Ava, ancient capital of central Myanmar (Burma), on the left bank of the Irrawaddy River at the Myitnge confluence. It is linked by a road and rail bridge, 5,894 feet (1,796 m) long, to the town of Sagaing; this is the only place where the Irrawaddy is bridged. Its name is a corruption of the

Jessica Chastain: Later career: …starred in the crime drama Ava in 2020. The following year she and Oscar Isaac portrayed a couple whose relationship is falling apart in the TV miniseries Scenes from a Marriage, a remake of Ingmar Bergman’s 1973 series. Also in 2021 she appeared as the title character in the biopic…

anthrax: Anthrax as a biological weapon: …against possible anthrax infection, including Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed (AVA), the vaccine developed to protect United States military personnel. The anthrax vaccine can provide protection to most recipients, although a small percentage do not acquire complete immunity. However, if vaccinated military personnel were to encounter a massive dose of anthrax, such…

kava, nonalcoholic euphoria-producing beverage made from the root of the pepper plant, principally Piper methysticum, in most of the South Pacific islands. It is yellow-green in colour and somewhat bitter. The primary active ingredients of kava are known as kavalactones; other substances, including

Indian philosophy: The new school: …is that of “limiterness” (avacchedakata), which has many different uses. If a mountain possesses fire in one region and not in another, it can be said, in the Navya-Nyaya language, “The mountain, as limited by the region r, possesses fire, but as limited by the region r′ possesses the…

Avadāna, legendary material centring on the Buddha’s explanations of events by a person’s worthy deeds in a previous life. The Pāli cognate of the term is Apadāna. Avadāna designates both the class of such stories scattered within the Vinaya Piṭaka (“Basket of Discipline”) and separate collections

avadavat, (species Amandava, or Estrilda, amandava), plump, 8-centimetre- (3-inch-) long bird of the waxbill (q.v.) group (order Passeriformes), a popular cage bird. The avadavat is abundant in marshes and meadows of southern Asia (introduced in Hawaii). The male, in breeding plumage, is bright red

Awadh, historic region of northern India, now constituting the northeastern portion of Uttar Pradesh state. Awadh is situated in the heavily populated heart of the Indo-Gangetic Plain and is known for its rich alluvial soils. It received its name from Ayodhya, the capital of the ancient kingdom of

Ayodhya, town in northern India that is known as a sacred city and the birthplace of Rama in Hinduism and as a historical center of Buddhism. On a site significant to both Hindus and Muslims was a Mughal-era mosque, the Babri Masjid, which was destroyed in 1992 amid interreligious tensions. After a

Broadcom Inc., like many computer chipmakers, has benefited from the increasing use and demand for artificial intelligence (AI) tools and programs. From its roots in Hewlett-Packard’s labs to its dominance in semiconductors and software for corporate customers, Broadcom has both influenced and been

avahi, (genus Avahi), long-legged arboreal lemur of Madagascar. Avahis have short arms, a short muzzle, and a round head with small ears hidden in woolly fur. Nocturnal and vegetarian, they live in small groups in both rainforests and patches of dry forests, typically clinging vertically to the

avahi, (genus Avahi), long-legged arboreal lemur of Madagascar. Avahis have short arms, a short muzzle, and a round head with small ears hidden in woolly fur. Nocturnal and vegetarian, they live in small groups in both rainforests and patches of dry forests, typically clinging vertically to the

avahi: …in 2005 and was named A. cleesei after the British comedian and conservation supporter John Cleese. These three western species all have very small distributions and are in danger of extinction. Avahis are related to sifakas and the indri; all are primates of the leaping lemur family, Indridae.

avahi: The eastern avahi (Avahi laniger), which lives in rainforests, is grayish brown to reddish, is about 28 cm (11 inches) long and 1.2 kg (2.6 lbs) in weight, and has a furry reddish tail of about body length or longer. The three species that live in…

avahi: The Betsiboka avahi (A. occidentalis) has a light facial mask and broad dark rings around the eyes, whereas the recently described Sambirano avahi (A. unicolor) lacks these facial markings. An additional species from the Bemaraha district was described scientifically only in 2005 and was named A.…

government economic policy: Experience in selected countries: This was the so-called availability theory of credit; it held that monetary policy had its effect on spending not only directly through interest rates but also by restricting the general availability of credit and liquid funds. It was argued that even rather small changes in the rate of interest…

avalanche, a mass of material moving rapidly down a slope. An avalanche is typically triggered when material on a slope breaks loose from its surroundings; this material then quickly collects and carries additional material down the slope. There are various kinds of avalanches, including rock

semiconductor device: Zener diode: ) This voltage regulator is a p-n junction diode that has a precisely tailored impurity distribution to provide a well-defined breakdown voltage. It can be designed to have a breakdown voltage over a wide range from 0.1 volt to thousands of volts. The Zener…

avalanche effect, in physics, a sudden increase in the flow of an electrical current through a nonconducting or semiconducting solid when a sufficiently strong electrical force is applied. The ability of most nonmetallic solids to carry an ordinary electrical current is limited by the scarcity of

