| MARC | machine-readable cataloging; multifocal and recurrent choroidopathy |
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| MRAB | machine-readable archives in biomedicine |
| MRI | machine-readable identifier; magnetic resonance imaging; medical records information; Medical Resear... |
| MSMAID | machine, suction, monitor, airway equipment, intravenous line, drugs [for bronchoscopy] |
| MRA | magnetic resonance angiography; main renal artery; marrow repopulation activity; medical record anal... |
| machine | 1. In general, any combination of bodies so connected that their relative motions are constrained, and by means of which force and motion may be transmitted and modified, as a screw and its nut, or a lever arranged to turn about a fulcrum or a pulley about its pivot, etc.; especially, a construction, more or less complex, consisting of a combination of moving parts, or simple mechanical elements, as wheels, levers, cams, etc, with their supports and connecting framework, calculated to constitute a prime mover, or to receive force and motion from a prime mover or from another machine, and transmit, modify, and apply them to the production of some desired mechanical effect or work, as weaving by a loom, or the excitation of electricity by an electrical machine. The term machine is most commonly applied to such pieces of mechanism as are used in the industrial arts, for mechanically shaping, dressing, and combining materials for various purposes, as in the manufacture of cloth, etc. Where the effect is chemical, or other than mechanical, the contrivance is usually denominated an apparatus, not a machine; as, a bleaching apparatus. Many large, powerful, or specially important pieces of mechanism are called engines; as, a steam engine, fire engine, graduating engine, etc. Although there is no well-settled distinction between the terms engine and machine among practical men, there is a tendency to restrict the application of the former to contrivances in which the operating part is not distinct from the motor. 2. Any mechanical contrivance, as the wooden horse with which the Greeks entered Troy; a coach; a bicycle. 3. A person who acts mechanically or at will of another. 4. A combination of persons acting together for a common purpose, with the agencies which they use; as, the social machine. "The whole machine of government ought not to bear upon the people with a weight so heavy and oppressive." (Landor) 5. A political organization arranged and controlled by one or more leaders for selfish, private or partisan ends. 6. Supernatural agency in a poem, or a superhuman being introduced to perform some exploit. Elementary machine, a name sometimes given to one of the simple mechanical powers. See Mechanical. Infernal machine. See Infernal. Machine gun.See Gun. Machine screw, a screw or bolt adapted for screwing into metal, in distinction from one which is designed especially to be screwed into wood. Machine shop, a workshop where machines are made, or where metal is shaped by cutting, filing, turning, etc. Machine tool, a machine for cutting or shaping wood, metal, etc, by means of a tool; especially, a machine, as a lathe, planer, drilling machine, etc, designed for a more or less general use in a machine shop, in distinction from a machine for producing a special article as in manufacturing. Machine twist, silken thread especially adapted for use in a sewing machine. Machine work, work done by a machine, in contradistinction to that done by hand labour. Origin: F, fr. L. Machina machine, engine, device, trick, Gr, from means, expedient. Cf. Mechanic. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| machine, heart-lung | A machine that does the work both of the heart (pump blood) and the lungs (oxygenate the blood). Used, for example, in open heart surgery. Blood returning to the heart is diverted through the machine before returning it to the arterial circulation. Also called a pump-oxygenator. (12 Dec 1998) |
| machine learning | This is the study of how to create computers that will learn from experience and modify their activity based on that learning (as opposed to traditional computers whose activity will not change unless the programmer explicitly changes it). This discipline is a sub-set of Artificial Intelligence. (09 Oct 1997) |
| panoramic rotating machine | An X-ray machine using a reciprocating motion of the tube and extraoral film to produce a radiograph of all the teeth and surrounding structures. (05 Mar 2000) |
| gene machine | A computerised device for synthesizing genes by combining nucleotides (bases) in a specified order. (14 Nov 1997) |
| man-machine systems | A system in which the functions of the man and the machine are interrelated and necessary for the operation of the system. (12 Dec 1998) |
| gramme machine | <physics> A kind of dynamo-electric machine; so named from its French inventor, M. Gramme. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| cobalt machine | <apparatus> A simple but effective source of irradiation which is employed for external beam radiotherapy. It has limited ability to focus irradiation. (16 Dec 1997) |
| heart-lung machine | A combination blood pump and blood oxygenator used for temporary periods of time in cardiopulmonary bypass for cardiac surgery. (12 Dec 1998) |
| productive machine hours | That portion of scheduled operating hours during which a machine performs its designated functions, excluding time to transport the machine and operational or mechanical delays. (05 Dec 1998) |
| q-machine | <radiobiology> Plasma device studied in the 1960s, noted for its natural quiescence, which made it attractive for plasma wave phyics experimentation. (09 Oct 1997) |
| airspace-filling pattern | Cloudy to dense opacities, obscuring vascular markings, on chest radiographs. Synonym: airspace-filling pattern. (05 Mar 2000) |
| airway pattern | Chest radiographic appearance of thickened bronchial walls, bronchiectasis, bronchiolitis, or acinar consolidation. (05 Mar 2000) |
| alveolar pattern | Cloudy to dense opacities, obscuring vascular markings, on chest radiographs. Synonym: airspace-filling pattern. (05 Mar 2000) |
| A-pattern strabismus | Strabismus in which esotropia is more marked in looking upward than downward, strabismus in which exotropia is more marked on looking downward than upward. Synonym: A-pattern strabismus. (05 Mar 2000) |