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28-letter words containing n, a, s, t

  • positron emission tomography — the process of producing a PET scan.
  • potassium antimonyl tartrate — a white, water-soluble, sweet and metallic-tasting, poisonous powder or granules, C 4 H 4 KO 7 Sb, used as a mordant for dyeing textiles and leather, and in medicine as an expectorant, for inducing vomiting, and for infections by schistosomes.
  • probability density function — a function of a continuous variable whose integral over a region gives the probability that a random variable falls within the region.
  • program composition notation — (PCN) A specification language for parallelism between C and Fortran modules. PCN provides a simple language for specifying concurrent algorithms, interfaces to Fortran and C, a portable toolkit that allows applications to be developed on a workstation or small parallel computer and run unchanged on supercomputers and integrated debugging and performance analysis tools. PCN was developed at Argonne National Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology. It has been used to develop a wide variety of applications, in areas such as climate modelling, fluid dynamics, computational biology, chemistry, and circuit simulation. Version 2.0 runs on networks of workstations: Sun-4, NeXT, RS/6000, SGI; multicomputers: iPSC/860, Touchstone DELTA; and shared memory multiprocessors: Symmetry/Dynix. E-mail: Ian Foster <[email protected]>, Steve Tuecke <[email protected]>.
  • put one's cards on the table — a usually rectangular piece of stiff paper, thin pasteboard, or plastic for various uses, as to write information on or printed as a means of identifying the holder: a 3″ × 5″ file card; a membership card.
  • put one's hand to the plough — to begin or undertake a task
  • quick mail transfer protocol — (communications)   (QMTP) An SMTP replacement that works better over high latency links as it doesn't require as much interaction as SMTP. QMTP listens on port 209 and is used by qmail.
  • raise specification language — (language)   (RSL) (RAISE = Rigorous Approach to Industrial Software Engineering). A wide-spectrum specification and design language developed by ESPRIT Project 315 at CRI A/S, Denmark. Systems may be modular, concurrent and nondeterministic. Specifications may be applicative or imperative, explicit or implicit, abstract or concrete.
  • read the riot act to someone — to warn or reprimand someone severely
  • real time streaming protocol — (multimedia, networking, protocol)   (RTSP) An application layer protocol for controlling delivery of a stream of real-time multimedia content. RTSP allows users to start playing from a certain position. It does not actually deliver the data, but works alongside existing delivery channels such as UDP, TCP, or IP multicast. RTSP was developed by RealNetworks, Netscape Communications, and Columbia University, and is described in RFC 2326, April 1998. RTSP is an IETF proposed standard.
  • real-estate investment trust — an unincorporated trust created for the purpose of investing in real property or to extend credit to those engaged in construction. Abbreviation: REIT.
  • real-time transport protocol — (protocol)   (RTP) An Internet protocol for transmitting real-time data such as audio and video. RTP itself does not guarantee real-time delivery of data, but it does provide mechanisms for the sending and receiving applications to support streaming data. Typically, RTP runs on top of the UDP protocol, although the specification is general enough to support other transport protocols. RTP has received wide industry support. Netscape intends to base its LiveMedia technology on RTP, and Microsoft claims that its NetMeeting product supports RTP.
  • reflexive transitive closure — Two elements, x and y, are related by the reflexive transitive closure, R+, of a relation, R, if they are related by the transitive closure, R*, or they are the same element.
  • regular expression converter — CONVERT
  • rocky mountain spotted fever — an infectious disease characterized by high fever, pains in joints, bones, and muscles, and a cutaneous eruption, caused by rickettsii and transmitted by ticks: first reported in the Rocky Mountain area, but now more widely distributed.
  • savings and loan association — a depositor-owned organization that solicits savings to be placed in saving accounts or in share accounts, on which interest or dividends are paid, and from which mortgage loans on homes or real estate are made
  • sb will/can not go far wrong — If you say that someone won't go far wrong or can't go far wrong with a particular thing or course of action, you mean that it is likely to be successful or satisfactory.
  • scanning electron microscope — a device in which the specimen is examined point by point directly in a moving electron beam, and electrons reflected by the specimen are used to form a magnified, three-dimensional image on a television screen. Abbreviation: SEM.
  • second axiom of countability — the property satisfied by a topological space in which the neighborhood system of each point has a base consisting of a countable number of neighborhoods (first axiom of countability) or the property satisfied by a topological space that has a base for its topology consisting of a countable number of subsets of the space (second axiom of countability)
  • second law of thermodynamics — any of three principles variously stated in equivalent forms, being the principle that the change of energy of a thermodynamic system is equal to the heat transferred minus the work done (first law of thermodynamics) the principle that no cyclic process is possible in which heat is absorbed from a reservoir at a single temperature and converted completely into mechanical work (second law of thermodynamics) and the principle that it is impossible to reduce the temperature of a system to absolute zero in a finite number of operations (third law of thermodynamics)
  • secondary sex characteristic — any of a number of manifestations, as development of breasts or beard, muscularity, distribution of fat tissue, and change of pitch in voice, specific to each sex and incipient at puberty but not essential to reproduction.
