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25-letter words containing a, r, i, s, t

  • polymerase chain reaction — a technique in which a known DNA sequence is synthesized at high temperatures by means of a polymerase, producing millions of copies for statistical analysis: used in DNA fingerprinting, in detecting minute quantities of cancer cells, etc.
  • portable network graphics — (file format)   /ping/ (PNG) An extensible file format for the lossless, portable, well-compressed storage of raster images. PNG provides a patent-free replacement for GIF and can also replace many common uses of TIFF. Indexed-colour, greyscale and truecolour images are supported, plus an optional alpha channel. Sample depths range from 1 to 16 bits. PNG is designed for on-line viewing applications, such as the World Wide Web, so it is fully streamable with a progressive display option. PNG is robust, providing both full file integrity checking and simple detection of common transmission errors. Also, PNG can store gamma correction and chromaticity data for improved colour matching on heterogeneous platforms.
  • positional representation — (mathematics)   The conventional way of writing numbers as a string of digits in which each digit, D, has value D * R^I, where R is the radix or (number) base and I is the digit's position counting leftward from zero at the least significant (right-hand) end. Each digit can be zero to R-1. Each position has a weight or significance R times greater than the position to its right and the right-most place has a weight of one. Decimal numbers are radix ten, binary numbers are radix two, octal radix eight and hexadecimal radix 16. Positional representation makes arithmetic operations on large numbers much easier than, say, roman numerals. It is fundamental to the binary representation used by digital computers.
  • potassium sodium tartrate — a colorless or white, water-soluble solid, KNaC 4 H 4 O 6 ⋅4H 2 O, used in silvering mirrors, in the manufacture of Seidlitz powders and baking powder, and in medicine as a laxative.
  • pressurized-water reactor — a nuclear reactor using water as coolant and moderator at a pressure that is too high to allow boiling to take place inside the reactor. The fuel is enriched uranium oxide cased in zirconium
  • principle of least action — the principle that motion between any two points in a conservative dynamical system is such that the action has a minimum value with respect to all paths between the points that correspond to the same energy
  • profit and loss statement — A profit and loss statement is a statement that is compiled at the end of a financial year showing that year's revenue and expense items and indicating gross and net profit or loss.
  • progressive federal party — a political party, formed in 1977 by a merger between the Progressive Party and members of the United Party, supporting qualified franchise for all South Africans irrespective of race, colour, or creed; merged with other parties in 1989 to form the Democratic Party
  • property damage insurance — insurance against losses arising from damage to the property of others, as in a motor-vehicle accident.
  • psychiatric social worker — (in Britain) a qualified person who works with mentally-ill people and their families, based in a psychiatric hospital, child guidance clinic, or social services department area team, and who may also be an approved social worker
  • public key infrastructure — (cryptography, communications)   (PKI) A system of public key encryption using digital certificates from Certificate Authorities and other registration authorities that verify and authenticate the validity of each party involved in an electronic transaction. PKIs are currently evolving and there is no single PKI nor even a single agreed-upon standard for setting up a PKI. However, nearly everyone agrees that reliable PKIs are necessary before electronic commerce can become widespread.
  • public relations exercise — something which is done for the sake of attracting favourable publicity
  • put/set sb's mind at rest — To put someone's mind at rest or set their mind at rest means to tell them something that stops them worrying.
  • raise (or lower) the bar — raise (or lower) the standard of judgment
  • rate monotonic scheduling — (algorithm)   A means of scheduling the time allocated to periodic hard-deadline real-time users of a resource. The users are assigned priorities such that a shorter fixed period between deadlines is associated with a higher priority. Rate monotonic scheduling provides a low-overhead, reasonably resource-efficient means of guaranteeing that all users will meet their deadlines provided that certain analytical equations are satisfied during the system design. It avoids the design complexity of time-line scheduling and the overhead of dynamic approaches such as earliest-deadline scheduling.
  • read someone the riot act — If someone in authority reads you the riot act, they tell you that you will be punished unless you start behaving properly.
  • really simple syndication — Rich Site Summary
  • referentially transparent — referential transparency
  • regimental sergeant major — the senior Warrant Officer I in a British or Commonwealth regiment or battalion, responsible under the adjutant for all aspects of duty and discipline of the warrant officers, NCOs, and men
  • registered representative — an employee of a member firm of a stock exchange, authorized to execute orders for the clients of the firm.
  • representative government — a person or thing that represents another or others.
