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19-letter words containing a, t, f, u

  • difference equation — (mathematics)   A relation between consecutive elements of a sequence. The first difference is D u(n) = u(n+1) - u(n) where u(n) is the nth element of sequence u. The second difference is u(n+2) + a u(n+1) + b u(n) = 0 can be converted to a difference equation (in this case, a second order linear difference equation): D2 u(n) + p D u(n) + q u(n) = 0 and vice versa. a, b, p, q are constants.
  • differential backup — (operating system)   A kind of backup that copies all files that have changed since the last full backup. Each differential backup will include all files in previous differential backups since the full backup so to restore a version of a file, you only need to search the full backup and the relevant differential backup. Some systems support differential backup by associating an "Archive" flag with each file and setting this flag whenever the file is modified to indicate that it should be included in the next backup. A differential backup does not change this flag, whereas an incremental backup resets it.
  • distinctive feature — a feature of the sound system of a language that serves as the crucial distinguishing mark between two phonemes, as the distinctive feature of voicing, which distinguishes b from p in English, or nasality, which distinguishes m from b and p.
  • entry qualification — the qualifications and conditions required to join an organization, club, etc
  • factitious disorder — any of various syndromes, as Münchausen syndrome, characterized by physical or psychological symptoms intentionally produced by a person and under voluntary control.
  • facultative apomict — a plant that can reproduce sexually or asexually.
  • father of the house — (in Britain) the longest-serving member of the House of Commons
  • fault tolerant unix — (operating system)   (FTX) Stratus's own Unix System V Release 4 multiprocessor operating system. In 2016, FTX is supported but no longer developed. FTX was one of three operating systems supplied by Stratus on their hardware, the other two, HP-UX and VOS, were the more common choices, FTX was only sold on an exceptional basis. Early FTX 3.x releases used an in-house virtual disk layer (VDL) driver, but later releases switched to a version of Veritas VxVM. FTX supported many of the proprietary communications boards (ISDN, serial, parallel, X.25, etc.).
  • fault tree analysis — (programming)   A form of safety analysis that assesses hardware safety to provide failure statistics and sensitivity analyses that indicate the possible effect of critical failures.
  • fault-based testing — (testing)   Software testing using test data designed to demonstrate the absence of a set of pre-specified faults; typically, frequently occurring faults. For example, to demonstrate that the software handles or avoids divide by zero correctly, the test data would include zero.
  • feather-duster worm — any tube-dwelling polychaete worm of the families Sabellidae and Serpulidae, the numerous species having a crown of feathery tentacles used in feeding and respiration.
  • february revolution — Russian Revolution (def 1).
  • february-revolution — Also called February Revolution. the uprising in Russia in March, 1917 (February Old Style), in which the Czarist government collapsed and a provisional government was established.
  • feel strongly about — to have decided opinions concerning
  • fellow countrywoman — a fellow countrywoman is a female citizen of the same state as the person speaking, writing, or being referred to
  • fellow-servant rule — the common-law rule that the employer is not liable to an employee for injuries resulting from the negligence of a fellow employee.
  • figurative language — language that contains or uses figures of speech, especially metaphors.
  • first person plural — a grammatical category of pronouns and verbs used by the speaker to refer to or talk about himself together with others
  • flannelmouth sucker — a sucker, Catostomus latipinnis, of the Colorado River and its tributaries.
  • floating foundation — a foundation used in yielding soil, having for its footing a raft tending to displace a weight greater than that of the building.
  • floating restaurant — a boat or ship that has been converted for use as a restaurant
  • floating-point unit — (hardware)   (FPU) A floating-point accelerator, usually in a single integrated circuit, possible on the same IC as the central processing unit.
  • fluoride toothpaste — toothpaste containing a small amount of fluoride as protection against tooth decay
  • focal plane shutter — an opaque shield in a camera, lying in the focal plane of the lens, that, when tripped, admits light to expose the film or plate for a predetermined period, usually a fraction of a second
  • focal-plane shutter — a camera shutter situated directly in front of the film.
