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Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Feast of the ... vitreous body
Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Feast of the
(from the article "Visitation") ...St. John the Baptist leap in her womb, which, according to later doctrine, signified that he had become sanctified and cleansed of original sin. Mary then said the Magnificat (q.v.). ...
Visitation, Articles of
(from the article "petit jury") ...Alfred the Great of England initiated the institution in the 9th century. Others trace it to the Norman Conquest of England in the 11th century. The petit jury emerged as ...
Visnugopa
(from the article "Pallava Dynasty") ...they became rulers. Their genealogy and chronology are highly disputed. The first group of Pallavas was mentioned in Prakrit (a simple and popular form of Sanskrit) records, which tell of ...
Visnusvamin
(from the article "Vallabha") Vallabhacarya (acarya, "teacher") himself belonged to the Rudra sect established by Visnusvamin, and his philosophical system of pure nondualism (suddhadvaita)-i.e., the identity of God and the universe-closely follows that of ...
Visnuvardhana
(from the article "India") ...Deccan and conquered southern Koshala, Kalinga, Pishtapuram, and the Vishnukundin kingdom. He started the collateral branch of the Eastern Calukyas based at Pishtapuram with his younger brother Vishnuvardhana as the ...
Visnuvardhana
(from the article "India") The Hoysalas began as hill chieftains northwest of Dorasamudra (modern Halebid), feudatory to the Calukyas. Vishnuvardhana consolidated the kingdom in the 12th century. The Hoysalas were involved in conflict with ...
visored shrimp
(from the article "crustacean") ...to Triassic.Carboniferous.Permian to present; bivalved carapace encloses 8 pairs of leaflike limbs; movable rostrum; telson with caudal rami; marine; about 10...
Visp-rat
(from the article "Avesta") ...the very words of Zoroaster. They form a middle section of the chief liturgical part of the canon, the Yasna, which contains the rite of the preparation and sacrifice of ...
Visscher, Anna
Dutch poet and daughter of the Renaissance man of letters Roemer Visscher. She was admired and praised in verse by such poets as Constantijn Huygens and Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft. [2 Related Articles]
Visscher, Frans
(from the article "Diemen, Anthony van") ...school, Protestant churches, an orphanage, and a hospital; he also introduced a legal code known as the Batavian statutes. Van Diemen initiated the exploring expeditions of Abel Tasman and Frans ...
Visscher, Roemer
poet and moralist of the early Dutch Renaissance who was at the centre of the cultural circle that included the young poets Pieter C. Hooft, Joost van den Vondel, and ...
Visser 't Hooft, Willem Adolph
Dutch clergyman and theologian who led the World Council of Churches as its secretary-general from 1948 to 1966.
VistaVision
(from the article "motion picture, history of the") ...no special cameras, film stock, or projectors. By the end of 1954, every Hollywood studio but Paramount had leased a version of the process from Fox (Paramount adopted a nonanamorphic ...
Vistula Lagoon
shallow, marsh-fringed lagoon on the Baltic coast, bisected by the Polish-Russian border and considered part of the Gulf of Gdansk. Covering 330 square miles (855 square km), it is 56 ... [1 Related Articles]
Vistula Land
(from the article "Poland") The decades that followed the January Insurrection opened a new phase in the history of partitioned Poland. Harsh reprisals in the kingdom-now called the Vistula Land-were designed to reduce it ...
Vistula River
largest river of Poland and of the drainage basin of the Baltic Sea. With a length of 651 miles (1,047 kilometres) and a drainage basin of some 75,100 square miles ... [6 Related Articles]
Vistula, Operation
(from the article "Dolnoslaskie") ...and of many immigrants: repatriates from France and Belgium; ethnic Poles from Lviv, Ukraine, and Vilnius, Lithuania; and Ukrainians and Ruthenians (Lemks) who were displaced within the framework of Operation ...
