| vital tripod | The brain, the heart, and the lungs, regarded as the three organs essential to life. (05 Mar 2000) |
|---|---|
| vital ultraviolet | Rays necessary or helpful to normal growth; they promote calcium metabolism, are antirachitic in action, and have wavelengths between 3200 and 2900 A |
| noeud vital | A circumscript region in the lower part of the medulla oblongata, near the apex of the calamus scriptorius, interpreted by M. Flourens (1858) as a nerve centre controlling respiration. Synonym: vital knot, vital node. Origin: Fr. (05 Mar 2000) |
| electro-vital | Derived from, or dependent upon, vital processes; said of certain electric currents supposed by some physiologists to circulate in the nerves of animals. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| baseload capacity | The power output that generating equipment can continuously produce. (05 Dec 1998) |
| buffer capacity | <chemistry> The ability of a buffer solution to absorb added alkali or acid while maintaining the solution's pH. (09 Oct 1997) |
| capacity | Power or ability to hold, retain or contain or the ability to absorb. Origin: L. Capacitas, from capere = to take (18 Nov 1997) |
| capacity factor | <physics> This is the ratio of the average power output from an electric power plant to the plant's rated capacity. A capacity factor is ideally unity, but invariably less. Capacity factors vary widely between types of electric plants (for example, nuclear, solar, coal, etc.), and can even vary widely for a single type of power plant. <radiobiology> Index (typically in percent) indicating the average power supplied by an energy plant, relative to its maximum rated capacity. Synonym: plant factor, load factor. (13 Jan 1998) |
| vectorial capacity | <epidemiology> In vector-borne infections such as malaria, the vectorial capacity is a concept analogous to the contact rate in directly-transmitted diseases. It is, thus, a function of (a) the vector's density in relation to its vertebrate host, (b) the frequency with which it takes blood meals on the host species, (c) the duration of the latent period in the vector, and (d) the vector's life expectancy. (05 Dec 1998) |
| carrying capacity | <ecology> The maximum average number or biomass of organisms that can be sustained in a habitat over the long term. Usually refers to a particular species, but can be applied to more than one. (09 Oct 1997) |
| maximum breathing capacity | The volume of air breathed when an individual breathes as deeply and as quickly as possible for a given time (e.g., 15 sec.). Synonym: maximum breathing capacity. (05 Mar 2000) |
| residual capacity | The volume of air remaining in the lungs at the end of a maximal expiration. Common abbreviation is rv. (12 Dec 1998) |
| respiratory capacity | <chest medicine, physiology> The volume of gas that can be expelled from the lungs from a position of full inspiration, with no limit to the duration of expiration, it is equal to the inspiratory capacity plus the expiratory reserve volume. (11 Nov 1997) |
| molar heat capacity | <chemistry> The amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one mole of a substance by one degree Celsius (or Kelvin). (09 Jan 1998) |
| work capacity evaluation | Assessment of physiological capacities in relation to job requirements. It is usually done by measuring certain physiological (e.g., circulatory and respiratory) variables during a gradually increasing workload until specific limitations occur with respect to those variables. (12 Dec 1998) |