  • rubidium-strontium dating — a radiometric dating method whereby the ratio of rubidium isotope to strontium in a mineral is used to calculate the age of the mineral, based on the rate of radioactive decay of rubidium to strontium.
  • saint joseph of arimathea — a wealthy member of the Sanhedrin, who obtained the body of Jesus after the Crucifixion and laid it in his own tomb (Matthew 27:57–60). Feast day: Mar 17 or July 31
  • saint pierre and miquelon — two small groups of islands off the S coast of Newfoundland: an overseas territory of France; important base for fishing. 3 sq. mi. (240 sq. km). Capital: St. Pierre.
  • saybolt universal seconds — a US measurement of viscosity similar in type to the British Redwood seconds
  • selective synchronization — a sound-recording process that facilitates overdubs by feeding the recorded track to the performer straight from the recording head
  • sequential parlog machine — (SPM) The virtual machine (and its machine code) for the Parlog logic programming language.
  • similarity transformation — Also called homothetic transformation. a mapping of a set by which each element in the set is mapped into a positive constant multiple of itself, the same constant being used for all elements.
  • single document interface — (programming)   (SDI) A limitation applying to an application program that only shows a single windows giving a view of one document at a time. The opposite is Multiple Document Interface (MDI).
  • single wingback formation — an offensive formation in which the wingback lines up outside of and about one yard behind an end, the quarterback lines up lateral to the wingback but about midway between the same end and the center, the fullback is three or four yards behind the middle of the line, and the tailback lines up one yard behind the fullback on the other side of the line from the wingback and quarterback.
  • sitting and standing room — places designated both for sitting and standing (customers), as in a concert hall, etc
  • slip/fall through the net — You use slip through the net or fall through the net to describe a situation where people are not properly cared for by the system that is intended to help them.
  • software through pictures — (programming, tool)   (StP) A set of CASE tools distributed by Aonix.
  • soroptimist international — an organization of clubs for professional and executive businesswomen
  • sparc international, inc. — (body)   An organisation established to promote the Scalable Processor ARChitecture (SPARC). Their main service is conformance testing. They also produce the "SPARC flash" newsletter and publish lists of SPARC compliant machines tested by SPARC International to be binary compatible with other compliant machines. SPARC(R) is a registered trademark of SPARC International, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
  • spark annotation language — (language)   (SAL) ICL, Ltd. Used in the verification of SPARK programs against Z specifications.
  • spectral band replication — (audio, compression)   (SBR) Guessing the nontransmitted higher frequency range of a compressed audio file by some helper bits (transmiited with the stream) and the transmitted base band. SBR allows a restoration (not reconstruction) of the upper frequency range without lots of bits. It was developed by Coding Technology, and is useful for medium and high quality coding at low and medium data rates. It is used by Digital Radio Mondiale and MP3 Pro.
  • stand in a person's light — to stand so as to obscure a person's vision
  • state services commission — (in New Zealand) a government-appointed body in charge of the public service
  • streaming simd extensions — (architecture)   (SSE) Intel Corporation's floating point SIMD extention of their Pentium microprocessor architecture. SSE was formerly know as KNI (Katmai New Instructions). It was introduced with the Pentium III.
  • stress corrosion cracking — Stress corrosion cracking is a type of corrosion that can happen when a stress is present, resulting in cracks in the surface of metal.
  • stretch one's imagination — If you say that something stretches your imagination, you mean that it is good because it makes you think about things that you had not thought about before.
  • strong accumulation point — a point such that every neighborhood of the point contains infinitely many points of a given set.
  • subordinating conjunction — a conjunction introducing a subordinate clause, as when in They were glad when I finished.
  • subscriber trunk dialling — a service by which telephone subscribers can obtain trunk calls by dialling direct without the aid of an operator
  • sulphate-resisting cement — a type of Portland cement that resists normal concentrations of sulphates: used in concrete for flues and underwater work
  • sympathetic introspection — a study of human conduct in which the investigator imagines himself or herself engaged in that conduct.
  • take sth under advisement — If someone in authority takes a matter under advisement, they decide that the matter needs to be considered more carefully, often by experts.
  • tetragonal trisoctahedron — Geometry. a trisoctahedron the faces of which are quadrilaterals; trapezohedron.
  • the ball is in sb's court — If you say that the ball is in someone's court, you mean that it is his or her responsibility to take the next action or decision in a situation.
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