Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Shop

0-9

Vestalia ... Vibrio comma

Vestalia: (from the article "Vesta") ...its extinction at any other time, either accidentally or not, was regarded as a portent of disaster to Rome. The temple's innermost sanctuary was not open to the public; once ...
Vestdijk, Simon: prolific Dutch writer whose early novels, with their unrelenting exposure of the barrenness of middle-class provincial life, shocked the bourgeois world of the 1930s. [1 Related Articles]
Veste: (from the article "Coburg") ...of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha; their line has supplied Europe with many of its crowned heads. Coburg was of considerable importance in the 15th and 16th centuries, largely because of its strongly fortified ...
vested-rights doctrine: (from the article "conflict of laws") ...whose thoughts shaped much of American conflict-of-laws theory in the first half of the 20th century, that is where the rights and obligations of the parties "vested." This vested-rights doctrine ...
Vesteralen: island group, in the Norwegian Sea, northern Norway. Forming the northern end of the Lofoten-Vesteralen archipelago, the Vesteralen include, from east to west, Hinn Island (largest Norwegian island but for ...
Vestiarian controversy: (from the article "adiaphorism") ...defended Christian freedom in such matters. Although the term "adiaphorism" was not explicitly applied in other disputes, analogous controversies occurred elsewhere. In England the Vestiarian controversy in the 1560s and ...
vestibular aqueduct: (from the article "ear, human") ...side of the vestibule. The other ends of the superior and posterior canals join to form a common stem, or crus, which also opens into the vestibule. Nearby is the ...
vestibular nerve: (from the article "nervous system, human") Vestibular receptors are located in the semicircular canals of the ear, which provide input on rotatory movements (angular acceleration), and in the utricle and saccule, which generate information on linear ...
vestibular system: (from the article "nervous system, human") Humans have evolved sophisticated sensory receptors to detect features of the environment in which they live. In addition to the special senses such as hearing and sight, there are unobtrusive ...
vestibule: (from the article "ear, human") The two membranous sacs of the vestibule, the utricle and the saccule, are known as the otolith organs (Figure 4). Because they respond to gravitational forces, they are also called ...
vestibule: (from the article "respiration, human") Two regions of the nasal cavity have a different lining. The vestibule, at the entrance of the nose, is lined by skin that bears short thick hairs called vibrissae. In ...
vestibule: (from the article "mouth") ...opens to the outside at the lips and empties into the throat at the rear; its boundaries are defined by the lips, cheeks, hard and soft palates, and glottis. It ...
vestibulo-ocular reflex: (from the article "nervous system, human") When the head is oscillated, the eyes maintain their position in space but move in relation to the head. This so-called vestibulo-ocular reflex operates in both horizontal and vertical planes ...
vestibulocochlear nerve: nerve in the human ear, serving the organs of equilibrium and of hearing. It consists of two anatomically and functionally distinct parts: the cochlear nerve, distributed to the hearing organ, ... [6 Related Articles]
vestibulospinal tract: (from the article "nervous system, human") The vestibulospinal tract originates from cells of the lateral vestibular nucleus, which lies in the floor of the fourth ventricle. Fibres of this tract descend the length of the spinal ...
vestigial organ: (from the article "evolution") ...wormlike structure attaches to a short section of intestine called the cecum, which is located at the point where the large and small intestines join. The human vermiform appendix is ...
vestigial side-band transmission: (from the article "television") ...side band is possible, but this would complicate receiver design; hence, a vestige of the unwanted side band is retained to serve the overall economy of the system. This technique ...
Vestini: ancient Sabine tribe, which occupied the eastern and northern bank of the Aternus (modern Aterno) River in central Italy. They entered into the Roman alliance in 302 BC and remained ...
Vestlandet: geographical region, southwestern Norway, covering an area of about 22,592 square miles (58,512 square km). Providing the most spectacular fjord and mountain scenery in Norway, the region has been a ... [1 Related Articles]
Vestmanna Islands: group of 14 small Icelandic islands off Iceland's southern shore. They have a total area of about 8 square miles (21 square km). Volcanic in origin, the islands are rocky ...
