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Vedānta-sūtras (Hindu text)
...to have been composed in the pre-Maurya period, but after the rise of Buddhism; these works are the Mīmāṃsāsūtras of Jaimini (c. 400 bc) and the Vedānta-sūtras of Bādarāyaṇa (c. 500–200 bc)....
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Vedāntadeśika (Indian religious leader)
leading theologian of the Viśiṣṭādvaita (Qualified Nondualism) school of philosophy and founder of the Vaḍakalai, a subsect of the Śrīvaiṣṇavas, a religious movement of South India....
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Vedantic Doctrines Vindicated (work by Tagore)
Tagore’s voluminous writings were in his native Bengali. One of his books was translated into English, Vedantic Doctrines Vindicated (1845). His Brahmo-Dharma (1854; “The Religion of God”), a commentary in Bengali on the Sanskrit scriptures, is considered to be a masterpiece....
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Vedavyāsa (legendary Indian sage)
legendary Indian sage who is traditionally credited with composing or compiling the Mahabharata, a collection of legendary and didactic poetry worked around a central heroic narrative....
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Vedda (people)
people of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) who were that island’s aboriginal inhabitants prior to the 6th century bc. They adopted Sinhala and now no longer speak their own language. Physically they are allied to the Dravidian jungle peoples of southern India and to early populations in Southeast Asia. They have now been largely absorbed into the modern Sinhalese population; in 1911 they we...
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Veddah (people)
people of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) who were that island’s aboriginal inhabitants prior to the 6th century bc. They adopted Sinhala and now no longer speak their own language. Physically they are allied to the Dravidian jungle peoples of southern India and to early populations in Southeast Asia. They have now been largely absorbed into the modern Sinhalese population; in 1911 they we...
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Vedder, Elihu (American artist)
American-born Romantic painter and illustrator whose reputation is based primarily on paintings derived from dreams and fantasies....
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Vedel, Anders Sørensen (Danish historian)
Danish historian and ballad collector who translated the Gesta Danorum of the medieval historian Saxo Grammaticus from Latin into Danish (1575)....
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vedībandha (Indian architecture)
The sanctum is often set on a raised base, or a plinth (pīṭha), above which is a foundation block, or socle (vedībandha), decorated with a distinct series of moldings; above the vedībandha rise the walls proper (jaṅghā), which are capped by a cornice or a series of cornice moldings (varaṇḍikā), above....
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Vedic chant (music)
religious chant of India, the expression of hymns from the Vedas, the ancient scriptures of Hinduism. The practice dates back at least 3,000 years and is probably the world’s oldest continuous vocal tradition. The earliest collection, or Saṃhitā, of Vedic texts is the Rigveda, containing about 1,000 hymns. These are chanted in syllabic style—a type o...
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Vedic literature (Hinduism)
a collection of poems or hymns composed in archaic Sanskrit and known to the Indo-European-speaking peoples who entered India during the 2nd millennium bce. No definite date can be ascribed to the composition of the Vedas, but the period of about 1500–1200 bce is acceptable to most scholars. The hymns formed a liturgical body that in part grew up around the ...
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Vedic Period (Indian history)
In addition to the archaeological legacy discussed above, there remains from this period the earliest literary record of Indian culture, the Vedas. Composed in archaic, or Vedic, Sanskrit, generally dated between 1500 and 800 bce, and transmitted orally, the Vedas comprise four major texts—the Rig-, the Sama-, the Yajur-, and the Atharvaveda. Of these, the Rigveda is believed ...
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Vedic religion (Indian religion)
the religion of the ancient Indo-European-speaking peoples who entered India about 1500 bc from the region of present-day Iran; it takes its name from the collections of sacred texts known as the Vedas. Vedism is the oldest stratum of religious activity in India for which there exist written materials. It was the starting point of Hinduism....
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Vedic Sanskrit language (language)
(Sanskrit saṃskṛta: “prepared, cultivated, purified, refined”), Old Indo-Aryan language, the classical literary language of the Hindus of India. Vedic Sanskrit, based on a dialect of northwestern India, dates from as early as 1800 bc and appears in the text of the Rigveda; it was described and standardized in the important grammar book by......
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Vediovis (Roman god)
in Roman religion, a god of uncertain attributes, worshiped at Rome between the two summits of the Capitoline Hill (the Arx and the Capitol) and on Tiber Island (both temples date from just after 200 bc) and at Bovillae, 12 miles southeast of Rome. His name may be connected with that of Jupiter (Jovis), but there is little agreement as to its meaning: he may be a ...
