| confluens | Synonym: confluence, confluence. Origin: L. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| confluens sinuum | A meeting place, at the internal occipital protuberance, of the superior sagittal, straight, occipital, drained by the two transverse sinuses of the dura mater. Synonym: confluens sinuum. (05 Mar 2000) |
| confluent | 1. Joining; running together; denoting certain skin lesions which become merged, forming a patch; denoting a disease characterised by lesions which are not discrete, or distinct one from the other. 2. Denoting a bone formed by the blending together of two originally distinct bones. Origin: L. Con-fluo, to flow together (05 Mar 2000) |
| confluent and reticulate papillomatosis | Discrete and confluent gray-brown papules of the anterior and posterior mid-chest, spreading gradually; Malassezia furfur has been found in the keratin layer. Synonym: Gougerot-Carteaud syndrome. (05 Mar 2000) |
| confluent articulation | A tendency to run the syllables together in speech. (05 Mar 2000) |
| confluent culture | <cell biology> A cell culture in which all the cells are in contact and the entire surface of the culture vessel is covered. It is also often used with the implication that the cells have also reached their maximum density, though confluence does not necessarily mean that division will cease or that the population will not increase in size. (18 Nov 1997) |
| confluent smallpox | A severe form in which the lesions run into each other, forming large suppurating areas. (05 Mar 2000) |
| confocal | See: confocal microscope. (05 Mar 2000) |
| confocal microscope | <instrument> A microscope that allows the observer to visualise objects in a single plane of focus, thereby creating a sharper image (usually the objects are fluorescent molecules); a refinement of this microscope uses optical sectioning and a computer to record serial sections. This permits three-dimensional reconstruction. (05 Mar 2000) |
| confocal microscopy | <procedure> A system of (usually) epifluorescence light microscopy in which a fine laser beam of light is scanned over the object through the objective lens. The technique is particularly good at rejecting light from outside the plane of focus and so produces higher effective resolution than is normally achieved. (18 Nov 1997) |
| confocal optics | <microscopy> A (microscope) optical system in which the condenser and objective lenses both focus onto one single point in the specimen. Generally, the image of a pinhole source is focused onto a point in the specimen, and that point is focused by the objective lens onto a point detector or through a mask with a pinhole aperture. With confocal optics, the Abbe limit of resolution can be exceeded since only a limited region of the specimen is viewed at any onetime. (05 Aug 1998) |
| conformation | The three-dimensional arrangement of side groups on a molecule which canfreely rotate into different positions without breaking any bonds. (09 Oct 1997) |
| conformational change | <cell biology> Alteration in the shape usually the tertiary structure of a protein as a result of alteration in the environment pH, temperature, ionic strength) or the binding of a ligand (to a receptor) or binding of substrate (to an enzyme). (18 Nov 1997) |
| conformational map | A graphical representation in which the dihedral angle of rotation about the alpha-carbon to carbonyl-carbon bond in polypeptides is plotted against the dihedral angle of rotation about the alpha-carbon to nitrogen bond. Synonym: conformational map. (05 Mar 2000) |
| conformer | A mold, usually of plastic material, used in plastic surgical repair to maintain space in a cavity or to prevent closing by healing of an artificial or natural opening affected by neighboring surgical repair. Origin: L. Conformo, to fashion (05 Mar 2000) |