Vestmannaeyjar: (from the article "Vestmanna Islands") The largest and only inhabited island is Heimaey, 4 miles (6 km) in length, on which the town of Vestmannaeyjar is located. Fishing and some limited farming are the chief ...
vestment: (from the article "religious dress") ...religious rituals that may be corporate, domestic, or personal in nature. Such dress may comprise types of coverings all the way from the highly symbolic and ornamented eucharistic (Holy Communion) ...
Vestri: (from the article "Midgard") ...his bones the mountains, his teeth the cliffs, his hair the trees, and his brains (blown over the earth) became the clouds. Aurgelmir's skull was held up by four dwarfs, ...
Vestris family: a family of dancers who dominated French ballet for nearly a century, most notably Gaetan Vestris (in full Gaetano Apollino Baldassare Vestri, or Vestris; b. April 18, 1729, Florence, Italy, ...
Vestris, Auguste: (from the article "Nijinsky, Vaslav") ...to fulfill the customary period of study. At the time he already had been heralded as the "eighth wonder of the world" and the "Vestris of the North" (in reference ...
Vestris, Gaetan: the finest French male ballet dancer of his time. [1 Related Articles]
Vestris, Madame: married name (from 1838) Lucia Elizabeth, or Elizabetta, Mathews, nee Bartolozzi British actress, opera singer, and manager who inaugurated tasteful and beautiful stage decor and set a standard in stage ... [4 Related Articles]
vestured pit: (from the article "Myrtales") ...angiosperms. In Myrtales the pits of vessels have a sievelike appearance because of minute outgrowths from their borders, which arch over the pit cavity. Bordered pits with such processes are ...
vesuvianite: common silicate mineral that occurs in crystalline limestones near their contacts with igneous rocks, and in beds of marble and calcsilicate granulite that are associated with gneiss and mica schist. ...
Vesuvius: active volcano that rises above the Bay of Naples on the plain of Campania in southern Italy. Its western base rests almost upon the bay. The height of the cone ... [9 Related Articles]
Veszprem: megye (county), western Hungary, extending north from Lake Balaton. It is bordered by the counties of Gyor-Moson-Sopron to the north, Komarom-Esztergom to the northeast, and Fejer to ...
Veszprem: city of county status and seat of Veszprem megye (county), western Hungary. It lies along the Sed River, spanned there by a viaduct, in the Bakony Mountains, southwest of Budapest. ... [1 Related Articles]
vetch: any herbaceous plant of the genus Vicia, within the pea family (Fabaceae). About 150 species are known. The plants are 30-120 cm (1-4 feet) tall, with trailing or climbing stems ...
vetci: (from the article "South Asian arts") ...(genres) that paralleled one another: e.g., the kurinci genre, in love poetry, which dealt with the lovers' clandestine union on a hillside by night; and the vetci genre, in heroic ...
Veterans Day: in the United States, day (November 11) honouring veterans of the armed forces and those killed in the country's wars. The observance originated in 1921 as Armistice Day with the ... [1 Related Articles]
Veterans of Foreign Wars: American organization created in 1913-14 by the merger of three national war-veteran societies that were founded in 1899, shortly after the Spanish-American War. The American Veterans of Foreign Service, the ...
veterinary medicine: medical specialty concerned with the prevention, control, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases affecting the health of domestic and wild animals and with the prevention of transmission of animal diseases to ... [8 Related Articles]
vetiver: perennial grass of the family Poaceae, native to tropical Asia and also introduced into the tropics of both hemispheres. Its thick, fragrant roots contain an oil used in perfumes. It ...
veto: (from the article "United States") ...an amendment to a $90 billion supplemental Iraq War appropriation requested by President Bush, setting a timeline for withdrawal of U.S. forces. Bush rejected the measure-only his second veto in ...
Vetsera, Maria: (from the article "Rudolf, Archduke and Crown Prince of Austria") ...schemes for having himself crowned king of Hungary and for resuscitating a Kingdom of Poland. Frustrated in his designs and unhappy in his marriage, he fell into despondency. The baroness ...
Vettii, House of the: (from the article "domus") The peristyle of the domus, typified by that of the House of the Vettii at Pompeii, contained the private living quarters of the family; clustered around its colonnaded court were ...
