Agostino Di Giovanni

Agostino Di Giovanni lived in the 14th century. He was a late Gothic sculptor, best known for his work, with Agnolo di Ventura, on the tomb of Guido Tarlati.

Agostino is first heard of in Siena in 1310 and again lived there in 1340–43. After 1320 he was active with Agnolo at Volterra, where they executed a number of scenes from the lives of SS. Regulus and Octavian. The work of the two sculptors cannot be clearly differentiated. Between 1329 and 1332 they were jointly employed in the cathedral at Arezzo on the tomb of Tarlati. It displays a proficient technique, but its figures are stiff, heavy, and sometimes awkward. It is primarily important as a social document, delighting in the commonplaces of medieval life.

Agostino and Agnolo also were active as architects, and a number of buildings in Siena, including the Porta Romana and the church of S. Francesco, are conjecturally ascribed to them.

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Some physiological  characteristics, such as the mechanisms that regulate the acidity of the blood or its sugar level, are adequate ….
Progeria is an extremely rare disease of early childhood characterized by many of the superficial aspects of aging, such as ….
Agis IV was  born c. 263 BC and died 241 BC He was a Spartan king (244–241) who failed in his attempt to reform Sparta’s economic and political …..
The most outstanding psychological features of aging are the impairment in short-term memory and the lengthening of
Agis II was king of Sparta after about 427 BC who commanded all operations of the regular army during most of the ….
Agis III was a Spartan king from 338–331 who rebelled unsuccessfully against Alexander the Great. He died in 331 BC..
Agitprop,  abbreviated from Russian agitatsiya propaganda (agitation propaganda), is a  political strategy in which the techniques of agitation and propaganda ….
Aglauros, in Greek mythology, is the eldest daughter of the Athenian king Cecrops. Aglauros died with her sisters by leaping in fear ….
Agnano is a volcanic crater in  Napoli provincia, Campania regione,  southern Italy. It is situated in the Campi Flegrei  ….
Agnathan are any of the class Agnatha of primitive, jawless fishes that includes the lampreys and hagfishes (order Cyclostomata), as well …
Giovanni Agnelli was born on March 12th, 1921 in  Turin, Italy and died on January 24th, 2003 also in Turin …
Umberto Agnelli was born on November 1st, 1934 at Lausanne, Switzerland. he is an Italian automotive executive and grandson of Giovanni …
Agnes Of Poitou was born c. 1024 AD and died on  December 14th, 1077 in Rome [Italy]. She was also called …
Agnes Scott College is a private institution of higher education for women in Decatur, Georgia, U.S. A liberal arts college allied ..
Saint Agnes flourished in the 4th century in  Rome,Italy. She was virgin and patron saint of girls, who is one of the most celebrated Roman martyrs. …
Maria Gaetana Agnesi was born on May 16th, 1718 in  Milan, Habsburg crown land [now in Italy] and died on January 9th 1799 also in Milan ….
Spiro T.Agnew was born on November 9th 1918 in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. and died on September 17th, 1996 at Berlin, Maryland. His full ….
Agni  (Sanskrit: “Fire”) is a fire-god of the Hindus, second only to Indra in the Vedic mythology of ancient India. He is equally the fire  ..
Shiv Narayan Agnihotri was born in 1850 nearKānpur inIndia and died in 1923 inLahore [now inPakistan]. He was the Hindu founder of an atheistic …..

All about ageing

Aging is a sequence of progressive physiological changes in an organism that lead to senescence, or a decline of biological functions and of the organism’s ability to adapt to metabolic stress.

Aging takes place in a cell, an organ, or the total organism with the passage of time. It is a process that goes on over the entire adult life span of any living thing. Gerontology, the study of the aging process, is devoted to the understanding and control of all factors contributing to the finitude of individual life. It is not concerned exclusively with debility, which looms so large in human experience, but deals with a much wider range of phenomena. Every species has a life history in which the individual life span has an appropriate relationship to the reproductive life span and to the mechanism of reproduction and the course of development. How these relationships evolved is as germane to gerontology as it is to evolutionary biology. It is also important to distinguish between the purely physico chemical processes of aging and the accidental organismic processes of disease and injury that lead to death.

