Category: K

The spirits who guided the Hopi Indians’ ancestors from the previous world to this one and who continue to guide these peoples’ lives. The Hopi believe that we today live in the Fourth World; the previous world was underground, and the kachinas spirit people who are intermediaries between humans and the Great Spirit guided the…

Reputed source of secret Jewish wisdom. Although the Hebrew word kabbalah actually means “tradition” and referred originally to the legal practices of Judaism, it has become associated with mystical Judaism; in particular, it refers to a system of obscure and mysterious practices that were formulated in the medieval period. The most famous of the kabbalistic…

A creamy drink made from the fermented milk of cows, goats, or sheep. The culture used to make kefir contains a combination of yeast and two strains of lactobacilli An alcoholic beverage derived from the fermentation of milk, brought about by the activity of bacteria or fungi. This liquor bears resemblance to kumiss. Kefir, a…

A vaccine prepared from dead microorganisms. This type of vaccine is used to prevent disease caused by highly virulent microbes.  

The lower limit at which ketone bodies (acetoacetic acid, hydroxybutyric acid, and acetone), on their accumulation in the blood, are excreted by the kidney. At that point, ketone bodies are being produced faster by the liver than the body can oxidize them.  

A thermometric scale in which absolute zero is 0°K; the freezing point of water is 273.15°K; and the boiling point of water is 373.15°K. Thus 1°K on the Kelvin scale is exactly equivalent to 1°C.  

A substance that, in its metabolism, gives rise to ketone bodies.  

A traumatic spondylitis in which symptoms do not appear until some time after the injury.  

Extension of the leg resulting from percussion of the patellar tendon. This is one of the myotatic or stretch reflexes important in maintaining posture. An unintentional leg twitch caused by the abrupt contraction of muscles when the tendon just below the kneecap is swiftly struck with a percussion hammer.  

Molecules on the surface of natural killer (NK) cells that bind with major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I markers and inhibit the ability of NK cells to destroy target cells. Different groups of KIRs may create subsets of NK cells that bind to and destroy different targets.