Mark Robson: Later films: Robson’s last film was Avalanche Express (1979), a Cold War thriller that starred Lee Marvin and Robert Shaw. During postproduction work on the movie, Robson suffered a fatal heart attack.

telecommunications media: Optoelectronic receivers: …positive-intrinsic-negative (PIN) photodiode and the avalanche photodiode (APD). These optical receivers extract the baseband signal from a modulated optical carrier signal by converting incident optical power into electric current. The PIN photodiode has low gain but very fast response; the APD has high gain but slower response.

Italian Campaign, (July 9, 1943–May 2, 1945), during World War II, the Allied invasion and conquest of Italy. With the success of operations in North Africa (June 1940–May 13, 1943) and Sicily (July 9–August 17, 1943), the next logical step for the Allies in the Mediterranean was a move against

radiation measurement: Proportional counters: …of electrons is called a Townsend avalanche and is triggered by a single free electron. The total number of electrons produced in the avalanche can easily reach 1,000 or more, and the amount of charge generated in the gas is also multiplied by the same factor. The Townsend avalanche takes…

Frankie Avalon is an American vocalist and actor best known for his chart-topping songs in the mid-1950s and early 1960s and as the star of youth-oriented beach movies. A wunderkind trumpet player, Avalon was already an experienced performer when, as a Philadelphia teenager, he joined Rocco and the

Armorican Massif: The mountain of Avaloirs in Mayenne reaches an elevation of 1,368 feet (417 metres) and is the highest point in the Armorican Massif. Uplands include the hills of Arrée in Finistère and Côtes-d’Armor and Mené in Côtes-d’Armor. The basin of Châteaulin occupies much of Finistère and is drained…

Avalokiteshvara, in Buddhism, and primarily in Mahayana (“Greater Vehicle”) Buddhism, the bodhisattva (“buddha-to-be”) of infinite compassion and mercy, possibly the most popular of all figures in Buddhist legend. Avalokiteshvara is beloved throughout the Buddhist world—not only in Mahayana

Avalon, island to which Britain’s legendary king Arthur was conveyed for the healing of his wounds after his final battle. It is first mentioned in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae (c. 1136), while the same author’s Vita Merlini (c. 1150) described it as “the island of apples

Roxy Music: …with its final studio album, Avalon (1982), but failed to regain its earlier critical acclaim. After a lengthy hiatus, the band reunited in 2001 and continued to perform occasionally for the next 10 years before dissolving for a second time. Roxy Music was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall…

Barry Levinson: He next helmed Avalon (1990), a family saga about immigrants for which his screenplay earned him an Oscar nomination, and the best-picture nominee Bugsy (1991), in which Warren Beatty starred as mobster Bugsy Siegel. Levinson’s later films include the revenge thriller Sleepers (1996), the political satire Wag the…

Ferryland, village, southeastern Newfoundland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It lies on the eastern side of the Avalon Peninsula, about 40 miles (65 km) south of St. John’s. First visited by Portuguese and French fishermen early in the 16th century, it was named Ferryland, probably derived

San Francisco ballrooms: The Avalon Ballroom, the Fillmore Auditorium, Fillmore West, and Winterland: these four venues ushered in the modern era of rock show presentation and grew out of the hippie counterculture of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district. The first multiband rock show was held at the Ark in…

Avalon Peninsula, peninsula in southeastern Newfoundland, Canada; it is joined to the main part of the island by a 4-mi- (6-km-) wide isthmus between Placentia and Trinity bays and extends for about 110 mi with a maximum width of 60 mi. Its high point is about 1,000 ft (300 m) on the Atlantic coast

Ediacara fauna: Characteristics of Ediacara fossils: …the world occurs in the Avalon Zone of Newfoundland and has an age of 565 million years.

