Animal Rights: The moral and ethical bases of the protection of animals from cruelty and abuse. The rights are extended to domestic animals, laboratory animals, and wild animals.Animal Experimentation: The use of animals as investigational subjects.Animal Welfare: The protection of animals in laboratories or other specific environments by promoting their health through better nutrition, housing, and care.Capital Punishment: The use of the death penalty for certain crimes.Cemeteries: Areas set apart as burial grounds.Myopia: A refractive error in which rays of light entering the EYE parallel to the optic axis are brought to a focus in front of the RETINA when accommodation (ACCOMMODATION, OCULAR) is relaxed. This results from an overly curved CORNEA or from the eyeball being too long from front to back. It is also called nearsightedness.Encyclopedias as Topic: Works containing information articles on subjects in every field of knowledge, usually arranged in alphabetical order, or a similar work limited to a special field or subject. (From The ALA Glossary of Library and Information Science, 1983)Astigmatism: Unequal curvature of the refractive surfaces of the eye. Thus a point source of light cannot be brought to a point focus on the retina but is spread over a more or less diffuse area. This results from the radius of curvature in one plane being longer or shorter than the radius at right angles to it. (Dorland, 27th ed)Refraction, Ocular: Refraction of LIGHT effected by the media of the EYE.Retinoscopy: An objective determination of the refractive state of the eye (NEARSIGHTEDNESS; FARSIGHTEDNESS; ASTIGMATISM). By using a RETINOSCOPE, the amount of correction and the power of lens needed can be determined.Dog Diseases: Diseases of the domestic dog (Canis familiaris). This term does not include diseases of wild dogs, WOLVES; FOXES; and other Canidae for which the heading CARNIVORA is used.Eye Diseases: Diseases affecting the eye.Thirst: A drive stemming from a physiological need for WATER.Chiroptera: Order of mammals whose members are adapted for flight. It includes bats, flying foxes, and fruit bats.Rabies: Acute VIRAL CNS INFECTION affecting mammals, including humans. It is caused by RABIES VIRUS and usually spread by contamination with virus-laden saliva of bites inflicted by rabid animals. Important animal vectors include the dog, cat, bat, fox, raccoon, skunk, and wolf.Rabies virus: The type species of LYSSAVIRUS causing rabies in humans and other animals. Transmission is mostly by animal bites through saliva. The virus is neurotropic multiplying in neurons and myotubes of vertebrates.Physician Incentive Plans: Compensatory plans designed to motivate physicians in relation to patient referral, physician recruitment, and efficient use of the health facility.Bites and StingsPeruAppendix: A worm-like blind tube extension from the CECUM.SkatoleSound: A type of non-ionizing radiation in which energy is transmitted through solid, liquid, or gas as compression waves. Sound (acoustic or sonic) radiation with frequencies above the audible range is classified as ultrasonic. Sound radiation below the audible range is classified as infrasonic.Psycholinguistics: A discipline concerned with relations between messages and the characteristics of individuals who select and interpret them; it deals directly with the processes of encoding (phonetics) and decoding (psychoacoustics) as they relate states of messages to states of communicators.Appendiceal Neoplasms: Tumors or cancer of the APPENDIX.Nursing Homes: Facilities which provide nursing supervision and limited medical care to persons who do not require hospitalization.Vocabulary: The sum or the stock of words used by a language, a group, or an individual. (From Webster, 3d ed)Butterflies: Slender-bodies diurnal insects having large, broad wings often strikingly colored and patterned.Reptiles: Cold-blooded, air-breathing VERTEBRATES belonging to the class Reptilia, usually covered with external scales or bony plates.Weather: The state of the ATMOSPHERE over minutes to months.Seasons: Divisions of the year according to some regularly recurrent phenomena usually astronomical or climatic. (From McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 6th ed)Plant Leaves: Expanded structures, usually green, of vascular plants, characteristically consisting of a bladelike expansion attached to a stem, and functioning as the principal organ of photosynthesis and transpiration. (American Heritage Dictionary, 2d ed)Fishes: A group of cold-blooded, aquatic vertebrates having gills, fins, a cartilaginous or bony endoskeleton, and elongated bodies covered with scales.Periodicals as Topic: A publication issued at stated, more or less regular, intervals.Planets: Celestial bodies orbiting around the sun or other stars.Achievement: Success in bringing an effort to the desired end; the degree or level of success attained in some specified area (esp. scholastic) or in general.Earth (Planet): Planet that is the third in order from the sun. It is one of the four inner or terrestrial planets of the SOLAR SYSTEM.Seychelles: A group of Indian Ocean Islands, east of Tanzania. Their capital is Victoria. They were first claimed by the French in 1744 but taken by the English in 1794 and made a dependency of MAURITIUS in 1810. They became a crown colony in 1903 and a republic within the Commonwealth in 1976. They were named for the French finance minister, Jean Moreau de Sechelles, but respelled by the English in 1794. (From Webster's New Geographical Dictionary, 1988, p1102 & Room, Brewer's Dictionary of Names, 1992, p496)Intelligence: The ability to learn and to deal with new situations and to deal effectively with tasks involving abstractions.Educational Status: Educational attainment or level of education of individuals.Schools: Educational institutions.Copyright: It is a form of protection provided by law. In the United States this protection is granted to authors of original works of authorship, including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works. (from Circular of the United States Copyright Office, 6/30/2008)Waiting Lists: Prospective patient listings for appointments or treatments.Computer Security: Protective measures against unauthorized access to or interference with computer operating systems, telecommunications, or data structures, especially the modification, deletion, destruction, or release of data in computers. It includes methods of forestalling interference by computer viruses or so-called computer hackers aiming to compromise stored data.Confidentiality: The privacy of information and its protection against unauthorized disclosure.Privacy: The state of being free from intrusion or disturbance in one's private life or affairs. (Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed, 1993)Intellectual Property: Property, such as patents, trademarks, and copyright, that results from creative effort. The Patent and Copyright Clause (Art. 1, Sec. 8, cl. 8) of the United States Constitution provides for promoting the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. (From Black's Law Dictionary, 5th ed, p1014)Authorship: The profession of writing. Also the identity of the writer as the creator of a literary production.Science: The study of natural phenomena by observation, measurement, and experimentation.African Americans: Persons living in the United States having origins in any of the black groups of Africa.NewsNewspapers: Publications printed and distributed daily, weekly, or at some other regular and usually short interval, containing news, articles of opinion (as editorials and letters), features, advertising, and announcements of current interest. (Webster's 3d ed)Mass Media: Instruments or technological means of communication that reach large numbers of people with a common message: press, radio, television, etc.Indians, North American: Individual members of North American ethnic groups with ancient historic ancestral origins in Asia.Social Sciences: Disciplines concerned with the interrelationships of individuals in a social environment including social organizations and institutions. Includes Sociology and Anthropology.