| AE | above-elbow [amputation]; acrodermatitis enteropathica; activation energy; adult erythrocyte; advers... |
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| AU | according to custom [Lat. ad usum]; allergenic unit; ngstrom unit; antitoxin unit; arbitrary unit; A... |
| CCU | cardiac care unit; Cherry-Crandall unit; coronary care unit; critical care unit |
| MU | megaunit; mescaline unit; methyluric [acid]; Montevideo unit; motion unsharpness; motor unit; mouse ... |
| PCU | pain control unit; primary care unit; patient care unit; pulmonary care unit |
| flow | 1. To move with a continual change of place among the particles or parts, as a fluid; to change place or circulate, as a liquid; as, rivers flow from springs and lakes; tears flow from the eyes. 2. To become liquid; to melt. "The mountains flowed down at thy presence." (Is. Lxiv. 3) 3. To pproceed; to issue forth; as, wealth flows from industry and economy. "Those thousand decencies that daily flow From all her words and actions." (Milton) 4. To glide along smoothly, without harshness or asperties; as, a flowing period; flowing numbers; to sound smoothly to the ear; to be uttered easily. "Virgil is sweet and flowingin his hexameters." (Dryden) 5. To have or be in abundance; to abound; to full, so as to run or flow over; to be copious. "In that day . . . The hills shall flow with milk." (Joel III. 18) "The exhilaration of a night that needed not the influence of the flowing bowl." (Prof. Wilson) 6. To hang loose and waving; as, a flowing mantle; flowing locks. "The imperial purple flowing in his train." (A. Hamilton) 7. To rise, as the tide; opposed to ebb; as, the tide flows twice in twenty-four hours. "The river hath thrice flowed, no ebb between." (Shak) 8. To discharge blood in excess from the uterus. Origin: AS. Flowan; akin to D. Vloeijen, OHG. Flawen to wash, Icel. Floa to deluge, Gr. To float, sail, and prob. Ultimately to E. Float, fleet. 80. Cf. Flood. 1. A stream of water or other fluid; a current; as, a flow of water; a flow of blood. 2. A continuous movement of something abundant; as, a flow of words. 3. Any gentle, gradual movement or procedure of thought, diction, music, or the like, resembling the quiet, steady movement of a river; a stream. "The feast of reason and the flow of soul." (Pope) 4. The tidal setting in of the water from the ocean to the shore. See Ebb and flow, under Ebb. 5. A low-lying piece of watery land; called also flow moss and flow bog. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| flow cytoenzymology | A technique for for separating and sorting cells based on the presence ofspecific enzymes that create acoloured material when they bind to a substrate. (09 Oct 1997) |
| flow cytometry | <technique> Flow cytometry is an emerging technique which holds great promise for the separation, classification and quantitation of blood cells and antibodies which affect blood cells. Complex computerised instruments are used to pass a monocellular stream of cells, platelets or other microscopic particulate elements through a beam of laser light. The cells are categorised first by size and then computer analysed to sort the mixture of cellular elements into cell type by size. Cells are labelled with fluorescent dye and then passed, in suspending medium, through a narrow dropping nozzle so that each cell is in a small droplet. A laser based detector system is used to excite fluorescence and droplets with positively fluorescent cells are given an electric charge. Charged and uncharged droplets are separated as they fall between charged plates and so collect in different tubes. The machine can be used either as an analytical tool, counting the number of labelled cells in a population or to separate the cells for subsequent growth of the selected population. Further sophistication can be built into the system by using a second laser system at right angles to the first to look at a second fluorescent label or to gauge cell size on the basis of light scatter. The great strength of the system is that it looks at large numbers of individual cells and makes possible the separation of populations with, for example: particular surface properties. Tabulation of counted data in conjunction with size analysis enables determination of relative percentages of each specific cellular subset for which monoclonal antibody conjugates are utilised, even when the size of the cell is identical to other subset species. Flow cytometry is a slightly imprecise but common term for the use of the Fluorescence-activated Cell Sorter (FACS). (01 Dec 1998) |
