| Gloger's rule | The rule or observation that the skin of a warm-blooded animal species tends to become darker in colour towards warmer climates at lower altitudes or lower latitudes, and to become lighter in colour towards colder climates at higher altitudes or higher latitudes. (09 Oct 1997) |
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| Goriaew's rule | Rarely used term for a rule of a blood counting field by which it is marked off in a series of squares, some of which are again subdivided into sixteen smaller ones. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Chargaff's rule | In DNA the number of adenine units equals the number of thymine units; likewise, the number of guanine units equals the number of cytosine units. (05 Mar 2000) |
| gt-ag rule | This is the observation that all introns in DNA begin with the nucleotides of GT(guanine, thymine) and end with the nucleotides AG (adenine, guanine). When the DNA is transcribed into RNA, the introns are removed from the RNA by a mechanism which recognises these beginning and ending nucleotides - in the RNA they would be CU (cytosine, uracil) and AC (adenine, cytosine). (09 Oct 1997) |
| Rolleston's rule | The ideal adult systolic blood pressure is 100 plus half the age, whereas the maximal physiologic pressure is 100 plus the age; of historical interest. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Meyer-Overton rule | <anaesthetics> Because inhalation agents act via the lipid-rich CNS cells, anaesthetic potency increases with lipid solubility. (05 Mar 2000) |
| phase rule | An expression of the relationships existing between systems in equilibrium: P + V = C + 2, where P is the number of phases, V the variance or degrees of freedom, and C the number of components; it also follows that the variance is, V = C + 2 -P. For H2O at its triple point, V = 1 + 2 -3 = 0, i.e., both temperature and pressure are fixed. Synonym: Gibb's phase rule. (05 Mar 2000) |
| rule | A statement of conditions, effects, or phenomena typically observed in agiven situation or process. (09 Oct 1997) |
| rule of bigeminy | Rule that a ventricular premature beat will follow the beat terminating a long cycle. Sudden prolongation of the ventricular cycle, by changing the refractoriness in the conduction system, causes a peripheral region of bidirectional block to become transiently unidirectional and thus opens potential pathways for reentry to occur. (05 Mar 2000) |
| rule of nines | Method used in calculating body surface area involved in burns whereby values of 9 or 18 percent of surface area are assigned to specific regions as follows: Head and neck, 9%; anterior thorax, 18%; posterior thorax, 18%; arms, 9% each; legs, 18% each; perineum 1%. (05 Mar 2000) |
| rule of outlet | An obstetric rule for determining whether the pelvic outlet will permit the passage of a foetus; the sum of the posterior sagittal diameter and the transverse diameter of the outlet must equal at least 15 cm if a normal-sized baby is to pass. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Clark's weight rule | An obsolete rule for an approximate child's dose, obtained by dividing the child's weight in pounds by 150 and multiplying the result by the adult dose. (05 Mar 2000) |
| M'Naghten rule | The classic English test of criminal responsibility (1843): "to establish a defense on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly proved that, at the time of committing the act, the party accused was laboring under such a defect of reasoning, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong." (05 Mar 2000) |
| weigert-meyer rule | <radiology> Applies to duplex collecting systems, upper-pole ureter, obstruction most likely to be hydronephrosis, inserts more inferiorly and medially in bladder, may insert into urethra, vagina, etc., males not incontinent: insertion above ext. Sphincter, associated with ureterocele, lower-pole ureter, reflux most likely to be pyelonephritis see also: drooping lily sign (12 Dec 1998) |
| Cowling's rule | An obsolete rule for a child's dose: that fraction of the adult dose obtained by dividing the age of the child at the nearest birthday by 24. (05 Mar 2000) |