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Life and health

72,234 articles

Diplomate of National Board

Diplomate of National Board (DNB), also DrNB and FNB, is India's NBEMS-awarded postgraduate medical qualification, legally equivalent to MD/MS/DM/MCh, entered via NEET-PG with 3-year hospital training and a two-stage exit exam.

Diplopia

Diplopia (double vision): perception of two images of one object. Monocular diplopia persists with one eye open (cataract, astigmatism); binocular diplopia resolves when either eye closes and signals ocular misalignment, from decompensated phoria to cranial nerve palsy.

Diploria

Diploria, grooved brain coral (Diploria labyrinthiformis), a monotypic Caribbean brain-coral genus of massive reef-building stony corals; hemispherical colonies with meandering grooved valleys, spring and autumn spawning lineages, IUCN 2022 Critically Endangered.

Diplostomida

Diplostomida (Olson et al., 2003), one of two main digenean trematode orders, uniting Brachylaimoidea, Diplostomoidea (strigeid flukes with a unique holdfast organ) and Schistosomatoidea blood flukes including Schistosoma, cause of schistosomiasis.

Diplotaxis

Diplotaxis is a genus of 39 Brassicaceae species native from Europe and the Mediterranean to the Himalaya, including wild rocket (D. tenuifolia) and wall rocket (D. erucoides), salad greens rich in glucosinolates and quercetin flavonols.

Dipluridae

Dipluridae, curtain-web spiders, is a mygalomorph spider family with 8 genera and 159 species after the 2020 Opatova reclassification; known for funnel-and-sheet curtain webs, very long posterior spinnerets, and former paraphyletic circumscription.

Dipodidae

Dipodidae, the birch mice, jumping mice, and jerboas (Dipodoidea), is a rodent family of about 51 species in 15 genera, defined by a hystricomorphous skull with sciurognathous jaw and ranging from quadrupedal forest mice to obligate bipedal desert-hopping jerboas.

Diprionidae

Diprionidae, the conifer sawflies (also Combhorn Sawflies), is a family of sawflies whose larvae feed on the needles and cones of conifers, sometimes defoliating pine stands in outbreaks.

Diprosopus (διπρόσωπος)

Diprosopus (διπρόσωπος), or craniofacial duplication, is a rare congenital malformation, a subtype of conjoined twins, with partial or complete duplication of facial structures on one head; CNS anomalies in 96% of cases, incidence about 1 in 180,000 to 15 million births.

Diprotodon

Diprotodon, scientifically Diprotodon optatum, was a giant wombat-like marsupial, the largest known, weighing up to 2,700 kg and surviving in Australia until roughly 25,000 years ago.

Diprotodontia

Diprotodontia is the largest marsupial order, about 117 species in 10 families across Australia and New Guinea: koalas, wombats, kangaroos, possums. Defined by one pair of lower incisors and fused second and third hind toes.

Dipsacales

Dipsacales, also called the honeysuckle order, is an order of campanulid flowering plants with about 1,100 species in two families, Caprifoliaceae and Viburnaceae (Adoxaceae), including Lonicera, Viburnum, and Scabiosa.

Dipsacus

Dipsacus (teasels) is a genus of 21 accepted spiny Caprifoliaceae herbs native to Europe, North Africa, and temperate Asia, known for wool-napping flower heads, the Chinese medicine Dipsaci radix from D. asper, and invasive weedy species.

Dipsomania

Dipsomania (Trunksucht) is an obsolete 19th-century diagnosis of episodic, irresistible craving for alcohol with sober intervals; now classified under alcohol use disorder, not DSM-5 or ICD-11.

Dipstick test

A dipstick test is a low-cost point-of-care urine test in which a plastic strip bearing chemically treated pads changes color to detect glucose, protein, blood, ketones, nitrite, and other analytes.

DIPSY domain

The DIPSY domain is a conserved protein domain named for the amino acid sequence Asp-Ile-Pro-Ser-Tyr, found in fission yeast adhesins and acting as a functional adhesion domain.

Diptera

Diptera, the true flies (mosquitoes, hoverflies, house flies), is an insect order defined by one pair of functional wings and halteres, with about 170,000 described species in over 150 families, fossils from the Permian-Triassic, and major roles in pollination, decomposition, and disease transmission.

Diptera genera of uncertain geological placement

Diptera genera of uncertain geological placement are named fossil fly genera that cannot be confidently assigned to a specific geological period, family, or amber deposit, as flagged by the Fossil Diptera Catalog.

Diptera immunity

Diptera immunity is the innate immune system of flies, which lack adaptive immune memory and instead defend through the Toll and Imd pathways and antimicrobial peptides.

Diptera in amber

Diptera in amber are flies preserved as inclusions in fossilized tree resin, abundant in Burmese, Baltic, and Dominican amber, including extinct families and the oldest known mosquitoes.

Diptera internal physiology

Diptera internal physiology covers the internal organ systems of flies: a three-region gut with a Diptera-specific crop, an open circulatory system, tracheal breathing, and excretion by Malpighian tubules.

Diptera of Australia and New Zealand

The Diptera of Australia and New Zealand form part of the Australasian and Oceanian fly fauna east of Weber's Line, with over 9,000 described Australian species.

Diptera of Europe

The Diptera of Europe are the roughly 19,000 described species of true flies recorded from the European continent, across 132 families including midges, gnats, crane flies, and higher flies.

Diptera of North America

The Diptera of North America are the true flies, the two-winged insects, of the Nearctic region north of Mexico; Canada alone holds 9,777 known species in 118 families.

Diptera of the Neotropical realm

The Diptera of the Neotropical realm are the fly faunas of South and Central America and the Caribbean, with about 34,000 described species and likely five times more.

Diptera pests of crops and stored products

Diptera pests of crops and stored products are two-winged flies that rank among the world's worst agricultural pests, including tephritid fruit flies, agromyzid leafminers, gall midges, and frit flies.

Diptera reproduction and mating

Diptera reproduction and mating covers how flies court, copulate, and store sperm, from ancestral aerial swarms to elaborate courtship song, with consequences for pest and vector control.

Diptera taxonomy

Diptera taxonomy is the classification of the true flies, an order split into Nematocera and Brachycera, whose oldest fossils date to the Triassic 240 million years ago.

Dipterocarpaceae

Dipterocarpaceae (dipterocarps), a pantropical family of 17 genera and roughly 500-700 resinous tree species centered in Southeast Asian lowland rain forests, with winged 2-5-winged nuts, mast fruiting, ectomycorrhizas, and 75% of species threatened.

Dipterocarpus

Dipterocarpus (keruing, gurjun) is a genus of about 65-70 large resinous Dipterocarpaceae trees native from SW India to western and central Malesia, the source of keruing construction timber and oleo-resin, with many threatened species.