| flow cytophotometry | <technique> Flow cytometry is an emerging technique which holds great promise for the separation, classification and quantitation of blood cells and antibodies which affect blood cells. Complex computerised instruments are used to pass a monocellular stream of cells, platelets or other microscopic particulate elements through a beam of laser light. The cells are categorised first by size and then computer analysed to sort the mixture of cellular elements into cell type by size. Cells are labelled with fluorescent dye and then passed, in suspending medium, through a narrow dropping nozzle so that each cell is in a small droplet. A laser based detector system is used to excite fluorescence and droplets with positively fluorescent cells are given an electric charge. Charged and uncharged droplets are separated as they fall between charged plates and so collect in different tubes. The machine can be used either as an analytical tool, counting the number of labelled cells in a population or to separate the cells for subsequent growth of the selected population. Further sophistication can be built into the system by using a second laser system at right angles to the first to look at a second fluorescent label or to gauge cell size on the basis of light scatter. The great strength of the system is that it looks at large numbers of individual cells and makes possible the separation of populations with, for example: particular surface properties. Tabulation of counted data in conjunction with size analysis enables determination of relative percentages of each specific cellular subset for which monoclonal antibody conjugates are utilised, even when the size of the cell is identical to other subset species. Flow cytometry is a slightly imprecise but common term for the use of the Fluorescence-activated Cell Sorter (FACS). (01 Dec 1998) |
| flow injection analysis | The analysis of a chemical substance by inserting a sample into a carrier stream of reagent using a sample injection valve that propels the sample downstream where mixing occurs in a coiled tube, then passes into a flow-through detector and a recorder or other data handling device. (12 Dec 1998) |
| flow karyotyping | Use of flow cytometry toanalyse and/orseparate chromosomes on the basis of their DNA content. (09 Oct 1997) |
| flow-over vaporiser | A device for vaporization of a liquid anaesthetic by causing gases to pass over the anaesthetic or over material saturated with the anaesthetic. (05 Mar 2000) |
| flow rate | The amount of water that moves through an area (usually pipe) in a given period of time. (05 Dec 1998) |
| flow void | In magnetic resonance imaging, the absence of signal from blood whose activated protons leave a region before their magnetization is measured. See: signal void. (05 Mar 2000) |
| flow-volume curve | The graph produced by plotting the instantaneous flow of respiratory gas against the simultaneous lung volume, usually during maximal forced expiration. (05 Mar 2000) |
| forced expiratory flow | Expiratory flow during measurement of forced vital capacity; subscripts specify the exact parameter measured, e.g., peak instantaneous flow, the instantaneous flow at some specified point on the curve of volume expired versus time, or on the flow-volume curve, the mean flow between two expired volumes. (05 Mar 2000) |
| forced expiratory flow rates | Measurements of rates of airflow during a forced vital capacity determination. (12 Dec 1998) |
| frozen-in flow law | <radiobiology> In a perfect conductor, the total magnetic flux through any surface is a constant. In a plasma which is nearly perfectly conducting, the relevant surfaces move with the plasma, the result is that the plasma is tied to the magnetic field, and the field is tied to the plasma. Motion of the plasma thus deforms the magnetic field, and vice versa. The magnetic flux is said to be frozen into the plasma. (09 Oct 1997) |
| low flow principle | A principle based on the observation that animals can survive prolonged vena caval occlusion without sequelae: if blood from the azygos vein alone is permitted to enter the heart, patients are perfused during cardiac and pulmonary bypass at flows much less than the normal resting cardiac output. Synonym: low flow principle. (05 Mar 2000) |