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Vedism (Indian religion)
the religion of the ancient Indo-European-speaking peoples who entered India about 1500 bc from the region of present-day Iran; it takes its name from the collections of sacred texts known as the Vedas. Vedism is the oldest stratum of religious activity in India for which there exist written materials. It was the starting point of Hinduism....
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Vedivs (Roman god)
in Roman religion, a god of uncertain attributes, worshiped at Rome between the two summits of the Capitoline Hill (the Arx and the Capitol) and on Tiber Island (both temples date from just after 200 bc) and at Bovillae, 12 miles southeast of Rome. His name may be connected with that of Jupiter (Jovis), but there is little agreement as to its meaning: he may be a ...
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Vedrenne, John E. (British theatrical manager)
...attention to the antirealistic movements that characterized experimental theatre in the rest of Europe. The domination of the actor-manager was effectively challenged by Harley Granville-Barker and John E. Vedrenne at London’s Royal Court Theatre; between 1904 and 1907 they staged numerous new plays by British and Continental writers. The major dramatist at the Royal Court—indeed ...
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Vedrine, Hubert (French politician)
...of other unifying themes. In Les cartes de la France à l’heure de la mondialisation (2000; “France’s Assets in the Era of Globalization”), French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine denounced the United States as a “hyperpower” that promotes “uniformity” and “unilateralism.” Speaking for the French intelligent...
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veduta (visual arts)
(Italian: “view”), detailed, largely factual painting, drawing, or etching depicting a city, town, or other place. The first vedute probably were painted by northern European artists who worked in Italy, such as Paul Brill (1554–1626), a landscape painter from Flanders who produced a number of marine views and scenes of Rome that were purchased by vi...
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veduta ideata (drawing)
...di Roma.” Allowing for variations of scale and minor additions, these scenes of monumental Roman ruins are essentially factual. His etchings of prison interiors, however, are examples of vedute ideate, which are realistically drawn though completely imaginary scenes. Guardi and Canaletto produced another form of veduta, the capriccio, in which architectural......
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vedute (visual arts)
(Italian: “view”), detailed, largely factual painting, drawing, or etching depicting a city, town, or other place. The first vedute probably were painted by northern European artists who worked in Italy, such as Paul Brill (1554–1626), a landscape painter from Flanders who produced a number of marine views and scenes of Rome that were purchased by vi...
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Vedute di Roma, Le (work by Piranesi)
...in 1741; and Giambattista Piranesi (1720–78)—etcher, archaeologist, and architect—completed what is probably the best known of all the series of vedute, “Le Vedute di Roma.” Allowing for variations of scale and minor additions, these scenes of monumental Roman ruins are essentially factual. His etchings of prison interiors, however, are examples of......
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vedute ideate (drawing)
...di Roma.” Allowing for variations of scale and minor additions, these scenes of monumental Roman ruins are essentially factual. His etchings of prison interiors, however, are examples of vedute ideate, which are realistically drawn though completely imaginary scenes. Guardi and Canaletto produced another form of veduta, the capriccio, in which architectural......
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vedutisti (visual arts)
(Italian: “view”), detailed, largely factual painting, drawing, or etching depicting a city, town, or other place. The first vedute probably were painted by northern European artists who worked in Italy, such as Paul Brill (1554–1626), a landscape painter from Flanders who produced a number of marine views and scenes of Rome that were purchased by vi...
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Vee Jay Records (American company)
Record store owners Vivian Carter (“Vee”) and James Bracken (“Jay”), later husband and wife, formed Vee Jay Records in 1953. (At various times the company’s labels also read VJ or Vee-Jay.) With Carter’s brother Calvin as producer and Ewart Abner in charge of promotion, Vee Jay became the most successful black-owned record company of its period. Jimmy Reed...
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Veeck, Bill (American baseball executive)
American professional baseball club executive and owner, who introduced many innovations in promotion....
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Veeck, William Louis (American baseball executive)
American professional baseball club executive and owner, who introduced many innovations in promotion....
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Veedersburg (New York, United States)
city, Montgomery county, eastern New York, U.S. It lies along the Mohawk River, 16 miles (26 km) northwest of Schenectady. Settled by Albert Veeder in 1783, it was known as Veedersburg until it was renamed for Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 1804. Its location on the Mohawk Trail, the completion of the ...
