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23-letter words containing s, i, t, u

  • descriptive linguistics — the study of the description of the internal phonological, grammatical, and semantic structures of languages at given points in time without reference to their histories or to one another
  • deterministic automaton — (theory)   A finite-state automaton in which the overall course of the computation is completely determined by the program, the starting state, and the initial inputs. The class of problems solvable by such automata is the class P (see polynomial-time algorithm).
  • dichlorodiethyl sulfide — mustard gas.
  • digital subscriber line — (communications, protocol)   (DSL, or Digital Subscriber Loop, xDSL - see below) A family of digital telecommunications protocols designed to allow high speed data communication over the existing copper telephone lines between end-users and telephone companies. When two conventional modems are connected through the telephone system (PSTN), it treats the communication the same as voice conversations. This has the advantage that there is no investment required from the telephone company (telco) but the disadvantage is that the bandwidth available for the communication is the same as that available for voice conversations, usually 64 kb/s (DS0) at most. The twisted-pair copper cables into individual homes or offices can usually carry significantly more than 64 kb/s but the telco needs to handle the signal as digital rather than analog. There are many implementation of the basic scheme, differing in the communication protocol used and providing varying service levels. The throughput of the communication can be anything from about 128 kb/s to over 8 Mb/s, the communication can be either symmetric or asymmetric (i.e. the available bandwidth may or may not be the same upstream and downstream). Equipment prices and service fees also vary considerably. The first technology based on DSL was ISDN, although ISDN is not often recognised as such nowadays. Since then a large number of other protocols have been developed, collectively referred to as xDSL, including HDSL, SDSL, ADSL, and VDSL. As yet none of these have reached very wide deployment but wider deployment is expected for 1998-1999.
  • digital subscriber loop — Digital Subscriber Line
  • discontinuous variation — variation in phenotypic traits in which types are grouped into discrete categories with few or no intermediate phenotypes. Compare continuous variation.
  • disjunctive normal form — (DNF) A logical formula consisting of a disjunction of conjunctions where no conjunction contains a disjunction. E.g. the DNF of (A or B) and C is (A and C) or (B and C).
  • distributive bargaining — a negotiation process aimed at reaching a compromise agreement over how resources may be allocated between the parties
  • dressed up to the nines — If you say that someone is dressed up to the nines or dressed to the nines, you mean that they are wearing very smart or elegant clothes.
  • drive sb round the bend — If you say that someone or something drives you round the bend, you mean that you dislike them and they annoy or upset you very much.
  • dual sensory impairment — the condition of being affected by sight and hearing loss
  • earthquake-proof design — Earthquake-proof design is design which will not be badly damaged by earthquakes or tsunamis.
  • education correspondent — a journalist who reports news in the field of education or teaching
  • electronic surveillance — use of electronic devices to spy, observe
  • ellipsoid of revolution — a geometric surface produced by rotating an ellipse about one of its two axes and having circular plane surfaces perpendicular to the axis of revolution
  • encapsulated postscript — (EPS) An extension of the PostScript graphics file format developed by Adobe Systems. EPS is used for PostScript graphics files that are to be incorporated into other documents. An EPS file includes pragmas (special PostScript comments) giving information such as the bounding box, page number and fonts used. On some computers, EPS files include a low resolution version of the PostScript image. On the Macintosh this is in PICT format, while on the IBM PC it is in TIFF or Microsoft Windows metafile format.
  • entrance qualifications — academic requirements
  • eurovision song contest — an annual singing competition broadcast on live television and participated in by European countries who are members of the European Broadcasting Union. Each country submits one song and the other countries cast votes on the song to determine the winner.
  • extrinsic semiconductor — a semiconductor into which a doping agent has been introduced, giving it different electrical properties than the intrinsic semiconductor
  • fetal tissue transplant — a surgical procedure in which tissue from an aborted fetus is grafted into a patient to replace or improve defective tissue, especially to treat Parkinson's disease or other neurological disorders.
  • fifth marquis lansdowne — Henry Charles Keith, 5th Marquis of Lansdowne, Lansdowne, 5th Marquis of.
  • finite impulse response — (electronics, DSP)   (FIR) A type of digital signal filter, in which every sample of output is the weighted sum of past and current samples of input, using only some finite number of past samples.
  • fish in troubled waters — any of various cold-blooded, aquatic vertebrates, having gills, commonly fins, and typically an elongated body covered with scales.
