Glossary A

Allegory of the cave refers to Plato's description of individuals who live their lives in accordance with the shadows of reality provided by sensory experience instead of in accordance with the true reality beyond sensory experience.

Allele refers to a member of a pair of genes; the alternate state of a gene at a given locus.

Alleles refers to alternative forms of the same gene.

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Allergy refers to an immune system response characterized by an abnormal reaction to a foreign substance, such as dust, pollen, fur, etc.

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Allopathy refers to a conventional or Western medicine that treats disease by the use of remedies to produce effects different from those produced by the disease under treatment.

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Allophones refer to acoustically different speech sounds (phones) that are not functionally different (i.e., are the same phoneme) in a particular language. For example, [p] and [ph] are allophones of the phoneme /p/ in English.

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Alloplastic adaptation refers to the form of adjustment which results from changes in the environment surrounding an individual.

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Allostasis refers to the adaptive way in which the body changes its set points in response to changes in its life or changes in the environment; the ability to achieve stability through change. Allostasis is also the concept that different circumstances require different levels of physiological activation.

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