Gerontology, therefore, can be defined as the science of the finitude of life as expressed in the three aspects of longevity, aging, and death, examined in both evolutionary and individual (ontogenetic) perspective. Longevity is the span of life of an organism. Aging is the sequential or progressive change in an organism that leads to an increased risk of debility, disease, and death; senescence consists of these manifestations of the aging process.

The viability (survival ability) of a population is characterized in two actuarial functions: the survivorship curve (A in Figure 1) and the age-specific death rate, or Gompertz function (B in Figure 1). The relation of such factors as aging characteristics, constitutional vigour, physical factors, diet, and exposure to disease-causing organisms to the actuarial functions is complex; there is,nevertheless, no substitute for them as measures of the aging process and of the effect of environmental or genetic modifiers.

The age-specific mortality rate is the most informative actuarial function for investigations of the aging process. It was first pointed out by an English actuary, Benjamin Gompertz, in 1825 that the mortality rate increases in geometric progression—i.e., by a constant ratio in successive equal age intervals. Hence, a straight line, known as the Gompertz function, results when death rates are plotted on a logarithmic (ratio) scale. The prevalence of many diseases and disabilities rises in the same geometrical manner as does the mortality rate, important exceptions being some infectious diseases and diseases arising from disturbances of the immunological system. Although the life tables of most species are remarkably similar in form, even closely related species can differ markedly in the relative incidence of the major causes of death.

111. Agasias flourished in the 1st century BC in  Ephesus [now in Turkey] . He was a sculptor of Ephesus, known for his “Borghese Warrior,” a statue of …
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113 Louis Agassiz was born on  May 28th, 1807 at Motier, Switzerland and died on  December 14th, 1873 in…..
114 In 1846 Louis  Agassiz visited theUnited States for the general purpose of studying natural history and geology there but …

115 Adelaer was born on December 16th 1622, in Brevik, Norway and died on November 5th, 1675, in Copenhagen, Denmark …
116 The Adelaide River is a river in north-western Northern Territory, Australia, rising in the hills west of Brock’s …
117  Saint Adelaide was born in the year 931 and died on feast day December 16th 999 in Seltz, Alsace …

118  Adelantado (Spanish: “one who goes before”), is representative of the kings of Castile (Spain) who in the early European ….
119 Adelard Of Bath flourished in the 12th century AD. He was an English Scholastic philosopher and early interpreter of Arabic scientific knowledge …
120 The Adélie Coast, also called Adélie Land, is part of the coast of Wilkes Land in eastern Antarctica, extending from Claire Coast   …..
121  Adamsite is, in chemical warfare, a sneeze gas developed by the United States and used during World War I. Adamsite is an arsenical …
122 George Ade was born on February 9th 1866 in Kentland, Indiana, U.S.A. and died on May 16th, 1944, in Brook, Indiana ….
123  Adela was born, it is thought, around the year 1062 and died in 1137 …..
124  Because  Louis Agassiz was beyond question one of the ablest, wisest, and best informed of the biologists …
125  Alexander Agassiz was born on December 17th, 1835 at  Neuchâtel in Switzerland. He died on March 27th, 1910, at sea ….
126  Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz was born on December 5th, 1822 in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. She died on June 27th, 1907 at Arlington Heights ….
127  Lake Agassiz is the largest of the ice-marginal lakes that once covered what are now parts of Manitoba, Ontario, and Saskatchewan in Canada ….
128  The Agate Fossil Beds National Monument is a natural “depository” of an extinct animal community on the Niobrara River in north-western Nebraska …..
129   Agateware, in pottery, is 18th-century ware of vari-coloured clay, with an overall marbled effect. It was sometimes called solid agate to distinguish …
130 James Agate was born on September 9th, 1877 T  Pendleton in Lancashire, England. He died on June 6th, 1947 in London. He was ….…

The Battle of Agincourt

The Battle of Agincourt, (Oct. 25, 1415), was a decisive victory of the English over the French in the Hundred Years’ War.