Frankie Avalon is an American vocalist and actor best known for his chart-topping songs in the mid-1950s and early 1960s and as the star of youth-oriented beach movies. A wunderkind trumpet player, Avalon was already an experienced performer when, as a Philadelphia teenager, he joined Rocco and the

Silurian Period: Baltica: The microcontinent of Avalonia—its name derived from the Avalon Peninsula of eastern Newfoundland—was appended to Baltica by the end of Ordovician time. It included what are now England, Wales, southeastern Ireland, the Belgian Ardennes, northern France, eastern Newfoundland, part of Nova Scotia, southern New Brunswick, and coastal New…

Avalonian orogeny, a mountain-building event that affected the eastern portion of the Appalachian Geosyncline in late Precambrian time (Precambrian time occurred from 3.96 billion to 540 million years ago). Evidence for the orogeny consists of igneous intrusions, folding of strata, and the

Fernando Francesco de Avalos, marquis di Pescara was an Italian leader of the forces of the Holy Roman emperor Charles V against the French king Francis I. A pupil of the soldier of fortune Prospero Colonna, Pescara commanded Spanish forces in Italy in the struggles from 1512 to 1525 between the

Brazilian literature: The novel: Avalovara), is an allegory on the art of the novel in which fiction and life become mutually regenerative experiences. Despite other significant novelists such as Fernando Sabino and Érico Lopes Veríssimo, the second half of the 20th century, especially after 1964, the year of the…

American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM), landmark museum in Baltimore, Maryland, displaying works by self-taught artists whose aesthetic sensibilities are personal rather than developed from an existing cultural tradition. (Read Sister Wendy’s Britannica essay on art appreciation.) The mission of AVAM

Nganasan, an indigenous Arctic people who traditionally resided in the lower half of the Taymyr Peninsula of Russia. They numbered about 800 in the early 21st century. The Dolgan also inhabit this region, and neighbouring groups include the Sakha and the Enets. The Nganasan speak a Uralic language

Samoyedic languages: …Nenets (Yurak), Enets (Yenisey), and Nganasan (Tavgi). The South Samoyedic subgroup comprises Selkup and the practically extinct Kamas language. None of these languages was written before 1930, and they are currently used only occasionally for educational purposes in some elementary schools.

François Quesnay: …his identification of capital as avances—that is, as a stock of wealth that had to be accumulated in advance of production. His classification of these avances distinguished between fixed and circulating capital.

shorthand: Modern abbreviated longhand systems: …1607 and was revised by Manuel Claude Avancena, who published a modern edition in 1950. Stenoscript has 24 brief forms that must be memorized; e.g., ak stands for acknowledge, ac for accompany, bz for business, and gvt for government.

Ignazio Silone: …of the Roman Socialist organ Avanguardia. In 1921 he helped found the Italian Communist Party and in 1922 became the editor of the party’s paper in Trieste, Il Lavoratore (“The Worker”). He devoted all his time to foreign missions and underground organization for the party until the Fascists drove him…

graphic design: Postwar graphic design in the United States: …antiwar poster contest sponsored by Avant Garde magazine. The magazine’s logo, placed in the dot of the exclamation point, uses ligatures (two or more letters combined into one form) and alternate characters to form a tightly compressed image. This logo was developed into a typeface named Avant Garde, one of…

graphic design: Postwar graphic design in the United States: …developed into a typeface named Avant Garde, one of the most successful and widely used fonts of the phototype period.

United States: Cultural life: …had seen an influx of avant-garde artists escaping Adolf Hitler’s Europe, including the painters Max Ernst, Piet Mondrian, and Joan Miró, as well as the composer Igor Stravinsky. They imported many of the ideals of the European avant-garde, particularly the belief that art should always be difficult and “ahead of…

Clement Greenberg: …of an essay titled “Avant-Garde and Kitsch” in the fall 1939 issue of Partisan Review. In this essay Greenberg, an avowed Trotskyite Marxist, claimed that avant-garde Modernism was “the only living culture that we now have” and that it was threatened primarily by the emergence of sentimentalized “kitsch” productions—“the…

Avanti, kingdom of ancient India, in the territory of present Madhya Pradesh state. The area was for a time part of the historical province of Malwa. About 600 bce the Avanti capital was Mahismati (probably modern Godarpura on the Narmada River), but it was soon moved to Ujjayini (near present-day

Benito Mussolini: Early life: …of the official Socialist newspaper, Avanti! (“Forward!”), whose circulation he soon doubled; and as its antimilitarist, antinationalist, and anti-imperialist editor, he thunderously opposed Italy’s intervention in World War I.

