung of Russian art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as well as the shift from realism by way of Impressionism to Art Nouveau. Serov himself seemed to manifest the link between

bacteria: Biotypes of bacteria: …thousands of different strains (called serovars, for serological variants), which differ from one another mainly or solely in the antigenic identity of their lipopolysaccharide, flagella, or capsule. Different serovars of enteric bacteria—such as E. coli and Salmonella enterica, for example—are often found to be associated with the ability to inhabit…

Stone Age: Asian cultures: (2) Serovo, characterized by thinner pottery, decorated by dentate stamping, boss, pit, and net impressions and by stone inventory of more regular forms; reinforced bows with bone backing and fish effigies of stone appear. A marked increase of population is indicated by settlements covering hundreds of…

serow, (genus Capricornis), any of five species of goatlike mammals that range from Japan and Taiwan to western India, through eastern China, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayan region. Serows belong either to the tribe Rupicaprini (goat antelopes) or, according to another view, to their own tribe

Serowe, village, east-central Botswana. It lies southwest of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, and 30 miles (50 km) northwest of the Cape-to-Zimbabwe railway. Most of the country’s inhabitants live in large centralized villages of from 500 to 25,000 inhabitants. Serowe, the largest of these, is the traditional

Itacoatiara, city and river port, northeastern Amazonas estado (state), northwestern Brazil. Formerly known as Serpa, the settlement lies on the left (north) bank of the Amazon River, downstream from its junction with the Madeira River and approximately 110 miles (180 km) east of Manaus, the state

Menongue, town, southeastern Angola. It was originally named for Alexandre Alberto da Rocha de Serpa Pinto, a late 19th-century Portuguese explorer of the interior of southern Africa. Located on the Cuebe River (a tributary of the Okavango [Kubango] River) at an elevation of 4,462 feet (1,360

Alexandre Alberto da Rocha de Serpa Pinto was a Portuguese explorer and colonial administrator who crossed southern and central Africa on a difficult expedition and mapped the interior of the continent. Serpa Pinto went to eastern Africa in 1869 on an exploration of the Zambezi River. Eight years

Serpens, the only constellation divided into two parts, Serpens Caput (Latin: “Head of the Serpent”) and Serpens Cauda (Latin: “Tail of the Serpent”). The two parts represent the serpent held by the constellation of Ophiuchus. Serpens Caput is located at about 16 hours right ascension and 10° north

serpent, in music, a bass wind instrument sounded by the vibration of the lips against a cup mouthpiece. It was probably invented in 1590 by Edme Guillaume, a French canon of Auxerre, as an improvement on bass versions of the closely related cornett. It is made of wood in a serpentine curve 7 to 8

snake, (suborder Serpentes), any of more than 3,400 species of reptiles distinguished by their limbless condition and greatly elongated body and tail. Classified with lizards in the order Squamata, snakes represent a lizard that, over the course of evolution, has undergone structural reduction,

Serpens, the only constellation divided into two parts, Serpens Caput (Latin: “Head of the Serpent”) and Serpens Cauda (Latin: “Tail of the Serpent”). The two parts represent the serpent held by the constellation of Ophiuchus. Serpens Caput is located at about 16 hours right ascension and 10° north

Raja Rao: ” Rao’s second novel, The Serpent and the Rope (1960), is an autobiographical account of the narrator, a young intellectual Brahman, and his wife seeking spiritual truth in India, France, and England. The novel takes Rao’s first marriage and its disintegration as its subject. More broadly, it investigates the…

Ophiuchus, constellation at about 17 hours right ascension and on the celestial equator in declination. Its brightest star is Rasalhague (from the Arabic for “the head of the serpent collector”), with a magnitude of 2.1. This constellation contains Barnard’s Star, the second nearest star to Earth