Vistulan
(from the article "Krakow") Krakow was the home of the Wislanie tribe (Vistulans), who occupied Malopolska (Little Poland) until the 10th century. From 988 to 990 Mieszko I, prince of Poland, united the southern ...
visual acuity
(from the article "eye, human") As has been stated, the ability to perceive detail is restricted in the dark-adapted retina when the illumination is such as to excite only the scotopic type of vision; this ...
visual anthropology
(from the article "anthropology") Visual anthropology is both the practice of anthropology through a visual medium and the study of visual phenomena in culture and society. Therein lie the promise and dilemma of the ...
visual approach slope indicator system
(from the article "airport") Additional approach information is given visually to the pilot in the form of lighting approach aids. Two systems of approach aids are in use: the visual approach slope indicator system ...
Visual Basic
(from the article "computer programming language") Visual Basic was developed by Microsoft to extend the capabilities of BASIC by adding objects and "event-driven" programming: buttons, menus, and other elements of graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Visual Basic ...
visual binary star
(from the article "star") ...only from binary systems and only if the scale of the orbits of the stars around each other is known. Binary stars are divided into three categories, depending on the ...
visual cliff
(from the article "Rationalism") ...claims, the Rationalist defends a nativism, which holds that certain perceptual and conceptual capacities are innate-as suggested in the case of depth perception by experiments with "the visual cliff," which, ...
visual cortex
(from the article "eye, human") The optic tract fibres make synapses with nerve cells in the respective layers of the lateral geniculate body, and the axons of these third-order nerve cells pass upward to the ...
visual field defect
a blind spot (scotoma) or blind area within the normal field of one or both eyes. In most cases the blind spots or areas are persistent, but in some instances ...
visual flight rule
(from the article "traffic control") The simplest form of flight control is called the visual flight rule, in which pilots fly with visual ground reference and a "see and be seen" flight rule. In congested ...
visual meteorological conditions
(from the article "airport") Only the simplest airfields are designed for operations conducted under visual meteorological conditions (VMC). These facilities operate only in daylight, and the only guidance they are required to offer is ...
visual perceptual illusion
(from the article "illusion") When an observer is confronted with a visual assortment of dots, the brain may group the dots that "belong together." These groupings are made on the basis of such things ...
visual pigment
any of a number of related substances that function in light reception by animals by transforming light energy into electrical (nerve) potentials. [3 Related Articles]
visual surveillance
(from the article "police") Police conduct visual surveillance with binoculars, telescopes, cameras with telephoto lenses, video recorders, and closed-circuit television (CCTV). Cameras fitted with telescopic and other specialty lenses have become a standard covert ...
Visually Coupled Airborne Systems Simulator
(from the article "virtual reality") ...on visual displays and instrumentation in cockpits for the U.S. Air Force. By the late 1970s, he had begun development of virtual interfaces for flight control, and in 1982 he ...
Visva-Bharati University
(from the article "Selected universities and colleges of the world") ...the University of Calcutta have made notable contributions to science. The Asiatic Society of Bengal, the best-known Indian historical-research body in the 19th century, is located in West Bengal. Visva-Bharati ...
visva-varja
(from the article "vajra") ...divinities, such as the celestial Buddha Aksobhya and his manifestation as a bodhisattva ("Buddha-to-be"), Vajrapani (In Whose Hand Is the Vajra). The visva-vajra is a double vajra in the shape ...
Visvakarman
(Sanskrit: "All Accomplishing"), in Hindu mythology, the architect of the gods. The name was originally used as an epithet of any powerful god but later came to personify creative power. ...
Visvanath, Balaji
(from the article "India") ...in the Maratha state, with the Bhonsles reduced to figureheads. Holding the title of peshwa (chief minister), the first truly prominent figure of this line is Balaji ...
Visvanatha
(from the article "Indian philosophy") ...("The Language of Reasoning"; c. 1275), Annam Bhatta's Tarkasamgraha ("Compendium of Logic"; c. 1623), and Visvanatha's Bhasapariccheda ("Determination of the Meaning of the Verses"; 1634).
Viswanathan, Kaavya
(from the article "Literature") ...highly exaggerated (if not wholly invented) scenes from his pathetic 12-step life. Winfrey had endorsed his book as one of her book-club selections. In another case Harvard University undergraduate Kaavya ...
Vita Nova
(from the article "Literature") ...most significant development in Russian literary life in 2006 was the surge of interest in, and publication of, literary biographies, led by the prestigious publishing houses Molodaya Gvardiya and Vita ...