  • forensic accountant — an accountant who specializes in applying accountancy skills to the purposes of the law
  • foundation subjects — the subjects studied as part of the National Curriculum, including the compulsory core subjects
  • fractional currency — coins or paper money of a smaller denomination than the basic monetary unit.
  • frameshift mutation — a mutation caused by frameshift.
  • fraternal insurance — insurance underwritten by a fraternal society, under either a legal reserve plan or an assessment plan.
  • freeze-frame button — a control button on a remote control device, used to stop a moving image to view it as a still
  • full-wave rectifier — a rectifier that transmits both halves of a cycle of alternating current as a direct current.
  • functional analysis — the branch of mathematics that deals with the theory of vector spaces and linear functionals.
  • functional calculus — the branch of symbolic logic that includes the sentential calculus and that deals with sentential functions and quantifiers and with logical relations between sentences containing quantifiers.
  • functional currency — Functional currency is the main currency used by a business.
  • functional database — (database, language)   A database which uses a functional language as its query language. Databases would seem to be an inappropriate application for functional languages since, a purely functional language would have to return a new copy of the entire database every time (part of) it was updated. To be practically scalable, the update mechanism must clearly be destructive rather than functional; however it is quite feasible for the query language to be purely functional so long as the database is considered as an argument. One approach to the update problem would use a monad to encapsulate database access and ensure it was single threaded. Alternative approaches have been suggested by Trinder, who suggests non-destructive updating with shared data structures, and Sutton who uses a variant of a Phil Wadler's linear type system. There are two main classes of functional database languages. The first is based upon Backus' FP language, of which FQL is probably the best known example. Adaplan is a more recent language which falls into this category. More recently, people have been working on languages which are syntactically very similar to modern functional programming languages, but which also provide all of the features of a database language, e.g. bulk data structures which can be incrementally updated, type systems which can be incrementally updated, and all data persisting in a database. Examples are PFL [Poulovassilis&Small, VLDB-91], and Machiavelli [Ohori et al, ACM SIGMOD Conference, 1998].
  • functional language — (language)   A language that supports and encourages functional programming.
  • functional medicine — individualized medical care that recognizes the interactions between genetic and environmental factors and between the body's interconnected systems.
  • future date testing — (testing)   The process of setting a computer's date to a future date to test a program's (expected or unexpected) date sensitivity. Future date testing only shows the effects of dates on the computer(s) under scrutiny, it does not take into account knock-on effects of dates on other connected systems.
  • go out of one's way — manner, mode, or fashion: a new way of looking at a matter; to reply in a polite way.
  • greenstick fracture — an incomplete fracture of a long bone, in which one side is broken and the other side is still intact.
  • gulf of carpentaria — a shallow inlet of the Arafura Sea, in N Australia between Arnhem Land and Cape York Peninsula
  • gulf of tehuantepec — an inlet of the Pacific on the south coast of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in S Mexico
  • hatfield-mccoy feud — a blood feud between two mountain clans on the West Virginia–Kentucky border, the Hatfields of West Virginia and the McCoys of Kentucky, that grew out of their being on opposite sides during the Civil War and was especially violent during 1880–90.
  • heat of sublimation — the heat absorbed by one gram or unit mass of a substance in the process of changing, at a constant temperature and pressure, from a solid to a gaseous state. Compare sublime (def 10).
  • hexafluoroplatinate — (chemistry) The univalent anion PtF6- prepared by reacting platinum hexafluoride with certain metals or other elements.
  • incomplete fracture — a fracture extending partly across the bone.
  • index-tracking fund — an investment fund that is administered so that its value changes in line with a given share index
  • indian paint fungus — a common woody hoof-shaped fungus, Echinodontium tinctorium, found on conifers in western North America and believed to have been used as a dye by Pacific Northwest Indians.
  • isthmus of san blas — the narrowest part of the Isthmus of Panama. Width: about 50 km (30 miles)
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