All articles starting with D
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Disarmed Enemy Forces
Disarmed Enemy Forces was a designation the United States Army used from April 1945 for surrendered German troops, removing them from prisoner-of-war status and Geneva Convention protections.
Disarticulation (surgery)
Disarticulation is a surgical amputation technique that separates a limb at a joint instead of cutting bone, performed at the shoulder, hip, knee, ankle, and midfoot.
Disaster
Disaster: a serious disruption of community or societal functioning from hazardous events interacting with exposure, vulnerability and capacity (UNDRR/Sendai definition). Covers hazard-vulnerability framework, disaster studies history, mortality down 65% versus losses nearly tripled since the 1970s.
Disaster film
Disaster film (disaster movie, catastrophe film): a film genre in which a man-made or natural calamity placing people in imminent danger is the core of the story. Known for US cycles in 1953–59, 1972–79, and 1993–96, the 1970s wave beginning with Airport (1970), and studies of its sublime spectacle versus hazard messaging.
Disaster Management Act, 2005
Disaster Management Act, 2005 (Act 53 of 2005; आपदा प्रबंधन अधिनियम), India's principal disaster law, enacted after the 2004 tsunami; creates NDMA (PM-chaired), SDMAs, DDMAs, NDRF and response funds; amended by the Disaster Management (Amendment) Act, 2025 adding UDMAs and statutory committees.
Disaster management in India
Disaster management in India: the DM Act 2005 created NDMA, SDMAs, DDMAs, and NDRF under the Ministry of Home Affairs; amended by the DM (Amendment) Act 2025 adding urban authorities.
Disaster Movie
Disaster Movie is a 2008 American parody comedy film written and directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, in which twenty-somethings flee catastrophes including twisters, asteroids, and earthquakes over a single night.
Disaster myopia
Disaster myopia is the tendency, named by Guttentag and Herring in 1986, to treat the probability of a shock as zero as time passes since the last one.
Disaster of the Lower Palace (Zhao clan massacre)
The Disaster of the Lower Palace (下宫之难), also called the Slander of Meng Ji, nearly destroyed the Zhao clan of the Jin state in 583 BC.
Disaster recovery
Disaster recovery, also called build back better (BBB) in resilience contexts, is the post-disaster process of restoring livelihoods, infrastructure, housing, and services. Key facts: Sendai Framework Priority 4, six US Recovery Support Functions, $450 billion federal aid since 2005.
Disaster zone
A disaster zone is an area hit by an extremely damaging event where action is taken to reduce harm to people and property, synonymous with "disaster area".
Disbandment of provincial troops
The disbandment of provincial troops (罢州郡兵) was an edict of Emperor Wu of Jin ordering China's provinces to dismiss their soldiers after the conquest of Wu.
Disbarment
Disbarment: revocation of a lawyer's license to practice law, the most severe US attorney-discipline sanction, imposed by courts with clear-and-convincing proof; readmission requires a five-year wait, bar and character-fitness exams, and reciprocal discipline spreads it across jurisdictions.
Disc arthroplasty
Disc arthroplasty is a spine operation that replaces a degenerated intervertebral disc with an artificial implant that preserves motion, an alternative to fusion for cervical or lumbar degenerative disc disease.
DISC assessment
DISC assessment: a self-report behavioral questionnaire based on Marston's 1928 theory, scoring Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness (or Inducement, Submission, Compliance); commercialized via Clarke's 1956 Activity Vector Analysis, Geier's Personal Profile System, and Wiley's Everything DiSC; used for workplace development, not validated for hiring.
Disc brake
A disc brake, also called a disk brake, is a friction brake in which a caliper squeezes brake pads against a rotor on the wheel hub.
Disc cutter
A disc cutter is a rolling cutting tool mounted on a tunnel boring machine cutterhead, whose hardened steel ring crushes rock into chips under high pressure.
DISC Drill (ice drilling system)
The DISC (Deep Ice Sheet Coring) Drill is an electromechanical drill built for the NSF that drilled the deepest U.S. ice core, 3,405 m, at WAIS Divide.
Disc golf
Disc golf: flying-disc sport where players throw plastic discs into metal baskets, PDGA-governed, first course Oak Grove 1975. 17,000+ courses, 89% free, 21.2M UDisc rounds in 2025, 86% participation growth since 2020.
Disc golf courses in the United States
Disc golf courses in the United States: ~11,165 courses (UDisc 2026), most of any country; 9- or 18-hole tee-pad-and-basket layouts, mostly free public-park amenities; PDGA skill-level tees; Kansas leads per capita.
Disc Golf Pro Tour
Disc Golf Pro Tour (DGPT), founded 2016 by Steve Dodge, is the Official Pro Tour of the PDGA for MPO and FPO professional disc golf, running 25+ Elite Series, Q-Series, and EuroTour events ending in the DGPT Championship.
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, known informally as a DJ, is an entertainer who selects, arranges, and mixes recorded music on radio, in clubs, and at live events.
Disc rot
Disc rot: deterioration of optical discs (CDs, DVDs, LaserDiscs, Blu-ray) from dye degradation, aluminum oxidation, label ink, or storage conditions, making discs unreadable; studied by NIST/LoC and CCI.
Disc wheel
A disc wheel is an aerodynamic spokeless bicycle wheel, used mainly as a rear wheel in time trials and track racing since Francesco Moser's 1984 hour record.
DISC1
DISC1 (Disrupted-in-Schizophrenia 1), a scaffold protein gene at 1q42.2 identified via a Scottish t(1;11) translocation family; a contested schizophrenia candidate gene with strong biology but negative genomic evidence.
DISC1 domain, vertebrates
DISC1 domain, vertebrates: domain organization of the DISC1 scaffold protein (Disrupted in Schizophrenia 1), an 854-aa protein with a disordered N-terminal head, conserved C-terminal coiled-coil tail, and UVR-like repeats, disrupted by the Scottish t(1;11) translocation.
Discalced Carmelites
The Discalced Carmelites (O.C.D.), also called Barefoot Carmelites, are a Catholic religious order founded by Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross in sixteenth-century Spain.
Discectomy
Discectomy: surgical removal of herniated disc material pressing on spinal nerves, first performed planned in 1932; evolved into microdiscectomy (Yasargil, 1977) and endoscopic techniques; relieves sciatica faster than non-surgical care short-term.
Discharge (band)
Discharge, British hardcore punk band formed 1977 in Stoke-on-Trent, pioneers of the D-beat drum style named after them; 1982 album Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing influenced thrash and extreme metal.
Discharge (hydrology)
Discharge, also called streamflow or river discharge, is the volume of water passing a point in a channel per unit time, measured in cubic feet or meters per second.