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vitamin A ... vizier

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 margarine. Vitamin A is not present in plants, but many ...
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 vitamins, like vitamin C, are soluble in water, in contrast ...
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. The vitamin, which is unique in that it contains a ...
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 synthesized in 1939. Pyridoxal and pyridoxamine, which were discovered in ...
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 other primates, in order to prevent scurvy, a disease characterized ...
vitamin D: any of a group of fat-soluble alcohols important in calcium metabolism in animals. It is formed by ultraviolet radiation (sunlight) of sterols present in the skin.
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 1922, was first obtained in a pure form in 1936; ...
vitamin K: any of several fat-soluble naphthoquinone compounds present in the leaves of plants. Vitamin K (from the Danish word koagulation) is required for the synthesis of several blood clotting factors including prothrombin and factors VII, IX, and X. ...
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 briefly before the lens, and a loop in the film ...
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 east and south the land rises in a series of ...
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 mentioned in 1021, was a major fortress and trading centre ...
Vitellius, Aulus: Roman emperor, the last of Nero's three short-lived successors.
Viterbo: city, capital of Viterbo province, 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 310 BC. In 774 Viterbo was ...
Viti Levu: largest island (4,011 square miles [10,388 square km]) of Fiji, west of the Koro Sea in the South Pacific. Its name means "great Fiji." Sighted (1789) by Captain William Bligh of the British navy, the island is split by a ...
viticulture: the cultivation of grapes. See grape.
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. The reason for this condition is unclear. Vitiligo appears clinically ...
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 and 5,250 ft (1,200 and 1,600 m). It consists of ...
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 in a generally northerly direction to join the Lena in ...
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 Vasco Fernandes Coutinho, who was given the original captaincy of ...
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 1891 and formerly called Conquista, the city is the trade ...
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 troops and 90 guns under Arthur Wellesley, 1st duke of ...
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.
Vitoria-Gasteiz: capital of Alava provincia (province), in Pais Vasco (Basque Country) comunidad autonoma (autonomous community), northeastern Spain. It is located north of the Vitoria Hills on the Zadorra River, southwest of San Sebastian. Founded ...
vitriol: any of certain hydrated sulfates or sulfuric acid. Most of the vitriols have important and varied industrial uses. Blue, or roman, vitriol is copper(II) sulfate pentahydrate; green vitriol-also called copperas, a name formerly applied to all the vitriols-is iron(II) sulfate. ...
Vitruvius: Roman architect, engineer, and author of the celebrated treatise De architectura (On Architecture), a handbook for Roman architects.
Vitry, Philippe de: French prelate, music theorist, poet, and composer.
Vitry-sur-Seine: city, Val-de-Marne departement, Paris region, France. Vitry-sur-Seine is a southeastern industrial and residential suburb of Paris and is separated from the city limits of the capital by the suburb of Ivry-sur-Seine. It is connected to Paris by rail (6 miles ...
Vittone, Bernardo Antonio: one of the most original and creative of late Baroque church architects in all Europe and a primary figure in the brief flowering of Piedmontese architecture.
Vittoria: town, Ragusa provincia, southeastern Sicily, Italy. Vittoria is situated on a plain overlooking the Ippari River, west of Ragusa city. The town, which is gracefully laid out on a chessboard pattern, was founded (1607) by and named after Vittoria Colonna, ...
Vittorini, Elio: novelist, translator, and literary critic, the author of outstanding novels of Italian Neorealism mirroring his country's experience of fascism and the social, political, and spiritual agonies of 20th-century man. With Cesare Pavese he was also a pioneer in the translation ...
Vittorino da Feltre: Italian educator who is frequently considered the greatest humanist schoolmaster of the Renaissance.
Vittorio Veneto: town, Treviso provincia, Veneto regione, northeastern Italy, located north of Treviso. Formed in 1866 by the union of Serravalle, now the town's residential northern section, and Ceneda, the industrial southern part, it was named for Victor Emmanuel II. It was ...
Vittoriosa: town, eastern Malta, one of the Three Cities (the others being Cospicua and Senglea). It is situated on a small peninsula, just south of Valletta across Grand Harbour. One of the most important towns in medieval Malta, in 1530 it ...
Vivaldi, Antonio: Italian composer and violinist who left a decisive mark on the form of the concerto and the style of late Baroque instrumental music.
Vivarais: ancient mountainous province of France, centred on the town of Viviers (Viviers-sur-Rhone) and corresponding approximately to the modern departement of Ardeche. The ancient Roman site, Vivarium, later became the episcopate seat of Viviers; and the bishop of Viviers was virtual ...
Vivarini, Alvise: painter in the late Gothic style whose father, Antonio, was the founder of the influential Vivarini family of Venetian artists.
Vivarini, Antonio: painter, one of the most important and prolific Venetian artists of the first half of the 15th century, founder of the studio of the influential Vivarini family of painters.
Vivarini, Bartolomeo: painter and member of the influential Vivarini family of Venetian artists.
Vivekananda: Hindu spiritual leader and reformer who attempted to combine Indian spirituality with Western material progress, maintaining that the two supplemented and complemented one another. His Absolute was man's own higher self; to labour for the benefit of mankind was the ...
viverrid: any of 35 species of small Old World mammals including civets, genets, and linsangs. Viverrids are among the most poorly known carnivores. They are rarely encountered, being small and secretive inhabitants of forests and dense vegetation. In addition, many species ...
Vives, Amadeo: Spanish composer noted for his nearly 100 light operas.
Vives, Juan Luis: Spanish Humanist and student of Erasmus, eminent in education, philosophy, and psychology, who strongly opposed Scholasticism and emphasized induction as a method of inquiry.
Viviani, Rene: Socialist politician and premier of France during the first year of World War I.
vivianite: phosphate mineral, hydrated iron phosphate [Fe₃(PO₄)₂·8H₂O], that occurs as colourless (when freshly exposed) or dark-blue (after long exposure), glassy crystals in the weathered zones of phosphate deposits and as concretions in clays (widespread). It also occurs in recent sediments, in ...
Vivien, Renee: French poet whose poetry encloses ardent passion within rigid verse forms. She was an exacting writer, known for her mastery of the sonnet and of the rarely found 11-syllable line (hendecasyllable).
viviparity: retention and growth of the fertilized egg within the maternal body until the young animal, as a larva or newborn, is capable of independent existence. The growing embryo derives continuous nourishment from the mother, usually through a placenta or similar ...
Vizcaya: provincia, in the autonomous Basque Country (Pais Vasco), northern Spain; it has an area of 856 square miles (2,217 square km). Originally a tribal territory of the Vascones (4th century AD), it was vested in the crown of Castile and ...
Vizetelly Family: family of Italian descent active in journalism and publishing from the late 18th century in England and later in France (briefly) and the United States.
Vizianagaram: town, northeastern Andhra Pradesh state, southern India. Situated in the heart of the Eastern Ghats, Vizianagaram is a rail junction and shipping centre for sunn hemp (jute substitute) and jute products. Manganese is mined nearby. The town has several colleges.
vizier: (from old Iranian Pahlavi vcir, "judge"), originally the chief minister or representative of the 'Abbasid caliphs and later a high administrative officer in various Muslim countries, among Arabs, Persians, Turks, Mongols, and other eastern peoples. The office took shape during ...