What's the difference between contract and decrease?

Contract


Definition:

  • (n.) To draw together or nearer; to reduce to a less compass; to shorten, narrow, or lessen; as, to contract one's sphere of action.
  • (n.) To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit.
  • (n.) To bring on; to incur; to acquire; as, to contract a habit; to contract a debt; to contract a disease.
  • (n.) To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for.
  • (n.) To betroth; to affiance.
  • (n.) To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.
  • (v. i.) To be drawn together so as to be diminished in size or extent; to shrink; to be reduced in compass or in duration; as, iron contracts in cooling; a rope contracts when wet.
  • (v. i.) To make an agreement; to covenant; to agree; to bargain; as, to contract for carrying the mail.
  • (a.) Contracted; as, a contract verb.
  • (a.) Contracted; affianced; betrothed.
  • (n.) The agreement of two or more persons, upon a sufficient consideration or cause, to do, or to abstain from doing, some act; an agreement in which a party undertakes to do, or not to do, a particular thing; a formal bargain; a compact; an interchange of legal rights.
  • (n.) A formal writing which contains the agreement of parties, with the terms and conditions, and which serves as a proof of the obligation.
  • (n.) The act of formally betrothing a man and woman.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) During the performance of propulsive waves of the oesophagus the implanted vagus nerve caused clonic to tetanic contractions of the sternohyoid muscle, thus proving the oesophagomotor genesis of the reinnervating nerve fibres.
  • (2) But RWE admitted it had often only been able to retain customers with expired contracts by offering them new deals with more favourable conditions.
  • (3) Thus adrenaline, via pre- and post-junctional adrenoceptors, may contribute to enhanced vascular smooth muscle contraction, which most likely is sensitized by the elevated intracellular calcium concentration.
  • (4) Further, the maximal increase in force of contraction was measured using papillary muscle strips from some of these patients.
  • (5) When subjects centered themselves actively, or additionally, contracted trunk flexor or extensor muscles to predetermined levels of activity, no increase in trunk positioning accuracy was found.
  • (6) Twitch-tetanus ratios were calculated and found not to be related to unit contraction time.6.
  • (7) Selective removal of endothelium had no effect on BK-induced contraction or the action of the antagonists.
  • (8) The increased muscular strength in due to a rise of calcaemia, improved muscle contraction and probably also due to the mentioned nutritional factors.
  • (9) However, there was not a relationship between the contraction curve of the gallbladder and the bile flow into the duodenum.
  • (10) In in vitro preparations GABA (10(-7) - 10(-3) M) elicited a dose-dependent relaxation; a decrease in the spontaneous contractions was sometimes observed.
  • (11) There was no correlation between disturbed gastric clearance, impaired gall bladder contraction, and prolonged colonic transit time in the patients with cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy nor was there a correlation between any disturbed motor function and age or duration of diabetes.
  • (12) Noradrenaline decreased the phasic contraction amplitude of the circular muscle and exerted a stimulant effect on the tone which suggested an existence of two alpha 1-adrenoceptor subtypes.
  • (13) It may, however, be useful to compare local wall dynamics in the more isometrically-contracting basal segment with those in the middle portion which brings about most of the emptying of the ventricle.
  • (14) Upon depletion of ATP in contraction, the P2 intensity reverted to the original rigor level, accompanied by development of rigor tension.
  • (15) L-NAME abolished B contractions in a dose-dependent fashion.
  • (16) The power spectrum of the EMG was analyzed during isometric contractions of the shoulder muscles.
  • (17) A23187 had only a transient effect on KCl-contracted coronary arteries.
  • (18) When caffeine evokes a contraction, and only then, crayfish muscle fibers become refractory to a second challenge with caffeine for up to 20 min in the standard saline (5 mM K(o)).
  • (19) Dopamine at concentrations over 10(-5)M induced contractions of tracheal muscle strips and repeated exposures resulted in desensitization (tachyphylaxis) of the muscle.
  • (20) In the present study we examined cholecystokinin release and gallbladder contraction after oral administration of a commercial fatty meal (Sorbitract; Dagra, Diemen, The Netherlands) using ultrasonography in eight normal subjects and eight gallstone patients before and after 1 and 4 weeks of treatment with ursodeoxycholic acid (10 mg kg-1.day-1).

