25-letter words containing l, a, s, e, r, p
- polycystic ovary syndrome — a hormonal disorder in which the Graafian follicles in the ovary fail to develop completely so that they are unable to ovulate, remaining as multiple cysts that distend the ovary. The results can include reduced fertility, obesity, and hirsutism
- 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.
- prices and incomes policy — voluntary or statutory regulation of the level of increases in prices and incomes
- principal nursing officer — a grade of nurse concerned with administration in the British National Health Service
- 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
- process design language 2 — (language) (PDL2) A language developed for the Texas Instruments ASC computer.
- 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
- 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
- ram's-head lady's-slipper — a rare, slender-stemmed orchid, Cypripedium arietinum, of northeastern North America, that has crimson-streaked, whitish-lipped flowers with purple sepals and grows in moist soil.
- really simple syndication — Rich Site Summary
- referentially transparent — referential transparency
- 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.
- sequential parlog machine — (SPM) The virtual machine (and its machine code) for the Parlog logic programming language.
- 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.
- 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
- sulphate-resisting cement — a type of Portland cement that resists normal concentrations of sulphates: used in concrete for flues and underwater work
- take up the cudgels (for) — to come to the defense (of)
- the empire state building — a very high skyscraper in New York City
- the leaning tower of pisa — the bell tower of Pisa Cathedral
- the mother of parliaments — the British Parliament: the model and creator of many other Parliaments
- the scholastic profession — the profession of teaching
- transcendental-philosophy — transcendental character, thought, or language.
- transport layer interface — (networking, programming) (TLI, or "Transport Level Interface") A protocol-independent interface for accessing network facilities, modelled after the ISO transport layer (level 4), that first appeared in Unix SVR3. TLI is defined by SVID as transport mechanism for networking interfaces, in preference to sockets, which are biased toward IP and friends. A disavantage is that a process cannot use read/write directly, but has to use backends using stdin and stdout to communicate with the network connection. TLI is implemented in SVR4 using the STREAMS interface. It adds no new system calls, just a library, libnsl_s.a. The major functions are t_open, t_bind, t_connect, t_listen, t_accept, t_snd, t_rcv, read, write. According to the Solaris t_open man page, XTI (X/OPEN Transport Interface) evolved from TLI, and supports the TLI API for compatibility, with some variations on semantics.
- transport level interface — Transport Layer Interface
- undisputed world champion — a boxer who holds the World Boxing Association, the World Boxing Council, the World Boxing Organization, and the International Boxing Federation world championship titles simultaneously
- xpress transport protocol — (networking, protocol) (XTP) A transport layer protocol for high-speed networks promoted by the XTP Forum. XTP provides protocol options for error control, flow control, and rate control. Instead of separate protocols for each type of communication, XTP controls packet exchange patterns to produce different models, e.g. reliable datagrams, transactions, unreliable streams, and reliable multicast connections. Contrast with Transmission Control Protocol. XTP does not employ congestion avoidance algorithms.
- yakut autonomous republic — an autonomous republic in the NE Russian Federation in Asia. 1,198,146 sq. mi. (3,103,200 sq. km). Capital: Yakutsk.
- yellowstone national park — a park in NW Wyoming and adjacent parts of Montana and Idaho: geysers, hot springs, falls, canyon. 3458 sq. mi. (8955 sq. km).