Huang Yong Ping: …River near Nantes, France, for Serpent d’océan (2012); appeared as the key work in his 2014 retrospective Bâton Serpent at Rome’s National Museum of XXI Century Arts (MAXXI); and turned up in the installation Empires for the monthlong 2016 Monumenta exhibit. For the latter installation, Huang arranged 305 brightly coloured…

eagle: The serpent eagles, or snake eagles, Spilornis (six species, subfamily Circaetinae), eat mostly snakes, including large poisonous ones. They occur in Asia. Other birds called serpent eagles, notably the long-tailed members of the genera Dryotriorchis (e.g., African serpent eagle) and Eutriorchis (e.g., the endangered Madagascar serpent…

melon: Flexuosus group, the snake or serpent melons, which grow up to 7 cm (3 inches) in diameter and about 1 metre (3 feet) in length. The flesh is slightly acidic and cucumber-like. Conomon group, the Asian pickling melons, which have greenish flesh and are neither musky nor sweet. Chito group,…

Native American art: Midwest and Great Plains: The Serpent Mound in Ohio is an example of this custom. Truncated pyramids served as large bases for wooden temples, now long vanished but still in use when Spanish explorers first entered the region. Monks Mound, dominating the Cahokia Mounds, near Collinsville, Illinois, is the largest…

brittle star, any of the 2,100 living species of marine invertebrates constituting the subclass Ophiuroidea (phylum Echinodermata). Their long, thin arms—usually five and often forked and spiny—are distinctly set off from the small disk-shaped body. The arms readily break off but soon regrow—i.e.,

snake, (suborder Serpentes), any of more than 3,400 species of reptiles distinguished by their limbless condition and greatly elongated body and tail. Classified with lizards in the order Squamata, snakes represent a lizard that, over the course of evolution, has undergone structural reduction,

bullfighting: Act one: …of this last maneuver (the serpentina) transfixes the bull in place, at which point the bullfighter can actually turn his back on the animal and walk away.

matchlock: …an S-shaped arm, called a serpentine, that held a match, and a trigger device that lowered the serpentine so that the lighted match would fire the priming powder in the pan attached to the side of the barrel. The flash in the pan penetrated a small port in the breech…

serpentine, any of a group of hydrous magnesium-rich silicate minerals. The composition of these common rock-forming minerals approximates Mg3Si2O5(OH)4. Serpentine generally occurs in three polymorphs: chrysotile, a fibrous variety used as asbestos; antigorite, a variety occurring in either

Loie Fuller: …for her invention of the “Serpentine Dance,” a striking variation on the popular “skirt dances” of the day.

Sou Fujimoto: …was chosen to design the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in Kensington Gardens in London, a temporary structure commissioned by the gallery. He created an ethereal, semitransparent grid of white steel tubes that merged with the landscape, at once cloudlike and formal in its composition. The multitiered space urged the organic flow…

locomotion: Serpentine locomotion: In serpentine locomotion, in which the body is thrown into a series of sinuous curves, the movements appear identical to those of anguilliform swimming, but the similarity is more apparent than real. Unlike anguilliform swimming, when a snake starts to move, the entire…

military technology: Serpentine powder: The earliest gunpowder was made by grinding the ingredients separately and mixing them together dry. This was known as serpentine. The behaviour of serpentine was highly variable, depending on a number of factors that were difficult to predict and control. If packed too…

serpentine verse, in poetry, a line of verse beginning and ending with the same word, as in the first line of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Frater Ave Atque Vale”: The term likens such verses to depictions of serpents with their tails in their

Hyde Park: …Hyde Park portion is called the Serpentine. The lake is used for boating in the summer and skating in the winter. In the park’s northeastern corner, near Marble Arch, is Speakers’ Corner, which has long been a centre of free speech for soapbox orators. Also in the park are the…

Dino De Laurentiis: …films as the crime drama Serpico (1973)—the rights to which he acquired when the biography upon which it was based was only a 20-page draft—Death Wish (1974), Three Days of the Condor (1975), and King Kong (1976), as well as Ragtime (1981), a critically lauded adaptation of E.L. Doctorow

Ciro Alegría: …La serpiente de oro (1935; The Golden Serpent), which portrays the diverse human life to be found along the Marañón River in Peru. Los perros hambrientos (1938; “The Hungry Dogs”) describes the difficulties faced by the sheepherding Indians of the Peruvian highlands. The novel that is generally considered Alegría’s masterpiece…

