| D.I. particle | <abbreviation> Defective interfering particle. (05 Mar 2000) |
|---|---|
| dressed particle | <radiobiology> A particle plus its associated neutralising Debye sphere. (09 Oct 1997) |
| intramembranous particle | <cell biology> Particles (or complementary pits) seen in freeze fractured membranes. The cleavage plane is through the centre of the bilayer and the particles are usually assumed to represent Integral membrane proteins (or polymers of such proteins). (18 Nov 1997) |
| either particle flux density | The particle fluence rate, or energy flux density, the energy fluence rate of intensity. Compare: fluence. (05 Mar 2000) |
| elementary particle interactions | The interactions of particles responsible for their scattering and transformations (decays and reactions). Because of interactions, an isolated particle may decay into other particles. Two particles passing near each other may transform, perhaps into the same particles but with changed momenta (elastic scattering) or into other particles (inelastic scattering). Interactions fall into three groups: strong, electromagnetic, and weak. (12 Dec 1998) |
| trapped-particle instability | <radiobiology> Slowly-growing class of instabilities driven by particles which cannot circulate freely in a toroidal system. See: banana orbit. (09 Oct 1997) |
| kappa particle | <microbiology> Gram-negative bacterial endosymbiont of Paramoecium spp., (Caedobacter taeniospiralis) that confers the killer trait, infected Paramoecium are resistant to the toxin liberated by infected forms. Killing activity is associated with the induction of defective phage in the endosymbiont, leading to the release of R bodies, coded for by the phage genome and apparently of mis assembled phage coat protein. (18 Nov 1997) |
| Zimmermann's elementary particle | <haematology> A discoid cell (3m diameter) found in large numbers in blood, important for blood coagulation and for haemostasis by repairing breaches (small breaks) in the walls of blood vessels. Platelet _ granules contain lysosomal enzymes, dense granules contain ADP (a potent platelet aggregating factor) and serotonin (a vasoactive amine). They also release platelet-derived growth factor which presumably contributes to later repair processes by stimulating fibroblast proliferation. Synonym: thrombocytes. (09 Oct 1997) |
| ambipolar diffusion | <radiobiology> Diffusion process in which buildup of spatial charge creates electric fields which cause electrons and ions to leave the plasma at the same rate. (Such electric fields are self-generated by the plasma and act to preserve charge neutrality.) (09 Oct 1997) |
| anomalous diffusion | <radiobiology> Diffusion in most plasma devices, particularly tokamaks, is higher than what one would predict from understood causes. The observed, typical diffusion is referred to as anomalous because it has not yet been explained. Anomalous diffusion includes all diffusion which is not due to collisions and geometric effects. While such effects were not understood when the term was coined, and most still are not, diffusion due to well-understood wave phenomena is still 'anomalous'. Classical diffusion and Neo-classical diffusion are the two well-understood diffusion theories, although neither is adequate to fully explain the observed anomalous diffusion. See: entries for classical diffusion and neoclassical diffusion. Anomalous resistivity (09 Oct 1997) |
| bohm diffusion | <radiobiology> A rapid loss of plasma across magnetic field lines caused by microinstabilities. Theory formulated by the physicist David Bohm. Semiempirical formula for the diffusion coefficient given by Bohm in 1946 (noted by Bohm, Burhop, and Massey, who were developing a magnetic arc for use in uranium isotope separation). Bohm diffusion was proposed (not derived from first principles) to scale as 1/B rather than the 1/B^2 scaling predicted by classical diffusion. A 1/B scaling results from assuming that particles diffuse across field lines at an optimum rate (effective collision frequency=cyclotron frequency). The 1/B scaling is observed (approximately) in most reactors. See: diffusion, microinstabilities, field lines. (09 Oct 1997) |
| gel diffusion | Diffusion in a gel, as in the case of gel diffusion precipitin tests in which the immune reactants diffuse in agar. See: immunodiffusion. (05 Mar 2000) |
| gel diffusion precipitin tests | Precipitin test's in which the immune precipitate forms in a gel medium (usually agar) into which one or both reactants have diffused; generally classified in two types, in one dimension, and in two dimensions. Synonym: gel diffusion reactions. (05 Mar 2000) |
| gel diffusion precipitin tests in one dimension | Precipitin test's in which antigen solution and antibody incorporated in agar are layered in tubes, permitting effective diffusion in the vertical dimension; the antibody-containing agar may be overlaid directly with antigen solution (single (gel) diffusion in one dimension). (05 Mar 2000) |
| gel diffusion precipitin tests in two dimensions | Precipitin test's made in a layer of agar that permits radial diffusion, in both of the horizontal dimensions, of one or both reactants. Double (gel) diffusion in two dimensions (Ouchterlony test, technique, or method) incorporates antigen and antibody solutions placed in separate wells in a sheet of plain agar, permitting radial diffusion of both reactants; this method is widely used to determine antigenic relationships; the bands of precipitate that form where the reactants meet in optimal concentration are of three patterns, referred to as reaction of identity, reaction of partial identity (cross-reaction), and reaction of nonidentity. (05 Mar 2000) |