  • self-regulating organization — one of several British organizations set up in 1986 under the auspices of the Securities and Investment Board to regulate the activities of London investment markets
  • semiconservative replication — replication.
  • service advertising protocol — (networking)   (SAP) A Novell NetWare protocol. SAP follows the spirit of the Xerox Clearinghouse protocol, it permits file, print, and gateway servers to advertise their services and addresses.
  • sexually transmitted disease — any disease characteristically transmitted by sexual contact, as gonorrhea, syphilis, genital herpes, and chlamydia. Abbreviation: STD.
  • shared-appreciation mortgage — a type of mortgage that carries a smaller down payment or lower interest rate than usual in return for the lender's sharing in the appreciation of the property at some future date, as at the time of its sale. Abbreviation: SAM.
  • sign one's own death warrant — A death warrant is an official document which orders that someone is to be executed as a punishment for a crime.
  • simulation oriented language — (language)   (SOL) An ALGOL extension for discrete simulation by Donald Knuth and McNeley.
  • single sideband transmission — a method of transmitting radio waves in which either the upper or the lower sideband is transmitted, the carrier being either wholly or partially suppressed. This reduces the required bandwidth and improves the signal-to-noise ratio
  • smooth endoplasmic reticulum — a network of tubular membranes within the cytoplasm of the cell, occurring either with a smooth surface (smooth endoplasmic reticulum) or studded with ribosomes (rough endoplasmic reticulum) involved in the transport of materials.
  • software productivity centre — (body)   (SPC) A non-profit organisation based in Vancouver, BC, Canada with the mandate to assist software developers to improve their software engineering process.
  • special power of appointment — authority to appoint persons from a particular class to take an estate or interest in property
  • spectral luminous efficiency — a measure of the efficiency of radiation of a given wavelength in producing a visual sensation. It is equal to the ratio of the radiant flux at a standard wavelength to that at the given wavelength when the standard wavelength is chosen so that the maximum value of this ratio is unity
  • standard normal distribution — a normal distribution with mean zero and variance 1, with probability density function [exp(–1⁄2x2)]/√2π
  • standard operating procedure — a set of fixed instructions or steps for carrying out usually routine operations. Abbreviation: SOP.
  • state university of new york — (body)   (SUNY) The public university system of New York State, USA, with campuses throughout the state.
  • strictly decreasing function — a function having the property that for any two points in the domain such that one is larger than the other, the image of the larger point is less than the image of the smaller point.
  • strictly increasing function — a function having the property that for any two points in the domain such that one is larger than the other, the image of the larger point is greater than the image of the smaller point.
  • sudden infant death syndrome — death from the sudden cessation of breathing (apnea) of a seemingly healthy infant, almost always during sleep, sometimes traceable to a chronic oxygen deficiency. Abbreviation: SIDS.
  • supplemental security income — income provided by the U.S. government to needy aged, blind, and disabled persons. Abbreviation: SSI.
  • systems administrators guild — (body, job)   (SAGE) A special technical group of the USENIX Association.
  • systems network architecture — (networking)   (SNA) IBM's proprietary high level networking protocol standard, used by IBM and IBM compatible mainframes. Also referred to as "Blue Glue", SNA is a bletcherous protocol once widely favoured at commercial shops. The official IBM definition is "that which binds blue boxes together." It may be relevant that Blue Glue is also a 3M product commonly used to hold down carpets in dinosaur pens.
  • take your eyes off something — When you take your eyes off the thing you have been watching or looking at, you stop looking at it.
  • tannu tuva people's republic — former name of Tuva Autonomous Republic.
  • television interface adaptor — (hardware, graphics)   (TIA) The graphics chip in the Atari 2600, also used as a sound chip for some arcade game.
  • the everglades national park — the Florida park established to preserve the flora and fauna of the Everglade swamps
  • the last word/the final word — If someone has the last word or the final word in a discussion, argument, or disagreement, they are the one who wins it or who makes the final decision.
  • the line of least resistance — If you take the line of least resistance in a situation, you do what is easiest, even though you think that it may not be the right thing to do. In American English, you usually talk about the path of least resistance.
  • the long and the short of it — the essential points or facts
  • the medical research council — a government body that uses public funds to finance research in medicine
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