In pursuit of his claim to the French throne, Henry V of England and an army of about 11,000 men invaded Normandy in August 1415. They took Harfleur in September, but by then half their troops had been lost to disease and battle casualties. Henry decided to move northeast to Calais, whence his diminished forces could return to England. Large French forces under the constable Charles I d’Albret blocked his line of advance to the north, however.

The French force, which totaled 20,000 to 30,000 men, many of them mounted knights in heavy armour, caught the exhausted English army at Agincourt (now Azincourt in Pas-de-Calais département). The French unwisely chose a battlefield with a narrow frontage of only about 1,000 yards of open ground between two woods. In this cramped space, which made large-scale maneuvers almost impossible, the French virtually forfeited the advantage of their overwhelming numbers. At dawnon October 25, the two armies prepared for battle. Three French divisions, the first two dismounted, were drawn up one behind another. Henry had only about 5,000 archers and 900 men-at-arms, whom he arrayed in a dismounted line. The dismounted men-at-arms were arrayed in three central blocks linked by projecting wedges of archers, and additional masses of archers formed forward wings at the left and right ends of the English line.

Henry led his troops forward into bowshot range, where their long-range archery provoked the French into an assault. Several small French cavalry charges broke upon a line of pointed stakes in front of the English archers. Then the main French assault, consisting of heavily armoured, dismounted knights, advanced over the sodden ground. At the first clash the English line yielded, only to recover quickly. As more French knights entered the battle, they became so tightly bunched that some of them could barely raise their arms to strike a blow. At this decisive point, Henry ordered his lightly equipped and more mobile English archers to attack with swords and axes. The unencumbered English hacked down thousands of the French, and thousands more were taken prisoner, many of whom were killed on Henry’s orders when another French attack seemed imminent.

The battle was a disaster for the French. The constable himself, 12 other members of the highest nobility, some 1,500 knights, and about 4,500 men-at-arms were killed on the French side, while the English lost less than 450 men. The English had been led brilliantly by Henry, but the incoherent tactics of the French had also contributed greatly to their defeat.

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93 Agathias was born c. 536 AD in Myrina, Aeolis, Asia Minor and died c. 582 AD. He was a Byzantine poet and author of a history, covering part  ….
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Abalone

Abalone are any of several marine snails of the subclass Prosobranchia (class Gastropoda) constituting the genus Haliotis and family Haliotidae, in which the shell has a row of holes on its outer surface. Abalones are one-shelled snails found in warm seas worldwide. The dish like shell is perforated near one edge by a single row of small holes that become progressively filled during the animal’s growth; the last five to nine holes remain open to serve as outlets for the snail’s waste products. Depending on the species, abalones range from 10 to 25 cm (4 to 10 inches) across and up to 7.5 cm in depth. The shell’s lustrous, iridescent interior is used in the manufacture of ornaments. The large muscular foot of the abalone is eaten as a delicacy in several countries. Commercial fisheries for abalones exist in California, Mexico, Japan, and South Africa. The largest abalone is the 30-centimetre red abalone (H. rufescens) of the western coast of the United States.

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82  Roger Adams was born on January 2nd, 1889 in Boston, USA and died on July 6th, 1971 in Champaign, Illinois, U.S.A.  …
83  Samuel Adams was born September 27th 1722 in Boston, USA and died on October 2nd, 1803 also in Boston …
84  Samuel Hopkins Adams was born on January 26th, 1871 at  Dunkirk, New York, U.S.A. He died on  November 15th, 1958 in Beaufort, South Carolina. ….
85  Walter Adams was born on Decemer 20th 1876 in Syria. He died on May 11th, 1956 at  Pasadena, Calififornia, U.S.A. He was an  …
86  William Adams was born in 1564 at  Gillingham in Kent, England. He died on May 16th, 1620, in Japan. He was a navigator, merchant-a …………
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 89   Agarwālā  is an important mercantile caste in India, belonging to that group of merchants, bankers, landowners, and shopkeepers that are called Bania  …
90 Joy and George Adamson were  wife-and-husband  conservationists who pioneered the movement to preserve African wildlife ……………..