Vitaceae
the grape family of flowering plants, in the buckthorn order (Rhamnales), comprising 12 genera of woody plants, most of them tendril-bearing vines. The largest genus, which is pantropic in distribution, ... [1 Related Articles]
Vitagraph Company
(from the article "Blackton, J. Stuart") While interviewing Thomas A. Edison in 1895, Blackton's interest in films was so aroused that in the following year he and Albert E. Smith established Vitagraph; in 1899 they were ...
vital force
(from the article "chemical compound") ...organisms. It was therefore suspected that organic compounds could be produced only by organisms under the guidance of a power present exclusively in living things. This power was referred to ...
Vital Forces
(from the article "Madagascar") ...of the FNDR was expanded, and then, in March 1990, the constitution was amended to allow the formation of political groups that were not members of the Front. Another opposition ...
vital rates
relative frequencies of vital occurrences that affect changes in the size and composition of a population. When calculated per 1,000 inhabitants-as is conventional in vital-statistics publications-they are referred to as ...
vital sign
(from the article "human disease") Temperature, pulse, and respiratory rate-called the vital signs-may be important manifestations of disease. A fourth vital sign, blood pressure, is equally significant. Among other things, it indicates the amount of ...
Vital, Hayyim ben Joseph
one of Judaism's outstanding Kabbalists (expounder of Jewish esoteric or occult doctrine). [4 Related Articles]
Vitale da Bologna
Italian painter of the Bolognese school whose early 14th-century paintings in the International Gothic style show a marked Sienese influence.
Vitale, Giordano
(from the article "mathematics") ...postulate developed in the 16th century after the recovery and Latin translation of Proclus's commentary on Euclid's Elements. The Italian researchers Christopher Clavius in 1574 and Giordano Vitale in 1680 ...
Vitales
grape order of flowering plants, a basal member in the rosid group of the core eudicots in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II (APG II) botanical classification system (see angiosperm). The ...
Vitali, Giovanni Battista
principal Italian composer of chamber music for strings in the period before Arcangelo Corelli. From about 1658 he played the cello in the church of S. Petronio in Bologna. In ...
Vitalian, Saint
pope from 657 to 672.
vitalism
school of scientific thought-the germ of which dates from Aristotle-that attempts (in opposition to mechanism and organicism) to explain the nature of life as resulting from a vital force peculiar ... [9 Related Articles]
vitamin
any of several organic substances that are necessary in small quantities for normal health and growth in higher forms of animal life. Vitamins are distinct in several ways from other ... [26 Related Articles]
vitamin A
a fat-soluble alcohol, most abundant in fatty fish and especially in fish-liver oils. Vitamin A is also found in milk fat, eggs, and liver; synthetic vitamin A is added to ... [24 Related Articles]
vitamin A deficiency
(from the article "Examples of noninfectious diseases of animals") ...of children become blind each year due to a deficiency of the vitamin. Even a mild deficiency can impair immune function, thereby reducing resistance to disease. Night blindness is an ...
vitamin A excess
(from the article "nutritional disease") ...which usually require a dose of at least 15,000 mug (50,000 IU) in adults, include abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, blurred vision, and lack of muscular coordination. Chronic hypervitaminosis ...
vitamin B complex
several vitamins that traditionally have been grouped together because of loose similarities in their properties, their distribution in natural sources, and their physiological functions, which overlap considerably. All the B ... [7 Related Articles]
vitamin B12
a complex water-soluble organic compound that is essential to a number of microorganisms and animals, including humans. Vitamin B12 aids in the development of red blood cells in higher animals. ... [17 Related Articles]
vitamin B12 coenzyme
(from the article "organometallic compound") ...with their detailed structural and chemical characterization and their application as synthetic intermediates and catalysts in industrial processes. Two organometallics encountered in nature are the vitamin B12 coenzyme, which contains ...
vitamin B12 deficiency
(from the article "blood disease") Vitamin B12 is a red, cobalt-containing vitamin that is found in animal foods and is important in the synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). A deficiency of vitamin B12 leads to ...
vitamin B2 deficiency
(from the article "childhood disease and disorder") ...include bone disease, irritability, and bleeding under the skin and mucous membranes. Pellagra is due to a deficiency of niacin and is manifested clinically by diarrhea, dermatitis, and dementia. Riboflavin ...
vitamin B6
water-soluble organic compound that is an essential micronutrient for microorganisms and animals. It occurs in three forms: pyridoxine (or pyridoxol), pyridoxal, and pyridoxamine. Pyridoxine was first isolated in 1938 and ... [6 Related Articles]
vitamin C
water-soluble, carbohydrate-like substance that is involved in certain metabolic processes of animals. Although most animals can synthesize vitamin C, it is necessary in the diet of some, including humans and ... [18 Related Articles]
vitamin C excess
(from the article "poison") Excess vitamin C can lead to kidney stones. Apart from irritation of the skin and respiratory tract, the most severe toxicity of vitamin K excess is the increased destruction of ...
vitamin D
any of a group of fat-soluble vitamins important in calcium metabolism in animals. It is formed by ultraviolet radiation (sunlight) of sterols present in the skin. [28 Related Articles]
vitamin D deficiency
(from the article "muscle disease") A similar mechanism underlies the wasting and weakness associated with lack of vitamin D in which marked atrophy of type 2 fibres may occur. The actions of vitamin D in ...
vitamin D excess
(from the article "vitamin D") ...softened bones. Unlike the water-soluble vitamins, a surplus of vitamin D in the body is not eliminated in the urine but remains in the body, sometimes reaching toxic levels, a ...
vitamin deficiency disease
(from the article "human disease") Avitaminosis (vitamin lack) may be encountered when there are increased losses of vitamins such as occur with chronic severe diarrhea or excessive sweating or when there are increased requirements for ...
vitamin E
a fat-soluble compound found principally in certain plant oils and the leaves of green vegetables. Wheat-germ oil is a particularly rich source of the vitamin. Vitamin E, first recognized in ... [10 Related Articles]
vitamin E deficiency
(from the article "vitamin E") Humans with a deficiency of vitamin E display, among other symptoms, a mild anemia. Persons with a chronic deficiency exhibit prolonged malabsorption of fats, as well as mild anemia, unsteadiness ...
vitamin K
any of several fat-soluble naphthoquinone compounds. Vitamin K (from the Danish word koagulation) is required for the synthesis of several blood clotting factors, including prothrombin and factors ... [10 Related Articles]
vitamin K deficiency
(from the article "Common hereditary and acquired coagulation disorders") ...prothrombin and other blood-clotting factors in the liver, and it also plays a role in bone metabolism. A form of the vitamin is produced by bacteria in the colon and ...
Vitaphone
(from the article "motion picture, history of the") By that time, Western Electric, the manufacturing subsidiary of American Telephone & Telegraph Company, had perfected a sophisticated sound-on-disc system called Vitaphone, which their representatives attempted to market to Hollywood ...
Vitascope
motion-picture projector patented by Thomas Armat in 1895; its principal features are retained in the modern projector: sprocketed film operated with a mechanism (the "Maltese cross") to stop each frame ... [3 Related Articles]
Vitcos
(from the article "Bingham, Hiram") ...convinced that Machu Picchu was Vilcabamba, and it wasn't until the mid-20th century that his claim was seriously disputed. Bingham's additional work in the region revealed the important sites of ...
Vitebsk
oblast (province), northeastern Belarus. It has an area of 15,500 square miles (40,100 square km) and lies mostly in the broad, shallow basin of the Western Dvina River. To the ...
Vitebsk
city and administrative centre of Vitebsk oblast (province), northeastern Belarus. It lies along the Western Dvina River at the latter's confluence with the Luchesa River. Vitebsk, first ...
vitellarium
(from the article "flatworm") ...but only one or two ovaries are usually present in these flatworms. The female system is unusual in that it is separated into two structures: the ovaries and the vitellaria, ...
vitelline membrane
(from the article "fertilization") ...follow fertilization occur at the egg surface. The best known example, that of the sea urchin egg, is described below. An immediate response to fertilization is the raising of a ...
vitelline vein
(from the article "animal development") The paired posterior extensions of the heart of the early embryo are the vitelline veins, whose branches spread out between the lateral plate mesoderm and the endoderm, especially the endoderm ...