Vettore, Mount: (from the article "Apennine Range") ...subdivisions of the Apennines are the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, with a maximum height of 7,103 feet at Mount Cimone; the Umbrian-Marchigian Apennines, with their maximum elevation (8,130 feet) at Mount Vettore; ...
vetulocystid: (from the article "Life Sciences") ...soft-bodied fossils of deuterostomes from the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang deposits near Kunming in southwestern China represented a new group of echinoderms (a group of marine animals). Named vetulocystids, these deuterostomes ...
Veuillot, Louis: author and leader within France of extreme Ultramontanism, a movement advocating absolute papal supremacy. [1 Related Articles]
Veurne: municipality, West Flanders province, western Belgium. The municipality lies at the junction of four canals, northeast of Dunkerque. It was founded about 870 by Baldwin I Iron-Arm (or Ferreus), first ...
Veuve Perrin: (from the article "pottery") ...nobility looked for a less expensive medium to replace it. In consequence, faience gained in popularity and importance. A great deal was manufactured in the region of Marseilles, the factory ...
Vever, Henri: (from the article "jewelry") Unlike Lalique, the jewelers Georges Fouquet (1858-1929) and Henri Vever (1854-1942) expressed themselves through more synthetic geometric forms. The pendant representing a butterfly by Fouquet and the bracelet and ring ...
Vevey: (from the article "Switzerland") Some cities in Switzerland originally developed around monasteries (e.g., Sankt Gallen) or around Roman settlements (e.g., Zurich and Lausanne). Within the Alps of Vaud, Vevey and Montreux were sited on ...
vexillology: (from the article "flag") ...them as artifacts expressive of the cultures of certain times and places. The scholarly study of the history, symbolism, etiquette, design, manufacture, and other aspects of flags is known as ...
veyyakarana: (from the article "anga") 3. Veyyakarana ("explanation," or "prophecy"), a category into which the whole Pali Abhidhamma Pitaka ("Basket of Special Doctrine") has been placed, together with miscellaneous works. For the Sarvastivada ("Doctrine That ...
Vezelay: village, Yonne departement, Bourgogne region, north-central France. The village lies on a hill on the left bank of the Cure River. Its history is tied to its great Benedictine abbey, ... [1 Related Articles]
Vezeronce, battle of: (from the article "France") ...moved into Burgundy, whose king, Sigismund, Theodoric's son-in-law, had assassinated his own son. Sigismund was captured and killed. Godomer, the new Burgundian king, defeated the Franks at Vezeronce and forced ...
Vezina Trophy: (from the article "Hasek, Dominik") ...average (GAA) was the lowest in the league since the 1973-74 season. Hasek continued to lead the league in GAA, save percentage, and shutouts. Between 1994 and 2001 he earned ...
Vezzali, Valentina: (from the article "Fencing") ...France topped the medals table with 10 (4 gold), followed by Russia with 7 medals (2 gold) and Italy with 6 (2 gold). South Korea and the U.S. won gold ...
Vezzi, Francesco: (from the article "pottery") No hard porcelain was made in Italy until Francesco and Giuseppe Vezzi's factory was established in Venice in 1720. It made fine hard porcelain the body of which has a ...
Vezzi, Giuseppe: (from the article "pottery") No hard porcelain was made in Italy until Francesco and Giuseppe Vezzi's factory was established in Venice in 1720. It made fine hard porcelain the body of which has a ...
VH1: (from the article "MTV") By the mid-1990s, the majority of MTV's daily schedule was devoted to programming that was not related to music. Its sister station VH1 had been broadcasting adult-oriented rock videos since ...
VHF: conventionally defined portion of the electromagnetic spectrum including any radiation with a wavelength between 1 and 10 metres and a frequency between 300 and 30 megahertz. VHF signals are widely ... [6 Related Articles]
VHF omnidirectional radio range: (from the article "radio range") Modern very-high-frequency omnidirectional range (VOR) has been developed in various forms since about 1930. It transmits two signals simultaneously in all directions. Operating in the very high frequency (VHF) range, ...
VHS: (from the article "videocassette recorder") ...developed in the l960s, but the first relatively convenient and low-cost VCR was introduced by the Sony Corporation in 1969. With the subsequent development of the Betamax format by Sony ...
via affirmativa: (from the article "mysticism") Mystical experience permits complementary and apparently contradictory methods of expression: via affirmativa ("affirmative way," or fullness) as well as via negativa ("negative way," or emptiness). For fullness and freedom both ...