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veejay (television personality)
MTV debuted just after midnight on Aug. 1, 1981, with the broadcast of Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles. Following the format of Top 40 radio, video disc jockeys (or “veejays”) introduced videos and bantered about music news between clips. After an initial splash, the network struggled in its early years. The music video reservoir was still......
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Veen emo (Scandinavian deity)
among the Mordvins, the water mother, a spirit believed to rule the waters and their bounty; she is known as Vete-ema among the Estonians and Veen emo among the Finns. The water spirit belongs to a class of nature spirits common to the Finno-Ugric peoples dependent on fishing for much of their livelihood. Fishermen sacrificed to the water spirit as a personification of their concerns, gave her th...
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Veen, Johan van (Dutch engineer)
...with dikes linking the islands of Walcheren, Noord-Beveland, Schouwen, Goeree, and Voorne and created what amounts to several freshwater lakes that are free of tides. Devised by the Dutch engineer Johan van Veen, the plan acquired great urgency after a catastrophic North Sea flood on Feb. 1, 1953, killed 1,835 persons and devastated 800 square miles (2,070 square km) of land in the......
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Veen, Otto van (Flemish artist)
...printed in the Netherlands or made by combining English text with foreign engravings, as in the English edition of the Amorum Emblemata, Figuris Aeneis Incisa (1608) of Octavius Vaenius (Otto van Veen), an important early Dutch emblem book....
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veena (musical instrument)
any of several stringed musical instruments of India, including arched harps (before ad 1000), stick zithers, and lutes....
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veenkolonie (Netherlandish history)
gemeente (municipality), northeastern Netherlands, on the Hondsrug ridge. It was a centre of the peat colonies (veenkolonien) established in the 19th century to convert the surrounding peat fields to agricultural use. As peat digging declined after 1920, Emmen suffered considerable unemployment. It has grown rapidly into the foremost urban and industrial centre of Drenthe since......
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Veer (militant Hindu and Indian nationalist)
militant Hindu and Indian nationalist and leading figure in the Hindu Mahasabha (“Great Society of Hindus”), a Hindu nationalist organization and political party....
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Veeranam Dam (dam, India)
...dams were also constructed in India and Pakistan. In India a design employing hewn stone to face the steeply sloping sides of earthen dams evolved, reaching a climax in the 16-km- (10-mile-) long Veeranam Dam in Tamil Nadu, built from ad 1011 to 1037....
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veering wind profile (meteorology)
...contrasts in temperature and moisture across the frontal boundary that divides the two air masses. For a storm to generate tornadoes, other factors must be present. The most important of these is a veering wind profile (that is, a progressive shifting of the wind, clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere, with increasing height) at low and middle levels,...
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Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír (work by Laxness)
...spent most of his youth on the family farm. At age 17 he traveled to Europe, where he spent several years and, in the early 1920s, became a Roman Catholic. His first major novel, Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír (1927; “The Great Weaver from Kashmir”), concerns a young man who is torn between his religious faith and the pleasures of the world.......
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Vega (Soviet space probe)
...1985, reached perihelion on Feb. 9, 1986, and came closest to Earth on April 11, 1986. Its passage was observed by two Japanese spacecraft (Sakigake and Suisei), two Soviet spacecraft (Vega 1 and Vega 2), and a European Space Agency spacecraft (Giotto). Close-up images of the comet’s nucleus made by Giotto show an oblong object with dimensions of about 15 × 8 km (9 × 5......
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Vega (star)
brightest star in the northern constellation Lyra and fifth brightest in the night sky, with a visual magnitude of 0.03. It is also one of the Sun’s closer neighbours, at a distance of about 25 light-years. Vega’s spectral type is A (white) and its luminosity class V (main sequence). It will become the northern polestar by about ad 14,000 because of the precession of th...
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Vega (airplane)
...Ryan monoplane, which made the first solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927 (see photograph). By 1929 the United States was building 5,500 aircraft, up from only 60 five years earlier. The Vega of 1927 had increased cruising speed up to 150 mile/h....
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Vega Carpio, Lope Félix de (Spanish author)
outstanding dramatist of the Spanish Golden Age, author of as many as 1,800 plays and several hundred shorter dramatic pieces, of which 431 plays and 50 shorter pieces are extant....
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Vega, Garcilaso de la (Spanish chronicler)
one of the great Spanish chroniclers of the 16th century, noted as the author of distinguished works on the history of the Indians in South America and the expeditions of the Spanish conquistadors....