Giacomo Serpotta was the outstanding member of a family of Sicilian sculptors and stucco workers. His methods for creating the illusion of perspective and his asymmetrical arrangements of two or more independent decorations proved highly influential to German artists of the Rococo period. In

Serpukhov, city, Moscow oblast (region), western Russia, on the Nara River at its confluence with the Oka. Founded in 1374 as a stronghold protecting Moscow from attack by the Tatars, who sacked it in 1382 and 1408, modern Serpukhov is a major textile (cotton and artificial silk) city; engineering

Serpukhov, city, Moscow oblast (region), western Russia, on the Nara River at its confluence with the Oka. Founded in 1374 as a stronghold protecting Moscow from attack by the Tatars, who sacked it in 1382 and 1408, modern Serpukhov is a major textile (cotton and artificial silk) city; engineering

Serpukhovian Stage, third of three internationally defined stages of the Mississippian Subsystem of the Carboniferous System, encompassing all rocks deposited during the Serpukhovian Age (330.9 million to 323.2 million years ago). The Serpukhovian is the shortest of the Carboniferous stages. The

annelid: Annotated classification: Eudistylia, Serpula, Hydroides. Order Archiannelida Minute, primitive, with ciliated epidermis; prostomium small, with or without appendages; parapodia absent; septa reduced or absent; size, minute. Contains 4 groups of poorly known species considered separate orders by some (Nerillida,

feather-duster worm: …the closely related polychaete family Serpulidae. Sabellids live in long tubes constructed of mud or sand cemented by mucus, whereas serpulids build tubes of calcareous materials. The epithet feather-duster refers to the multicoloured crown of finely divided tentacles that are attached in two groups, one on either side of the…

Selket, in Egyptian mythology, goddess of the dead. Her symbolic animal was the scorpion. She was one of the underworld deities charged with protecting the canopic jar in which the intestines of the deceased were stored after

Canastra Mountains, mountain range on the Planalto Central (Brazilian Highlands) in western Minas Gerais estado (state), southeastern Brazil. Extending 150 miles (240 km) from the Goías state border in the north to the upper Grande River in the south, the Canastra Mountains rise to an average

Estrela Mountains, highest mountains in continental Portugal. The range lies in the north-central part of the country, between the basins of the Tagus and Mondego rivers. The western continuation of the Central Sierras (Sistema Central) of Spain, the range runs about 40 miles (65 km) from northeast

Mantiqueira Mountains, mountain range of eastern Brazil. It rises abruptly from the northwestern bank of the Paraíba do Sul River and extends northeastward for approximately 200 miles (320 km), reaching a height of 9,255 feet (2,821 metres) in the Pico (peak) das Agulhas Negras. The mountains,

Monchique Mountains, low mountain range in southern Portugal, near Cape Saint Vincent, the southwestern extremity of the Iberian Peninsula. A dissected igneous rock (syenite) massif, its highest point is Foia (2,960 ft [902 m]). The range is famous for its wild and generally varied plant life, as

Sintra Mountains, mountain range, Lisboa distrito (“district”), western Portugal. It extends about 10 miles (16 km) from the resort of Sintra to the Cape da Roca on the Atlantic Ocean, reaching its highest point (1,736 feet [529 m]) just south of Sintra. The lush vegetation (both Mediterranean and

Espinhaço Mountains, mountain range of Minas Gerais and Bahia states, eastern Brazil. Their peaks reach heights between 3,600 and 6,500 feet (1,100 and 2,000 metres). With the Diamantina Upland of Bahia state, they form the divide between the tributaries of the São Francisco River and the streams

Parecis Mountains, mountains, Rondônia and Mato Grosso estados (“states”), west-central Brazil. Rising out of the tropical rain forests of Rondônia, near the Bolivian border, the range extends southeastward for 500 miles (800 km) to the vicinity of Diamantino in Mato Grosso. Its northwestern

Guyana: Relief: …is bisected by the east–west-trending Kanuku Mountains.