Via Dolorosa: (from the article "Jerusalem") ...Jerusalem, and the city has an extensive modern sewerage system. Drainage repairs in the Christian quarter have uncovered Byzantine pavements, which have been restored. Additionally, parts of the Via Dolorosa, ...
Via Lucis: (from the article "Cross, Stations of the") ...the practice, and in the 18th century they bowed to Western Christian devotional feeling and provided 14 stations in Jerusalem. The traditional stations have been recently supplemented with the Via ...
via militare: (from the article "roads and highways") ...by the peak of the empire had built nearly 53,000 miles of road connecting their capital with the frontiers of their far-flung empire. Twenty-nine great military roads, the
via negativa: (from the article "Christianity") ...Theology and On the Divine Names, the main emphasis was on the ineffability of God ("the Divine Dark") and hence on the "apophatic" or "negative" approach to ...
VIA Rail Canada, Inc.: Canadian state-owned passenger-railway system. Incorporated in 1977 and established in 1978 as a crown corporation independent of the Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific (CP) railroads, VIA gradually assumed full ... [2 Related Articles]
Viacao Aerea Sao Paulo: (from the article "Brazil") ...consolidated into three major companies that compete nationwide: VARIG, which since the late 1920s has been a largely employee-owned airline; the now privately owned Sao Paulo State Airline (VASP), which ...
Viacom Inc.: one of the largest and foremost communications and media conglomerates in the United States. The present form of the corporation dates from 1994 when Viacom Inc., which owned radio and ... [5 Related Articles]
Viadana, Lodovico da: (from the article "concerto") ...first chorus only-a partial score enabling the keyboard player to orient himself. Unlike the Gabrieli collection of concerti, Banchieri's is composed exclusively of sacred texts. By contrast, Lodovico da Viadana's ...
viaduct: type of long bridge or series of bridges, usually supported by a series of arches or on spans between tall towers. The purpose of a viaduct is to carry a ... [1 Related Articles]
Viagra: trade name of the first oral drug for male impotence, introduced by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, Inc., in 1998. Also known by the chemical name sildenafil citrate, it is one ... [5 Related Articles]
Vian, Boris: (from the article "French literature") ...cafes and cellar clubs of Saint-Germain-des-Pres. The myth of this disillusioned youth, its district of Paris, its innocence, its jazz clubs, and its worship of Sartre were captured in Boris ...
Viana, Carlos de Aragon, Prince de: English Charles Of Aragon heir apparent to the throne of Navarre (from 1428), who intrigued for both the Navarrese and Aragonese crowns. [1 Related Articles]
Vianen: (from the article "Brederode, Hendrik van") The scion of an ancient Dutch family, which from 1418 had held the lordship of Vianen south of Utrecht, Brederode became known as a spirited soldier and succeeded to the ...
Vianen, Adam van: (from the article "auricular style") a 17th-century ornamental style based on parts of the human anatomy. It was invented in the early 17th century by Dutch silversmiths and brothers Paulus and Adam van Vianen. Paulus ...
Vianen, Paulus van: (from the article "auricular style") a 17th-century ornamental style based on parts of the human anatomy. It was invented in the early 17th century by Dutch silversmiths and brothers Paulus and Adam van Vianen. Paulus ...
Viani, Alberto: (from the article "Western sculpture") The segmented torso, popular with Arp, Laurens, and Picasso earlier, continued to be reinterpreted by Alberto Viani, Bernard Heiliger, Karl Hartung, and Raoul Hague. The emphasis of these sculptors was ...
Vianney, Saint Jean-Baptiste-Marie: French priest, the patron saint of parish priests, who was renowned as a confessor and for his supernatural powers.
Vianu, Tudor: (from the article "Romanian literature") ...Camilar, in his novel Mist, bitterly indicted fascism. Essays and criticism were written by Mihai Ralea, who also published travel books and philosophical and psychological works, and by Tudor Vianu, ...
Viardot, Pauline: French mezzo-soprano, best known for highly dramatic operatic roles. [1 Related Articles]
Viareggio: town, Toscana (Tuscany) regione, central Italy. It lies along the Ligurian Sea, south of the Apuan Alps, just northwest of Pisa. Sheltered by dense pine woods and possessing a famous ...