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Vega, Garcilaso de la (Spanish poet)
the first major poet in the Golden Age of Spanish literature (c. 1500–1650)....
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Vega, La (Dominican Republic)
city, west-central Dominican Republic. It was founded in 1495 by Bartolomeo Colombo at the foot of Concepción fortress, which had been built by Christopher Columbus in 1494. La Vega was moved to the bank of the Camú River after an earthquake in 1564. La Vega is a prosperous commercial, manufacturing, and transportation centre in the fertile La Ve...
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Vega, Lope de (Spanish author)
outstanding dramatist of the Spanish Golden Age, author of as many as 1,800 plays and several hundred shorter dramatic pieces, of which 431 plays and 50 shorter pieces are extant....
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Vega, Villa de la (Jamaica)
city, southeastern central Jamaica. It is situated along the Rio Cobre, 10 miles (16 km) west of Kingston. Probably laid out by Diego Columbus (c. 1523), it was originally called Santiago de la Vega (St. James of the Plain), and it was Jamaica’s capital from 1692 until 1872. It is now a commercial and processing centre for produce of the irrigated Liguanea Plain (b...
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veganism (dietary practice)
...of iron and vitamin D during the first six months of life and fluoride after six months. A vitamin B12 supplement is advised for breast-fed infants whose mothers are strict vegetarians (vegans). (See infancy.)...
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Vegard the Viking (Norwegian athlete)
Norwegian Nordic skier known both for his successful racing career and for his many adventurous trips throughout the world; he skied across Greenland and climbed some of the highest mountain peaks in the world, including Mont Blanc, Mt. McKinley, and Kilimanjaro....
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Vegas: A Memoir of a Dark Season (work by Dunne)
...(1969) is a telling portrait of the motion-picture industry as seen through the eyes of the movie studio executives. Blurring the lines between documentary and fiction, Vegas: A Memoir of a Dark Season (1974) describes the narrator’s nervous breakdown in a story about three colourful inhabitants of Las Vegas, Nevada. Dunne examined Irish American communities......
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Vegas Verde (Nevada, United States)
city, Clark county, southeastern Nevada, U.S. A part of the Las Vegas metropolitan area, the city was settled in the early 1920s by pioneers attracted by the water supply; it was originally named Vegas Verde. It was renamed North Las Vegas in 1932 and incorporated as an independent city in 1946. In the 1990s the city’s government embarked on an ambitiou...
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vegetable (food)
in the broadest sense, any kind of plant life or plant product, namely “vegetable matter”; in common, narrow usage, the term vegetable usually refers to the fresh edible portion of a herbaceous plant—roots, stems, leaves, flowers, or fruit. These plant parts are either eaten fresh or prepared in a number of ways....
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vegetable caterpillar (biology)
Cordyceps, a genus of about 100 species within the order Hypocreales, are commonly known as vegetable caterpillars, or caterpillar fungi. C. militaris parasitizes insects. It forms a small, 3–4-centimetre (about 1 13-inch) mushroomlike fruiting structure with a bright orange head, or cap. A related genus,......
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vegetable down
seed floss of various trees of the Bombax genus of the Malvaceae family; the plants grow in tropical countries and are cultivated in the West Indies and Brazil. The seed floss’s individual fibres, soft and ranging from pale yellow to brown in colour, are about 0.5 to 3.25 cm (0.25 to 1.25 inches) long and 20 to 40 microns (a micron is about 0.00004 inch) in diameter. Unlike the fibre...
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vegetable farming
growing of vegetable crops, primarily for use as human food....
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vegetable fat
Fats (and oils) may be divided into animal and vegetable fats according to source. Further, they may be classified according to their degree of unsaturation as measured by their ability to absorb iodine at the double bonds. This degree of unsaturation determines to a large extent the ultimate use of the fat....
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vegetable fibre (plant anatomy)
Natural fibres can be classified according to their origin. The vegetable, or cellulose-base, class includes such important fibres as cotton, flax, and jute; the animal, or protein-base, fibres include wool, mohair, and silk (qq.v.); an important fibre in the mineral class is asbestos (q.v.)....
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vegetable garden (horticulture)
The vegetable garden also requires an open and sunny location. Good cultivation and preparation of the ground are important for successful vegetable growing, and it is also desirable to practice a rotation of crops as in farming. The usual period of rotation for vegetables is three years; this also helps to prevent the carryover from season to season of certain pests and diseases....
