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19-letter words containing s, o, c, i, n, a

  • digital electronics — (electronics)   The implementation of two-valued logic using electronic logic gates such as and gates, or gates and flip-flops. In such circuits the logical values true and false are represented by two different voltages, e.g. 0V for false and +5V for true. Similarly, numbers are normally represented in binary using two different voltages to represented zero and one. Digital electronics contrasts with analogue electronics which represents continuously varying quantities like sound pressure using continuously varying voltages. Digital electronics is the foundation of modern computers and digital communications. Massively complex digital logic circuits with millions of gates can now be built onto a single integrated circuit such as a microprocessor and these circuits can perform millions of operations per second.
  • direct grant school — (in Britain, formerly) a school financed by endowment, fees, and a state grant conditional upon admittance of a percentage of nonpaying pupils nominated by the local education authority
  • disciplinary action — punishment or caution
  • discretionary trust — a trust in which the beneficiaries' shares are not fixed in the trust deed but are left to the discretion of other persons, often the trustees
  • discriminated union — (theory)   The discriminated union of two sets A and B is A + B = {(inA, a) | a in A} U {(inB, b)| b in B} where inA and inB are arbitrary tags which specify which summand an element originates from. A type (especially an algebraic data type) might be described as a discriminated union if it is a sum type whose objects consist of a tag to say which part of the union they belong to and a value of the corresponding type.
  • distillation column — a type of still fitted with interior baffles, used for fractional distillation. Compare still2 (def 1).
  • dobsonian telescope — a relatively inexpensive Newtonian telescope, suitable for visual but not photographic use, in which the tube assembly slips freely in the lower base.
  • dynamic positioning — Dynamic positioning is the use of computers to control the position of a semi-submersible rig.
  • dynamic translation — (architecture)   A virtual machine implementation approach, used to speed up execution of byte-code programs. To execute a program unit such as a method or a function, the virtual machine compiles its bytecodes into (hardware) machine code. The translated code is also placed in a cache, so that next time that unit's machine code can be executed immediately, without repeating the translation. This technique was pioneered by the commercial Smalltalk implementation currently known as VisualWorks, in the early 1980s. Currently it is also used by some implementations of the Java Virtual Machine under the name JIT (Just In Time compilation).
  • dynatron oscillator — type of oscillator
  • educational adviser — a person who provides advice and training to teachers about teaching methods and educational policies
  • eilean donan castle — a castle near the Kyle of Lochalsh in Highland, Scotland: built in the 13th century; famous for its picturesque setting
  • elastic deformation — In elastic deformation a material changes shape when a stress is applied to it but goes back to its original state when the stress is removed.
  • electronegativities — Plural form of electronegativity.
  • electronic graphics — (on television) the production of graphic designs and text by electronic means
  • electrostatic units — the system of CGS electric and magnetic units that assigns the value of one to the dielectric constant of a vacuum
  • endowment insurance — Endowment insurance is a type of life insurance that pays a particular sum directly to the policyholder at a stated date, or to a beneficiary if the policyholder dies before this date.
  • energy conservation — concerted formal or government action or policy to make sure that energy is not wasted
  • european commission — the executive body of the European Union formed in 1967, which initiates action in the EU and mediates between member governments
  • exhibitionistically — In an exhibitionistic manner.
  • expressionistically — In an expressionistic manner.
  • fallacy of division — the fallacy of inferring that a property of the whole is also a property of parts or members of the whole (opposed to fallacy of composition).
  • false consciousness — a Marxist theory that people are unable to see things, especially exploitation, oppression, and social relations, as they really are; the hypothesized inability of the human mind to develop a sophisticated awareness of how it is developed and shaped by circumstances.
  • fashion coordinator — a person in a department store or other establishment who coordinates activities centered upon or related to fashion, as fashion themes, shows, displays, and promotion.
  • feast of dedication — Hanukkah.
  • female circumcision — clitoridectomy.
  • financial ombudsman — any of five British ombudsmen: the Banking Ombudsman, set up in 1986 to investigate complaints from bank customers; the Building Society Ombudsman, set up in 1987 to investigate complaints from building society customers; the Insurance Ombudsman, set up in 1981 to investigate complaints by policyholders (since 1988 this ombudsman has also operated a Unit Trust Ombudsman scheme); the Investment Ombudsman set up in 1989 to investigate complaints by investors (the Personal Investment Authority Ombudsman is responsible for investigating complaints by personal investors); and the Pensions Ombudsman, set up in 1993 to investigate complaints regarding pension schemes
  • first-sale doctrine — a legal principle allowing the purchaser of a lawfully made copy of a copyright-protected work to sell or give away that copy without permission but not to reproduce it.
  • fixed cost contract — a contract in which the costs do not vary
  • forensic accountant — an accountant who specializes in applying accountancy skills to the purposes of the law
  • forensic psychiatry — the use of psychiatric knowledge and techniques in questions of law, as in determining legal insanity.
  • foundation subjects — the subjects studied as part of the National Curriculum, including the compulsory core subjects
  • fractal compression — (algorithm)   A technique for encoding images using fractals.
  • franco-prussian war — the war between France and Prussia, 1870–71.
  • 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].
  • gastrocolic omentum — the peritoneal fold attached to the stomach and the colon and hanging over the small intestine.
  • gastroenterocolitis — (medicine) inflammation of the stomach, small intestines, and colon.
  • gastroenterological — Of or pertaining to gastroenterology.
  • 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.
  • gestational carrier — surrogate mother (def 3).
  • gigabits per second — (unit)   (Gbps) A unit of information transfer rate equal to one billion bits per second. Note that, while a gigabit is defined as a power of two (2^30 bits), a gigabit per second is defined as a power of ten (10^9 bits per second, which is slightly less) than 2^30).
  • grand duke nicholas — of Cusa [kyoo-zuh] /ˈkyu zə/ (Show IPA), 1401–1464, German cardinal, mathematician, and philosopher. German Nikolaus von Cusa.
  • graphic workstation — (graphics, computer)   A workstation specifically configured for graphics works such as image manipulation, bitmap graphics ("paint"), and vector graphics ("draw") type applications. Such work requires a powerful CPU and a high resolution display. A graphic workstation is very similar to a CAD workstation and, given the typical specifications of personal computers currently available in 1999, the distinctions are very blurred and are more likely to depend on availability of specific software than any detailed hardware requirements.
  • gratuitous contract — a contract for the benefit of only one of the parties, the other party receiving nothing as consideration.
  • gregorian telescope — a telescope similar in design to the Cassegrainian telescope but less widely used.
  • harmonic distortion — distortion caused by nonlinear characteristics of electronic apparatus, esp of audio amplifiers, that generate unwanted harmonics of the input frequencies
  • holy innocents' day — December 28, a day of religious observance commemorating the slaughter of the children of Bethlehem by Herod's order.
  • honorable discharge — a discharge from military service of a person who has fulfilled obligations efficiently, honorably, and faithfully.
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