Billy Wilder: Last films: Avanti! (1972) followed and starred Lemmon as a millionaire who travels to Italy to bury his father only to fall in love with the daughter (Juliet Mills) of his father’s mistress. Like The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, it did not fare well commercially, though,…

aventurine, either of two gem minerals, one a plagioclase feldspar and the other quartz. Both have a sparkling reflection from oriented minute inclusions of mica or hematite. Most aventurine quartz is silvery, yellow, reddish brown, or green. Extensive beds in mica schist occur in the Russian

Latin American art: Trends, c. 1970–present: …Chilean revolution, artists of the Avanzada group created performances that pointed out the abuses of the new regime. For example, in 1980 Carlos Leppe had himself videotaped as he was imprisoned in a plaster cast. By this he suggested his abuse and confinement by society. Similarly, Diamela Eltit inflicted cuts…

Avar, one of a people who, though likely originating in Mongolia, built an empire in the area between the Adriatic and the Baltic seas and between the Elbe and Dnieper rivers (6th–8th century). Inhabiting an area in the Caucasus region in 558, they intervened in Germanic tribal wars, allied with

Avar-Andi-Dido languages: Avar, the only language in the group with a written form, is also used for intertribal communication by native users of the Andi and Dido languages. All of these languages are often classified together with those of the Lak-Dargin (Lak-Dargwa) and Lezgian groups as the…

Avar-Andi-Dido languages, group of languages spoken in western and central Dagestan republic, Russia, and in part of Azerbaijan. The group includes the Avar language, the Andi languages (Andi, Botlikh, Godoberi, Chamalal, Bagvalal, Tindi, Karata, and Akhvakh), and the Dido languages (Dido or Tsez,

Palmerston Atoll, atoll of the southern Cook Islands, a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand in the South Pacific Ocean. A coral formation made up of six small islets, it has a 7-mile- (11-km-) wide lagoon that lacks clear passage to the open sea. Covered with coconut and

St. Vardan Mamikonian: …companions were slain at the Battle of Avarayr. Despite their victory the battle prompted the Persians to renounce their plans to convert Armenia by force, securing religious freedom for Armenian Christians. The Persians also deposed the traitorous Armenian governor.

Italian literature: Poetry: … (1548; “Girone the Courteous”) and Avarchide (1570), an imitation of the Iliad of Homer. Giambattista Giraldi, while more famous as a storyteller and a tragic playwright, was a literary theorist who tried to apply his own pragmatic theories in his poem Ercole (1557; “Hercules”).

The Miser, five-act comedy by Molière, performed as L’Avare in 1668 and published in 1669. The plot concerns the classic conflict of love and money. The miser Harpagon wishes his daughter Elise to marry a wealthy old man, Anselme, who will accept her without a dowry, but she loves the penniless

greed, in Roman Catholic theology, one of the seven deadly sins. Greed is defined as the immoderate love or desire for riches and earthly possessions. A person can also be greedy for fame, attention, power, or anything else that feeds one’s selfishness. As a deadly sin, greed is believed to spur

Bourges, city, capital of Cher département, Centre région, almost exactly in the centre of France. It lies on the Canal du Berry, at the confluence of the Yèvre and Auron rivers, in marshy country watered by the Cher, southeast of Orléans. As ancient Avaricum, capital of the Bituriges, it was

Per Ramessu, ancient Egyptian capital in the 15th (c. 1630–c. 1530 bce), 19th (c. 1292–c. 1191 bce), and 20th (c. 1190–c. 1077 bce) dynasties. Situated in the northeastern delta about 62 miles (100 km) northeast of Cairo, the city lay in ancient times on the Bubastite branch of the Nile River. In

Avar-Andi-Dido languages: Avar, the only language in the group with a written form, is also used for intertribal communication by native users of the Andi and Dido languages. All of these languages are often classified together with those of the Lak-Dargin (Lak-Dargwa) and Lezgian groups as the…

Ottoman Empire: Bayezid II: …was the establishment of the avâriz-ı divaniye (“war chest”) tax, which provided for the extraordinary expenditures of war without special confiscations or heavy levies. The value of the coinage was restored, and Mehmed II’s plans for economic expansion were at last brought to fruition. To that end, thousands of Jews…

Avarua, town and capital of the Cook Islands, South Pacific Ocean. It is located on the north-central coast of the island of Rarotonga, in the southern Cook Islands, about 2,100 miles (3,400 km) north of New Zealand. Avarua is Rarotonga’s main town and commercial centre. The town is situated on a

