19-letter words containing f, a, s, t, c, i
- fractal compression — (algorithm) A technique for encoding images using fractals.
- fraternal insurance — insurance underwritten by a fraternal society, under either a legal reserve plan or an assessment plan.
- from rags to riches — a worthless piece of cloth, especially one that is torn or worn.
- 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 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].
- general post office — (in the U.S. postal system) the main post office of a city, county, etc., that also has branch post offices. Abbreviation: G.P.O., GPO.
- grandfather's chair — wing chair.
- greenstick fracture — an incomplete fracture of a long bone, in which one side is broken and the other side is still intact.
- hospital facilities — the equipment and services provided by a hospital
- hyperfocal distance — the distance, at a given f number, between a camera lens and the nearest point (hyperfocal point) having satisfactory definition when focused at infinity.
- in consideration of — the act of considering; careful thought; meditation; deliberation: I will give your project full consideration.
- information science — the study of the nature, collection, and management of information and of its uses, especially involving computer storage and retrievals.
- information service — a service which provides information
- interesterification — transesterification.
- interfacial tension — the surface tension at the interface of two liquids.
- italian east africa — a former Italian territory in E Africa, formed in 1936 by the merging of Eritrea and Italian Somaliland with newly conquered Ethiopia: taken by the British Imperial forces 1941.
- jacques montgolfier — Jacques Étienne [zhahk ey-tyen] /ʒɑk eɪˈtyɛn/ (Show IPA), 1745–99, and his brother Joseph Michel [zhaw-zef mee-shel] /ʒɔˈzɛf miˈʃɛl/ (Show IPA) 1740–1810, French aeronauts: inventors of the first practical balloon 1783.
- juan de fuca strait — strait between Vancouver Island and NW Wash.: c. 100 mi (161 km) long
- logical shift right — logical shift
- loss-of-containment — Loss-of-containment happens when a fluid which is usually contained somewhere escapes from that place.
- manned space flight — space travel in vehicles with a human crew
- means of production — resources: equipment, workers
- miracle of st. mark — a painting (1548) by Tintoretto.
- nasty piece of work — malicious person
- neats vs. scruffies — (artificial intelligence, jargon) The label used to refer to one of the continuing holy wars in artificial intelligence research. This conflict tangles together two separate issues. One is the relationship between human reasoning and AI; "neats" tend to try to build systems that "reason" in some way identifiably similar to the way humans report themselves as doing, while "scruffies" profess not to care whether an algorithm resembles human reasoning in the least as long as it works. More importantly, neats tend to believe that logic is king, while scruffies favour looser, more ad-hoc methods driven by empirical knowledge. To a neat, scruffy methods appear promiscuous, successful only by accident and not productive of insights about how intelligence actually works; to a scruffy, neat methods appear to be hung up on formalism and irrelevant to the hard-to-capture "common sense" of living intelligences.
- pancreatic fibrosis — cystic fibrosis.
- phacoemulsification — the removal of a cataract by first liquefying the affected lens with ultrasonic vibrations and then extracting it by suction.
- phakoemulsification — the removal of a cataract by first liquefying the affected lens with ultrasonic vibrations and then extracting it by suction.
- pirates of penzance — an operetta (1879) by Sir William S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan.
- plastic deformation — In plastic deformation a material changes shape when a stress is applied to it and does not go back to its original state when the stress is removed.
- post-and-rail fence — a fence constructed of upright wooden posts with horizontal timber slotted through it
- presumption of fact — a presumption based on experience or knowledge of the relationship between a known fact and a fact inferred from it.
- private first class — a soldier ranking above a private and below a corporal or specialist fourth class in the U.S. Army, and above a private and below a lance corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps.
- radius of curvature — the absolute value of the reciprocal of the curvature at a point on a curve.
- sacrifice operative — a euphemistic term for a suicide bomber
- savings certificate — a certificate of deposit for a specific sum of money in a savings account, especially a deposit for a fixed term at a specified interest rate.
- scientific notation — a method for expressing a given quantity as a number having significant digits necessary for a specified degree of accuracy, multiplied by 10 to the appropriate power, as 1385.62 written as 1.386 × 10 3 .
- secondary infection — an infection resulting from another infection
- self identification — identification of oneself with some other person or thing.
- self-congratulating — the expression or feeling of uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one's own accomplishment, good fortune, etc.; complacency.
- self-congratulation — the expression or feeling of uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one's own accomplishment, good fortune, etc.; complacency.
- self-discrimination — an act or instance of discriminating, or of making a distinction.
- self-identification — identification of oneself with some other person or thing.
- sentential function — an expression that contains one or more variables and becomes meaningful when suitable constant terms are substituted for them.
- shopping facilities — shops or other retail services
- siberian forest cat — a breed of powerfully-built long-haired cat, typically tabby with a white ruff and white paws
- significant figures — the figures of a number that express a magnitude to a specified degree of accuracy, rounding up or down the final figure
- son-of-a-bitch stew — (in the Old West) a stew often prepared by chuck-wagon cooks for working cowboys, containing tripe and often also the heart, liver, brains, kidney, etc., of a slaughtered steer.
- south african dutch — the Boers.