| LASER | light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation |
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| MASER | microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation |
| MORAC | mixed oligonucleotides primed amplification of complementary deoxyribonucleic acid |
| RACE | rapid amplification of complementary deoxyribonucleic acid ends |
| RAWTS | ribonucleic acid amplification with transcript sequencing |
| random allocation | A process involving chance used in therapeutic trials or other research endeavor for allocating experimental subjects, human or animal, between treatment and control groups, or among treatment groups. It may also apply to experiments on inanimate objects. (12 Dec 1998) |
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| random coil | A structure of a macromolecule (typically, a biopolymer) which changes with time. (05 Mar 2000) |
| random mating | Totally haphazard mating with no regard to the genetic makeup (genotype) of the mate so that any sperm has an equal chance of fertilizing any egg. This rarely, if ever, occurs but the concept is impoortant in population genetics. Also called panmixus. (12 Dec 1998) |
| random mating equilibrium | <genetics> In a population containing the genotypes of AA, aa, and Aa, the frequency of AA will be p2, the frequency of aa will be q2, and the frequency of Aa will be 2 pq at equilibrium, where p is the frequency of A and q is the frequency of a. By the Hardy-Weinberg law, a ramdonly-mating population will eventually reach these frequencies and be at this equilibrium as long as there are no selection pressures on the population. (09 Oct 1997) |
| random mechanism | A scheme for substrate binding and product release for a multisubstrate enzyme; for a two-substrate two-product enzyme with this mechanism, either substrate can bind first and, after the reaction has taken place, either product can be the first to dissociate from the enzyme. Brain hexokinase has a random mechanism. More complex random mechanisms exist for enzymes having more than two substrates. (05 Mar 2000) |
| random pattern flap | A flap in which the pedicle blood supply is derived randomly from the network of vessels in the area, rather than from a single longitudinal artery as in an axial pattern flap. (05 Mar 2000) |
| random sample | A group selected randomly, solely by chance. (12 Dec 1998) |
| random sampling | A selection of elements by a formal randomizing device for purposes of inference about a population of inference from that population in such a way that the probability of each possible outcome may be precisely specified in advance; the inferences are necessarily stochastic. (05 Mar 2000) |
| random variable | A variable that may assume a set of values, each with fixed probabilities or probability densities (its distribution), in such a way that the total probability assigned to the distribution is unity; the random variable may be discrete, continuous, or mixed discrete-continuous. (05 Mar 2000) |
| random walk | <cell biology> A description of the path followed by a cell or particle when there is no bias in movement. The direction of movement at any instant is not influenced by the direction of travel in the preceding period. If changes of direction are very frequent, then the displacement will be small, unless the speed is very great and the object will appear to vibrate on the spot. Although the behaviour of moving cells in a uniform environment can be described as a random walk in the long term, this is not true in the short term because of persistence. (18 Nov 1997) |
| random waves | Wave's in the electroencephalogram which occur paroxysmally and asynchronously. (05 Mar 2000) |
| mixed discrete-continuous random variable | <statistics> A random variable that may assume some values with probabilities and others with probability densities. For example, in a 35-year-old man with familial polyposis of the colon, the distribution of time until malignant disease occurs consists of a probability that he already has cancer (which would be assigned the waiting time 0), a probability density of developing it in the future and a probability that he will die of some other cause before he develops cancer. (05 Mar 2000) |
| continuous random variable | Continuous variable that may randomly assume any value in its domain but any particular value has no probability of occurring, only a probability density. (05 Mar 2000) |
| sample, random | A group selected randomly, solely by chance. (12 Dec 1998) |
| pure random drift | That which has random components only with an average value of zero and no systematic effects. Brownian movement in a still container shows pure random drift but in the Mississippi shows a steady downstream tendency. (05 Mar 2000) |