Jainism: Time and the universe: …in the descending arc (avasarpini) they deteriorate. The two cycles joined together make one rotation of the wheel of time, which is called a kalpa. These kalpas repeat themselves without beginning or end.

avascular necrosis, death of bone tissue caused by a lack of blood supply to the affected area. Avascular necrosis most commonly affects the epiphyses (ends) of the femur (thigh bone); other commonly affected bones include those of the upper arm, the shoulder, the knee, and the ankle. Avascular

angiogenesis inhibitor: An angiogenesis inhibitor called bevacizumab (Avastin) was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2004 for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. Bevacizumab works by binding to and inhibiting the action of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which normally stimulates angiogenesis. However, bevacizumab is not effective when…

Kegon, Buddhist philosophical tradition introduced into Japan from China during the Nara period (710–784). Although the Kegon school can no longer be considered an active faith teaching a separate doctrine, it continues to administer the famous Tōdai Temple monastery at Nara. The name Kegon is a

Avatamsaka-sutra, voluminous Mahayana Buddhist text that some consider the most sublime revelation of the Buddha’s teachings. Scholars value the text for its revelations about the evolution of thought from early Buddhism to fully developed Mahayana. The sutra speaks of the deeds of the Buddha and

Avatar, American science fiction film series and media franchise created by director James Cameron. The films follow a U.S. Marine named Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) who becomes part of a program in which human colonizers explore and exploit an alien world called Pandora. The humans interact with a

avatar, in Hinduism, the incarnation of a deity in human or animal form to counteract some particular evil in the world. The word avatar comes from a Sanskrit verb form meaning “descend” that combines the Sanskrit prefix ava (“down”) and the verb root tṝ (“pass across”). Any deity can undergo a

James Cameron: Avatar and underwater exploration: …returned to feature films with Avatar, a science-fiction thriller that was noted for its special effects. A major box-office success, it surpassed Titanic to become the highest-grossing movie in the world, earning more than $2.7 billion. The movie also received critical acclaim. At the Golden Globes ceremony in 2010, Cameron…

James Cameron: Avatar and underwater exploration: In 2022 Cameron released Avatar: The Way of Water, which he directed and cowrote.

avatar, in Hinduism, the incarnation of a deity in human or animal form to counteract some particular evil in the world. The word avatar comes from a Sanskrit verb form meaning “descend” that combines the Sanskrit prefix ava (“down”) and the verb root tṝ (“pass across”). Any deity can undergo a

Mehmed IV was an Ottoman sultan whose reign (1648–87) was marked first by administrative and financial decay and later by a period of revival under the able Köprülü viziers. However, Mehmed IV devoted himself to hunting rather than to affairs of state. Mehmed succeeded his mentally ill father,

Abdera, in ancient Greece, town on the coast of Thrace near the mouth of the Néstos River. The people of Teos, evacuating Ionia when it was overrun by the Persians under Cyrus (c. 540 bc), succeeded in establishing a colony there that developed a brisk trade with the Thracian interior. Abdera was a

railroad: Western Europe: … completed a new line, the Alta Velocidad Española (AVE; “Spanish High-Speed”), between Madrid and Sevilla (Seville), built not to the country’s traditional broad 1,676-mm (5-foot 6-inch) gauge but to the European standard of 1,435 mm (4 feet 8.5 inches). Other routes from Madrid followed, running to Valladolid in 2007, Barcelona…

Hail Mary, a principal prayer of the Roman Catholic Church, comprising three parts, addressed to the Virgin Mary. The prayer is recited in the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin (see rosary) and is often assigned as penance during the sacrament of reconciliation (confession). The following is the Latin

Charles Gounod: His Meditation (Ave Maria) superimposed on Johann Sebastian Bach’s Prelude in C Major (from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I) illustrates both his inventiveness and ease as a melodist and his naïveté in matters of style. The operas Faust, Mireille, and Le Médecin malgré lui show his…

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Music of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: …re, mi, fa, sol, la; Ave Maria; Tu es Petrus; and Veni Creator Spiritus. These titles refer to the source of the particular cantus firmus. Palestrina’s mastery of contrapuntal ingenuity may be appreciated to the fullest extent in some of his canonic masses (in which one or more voice parts…

Ave Maria!, song setting, the third of three songs whose text is derived of a section of Sir Walter Scott’s poem The Lady of the Lake (1810) by Austrian composer Franz Schubert. It was written in 1825. Probably because of the song’s opening words, Schubert’s melody has since been adopted for use

prosody: The Middle Ages: The 9th-century hymn “Ave maris stella” is a striking instance of the change from quantitative to accentual syllabic prosody; each line contains three trochaic feet determined not by length of syllable but by syllabic intensity or stress:

Ave Verum Corpus, K 618, motet (vocal musical setting of a sacred text) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart based on a Roman Catholic eucharistic text. The piece was composed in the summer of 1791, half a year before the composer’s death and eight years after Mozart had last completed a piece of sacred

Avebury, archaeological site in Kennet district, administrative and historic county of Wiltshire, England, some 18.5 miles (30 km) north of Stonehenge. It is one of the largest and best-known prehistoric sites in Europe, encompassing 28.5 acres (11.5 hectares) on the River Kennet at the foot of the

Avebury: …museum within the village of Avebury, which is administered along with the surrounding lands by the British National Trust. Avebury and Stonehenge were collectively designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1986.

Avebury, archaeological site in Kennet district, administrative and historic county of Wiltshire, England, some 18.5 miles (30 km) north of Stonehenge. It is one of the largest and best-known prehistoric sites in Europe, encompassing 28.5 acres (11.5 hectares) on the River Kennet at the foot of the

Richard Avedon was one of the leading mid-20th-century photographers, noted for his portraits and fashion photographs. Avedon began to explore photography on his own at age 10 and was immediately drawn to portraiture. His first sitter was the Russian pianist-composer Sergey Rachmaninoff, who then

Ávila, city, capital of Ávila provincia (province), in the Castile-León comunidad autónoma (autonomous community), central Spain. The city of Ávila is situated on the Adaja River at 3,715 feet (1,132 meters) above sea level and is surrounded by the lofty Sierra de Gredos (south) and the Sierra de

Avellaneda, partido (county) of eastern Gran (Greater) Buenos Aires, eastern Argentina. It lies immediately southeast of the city of Buenos Aires, in Buenos Aires provincia (province), on the Río de la Plata estuary. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the area was an industrial slum,

Argentina: National consolidation, 1852–80: The next president, Nicolás Avellaneda (1874–80), was a native of San Miguel de Tucumán who had been Sarmiento’s minister of justice, public education, and worship. Avellaneda’s government faced serious financial difficulties engendered by the European economic crisis of 1873. Argentina defaulted on foreign loans and completed few public…

Avellino, city, Campania region, southern Italy, on the Sabato River surrounded by the Apennines, east of Naples. Its name is derived from Abellinum, a stronghold of the Hirpini (an ancient Italic people) and later a Roman colony, the site of which lies just to the east of the modern city.

São Francisco River: Plant life: …sertão region is the evergreen aveloz, which can grow to heights of 15 to 20 feet and is used as a hedgerow to mark field boundaries. Underground water in the region often is too saline for irrigation or drinking.

archosaur: The second archosaurian branch, the Ornithosuchia, includes birds and all archosaurs more closely related to birds than to crocodiles. In addition to the dinosaurs (the group from which birds evolved and to which they formally belong), ornithosuchians include pterosaurs and some extinct Triassic forms such as lagosuchids and lagerpetontids.

Avempace was the earliest known representative in Spain of the Arabic Aristotelian–Neoplatonic philosophical tradition (see Arabic philosophy) and forerunner of the polymath scholar Ibn Ṭufayl and of the philosopher Averroës. Avempace’s chief philosophical tenets seem to have included belief in the

John Hamilton, 1st marquess of Hamilton was a Scottish nobleman active in Scottish and English politics and in the unsuccessful negotiations for the release of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. The third son of James Hamilton, 2nd earl of Arran, he was given the abbey of Arbroath in 1551. In politics he

wild oat, (genus Avena), genus of tufted annual grasses of the family Poaceae, native to Eurasia and Africa. Wild oats are sometimes cut for hay, and young plants provide forage for grazing animals. All species have edible seeds, and domesticated oats (Avena sativa) are an important cereal crop in

oats, (Avena sativa), domesticated cereal grass (family Poaceae) grown primarily for its edible starchy grains. Oats are widely cultivated in the temperate regions of the world and are second only to rye in their ability to survive in poor soils. Although oats are used chiefly as livestock feed,

Sir William Davenant was an English poet, playwright, and theatre manager who was made poet laureate on the strength of such successes as The Witts (licensed 1634), a comedy; the masques The Temple of Love, Britannia Triumphans, and Luminalia; and a volume of poems, Madagascar (published 1638).