Pacaraima Mountains, central tabular upland of the Guiana Highlands in Brazil, Venezuela, and Guyana. The Pacaraima Mountains form the drainage divide between the Orinoco Valley to the north and the Amazon Basin to the south. Extending for 250 miles (400 km) in an east–west direction, the mountains

Parima Mountains, range in northern Brazil and southern Venezuela. It is an outlying range of the Guiana Highlands and extends south-southeastward for about 200 miles (320 km), separating Venezuela from Brazil. Its peaks, largely unexplored, reach an elevation of 5,000 feet (1,500 metres) above sea

Brazil: The Petrobras scandal, impeachment of Rousseff, and Temer interregnum: …in the October poll were José Serra, Lula’s Social Democratic rival in the 2002 election, and Marina Silva of the Green Party. Rousseff won nearly half of the vote, but, because she fell short of a majority, she and the runner-up, Serra, met in a runoff in October, which Rousseff…

Richard Serra was an American sculptor known for his large-scale abstract steel sculptures, whose substantial presence forces viewers to engage with the physical qualities of the works and their particular sites. Like other minimalists of his generation, Serra steered clear of art as metaphor or

St. Junípero Serra ; canonized September 23, 2015; feast day August 28 (July 1 in the U.S.)) was a Spanish Franciscan priest whose missionary work among the Indians of North America earned him the title of Apostle of California. In 2015 he became the first saint of the Roman Catholic Church to be

Sérrai, city and dímos (municipality), periféreia (region) of Central Macedonia (Modern Greek: Kendrikí Makedonía), northern Greece. Sérrai is situated on the east bank of the fertile agricultural valley of the Struma (Strymónas) River. The town was fortified by Byzantine emperors in their efforts

children’s literature: Contemporary times: Children’s vese by Ian Serraillier, Ted Hughes, James Reeves, and the later Eleanor Farjeon, excellent though it was, did not speak with the master tones of a de la Mare or the precise simplicity of a Stevenson. In science fiction one would have expected more of a boom;…

sea bass: Certain species, such as the belted sandfish (Serranellus subligarius) of Florida, are hermaphroditic (male and female reproductive organs in one animal). Others, such as the groupers, may mature as one sex and later change to the other.

Mountains of Perijá, mountain chain, the northward extension of the Andean Cordillera Oriental, forming part of the border between Colombia and Venezuela. The range extends for 190 miles (306 km) from the vicinity of Ocaña, Colombia, northward to the Guajira Peninsula. Its crest line rises to

sea bass, (family Serranidae), any of the numerous fishes of the family Serranidae (order Perciformes), most of which are marine, found in the shallower regions of warm and tropical seas. The family includes about 475 species, many of them well-known food and sport fishes. Although the term sea

Serrano, North American Indian group speaking a Uto-Aztecan language and originally inhabiting a mountainous region of what is now southern California. Serrano means “mountain dweller” in Spanish. One band, the Kitanemuk, lived in the Kern and San Joaquin river basins; another band, the Vanyume,

José María Gil Robles: …adherents followed his youth leader Ramón Serrano Súñer into the Falange. He remained chief opposition spokesman in the Cortes, but was increasingly eclipsed there by the monarchist José Calvo Sotelo. He was an intended victim of the plot responsible for Calvo Sotelo’s murder (July 1936). Soon after the outbreak of…

Francisco Serrano y Domínguez, duke de la Torre , duke de la Torre was one of the chief military politicians of 19th-century Spain. He played an important part in the Revolution of 1868, which dethroned the Bourbon Spanish queen Isabella II. Serrano joined the army at the age of 12 and fought with

Andres Serrano is an American photographer whose Piss Christ (1987), an image of a crucifix submerged in urine, resulted in a storm of controversy and was a central element in the so-called culture wars of the late 1980s and ’90s. The piece and others of a similar confrontational nature caused a

