| singer's nodules | Small, circumscribed, bilateral, beadlike enlargements on the vocal cords caused by overuse or abuse of the voice; often reversible by voice therapy. Synonym: singer's nodes, singer's nodules, teachers' nodes. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| singhalese | <ethnology> Same as Cingalese. Origin: Skr.Sihala Ceylon. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| singing | From Sing, Singing bird. A California toadfish (Porichthys porosissimus). <physics> Singing flame, a flame, as of hydrogen or coal gas, burning within a tube and so adjusted as to set the air within the tube in vibration, causing sound. The apparatus is called also chemical harmonicon. Singing master, a man who teaches vocal music. Singing school, a school in which persons are instructed in singing. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| single | 1. One only, as distinguished from more than one; consisting of one alone; individual; separate; as, a single star. "No single man is born with a right of controlling the opinions of all the rest." (Pope) 2. Alone; having no companion. "Who single hast maintained, Against revolted multitudes, the cause Of truth." (Milton) 3. Hence, unmarried; as, a single man or woman. "Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness." (Shak) "Single chose to live, and shunned to wed." (Dryden) 4. Not doubled, twisted together, or combined with others; as, a single thread; a single strand of a rope. 5. Performed by one person, or one on each side; as, a single combat. "These shifts refuted, answer thy appellant, . . . Who now defles thee thrice ti single fight." (Milton) 6. Uncompounded; pure; unmixed. "Simple ideas are opposed to complex, and single to compound." (I. Watts) 7. Not deceitful or artful; honest; sincere. "I speak it with a single heart." (Shak) 8. Simple; not wise; weak; silly. "He utters such single matter in so infantly a voice." (Beau & Fl) Single ale, beer, or drink, small ale, etc, as contrasted with double ale, etc, which is stronger. Single bill, a single rope running through a fixed block. Origin: L. Singulus, a dim. From the root in simplex simple; cf. OE. & OF. Sengle, fr. L. Singulus. See Simple, and cf. Singular. 1. To select, as an individual person or thing, from among a number; to choose out from others; to separate. "Dogs who hereby can single out their master in the dark." (Bacon) "His blood! she faintly screamed her mind Still singling one from all mankind." (More) 2. To sequester; to withdraw; to retire. "An agent singling itself from consorts." (Hooker) 3. To take alone, or one by one. "Men . . . Commendable when they are singled." (Hooker) Origin: Singled; Singling. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| single ascertainment | Method of ascertainment of locating affected individuals by hospital or clinic admission or another way in which probability of encountering the same family twice approaches zero; thus, the probability that a family will be ascertained is proportional to the number of affected members. (05 Mar 2000) |
| single bond | A covalent bond resulting from the sharing of one pair of electrons; e.g., H3C-CH3 (ethane). (05 Mar 2000) |
| single cell protein | <protein> Protein produced by single cells in culture, especially Candida species, that could be of possible commercial importance in providing food sources from biotechnological processes. (10 Oct 1997) |
| single channel recording | Variant of patch clamp technique. (18 Nov 1997) |
| single gene disorder | Hereditary disorder caused by a mutant allele of a single gene (for example, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, retinoblastoma, sickle cell disease). Compare: polygenic disorders. (09 Oct 1997) |
| single immunodiffusion | See: gel diffusion precipitin tests in one dimension, gel diffusion precipitin tests in two dimensions. (05 Mar 2000) |
| single lucent skull lesion | <radiology> Mnemonic: HELP ME, haemangioma, epidermoid / dermoid, leptomeningeal cyst, lambdoid suture defect, Paget's (osteoporosis circumscripta), post-surgical, metastasis (solitary), eosinophilic granuloma, encephalocele (12 Dec 1998) |
| single parent | An unmarried natural, adoptive, or substitute parent of a dependent child, whether living with or visiting the child. To be used also for single-parent families. The concept includes the never-married, as well as the divorced and widowed. (12 Dec 1998) |
| single person | The unmarried man or woman. (12 Dec 1998) |
| single photon emission computed tomography | <radiology> Tomographic imaging of metabolic and physiological functions in tissues, the image being formed by computer synthesis of photons of a single energy emitted by radionuclides administered in suitable form to the patient. The method uses radionuclides which emit a single photon of a given energy. The camera is then rotated 180 or 360 degrees around the patient to capture images at multiple positions along the arc. The computer then reconstructs the transaxial, sagittal, and coronal images from the 3-dimensional distribution of radionuclides in the target area scanned. The advantages of SPECT are that it can be used to observe biochemical and physiological processes as well as the size and volume of the organ. The disadvantage is that, unlike positron emission tomography where the positron-electron annihilation results in the emission of 2 photons at 180 degrees from each other, SPECT requires physical collimation to line up the photons, which results in the loss of available photons and hence degrades the image. Acronym: SPECT (20 Jun 2000) |
| single stranded binding protein | <protein> SSB's are proteins responsiblefor holding the replication fork of DNAopen while polymerases readthe templates. (09 Oct 1997) |