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vegetable horsehair (plant)
(Tillandsia usneoides), epiphyte (a nonparasitic plant that is supported by another plant and has aerial roots exposed to the humid atmosphere) of the pineapple family (Bromeliaceae). It is found in southern North America, the West Indies, and Central and South America....
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Vegetable Kingdom, The (book by Lindley)
...(1842) is considered to be one of the best books ever written on the physiological principles of horticulture. He developed his own natural system of plant classification for his best-known book, The Vegetable Kingdom (1846). Although his system was never adopted by other botanists, it did much to enhance the popularity of the natural system in England....
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vegetable oil (chemical compound)
Vegetable oils, obtained from such oil-bearing seeds as corn (maize), cottonseed, peanuts, palm nuts (coconuts), and soybeans, are 100 percent fat and remain liquid at fairly low temperatures. They are processed to achieve neutral to yellow colour and to eliminate odour or produce mild odour. Oils are used mainly in rolls, breads, and other fairly hard baked goods and in chiffon and other cakes......
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vegetable oyster (plant)
biennial herb of the family Asteraceae, native to the Mediterranean region. The thick white taproot is cooked as a vegetable and has a flavour similar to that of oysters....
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vegetable processing
preparation of vegetables for use by humans as food....
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vegetable sponge (plant)
any of seven species of annual climbing vines constituting the genus Luffa, of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae)....
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Vegetable Staticks (work by Hales)
...of probability and in the physical sciences. Buffon at that time was particularly interested in questions of plant physiology. In 1735 he published a translation of Stephen Hales’s Vegetable Staticks, in the preface of which he developed his conception of scientific method. Maintaining an interest in mathematics, he published a translation of Sir Isaac Newton...
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Vegetable System (work by Hill)
Hill’s most lasting work was in botany. In 1759 the first of the 26 folio volumes of his Vegetable System was published. This work, containing 1,600 copper plate engravings, represented 26,000 different plants. Although not completed until 1775, it won for him the Order of Vasa from the king of Sweden. Thereafter he called himself “Sir” John Hill....
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vegetable tanning (chemical treatment)
...man dried fresh skins in the sun, softened them by pounding in animal fats and brains, and preserved them by salting and smoking. Beginning with simple drying and curing techniques, the process of vegetable tanning was developed by the Egyptians and Hebrews about 400 bc. During the Middle Ages the Arabs preserved the art of leather making and so improved it that morocco and cordov...
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vegetarian
...man dried fresh skins in the sun, softened them by pounding in animal fats and brains, and preserved them by salting and smoking. Beginning with simple drying and curing techniques, the process of vegetable tanning was developed by the Egyptians and Hebrews about 400 bc. During the Middle Ages the Arabs preserved the art of leather making and so improved it that morocco and cordov...
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vegetarianism (dietary practice)
the theory or practice of living solely upon vegetables, fruits, grains, and nuts—with or without the addition of milk products and eggs—generally for ethical, ascetic, environmental, or nutritional reasons. All forms of flesh (meat, fowl, and seafood) are excluded from all vegetarian diets, but many vegetarians use milk and milk products; those in the West usually eat eggs also, but...
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vegetation (flora)
All high mountains exhibit azonality; i.e., their vegetation differs from that found in the climatic zones from which they rise. The differences manifest themselves as progressive modifications, which are usually well stratified and reflect altitude-dependent climatic changes. Generally, as elevation increases temperature decreases (to the point where frost and even glaciation can occur)......
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vegetation (pathology)
...a number of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, rickettsias, and possibly viruses, that enter the bloodstream and become trapped in the heart. The disease is characterized by the presence of vegetations (aggregates of microorganisms and inflammatory cells) on the endocardium, particularly the heart valve. Vegetations may break loose from the valve and enter the circulation, compromising....
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vegetative cycle (viruses)
...genetically and structurally identical to the parent virus. The actions of the virus depend both on its destructive tendencies toward a specific host cell and on environmental conditions. In the vegetative cycle of viral infection, multiplication of progeny viruses can be rapid. This cycle of infection often results in the death of the cell and the release of many virus progeny. Certain......
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vegetative nervous system
in vertebrates, the part of the nervous system that controls and regulates the internal organs without any conscious recognition or effort by the organism. The autonomic nervous system comprises two antagonistic sets of nerves, the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. The sympathetic nervous system connects the...
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vegetative nucleus (plant anatomy)
...cycle in angiosperms can be traced from before the shedding of pollen. The microspores begin their development of male gametophytes, which involves formation of a small generative cell and a tube cell. The generative cell may divide to form two sperm before the pollen grain (developing male gametophyte) is shed, or while the pollen tube is growing during germination. The pollen grains of......
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vegetative phase (vegetative phase)
...cell. In the Myxomycetes, the fusion of two haploid gametes or the fusion of two or more diploid zygotes (the structures that result from the union of two sex cells) results in the formation of a plasmodium—a motile, multinucleate mass of cytoplasm. The nuclei are in a syncytium, that is, there are no cell boundaries, and the nuclei flow freely in the motile plasmodium. As it feeds, the....
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vegetative propagation (horticulture)
Vegetative propagation technique varies with the individual fruit plant. Date, banana, and pineapple are multiplied by use of offshoots or suckers. Grape, fig, olive, currant, and blueberry are usually propagated from cuttings. Strawberry and black raspberry reproduce vegetatively by special organs—the former by stolons or runners, the......
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vegetative reproduction (horticulture)
Vegetative propagation technique varies with the individual fruit plant. Date, banana, and pineapple are multiplied by use of offshoots or suckers. Grape, fig, olive, currant, and blueberry are usually propagated from cuttings. Strawberry and black raspberry reproduce vegetatively by special organs—the former by stolons or runners, the......
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vegetative stage (vegetative phase)
...cell. In the Myxomycetes, the fusion of two haploid gametes or the fusion of two or more diploid zygotes (the structures that result from the union of two sex cells) results in the formation of a plasmodium—a motile, multinucleate mass of cytoplasm. The nuclei are in a syncytium, that is, there are no cell boundaries, and the nuclei flow freely in the motile plasmodium. As it feeds, the....
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Vegetius (Roman military author)
Roman military expert who wrote what was perhaps the single most influential military treatise in the Western world. His work exercised great influence on European tactics after the Middle Ages....
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VEGF (protein)
...development, however, they call on proteins that stimulate angiogenesis, and they also develop the ability themselves to synthesize proteins with this capacity. One of these proteins is known as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). VEGF induces endothelial cells (the building blocks of capillaries) to penetrate a tumour nodule and begin the process of capillary development. As the......
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Vegh, Sandor (Hungarian musician)
Hungarian violinist, conductor, and music teacher noted for his chamber music performances (he left the Hungarian String Quartet in 1940 to form the Vegh Quartet) and his influence among younger musicians, especially as founder in 1972 of the International Musicians Seminar (b. May 17, 1905--d. Jan. 7, 1997)....
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Veglia (island, Croatia)
island, the largest and most northern of Croatia’s Adriatic islands. It reaches maximum elevation at Obzova, 1,824 feet (556 m). Archaeological findings suggest that Krk has been continuously inhabited since the Neolithic Period. Roman influence, beginning in the 1st century bc, was followed by the arrival of the Slavs in the 7th century. The Romans retreate...
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Vegliot Dalmatian (dialect)
...Romance language formerly spoken along the Dalmatian coast from the island of Veglia (modern Krk) to Ragusa (modern Dubrovnik). Ragusan Dalmatian probably disappeared in the 17th century; the Vegliot Dalmatian dialect became extinct in the 19th century. ...
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Vegliot language
extinct Romance language formerly spoken along the Dalmatian coast from the island of Veglia (modern Krk) to Ragusa (modern Dubrovnik). Ragusan Dalmatian probably disappeared in the 17th century; the Vegliot Dalmatian dialect became extinct in the 19th century. ...
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Vehari (Pakistan)
town, south-central Punjab province, Pakistan. The town lies on a flat alluvial plain bordered by the Sutlej River on the southeast. It is a market and processing centre for cotton and oilseeds. Wheat, rice, sugarcane, and vegetables are also grown nearby, and there are rice and flour mills in the area. Vihāri lies on the main road between Multān and Lahore. Pop. (...
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vehicle (literature)
the components of a metaphor, with the tenor referring to the concept, object, or person meant, and the vehicle being the image that carries the weight of the comparison. The words were first used in this sense by the critic I.A. Richards. In the first stanza of Abraham Cowley’s poem “The Wish,” the tenor is the city and the vehicle is a beehive: Well then; I now do plai...
