| EMT-A | emergency medical technician-ambulance; emergency medical technician providing basic life support or... |
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| EMT-D | emergency medical technician providing basic life support or defibrillation |
| ALS | acute lateral sclerosis; advanced life support; afferent loop syndrome; amyotrophic lateral sclerosi... |
| AAHSLD | Association of Academic Health Sciences Library Directors |
| AHS | Academy of Health Sciences; African horse sickness; alveolar hypoventilation syndrome; American Hear... |
| fibroblast growth factor, basic | A single-chain polypeptide of approximately 15-16 kD which has been isolated from a variety of cells. It has a 55% amino acid residue identity to acidic fibroblast growth factor and has potent heparin-binding activity. However, in contrast to the acidic fibroblast growth factor, heparin does not potentiate the biological activities of bfgf. The growth factor is an extremely potent inducer of DNA synthesis in a variety of normal diploid mammalian cell types from mesoderm and neuroectoderm lineages and promotes cellular differentiation in vitro. (12 Dec 1998) |
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| advanced life support | Definitive emergency medical care that includes defibrillation, airway management, and use of drugs and medications. Compare: basic life support. (05 Mar 2000) |
| artificial life | Artificial life (AL, alife) is a scientific discipline in whichresearchers study life by creating computer programs that recreatebiological systems from scratch. (09 Oct 1997) |
| biological half-life | <biochemistry, biology> This is the time required for one-half of the total amount of a particular substance in a biological system to be consumed or broken down by biological processes when the rate of removal is approximately exponential. Toxic chemicals with a long biological half-life (such as some pesticides) will tend to accumulate in the body and are, therefore, more likely to be harmful. A substance with a short biological half-life may still accumulate if a portion of it it becomes tightly bound to bone or other tissues, even if most of it is quickly cleared from the body. (21 Mar 1998) |
| vegetative life | The simple metabolic and reproductive activity of humans or animals, apart from the exercise of conscious mental or psychic processes. (05 Mar 2000) |
| germ-free life | Animals not contaminated by or associated with any foreign organisms. (12 Dec 1998) |
| change of life | Colloquialism for menopause, climacteric. (05 Mar 2000) |
| RNA life | <biology, molecular biology> A hypothetical life form lacking DNA and protein which may have existed on early earth and in which RNA served both a genetic coding and a catalytic function. (23 Aug 1998) |
| physical half-life | The time required for half the atoms of a radionuclide to undergo disintegration. (05 Mar 2000) |
| wrongful life | In civil law a cause of action which alleges that a defendant has wrongfully caused a child to be born. (12 Dec 1998) |
| postnatal life | That interval of life after birth; in man, usually divided into periods: neonatal, infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. (05 Mar 2000) |
| half-life | 1. <pharmacology> The period over which the concentration of a specified chemical or drug takes to fall to half its original concentration in the specified fluid or blood. 2. <radiobiology> The time required to reduce the amount of a radionuclide to one-half the amount originally present. Physical or radioactive half-life refers to reduction of activity by radioactive decay, biological half-life refers to biological elimination from the body and effective half-life refers to the combined action of radioactive decay and biological elimination. (16 Dec 1997) |
| prenatal life | That interval of life between conception and birth; in humans, usually divided into embryonic and foetal periods. (05 Mar 2000) |
| sexual life | In psychiatry and psychoanalysis, the specifically erotic or sexual interests, fantasies, inclinations, and conduct of the patient. (05 Mar 2000) |
| direct life cycle | <epidemiology> A life cycle in which a parasite is transmitted directly from one host to the next without an intermediate host or vector of another species. (05 Dec 1998) |