Ferdinand Magellan: Early life: …Portuguese explorer, his close friend Francisco Serrão. (Serrão, possibly a relative of Magellan’s, had sailed with Magellan to India in 1505.) Magellan attempted to return to Portugal afterward but was unsuccessful. At a council held at Cochin on October 10, 1510, to decide on plans for retaking Goa—which the Portuguese…

piranha: The most infamous is the red-bellied piranha (Pygocentrus nattereri), with the strongest jaws and sharpest teeth of all. Especially during low water, this species, which can grow up to 50 cm (about 20 inches) in length, hunts in groups that can number more than 100. Several groups can converge in…

Italy: Economic and political crisis: the two red years: …wing, a faction led by Giacinto Serrati that abandoned the Socialists’ prewar and wartime reformist policy for a more radical approach, and by the New Order (Ordine Nuovo) group of intellectuals based in Turin around Antonio Gramsci. These Socialists continually proclaimed the need for revolution and their desire to “do…

muscle: Tetrapod musculature: …blade) to the body: the serratus, made up of numerous fingerlike slips running from the scapula to the neighbouring ribs, and the levator scapulae, which are fused with serratus along its caudal (tail-end) border. Levator scapulae consist of fibres running more anteriorly to ribs or transverse processes of the neck.…

Serravalle, town in the northeastern part of the Republic of San Marino. Serravalle is located on the Ausa Stream at an elevation of 485 feet (148 m) above sea level. It is the manufacturing centre of the republic and has industries producing textiles, ceramics, and metalwork. Serravalle was given

Serravallian Stage, division of middle Miocene rocks, representing all rocks deposited worldwide during the Serravallian Age (13.8 million to 11.6 million years ago) of the Neogene Period (23 million to 2.6 million years ago). The Serravallian Stage is named for outcrops in the vicinity of

Jean-Pierre Serre is a French mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1954 for his work in algebraic topology. In 2003, he was awarded the first Abel Prize by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Serre attended the École Normale Supérieure (1945–48) and the Sorbonne (Ph.D.;

Sérrai, city and dímos (municipality), periféreia (region) of Central Macedonia (Modern Greek: Kendrikí Makedonía), northern Greece. Sérrai is situated on the east bank of the fertile agricultural valley of the Struma (Strymónas) River. The town was fortified by Byzantine emperors in their efforts

Sérrai, city and dímos (municipality), periféreia (region) of Central Macedonia (Modern Greek: Kendrikí Makedonía), northern Greece. Sérrai is situated on the east bank of the fertile agricultural valley of the Struma (Strymónas) River. The town was fortified by Byzantine emperors in their efforts

eel: Annotated classification: Family Serrivomeridae (sawtooth snipe eels) Jaws moderately extended; bladelike teeth on vomer bones. 2 genera with about 10 species. Bathypelagic, worldwide. Family Colocongridae (shorttail eels) 1 genus, Coloconger, with about 5 species. Marine; Atlantic, Indian and western Pacific oceans. Family

fair trade: History: …1949 a nonprofit organization called SERRV (Sales Exchange for Refugee Rehabilitation and Vocations) was established in the United States by the Church of the Brethren to form trade relationships with poor communities in South America. The first formal fair trade shop in the United States, where goods from SERRV and…

Josep Maria Sert was a Catalan painter whose modern Baroque murals achieved international recognition. His work adorns the walls of buildings including the assembly hall of the League of Nations (Geneva), the RCA Building in Rockefeller Center, and the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (both in New York City).

Josep Maria Sert was a Catalan painter whose modern Baroque murals achieved international recognition. His work adorns the walls of buildings including the assembly hall of the League of Nations (Geneva), the RCA Building in Rockefeller Center, and the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (both in New York City).

