(n.) A common mineral embracing many varieties varying in color and in composition. It occurs in monoclinic crystals; also massive, generally with fibrous or columnar structure. The color varies from white to gray, green, brown, and black. It is a silicate of magnesium and calcium, with usually aluminium and iron. Some common varieties are tremolite, actinolite, asbestus, edenite, hornblende (the last name being also used as a general term for the whole species). Amphibole is a constituent of many crystalline rocks, as syenite, diorite, most varieties of trachyte, etc. See Hornblende.
Example Sentences:
(1) Three subcohorts were defined: 3212 men whose only exposure to asbestos was to amosite; 3430 exposed to crocidolite; and 675 to both amphiboles.
(2) Amphibole fibre counts were raised when compared with a non-occupationally exposed group and matched those seen in cases of pleural plaques, mild asbestosis, and mesothelioma.
(3) The second, with amphibole or glassy fibres, is mediated by fibronectin which first binds to the fibre.
(4) Six measures of asbestos-in-air concentration were considered: (1) total asbestos structures per cubic centimeter: (2) chrysotile structures per cubic centimeter; (3) amphibole structures per cubic centimeter; (4) structures per cubic centimeter at least 0.5 micron long and at least five times wide; (5) structures per cubic centimeter at least 5 microns long; and (6) structures per cubic centimeter at least 5 microns long and at least 0.2 micron wide.
(5) The ingestion of filtered water results in the eventual disappearance of amphibole fibers from urine.
(6) When fibre-length distributions were calculated using a scanning electron microscope, however, it was found that the chrysotile clouds used in this study contained many more fibres over 20 microgram long than either of the amphibole clouds.
(7) A suitable quarry was found about 11 km from the port but unfortunately the rock was found to be contaminated to a small extent with a fibrous mineral identified with the analytical transmission electron microscope as a non-commercial type of fine amphibole with many long fibres.
(8) The most positive lavages, probably reflecting exposure to industrial amphiboles, were found in patients presenting with radiological evidence of asbestosis.
(9) The amphibolic asbestos types lie in the upper half and the rock wool sample in the lower half of the range.
(10) Based on the results obtained, the following metabolic pathway is proposed: isopropylbenzene----2,3-dihydro -2,3-dihydroxyisopropylbenzene----3-isopropylcatechol----2 -hydroxy-6-oxo-7-methylocta-2,4-dienoate----isobutyrate + 2-oxopent-4-enoate----amphibolic intermediates.
(11) While amphibole cleavage fragments are usually visible by PCM, asbestos fibers (such as amosite and chrysotile) have finer widths that may render them invisible by PCM.
(12) In general, chrysotile had a toxic effect on the macrophages, whereas amphibole varieties did not.
(13) Of particular importance is an apparent increase in the proportion of mesothelioma risk attributable to tremolite, since the fibers heretofore most responsible for that disease--commercial amphiboles--have been or are being severely regulated or completely eliminated in production and use.
(14) The first reported case was a village woman whose lung tissue contained amphibole asbestos fibres, which were later identified as tremolite.
(15) Crocidolite fiber, a commercial amphibole not native to the region, was nonetheless identified in lung tissue from 15 of 23 chrysotile miners and millers.
(16) There was a rather good correlation between numbers of amphibole fibers and asbestos bodies, with an average ratio of 10:1.
(17) Chrysotile asbestos was much more active in binding IgG than was amphibole asbestos.
(18) Analytical electron microscopy of asbestos body cores showed that in the BL group 95.6% were chrysotile fibres whereas in the AC group amphiboles accounted for 93.1%.
(19) The magnesium amphibole contained the longest (6.03 microns) fibres, and the nickel amphibole contained the shortest (2.7 microns) fibres, resembling those of crocidolite.
(20) Electron microscopic examination of these water samples confirms the presence of asbestiform amphibole fibers.
Equivocation
Definition:
(n.) The use of expressions susceptible of a double signification, with a purpose to mislead.
Example Sentences:
(1) However six equivocal studies were observed in profoundly jaundiced patients with bilirubin levels above 400 mumol l-1 due to difficulties in differentiating extrahepatic obstruction from severe intrahepatic cholestasis.
(2) The great clinical value of the procedure is shown by the following findings:X-ray-negative lesions--including 2 cases of carcinoma--were found in 35 percent of the cases, radiologically demonstrated lesions could be defined more precisely in 18 percent, and the presence of colonic lesions could be ruled out in 11 percent in spite of equivocal X-ray findings.
(3) Differentiation of thrombi from slow flow in the pulmonary arteries, sometimes observed in the presence of pulmonary arterial hypertension, can be equivocal.
(4) Conversely, the presence of unchanged intracellular or intraluminal O-acetyl sialic acid may help to exclude a diagnosis of malignancy in equivocal cases.
(5) Interpretation of scans was equivocal in another 18% of patients due to undetectable ascension of the tracer to the uterus.
(6) Endpoint events were also more common in patients with an abnormal (positive or equivocal) preoperative exercise test response than in those with a negative response (27% vs 14%); however, preoperative exercise results were not statistically significant independent predictors of cardiac risk.
(7) Radiographic appearances of tumours of the paranasal sinus are often equivocal.
(8) Of these 65 donors, 46 had normal studies, nine had pericardial effusions, five had mild septal hypokinesia with otherwise normal function, four had equivocal mitral valve prolapse, and only one heart could not be visualized.
(9) Different procurement systems have already made England a slightly "different country" for Scottish suppliers, many of whom are more concerned about Cameron's equivocal attitude towards the European Union.
(10) Tumor rates are given for each positive or equivocal effect observed in 67 studies judged to show carcinogenic effects and in the 17 studies that show equivocal effects.
(11) Conflicting and equivocal data have characterized self-reports of depression and other affects in alcoholics.
(12) None of the lesions with histologic features equivocal for HPV infection had detectable HPV DNA by in situ hybridization, though some did contain HPV DNA sequences as ascertained by filter hybridization analysis.
(13) While it is unlikely that Zardari's government had any direct link to the Mumbai attacks, there is every reason to believe that its failure effectively to crack down on the country's jihadi network, and its equivocation with figures such as Hafiz Muhammad Syed, means that atrocities of the kind we saw last week are likely to continue.
(14) Avascular lesions were the main cause for equivocal or incorrect angiographic diagnoses.
(15) A regular histologic examination was equivocal for evidence of HPV infection in four of the seven cases.
(16) No changes in regional contractility occurred with propranolol except for a minimal increase in hypokinesis in one patient at each dosage and equivocal development of a new area of slight hypokinesis in one patient and minimal apex of dyskinesis in another at the higher dosage.
(17) Enterobacteriaceae that yield zones of inhibition equal to or greater than 20 mm in diameter around 50-mug discs of carbenicillin are designated as sensitive to the drug; isolates that yield zones measuring from 18 to 19 mm in diameter are reported as of equivocal (intermediate) susceptibility to the drug, whereas those enterobacterial isolates that are characterized by zones of inhibition of 17 mm or less in diameter are interpreted as resistant to carbenicillin.
(18) Of the 47 compounds that were positive or equivocal in the alkaline unwinding assay, only carbon tetrachloride and prednisolone were negative in the mouse lymphoma assay, while 12 of the 19 compounds that were negative in the alkaline unwinding assay were positive in the mouse lymphoma assay.
(19) Cavernography should be used in the equivocal cases without hematuria or signs of fracture.
(20) It was observed that 2,4-D, dimecron, and vitavax were clastogenic, but the results obtained with benomyl and monocrotophos were equivocal.