Viareggio Prize: (from the article "Literature") ...on Camorra, the particular form that organized crime took in Naples and the Campania region. At the same time painstakingly detailed and artistically accomplished, the novel earned its author the ...
Viau, Theophile de: French poet and dramatist of the pre-Neoclassical period. [2 Related Articles]
Vibo Valentia: town, Calabria regione, southern Italy. It lies near the Gulf of Sant'Eufemia. It originated as the ancient Greek town of Hipponion and was praised in the 1st century BC by ...
Viborg: city, north-central Jutland, Denmark. It lies northwest of Arhus. Originally a centre of pagan worship, Viborg (English: "sacred hill") was a royal town and the early capital of Jutland. According ...
vibraculum: (from the article "moss animal") ...In the gymnolaemate Bugula the avicularia are movable on short stalks and closely resemble miniature birds' heads-hence the name avicularium. Another specialized form of zooid is the vibraculum, in which ...
vibraphone: percussion instrument that has tuned metal bars and is similar in shape to a xylophone. Felt or wool beaters are used to strike the bars, giving a soft, mellow tone ... [3 Related Articles]
vibrating conveyor: (from the article "conveyor") Vibrating conveyors consist of troughs or tubes flexibly supported and vibrated by mechanical or electrical means to convey objects or bulk materials; vibration takes place in an inclined, elliptical pattern ...
vibrating string gravimeter: (from the article "gravitation") ...means. If a thin wire is stretched by a mass hung from it, the tension in the wire, and therefore the frequency of transverse oscillations, will vary with the force ...
vibrating-reed electrometer: (from the article "electrometer") The vibrating-reed electrometer uses a capacitor that has a vibrating reed as one of its plates. Movement of the reed changes the voltage across the capacitor. The output of the ...
vibration: periodic back-and-forth motion of the particles of an elastic body or medium, commonly resulting when almost any physical system is displaced from its equilibrium condition and allowed to respond to ... [19 Related Articles]
vibrational energy: (from the article "spectroscopy") ...rigid; however, the two nuclei are in a constant vibrational motion relative to one another. For such a nonrigid system, if the vibrational motion is approximated as being harmonic in ...
vibrational energy level: (from the article "spectroscopy") The rotational motion of a diatomic molecule can adequately be discussed by use of a rigid-rotor model. Real molecules are not rigid; however, the two nuclei are in a constant ...
vibrational quantum number: (from the article "spectroscopy") ...as being harmonic in nature, the vibrational energy, E_v, equals (v + 12)hnu₀, where v = 0, 1, 2, . . . is the vibrational quantum number, nu₀ = (12pi)(k/mu)^1/2, ...
vibrational spectrum: (from the article "spectroscopy") The observation of the vibrational Raman spectrum of a molecule depends on a change in the molecules polarizability (ability to be distorted by an electric field) rather than its dipole ...
vibrational state decay: (from the article "spectroscopy") ...ultraviolet region (below 400 nanometres), the lifetime of the excited electronic state is sufficiently long that prior to the emission of radiation the molecule can (1) undergo a series of ...
vibrato: (from the article "sound") ...tongued, or a piano key struck, and decay transients, such as the way the sound of a plucked string dies away, are very important in many instruments, particularly those that ...
vibrio: (genus Vibrio), any of a group of comma-shaped bacteria in the family Vibrionaceae. Vibrios are aquatic microorganisms, some species of which cause serious diseases in humans and other animals.
Vibrio anquillarum: (from the article "vibrio") ...are of significance to humans: V. cholerae is the cause of cholera, and V. parahaemolyticus and V. vulnificus both act as agents of acute enteritis, or bacterial diarrhea. V. anguillarum ...
Vibrio cholerae: (from the article "nutrition common microbes that") ...the meninges, the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord; the diphtheria bacterium (Corynebacterium diphtheriae), which initially infects the throat; and the cholera bacterium (Vibrio cholerae), which reproduces in the ...
Vibrio comma: (from the article "bacteria") ...species forming chains; photosynthetic pigment present in certain species; cells usually motile by means of a single flagellum. Species in soil and in fresh water and salt water. Examples of ...