| air | 1. The fluid which we breathe, and which surrounds the earth; the atmosphere. It is invisible, inodourous, insipid, transparent, compressible, elastic, and ponderable. By the ancient philosophers, air was regarded as an element; but modern science has shown that it is essentially a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, with a small amount of carbon dioxide, the average proportions being, by volume: oxygen.96 per cent.; nitrogen.00 per cent.; carbon dioxide.04 per cent. These proportions are subject to a very slight variability. Air also always contains some vapor of water. 2. Symbolically: Something unsubstantial, light, or volatile. "Charm ache with air." "He was still all air and fire. (Macaulay). [Air and fire being the finer and quicker elements as opposed to earth and water]" 3. A particular state of the atmosphere, as respects heat, cold, moisture, etc, or as affecting the sensations; as, a smoky air, a damp air, the morning air, etc. 4. Any aeriform body; a gas; as, oxygen was formerly called vital air. 5. Air in motion; a light breeze; a gentle wind. "Let vernal airs through trembling osiers play." (Pope) 6. Odouriferous or contaminated air. 7. That which surrounds and influences. "The keen, the wholesome air of poverty." (Wordsworth) 8. Utterance abroad; publicity; vent. "You gave it air before me." (Dryden) 9. Intelligence; information. 10. A musical idea, or motive, rhythmically developed in consecutive single tones, so as to form a symmetrical and balanced whole, which may be sung by a single voice to the stanzas of a hymn or song, or even to plain prose, or played upon an instrument; a melody; a tune; an aria. In harmonised chorals, psalmody, part songs, etc, the part which bears the tune or melody in modern harmony usually the upper part is sometimes called the air. 11. The peculiar look, appearance, and bearing of a person; mien; demeanor; as, the air of a youth; a heavy air; a lofty air. "His very air." 12. Peculiar appearance; apparent character; semblance; manner; style. "It was communicated with the air of a secret." (Pope) 12. An artificial or affected manner; show of pride or vanity; haughtiness; as, it is said of a person, he puts on airs. 14. The representation or reproduction of the effect of the atmospheric medium through which every object in nature is viewed. Carriage; attitude; action; movement; as, the head of that portrait has a good air. 15. The artificial motion or carriage of a horse. 16. To expose to the air for the purpose of cooling, refreshing, or purifying; to ventilate; as, to air a room. "It were good wisdom . . . That the jail were aired." (Bacon) "Were you but riding forth to air yourself." (Shak) 17. To expose for the sake of public notice; to display ostentatiously; as, to air one's opinion. "Airing a snowy hand and signet gem." (Tennyson) 18. To expose to heat, for the purpose of expelling dampness, or of warming; as, to air linen; to air liquors. Air is much used adjectively or as the first part of a compound term. In most cases it might be written indifferently, as a separate limiting word, or as the first element of the compound term, with or without the hyphen; as, air bladder, air-bladder, or airbladder; air cell, air-cell, or aircell; air-pump, or airpump. Air balloon. See Balloon. Air bath. An apparatus for the application of air to the body. An arrangement for drying substances in air of any desired temperature. Air castle. See Castle in the air, under Castle. Air compressor, a machine for compressing air to be used as a motive power. Air crossing, a passage for air in a mine. Air cushion, an air-tight cushion which can be inflated; also, a device for arresting motion without shock by confined air. Air fountain, a contrivance for producing a jet of water by the force of compressed air. Air furnace, a furnace which depends on a natural draft and not on blast. Air line, a straight line; a bee line. Hence Air-line,; as, air-line road. <medicine> Air lock Unsupported and liable to be turned or taken in flank; as, the army had its wing in the air. To take air, to be divulged; to be made public. To take the air, to go abroad; to walk or ride out. Origin: OE. Air, eir, F. Air, L. Aer, fr. Gr, air, mist, for, fr. Root to blow, breathe, probably akin to E. Wind. In sense 10 the French has taking a meaning fr. It. Aria atmosphere, air, fr. The same Latin word; and in senses 11, 12, 13 the French meaning is either fr. L. Aria, or due to confusion with F. Aire, in an older sense of origin, descent. Cf. Ary, Debonair, Malaria, Wind. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |