What's the difference between contraction and expansion?

Contraction


Definition:

  • (n.) The act or process of contracting, shortening, or shrinking; the state of being contracted; as, contraction of the heart, of the pupil of the eye, or of a tendion; the contraction produced by cold.
  • (n.) The process of shortening an operation.
  • (n.) The act of incurring or becoming subject to, as liabilities, obligation, debts, etc.; the process of becoming subject to; as, the contraction of a disease.
  • (n.) Something contracted or abbreviated, as a word or phrase; -- as, plenipo for plenipotentiary; crim. con. for criminal conversation, etc.
  • (n.) The shortening of a word, or of two words, by the omission of a letter or letters, or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one; as, ne'er for never; can't for can not; don't for do not; it's for it is.
  • (n.) A marriage contract.

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).

Expansion


Definition:

  • (n.) The act of expanding or spreading out; the condition of being expanded; dilation; enlargement.
  • (n.) That which is expanded; expanse; extend surface; as, the expansion of a sheet or of a lake; the expansion was formed of metal.
  • (n.) Space through which anything is expanded; also, pure space.
  • (n.) Enlargement or extension of business transactions; esp., increase of the circulation of bank notes.
  • (n.) The developed result of an indicated operation; as, the expansion of (a + b)2 is a2 + 2ab + b2.
  • (n.) The operation of steam in a cylinder after its communication with the boiler has been cut off, by which it continues to exert pressure upon the moving piston.
  • (n.) The enlargement of the ship mathematically from a model or drawing to the full or building size, in the process of construction.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Surprisingly, the clonal elimination of V beta 6+ cells is preceded by marked expansion of these cells.
  • (2) 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.
  • (3) Cellular radial expansion was apparently unaffected by exposure to electric fields.
  • (4) Plasma fibrinogen decreased by approximately 7% due to hemodilution caused by plasma volume expansion.
  • (5) To augment the in vitro expansion of LAK cells, we added highly purified human recombinant interleukin-2, phytohemagglutinin and accessory cells (Uc cells) to the LAK culture system, with which huge number of LAK cells (LAK-L) were generated from originally small number of peripheral blood lymphocytes of cancer patients.
  • (6) This was accompanied by a greater decrease in hematocrit in the continuous group, a finding that suggests that plasma volume expansion occurred during continuous GTN therapy.
  • (7) Expansion of the cell sheet following attachment, and the fusion of epiblasts advancing toward each other, does not require the presence of mineralocorticoid.
  • (8) Opsin becomes incorporated into the disk membrane by a process of membrane expansion and fusion to form the flattened disks of the outer segment.
  • (9) Unlike previous studies where constitutive expression of exogenous IL-6 genes resulted in lymphoproliferative disorders characterized by massive plasmacytosis, minimal plasma cell expansion occurred in the MSCV-IL-6 mice during the observation period.
  • (10) The hyperreninemia and hyperaldosteronism were both suppressible with volume expansion.
  • (11) In a clear water reservoir built in ready construction after a working-period of five months quite a lot of slime could be found on the expansion joint filled with tightening compound on the base of Thiokol.
  • (12) For a union that, in less than 25 years, has had to cope with the end of the cold war, the expansion from 12 to 28 members, the struggle to create a single currency and, most recently, the eurozone crisis, such a claim risks accusations of hyperbole.
  • (13) The former Arsenal and France star has signed a three-year contract to replace the sacked Jason Kreis at the helm of the second-year expansion club and will take over on 1 January, the team said.
  • (14) In order to delineate the critical blood flow pattern during the Cushing response in intracranial hypertension, regional cerebral blood flow was measured with radioactive microspheres in 12 anesthetized dogs at respiratory arrest caused either by expansion of an epidural supratentorial balloon or by cisternal infusion.
  • (15) This enhancement of laminin synthesis corresponds to the mesangial expansion and to the development of laminin-containing spike formations of the glomerular basement membrane at week 8.
  • (16) This study focuses on the expansion and maturation of the fatty streak in the aorta of Watanabe Heritable Hyperlipemic rabbits and comparably hypercholesterolemic fat-fed rabbits between 2 and 6 months duration of hypercholesterolemia.
  • (17) It is spending £68m this year to help meet this target, including further investment in its China start-up, expansion of its main UK warehouse in Barnsley, and new facilities in Berlin and Shanghai, and expansion of a warehouse in Ohio.
  • (18) 2) Trebling of alcohol treatment places to match the expansion in drug treatment, and US-style street pastor teams using vetted ex-offenders to reach disaffected young people.
  • (19) The expansion comes hot on the heels of another year of stellar growth in which Primark edged closer to overtaking high street stalwart M&S in sales and profits.
  • (20) Subacute lead exposure has been observed to inhibit the natriuretic response to isotonic saline expansion in adult female rats.