José Luis Sert was a Spanish-born American architect noted for his work in city planning and urban development. After graduation from the School of Architecture, Barcelona (1929), Sert worked with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret in Paris. From 1929 to 1937 he had his own architectural office in

Josep Maria Sert was a Catalan painter whose modern Baroque murals achieved international recognition. His work adorns the walls of buildings including the assembly hall of the League of Nations (Geneva), the RCA Building in Rockefeller Center, and the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (both in New York City).

calligraphy: Spread of Aramaic to the Middle East and Asia: The western branch was called Serta and developed into two varieties, Jacobite and Melchite. Vigorous in pen graphics, Serta writing shows that, unlike the early Aramaic and Hebrew scripts, characters are fastened to a bottom horizontal. Modern typefaces used to print Syriac, which has survived as a language, have the…

sertão, (Portuguese: “backwoods,” or “bush”), dry interior region of northeastern Brazil that is largely covered with caatingas (scrubby upland forests). Sertão is also used to refer to the sparsely populated wilderness beyond areas of permanent settlement and may be equated with the Canadian

Campina Grande, city, eastern Paraíba estado (state), northeastern Brazil. It is situated in the Bacamarte Mountains at 1,804 feet (550 metres) above sea level. Located on the site of an Ariú Indian village, it was originally called Porta do Sertão (“Gateway to the Desert”). Made a village in 1766,

Brazil: The coffee presidents: …historical narrative, Os Sertões (1902; Rebellion in the Backlands), described a bloody struggle between government forces and a group of messianic separatists in the untamed interior of Bahia state; against this tragic backdrop, Cunha reflected on the shortcomings of Brazilian society, including the pervasive divide between rural and urban traditions:…

animal reproductive system: Testes: …epithelium containing spermatogenic cells and Sertoli cells, nutritive cells that have the heads of maturing sperm embedded in them. Seminiferous tubules may begin blindly at the tunic, or outermost tissue layer, and pass toward the centre, becoming tortuous before emptying into a system of collecting tubules, the rete testis. Such…

Pierre Corneille: Years of declining power.: …one play a year, including Sertorius (performed 1662) and Attila (performed 1667), both of which contain an amount of violent and surprising incident.

Quintus Sertorius was a Roman statesman and military commander who, defying the Roman Senate, became the independent ruler of most of Spain for eight years. After acquiring some reputation in Rome as a jurist and orator, Sertorius fought in Gaul against the invading Cimbri and Teutons (105 and 102)

opioid: Historical perspective: …was morphine, by German pharmacist F.W.A. Sertürner about 1804. Codeine was isolated from morphine in 1832 and was found to produce much milder effects. The chemical formula of morphine was identified in 1847.

opioid: Historical perspective: …was morphine, by German pharmacist F.W.A. Sertürner about 1804. Codeine was isolated from morphine in 1832 and was found to produce much milder effects. The chemical formula of morphine was identified in 1847.

serum, the portion of plasma remaining after coagulation of blood, during which process the plasma protein fibrinogen is converted to fibrin and remains behind in the clot. Antiserum, which is prepared from the blood of animals or humans that have been exposed to a disease and have developed

serum albumin, protein found in blood plasma that helps maintain the osmotic pressure between the blood vessels and tissues. Serum albumin accounts for 55 percent of the total protein in blood plasma. Circulating blood tends to force fluid out of the blood vessels and into the tissues, where it

digestive system disease: Cirrhosis: …blood plasma) and increases in serum globulin (a specific group of proteins found in blood plasma and including immunoglobulins). Although other tests may also be abnormal in patients with acute liver disease, serum albumin levels are usually not reduced in the acute stage of the disease because that protein is…

hepatitis B, infectious disease of the liver, the causative agent of which is known as hepatitis B virus (HBV). The course and severity of illness associated with HBV infection varies widely. Some persons are asymptomatic, for example, whereas others experience acute illness and eliminate the virus

serum sickness, an allergic reaction to medicines that contain animal proteins or to antiserum injected into an individual’s blood to provide immunity against illnesses such as tetanus, botulism, and snake-venom poisoning. Symptoms include skin eruption, itching, swelling of the face and

hyperthyroidism: Diagnosis of hyperthyroidism: …thyroxine can be measured as serum total thyroxine or free thyroxine; the latter is preferable because it is the form of thyroxine that is readily available to the cells of the body and, therefore, is metabolically active. Measurements of serum total thyroxine are high in patients with thyroid disease and…