assassin bug Any of about 4,000 insect species (family Reduviidae) characterized by a thin, necklike structure connecting the narrow head to the body. Many species are common to North and South America. Rang¬ ing in size from 0.5 to 1 in. (13-25 mm), assassin bugs use their short, three-segmented beak to suck body fluids from their victims. Most assas¬ sin bugs prey on other insects; some, however, suck blood from verte¬ brates, including humans, and transmit diseases. One species, the large assassin bug, defends itself by accurately “spitting” saliva toxic enough to blind a human.
assassin fly See robber fly
assault and battery Related but distinct crimes. Battery is the unlaw¬ ful application of physical force to another; assault is an attempt to com¬ mit battery or an act that may reasonably cause fear of imminent battery. With manslaughter and murder (see homicide), these concepts are articu¬ lated to protect against rude and undesired physical contact or the threat of it. Battery requires no minimum degree of force, nor does it need to be applied directly; administering poison and transmitting a disease may both be battery. Accidents and ordinary negligence are not, nor is reason¬ able force used in the performance of duty (e.g., by a police officer). See also RAPE.
assault rifle Military firearm that is chambered for ammunition of reduced size or propellant charge and has the capacity to switch between semiautomatic and fully automatic fire. Light and portable, yet able to deliver a high volume of fire with reasonable accuracy at modern combat ranges of 1,000-1,600 ft (300-500 m), assault rifles have become the standard infantry weapon of modern armies. Their ease of handling makes them ideal for mobile assault troops crowded into personnel carriers or helicopters, as well as for guerrilla fighters engaged in jungle or urban warfare. Widely used assault rifles are the U.S. Ml 6, the Soviet Kalash¬ nikov (the AK-47 and modernized versions), the Belgian LAL and LNC, and the German G3.
assaying Va-sa-iqX In chemical analysis, the process of determining proportions of metal, particularly precious metal, in ores and metallurgi¬ cal products. The most important assaying technique grew largely out of the experiments of the ancient alchemists and goldsmiths. Precious met¬ als tend to occur as scattered particles randomly distributed, so a large sample of ore is required. Such large samples (typically containing gold, silver, and lead) are still most economically assayed by this ancient method, which involves several steps of heating and cooling. More sophisticated recent methods, such as spectrochemical analysis, are not suited to assaying precious metal ores because the samples of the inho¬ mogeneous ore that must be used are larger than the instruments can handle. See also parting.
assemblage \,a-sam-'blazh\ Three-dimensional construction made from household materials such as rope and newspapers or from any found materials. The term, coined by Jean Dubuffet in the 1950s, has been applied to collage, photomontage, and sculptural assemblage. The Dadaists and
Surrealists produced ready-made assemblages and elevated them to art by simply exhibiting them. Later artists who have worked with the technique include Louise Nevelson and Robert Rauschenberg.
Assemblies of God Largest Pentecostal denomination in the U.S. It was formed in 1914 in Hot Springs, Ark., by the union of several small Pentecostal groups. The Assemblies of God emphasize the centrality of the Bible in Christian faith and worship. Instead of sacraments, the Assem¬ blies have two ordinances, baptism by total immersion and the Lord’s Sup¬ per. Personal sanctification is believed to happen gradually rather than instantaneously, and millennial doctrines dealing with Christ’s Second Coming and the establishment of the Kingdom of God are of great impor¬ tance. The Assemblies of God have been very active in mission work in the U.S. and overseas. See also millennialism, Pentecostalism.
assembly language Type of low-level computer programming lan¬ guage consisting mostly of symbolic equivalents of a particular comput¬ er’s machine language. Computers produced by different manufacturers have different machine languages and require different assemblers and assembly languages. Some assembly languages can be used to convert the code that programmers write (source code) into machine language (readable by the computer), and have functions to facilitate programming (e.g., by combining a sequence of several instructions into one entity). Programming in assembly languages requires extensive knowledge of COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE.
assembly line Industrial arrangement of machines, equipment, and workers for continuous flow of workpieces in mass-production operations. An assembly line is designed by determining the sequences of operations for manufacture of each component as well as the final product. Each movement of material is made as simple and short as possible, with no cross flow or backtracking. Work assignments, numbers of machines, and production rates are programmed so that all operations performed along the line are compatible. Automated assembly lines (see automation) con¬ sist entirely of machines run by other machines and are used in such continuous-process industries as petroleum refining and chemical manu¬ facture and in many modern automobile-engine plants. See also Henry Ford, interchangeable parts, Taylorism.
assessment Process of setting a value on real or personal property, usually for the purpose of taxation. It is carried out either by central gov¬ ernment agencies or by local officials. Property may be assessed on the basis of its annual rental value, as in Britain, or its capital value, as in the U.S. Various methods are used to determine capital value, including analy¬ sis of market data to estimate the property’s current market price, esti¬ mation of the cost of reproducing the property minus accrued depreciation, and capitalization of the property’s earnings.
assessor One with special knowledge of a subject who is appointed or elected to assist a judge or magistrate in deciding a legal matter. In the U.S., the term also designates an official who evaluates property for the purposes of taxation. Assessors were appointed in the late 19th century throughout Europe to try to limit the influence of the jury system, which had been introduced in the wake of the French Revolution. Assessors thus represented a return to the civil-law traditions of Europe. In Britain and the U.S., assessors came to be used in labour and maritime courts as well as in some other civil jurisdictions.
assimilation See culture contact
Assiniboia No-.sin-s-'boi-oV Early region, western Canada. Named for the Assiniboin Indians, it was an area with indefinite boundaries, controlled by the Hudson's Bay Co. c. 1811-70. It included present-day southern Manitoba and, until 1818, the Red River Valley in present-day North Dakota and Minnesota. It was incorporated into Manitoba in 1870. In 1882 the Canadian government created another district of Assiniboia as part of the old Northwest Territories. In 1905 this district was divided between Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Assiniboin Xo-.sin-o-'boi-onN or Nakota North American Plains Indian people living mostly on reservations in Montana, U.S., and Saskatchewan and Alberta, Can. They speak a Siouan language. Their name is an Ojibwa word meaning “those who cook with stones.” They were divided into bands, each with its own chief and council, and were generally friendly with whites. The bands moved their camps frequently in pursuit of migrat¬ ing buffalo. Prowess in war consisted of taking scalps and horses and of touching the enemy (“counting coups”) during battle. Their numbers were severely reduced by smallpox in the 1820s and ’30s, after which most