  • fully associative cache — (memory management)   A type of cache in which data from any address can be stored in any cache location. The whole address must be used as the tag (the value that identifies a block of data in the cache). All tags must be compared simultaneously (associatively) with the requested address and if one matches then its associated data is accessed. This requires an associative memory to hold the tags which makes this form of cache more expensive. It does however solve the problem of contention for cache locations (cache conflict) since a block need only be flushed when the whole cache is full and then the block to flush can be selected in a more efficient way. The alternatives are direct mapped cache or set associative cache.
  • function point analysis — (programming)   (FPA) A standard metric for the relative size and complexity of a software system, originally developed by Alan Albrecht of IBM in the late 1970s. Functon points (FPs) can be used to estimate the relative size and complexity of software in the early stages of development - analysis and design. The size is determined by identifying the components of the system as seen by the end-user: the inputs, outputs, inquiries, interfaces to other systems, and logical internal files. The components are classified as simple, average, or complex. All of these values are then scored and the total is expressed in Unadjusted FPs (UFPs). Complexity factors described by 14 general systems characteristics, such as reusability, performance, and complexity of processing can be used to weight the UFP. Factors are also weighted on a scale of 0 - not present, 1 - minor influence, to 5 - strong influence. The result of these computations is a number that correlates to system size. Although the FP metric doesn't correspond to any actual physical attribute of a software system (such as lines of code or the number of subroutines) it is useful as a relative measure for comparing projects, measuring productivity, and estimating the amount a development effort and time needed for a project. See also International Function Point Users Group.
  • functional requirements — (specification)   What a system should be able to do, the functions it should perform. This term is used at both the user requirements analysis and software requirements specifications phases in the software life-cycle. An example of a non-functional requirement is an initialisation sequence incorporated into the software that is specific to a given customer.
  • geiger-muller threshold — the minimum voltage applied to an ionization chamber, as in a Geiger counter, at which the charge collected per count is independent of the nature of the ionizing event producing the count.
  • german southwest africa — a former name of Namibia.
  • get/build your hopes up — If you tell someone not to get their hopes up, or not to build their hopes up, you are warning them that they should not become too confident of progress or success.
  • give something a rub-up — to smooth or polish something
  • guanosine monophosphate — GMP.
  • guest relations manager — A guest relations manager at a hotel is responsible for the relationships that the hotel has with its guests and the way in which it treats them.
  • hang out your/a shingle — If you hang out your shingle or hang out a shingle, you start your own business.
  • have struck/hit paydirt — If you say that someone has struck paydirt or has hit paydirt, you mean that they have achieved sudden success or gained a lot of money very quickly.
  • heaviside unit function — the function that is zero for any number less than zero and that is 1 for any number greater than or equal to zero.
  • hermit of st. augustine — a member of an order of mendicant friars, founded in 1256.
  • heterogeneous catalysis — Heterogeneous catalysis is catalysis in which the catalyst does not take part in the reaction that it increases.
  • hire purchase agreement — an agreement between a seller and a buyer for the buyer to purchase something on hire purchase
  • homonymous construction — a construction that consists of the same morphemes in the same order as those of another construction, as Flying planes can be dangerous, in which planes in one construction is the object of flying, and in another the subject of can; a terminal string of formatives having two or more structural descriptions.
  • horsehair-blight fungus — a fungal parasite, Marasmius equicrinis, that causes a disease of certain tropical plants, especially tea.
  • hortense de beauharnais — Beauharnais, Eugénie Hortense de.
  • human rights campaigner — a person who campaigns for human rights
  • hunter-killer satellite — a satellite designed to seek out and destroy a nearby enemy satellite by exploding itself into a cloud of high-speed metal fragments.
  • hunter-killer submarine — a submarine designed and equipped to pursue and destroy enemy craft
  • immigration authorities — the authorities or official government bodies who regulate laws regarding immigration and immigrants
  • in dependent suspension — an automotive suspension system in which each wheel is attached to the frame independently, so that a road bump affecting one wheel has no effect on the others.
  • in the arms of morpheus — sleeping
  • in the fullness of time — eventually
  • in the nature of things — If you say that something is in the nature of things, you mean that you would expect it to happen in the circumstances mentioned.
  • in your heart of hearts — If you believe or know something in your heart of hearts, that is what you really believe or think, even though it may sometimes seem that you do not.
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