Vitellius, Aulus
Roman emperor, the last of Nero's three short-lived successors. [5 Related Articles]
Vitellius, Lucius
(from the article "Artabanus III") ...a king from among the descendants of an earlier king, Phraates IV. Thus, a grandson of Phraates, Tiridates III, arrived in Syria in AD 35 and was set on the ...
vitellogenesis
(from the article "reproductive system, animal") During the growth phase, eggs in species with massive amounts of yolk may increase in size 106 (1,000,000) or more times as a result of vitellogenesis (deposit of yolk). In ...
vitellogenin
(from the article "endocrine system") In some insects the pars intercerebralis secretes a neurohormone that stimulates vitellogenesis by the fat body (vitellogenesis is the synthesis of vitellogenin, a protein from which the oocyte makes the ...
Viterbi decoding
(from the article "telecommunication") ...bit sequences that can be produced by the encoder. The receiver determines the bit sequence that is most likely to have been transmitted, often by using an efficient decoding algorithm ...
Viterbo
city, Lazio (Latium) region, central Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Cimini Mountains, northwest of Rome. Of Etruscan origin, the town was taken by the Romans about ...
Viteri, Oswaldo
(from the article "Latin American art") Trained artists often adopted folk styles dating back to the conquest, an attitude buttressed by a political rejection of European high culture at the end of the century. In the ...
Viti Levu
largest island (4,026 square miles [10,429 square km]) of Fiji, west of the Koro Sea in the South Pacific Ocean. Its name means "Great Fiji." Sighted (1789) by Capt. William ... [2 Related Articles]
viticulture
(from the article "viticulture") the cultivation of grapes. See grape.VIDEOThe foot stomping method is still the best way to make wine.Acquired
Vitier, Cintio
Cuban poet, anthologist, critic, and scholar of Cuban poetry.
vitiligo
hereditary patchy loss of melanin pigment from the skin. Though the pigment-making cells of the skin, or melanocytes, are structurally intact, they have lost the ability to synthesize the pigment. ... [1 Related Articles]
Vitim Plateau
gently rolling plateau area of eastern Siberia, in Buryatiya and in Chita oblast (province), eastern Russia. The plateau is drained by the Vitim River and varies in height between 4,000 ...
Vitim River
river and tributary of the Lena River in eastern Siberia, Russia. It rises on the eastern slopes of the Ikat Mountains near the town of Bagdarin in Buryatiya and flows ... [1 Related Articles]
Vitoria
city, capital of Espirito Santo estado (state), eastern Brazil. It is situated on the western side of Vitoria Island, in Espirito Santo Bay. Founded in 1535 by ... [1 Related Articles]
Vitoria da Conquista
city, south-central Bahia estado (state), northeastern Brazil. It is situated in the Batalha Mountains at 3,040 feet (928 metres) above sea level. Elevated to city status in ...
Vitoria, Battle of
(June 21, 1813), decisive battle of the Peninsular War that finally broke Napoleon's power in Spain. The battle was fought between a combined English, Spanish, and Portuguese army numbering 72,000 ... [4 Related Articles]
Vitoria, Francisco de
Spanish theologian best remembered for his defense of the rights of the Indians of the New World against Spanish colonists and for his ideas of the limitations of justifiable warfare. [4 Related Articles]
Vitoria-Gasteiz
capital of Alava provincia (province), in Basque Country comunidad autonoma (autonomous community), northeastern Spain. It is located north of the Vitoria Hills on ... [1 Related Articles]
Vitra Fire Station
(from the article "Hadid, Zaha") Hadid's first major built project was the Vitra Fire Station (1989-93) in Weil am Rhein, Germany. Composed of a series of sharply angled planes, the structure resembles a bird in ...
vitrain
(from the article "coal") Vitrain (Glanzkohle or charbon brillant), which is characterized by a brilliant black lustre and composed primarily of the maceral group vitrinite, which is derived ...
vitreous body
(from the article "eye, human") The vitreous body is a semisolid gel structure that is remarkable for the small amount of solid matter that it contains. The solid material is made up of a form ...