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vehicle (transport)
The product line of the aerospace industry is, by necessity, broad because its primary products—flight vehicles—require up to millions of individual parts. In addition, many support systems are needed to operate and maintain the vehicles. In terms of sales, military aircraft have the largest market share, followed by space systems and civil aircraft, with missiles still a modest......
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vehicle emission control
The product line of the aerospace industry is, by necessity, broad because its primary products—flight vehicles—require up to millions of individual parts. In addition, many support systems are needed to operate and maintain the vehicles. In terms of sales, military aircraft have the largest market share, followed by space systems and civil aircraft, with missiles still a modest........
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vehicular safety devices
seat belts, harnesses, inflatable cushions, and other devices designed to protect occupants of vehicles from injury in case of accident. A seat belt is a strap that fastens a rider to a moving vehicle and prevents him from being thrown out or against the interior of the vehicle during sudden stops....
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Vehrenberg, Hans (German astronomer)
...of 45,269 stars. The second volume of this work catalogs double stars, variable stars, and various kinds of nonstellar objects, including radio and X-ray sources. The German astronomer Hans Vehrenberg’s Photographischer Stern-Atlas (1962–64), covering the entire sky in 464 sheets, each 12° square, has probably reached wider use than any other photographic atlas......
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Vei (people)
people inhabiting northwestern Liberia and contiguous parts of Sierra Leone. Early Portuguese writers called them Gallinas (“chickens”), reputedly after a local wildfowl. Speaking a language of the Mande branch of the Niger-Congo family, the Vai have close cultural ties to the Mande peoples....
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Veigel, Eva Maria (Austrian dancer)
On June 22, 1749, Garrick married Eva Maria Veigel, a Viennese opera dancer who spoke little English and was a devout Roman Catholic. Under the stage name of La Violette, she had enchanted audiences at the Opera House in the Haymarket in 1746, and, although she had refused to dance for Garrick at Drury Lane in 1748, the following year she consented to retire. The marriage, though childless, was......
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Veii (Italy)
ancient Etruscan town, located about 10 miles (16 km) northwest of Rome. Veii was the greatest centre for the fabrication of terra-cotta sculptures in Etruria in the 6th century bc. According to Pliny the Elder, Vulca of Veii made the terra-cotta statues for the Temple of Jupiter on the Roman Capitol in the late 6th century bc. The town had hegemony o...
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Veii Apollo (work by Vulca)
...According to tradition, the earliest image of a god made in Rome dated from the 6th century bc period of Etruscan domination and was the work of Vulca of Veii. A magnificent terra-cotta statue of Apollo found at Veii may give some notion of its character. In the 5th, 4th, and 3rd centuries bc, when Etruscan influence on Rome was declining and Rome’s dominion w...
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veil (headdress)
The wimple originally was adopted as a chin veil by Western women after the crusaders brought back from the Near East such fashions as the veil of the Muslim woman. The wimple, usually made of fine white linen or silk, framed the face and covered the neck and sometimes part of the bosom....
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Veil Nebula (astronomy)
group of bright nebulae (Lacework Nebula, Veil Nebula, and the nebulae NGC 6960, 6979, 6992, and 6995) in the constellation Cygnus, thought to be remnants of a supernova—i.e., of the explosion of a star probably 50,000 years ago. The Loop, a strong source of radio waves and X rays, is still expanding at about 100 kilometres (60 miles) per second. It lies several thousand......
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Veil of Orpheus, The (work by Henry)
...and best known musique concrète compositions of this early period are Schaeffer and Henry’s Symphonie pour un homme seul (1950; Symphony for One Man Only) and Henry’s Orphée (1953), a ballet score written for the Belgian dancer Maurice Béjart. These and similar works created a sensation when first presented to the public. Symphon...
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veiled chameleon
...and best known musique concrète compositions of this early period are Schaeffer and Henry’s Symphonie pour un homme seul (1950; Symphony for One Man Only) and Henry’s Orphée (1953), a ballet score written for the Belgian dancer Maurice Béjart. These and similar works created a sensation when first presented to the public. Symphon...
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Veiled Protectorate (historical territory, Egypt)
...of the Egyptians, and that evacuation should come only in the distant future when the Egyptians had been taught self-rule. He therefore instituted a form of government that came to be called the Veiled Protectorate, whereby he ruled the rulers of Egypt, with the assistance of a group of English administrators trained in India, who were placed in key positions as advisers to the Egyptian......
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