Decrease


Definition:

  • (n.) To grow less, -- opposed to increase; to be diminished gradually, in size, degree, number, duration, etc., or in strength, quality, or excellence; as, they days decrease in length from June to December.
  • (v. t.) To cause to grow less; to diminish gradually; as, extravagance decreases one's means.
  • (v.) A becoming less; gradual diminution; decay; as, a decrease of revenue or of strength.
  • (v.) The wane of the moon.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Furthermore, it had early diagnostic (seven days) as well as prognostic value, as revealed by response to therapy and decrease in COA titer.
  • (2) Such a decrease significantly biased survival (p = 0.001).
  • (3) The proportion of motile spermatozoa decreased with time at the same rate when samples were prepared in either HEPES or phosphate buffers.
  • (4) Clinical signs of disease developed as early as 15 days after transition to the experimental diets and included impaired vision, decreased response to external stimuli, and abnormal gait.
  • (5) One hour after direct mechanical cardiomassage (DMCM) a moderately pronounced edema of the intercellular spaces in the basal compartment of the seminiferous epithelium, normal content of lactate and succinate dehydrogenases, and a certain decrease in the activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenases and NAD- and NADP-diaphorases were noted.
  • (6) The cross sectional area of the aortic lumen was gradually decreased while the length of the stenotic lesion gradually increased by using strips with different width.
  • (7) A change in the pattern of care of children with IDDM, led to a pronounced decrease in hospital use by this patient group.
  • (8) With UVB treatment clinical improvement was achieved, and a less pronounced decrease in epidermal LC was noticed.
  • (9) Measurement of the intraspinal monoamine level revealed a decrease in the intraspinal norepinephrine level in the treated animals.
  • (10) All subjects completed the Coping Strategies Questionnaire, which measures the use and perceived effectiveness of a variety of cognitive and behavioral coping strategies in controlling and decreasing pain.
  • (11) On removal of selective pressure, the His+ phenotype was lost more readily than the Ura+ Trp+ markers, with a corresponding decrease in plasmid copy number.
  • (12) This clinical improvement was also associated with a decrease of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (p less than 0.001), decrease of C-reactive protein (p less than 0.0001) and with improvement of anaemia (p less than 0.05).
  • (13) These results suggest that the pelvic floor is affected by progressive denervation but descent during straining tends to decrease with advancing age.
  • (14) On the other hand, after exposure to BrdUrd, neuron specific enolase decreased in NB-1 and SK-N-DZ and increased in GOTO.
  • (15) In X-irradiated litters, almost invariably, the incidence of anophthalmia was higher in exencephalic than in nonexencephalic embryos and the ratio of these incidences (relative risk) decreased toward 1 with increasing dose.
  • (16) Blood flow decreased immediately after skin expansion in areas over the tissue expander on days 0 and 1 and returned to baseline levels within 24 hours.
  • (17) Western blot analysis of these mitochondria using an antibody against carnitine palmitoyltransferase II purified from beef heart demonstrates a 68-kDa protein, which under ischemic conditions apparently is decreased by 2 kDa.
  • (18) Even with hepatic lipase, phospholipid hydrolysis could not deplete VLDL and IDL of sufficient phospholipid molecules to account for the loss of surface phospholipid that accompanies triacylglycerol hydrolysis and decreasing core volume as LDL is formed (or for conversion of HDL2 to HDL3).
  • (19) Content of cyclic nucleoside monophosphates was decreased in all the eye tissues in experimental toxico-allergic uveitis as well as penetration of cAMP into the fluid of anterior chamber of the eye.
  • (20) Type 1 changes (decreased signal intensity on T1-weighted spin-echo images and increased signal intensity on T2-weighted images) were identified in 20 patients (4%) and type 2 (increased signal intensity on T1-weighted images and isointense or slightly increased signal intensity on T2-weighted images) in 77 patients (16%).