What's the difference between decay and degrade?

Decay


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To pass gradually from a sound, prosperous, or perfect state, to one of imperfection, adversity, or dissolution; to waste away; to decline; to fail; to become weak, corrupt, or disintegrated; to rot; to perish; as, a tree decays; fortunes decay; hopes decay.
  • (v. t.) To cause to decay; to impair.
  • (v. t.) To destroy.
  • (n.) Gradual failure of health, strength, soundness, prosperity, or of any species of excellence or perfection; tendency toward dissolution or extinction; corruption; rottenness; decline; deterioration; as, the decay of the body; the decay of virtue; the decay of the Roman empire; a castle in decay.
  • (n.) Destruction; death.
  • (n.) Cause of decay.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Q In radioactive decay, different materials decay at different rates, giving different half lives.
  • (2) 4) Parents imagined that fruit drinks, carbonated beverages and beverages with lactic acid promoted tooth decay.
  • (3) In the absence of prostigmine, increasing the concentration of ACh in the synaptic cleft did not change the time constant for decay of end-plate currents.
  • (4) The kinetics of bimolecular decay of alpha-tocopheroxyl free radicals (T) was studied by ESR mainly in ethanol and heptanol solvents.
  • (5) For those synapses that were close to the soma the time constant for decay for the non-NMDA component, which was voltage insensitive, ranged from 4-8 ms. 7.
  • (6) In analyzing the results with any regimen it is important to have long follow-up since late relapses do occur and initial very positive results tend to decay with greater numbers of patients treated.
  • (7) In one normal ear, ten noise trauma ears, 11 Meniere disease ears, and 24 eighth nerve lesion ears to reflexes or reflex decay that were suggestive or retrocochlear lesions were observed.
  • (8) Biochemical, molecular, and immunohistologic studies have identified membrane cofactor protein (MCP) and decay accelerating factor (DAF) on trophoblast cells, which could assist in preventing lysis of the cells by complement-activating maternal antibodies.
  • (9) It has been 40 years since the first community in the United States added a regulated amount of fluoride to its public water supply to prevent tooth decay.
  • (10) This could reflect the existence of a parallel set of synapses with fast decay that serve as a shortterm store.
  • (11) However, clemastine caused a decay in subjects' performance in both Experiments I and II, but only on the tracking task.
  • (12) The nylon group had the second highest amount of induced WTR cylinder at one day, which had decayed to ATR cylinder by five months.
  • (13) The observed signals from germinating seeds of Phaseolus aures and decaying leaves of Eucalyptus are presented to show that the signals have characteristic kinetics and intensity.
  • (14) We develop an analogy between the steric hindrance among receptors detecting randomly placed haptens and the temporary locking of a Geiger counter that has detected a radioactive decay.
  • (15) Left ventricular relaxation rate was measured by calculation of a time constant of left ventricular pressure decay (T) derived from an exponential curve fit to the digitized tip-micromanometer left ventricular pressure signal.
  • (16) Factors increasing presynaptic activity (frequency or number of afferent stimulations) during the induction event did not affect the relative amount of LTP decay.
  • (17) Inhibitor activity decayed with time after radiation (2 Gy) with no activity detected at 6 h even though the cells remained in G2 phase, suggesting that either synthesis or activation of additional components is necessary for recovery from G2 arrest.
  • (18) These results are consistent with the previous observation in HTC cells that the decay rate of ODC activity in the presence of cycloheximide correlated well with the proportion of ODC present as a complex with antizyme, suggesting the ubiquitous role of antizyme in ODC degradation.
  • (19) The outward current decays exponentially with an early and late phase.
  • (20) The decay of acid soluble radioactivity was similar in the two groups, although protein synthesis was lowered by vitamin A deficiency.

Degrade


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To reduce from a higher to a lower rank or degree; to lower in rank; to deprive of office or dignity; to strip of honors; as, to degrade a nobleman, or a general officer.
  • (v. t.) To reduce in estimation, character, or reputation; to lessen the value of; to lower the physical, moral, or intellectual character of; to debase; to bring shame or contempt upon; to disgrace; as, vice degrades a man.
  • (v. t.) To reduce in altitude or magnitude, as hills and mountains; to wear down.
  • (v. i.) To degenerate; to pass from a higher to a lower type of structure; as, a family of plants or animals degrades through this or that genus or group of genera.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This bone could not be degraded by human monocytes in vitro as well as control bone (only 54% of control; P less than 0.003).
  • (2) Lp(a) also complexes to plasmin-fibrinogen digests, and binding increases in proportion to the time of plasmin-induced fibrinogen degradation.
  • (3) The rate of accumulation of degraded LDL products was lower in collagen gel cultures, but the final levels achieved were the same in the two substrata.
  • (4) At the highest dose of chloroquine tested (500 microM), a slightly greater increase in insulin binding and a decrease in insulin degradation were observed in fetal cells as compared with adult cells.
  • (5) Addition of extracellular mevalonate led to a concentration-dependent fall in both processes, although a higher concentration was required to produce the same effect on LDL degradation as on HMG-CoA reductase activity.
  • (6) Radioiodinated a-factor was used to identify the a-factor-degrading activity, which is cell associated, endoproteolytic, and not required for response to pheromone.
  • (7) Densitometric analysis of myofibrillar proteins separated with sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis indicated that troponin I and troponin T were degraded during 60 minutes of CGI.
  • (8) In addition, we found apyrase activity (which degrades ATP and ADP to AMP and orthophosphate) and an anticoagulant.
  • (9) Degradation of both viral and host DNA with micrococcal nuclease and spleen phosphodiesterase indicated that CdG was incorporated primarily into internal positions in both DNAs.
  • (10) In vitro studies showed that BOF-A2 was rapidly degraded to EM-FU and CNDP in homogenates of the liver and small intestine of mice and rats, and in sera of mice, rats and human, and the conversion of EM-FU to 5-FU occurred only in the microsomal fraction of rat liver in the presence of NADPH.
  • (11) Only PPACK completely inhibited changes in fibrin degradation products, plasminogen and alpha 2-antiplasmin.
  • (12) On the other hand, if we correct for the population of HMM with degraded light chain 2, the difference in the binding constants in the presence and absence of Ca2+ may be as great as 5-fold.
  • (13) When cultures were pulse labeled for 15 min and then incubated under chase conditions for 105 min, the amount of degraded collagen attained a value equal to approximately 20% of the amount synthesized during the labeling period; the data were fit with a simple exponential function that had a 40-min rise time and a 12-min lag time.
  • (14) The mode of ribosome degradation under this condition is discussed in terms of differential appearance of these intermediate particles.
  • (15) Degraded visual acuity had a significant effect on cadence, foot placement, and foot clearance, but visual surround conditions did not.
  • (16) The resistance of GSA 65 to proteolytic degradation, together with previous immunofluorescence data that indicate the antigen is an integral part of the G. lamblia cyst wall, suggests that this molecule may play a role in maintaining the integrity of the cyst in vivo.
  • (17) 5% of the degradation resulted from enzymatic activity in the culture medium, presumably due to secretion of proteolytic enzymes by the cells.
  • (18) At 37 degrees C, 125I-labeled TNF-alpha was rapidly internalized and degraded in L-929, U-937 and LAK cells.
  • (19) Recovery after EEDQ administration showed that both receptor production rate and degradation rate constants of anterior pituitary D2 and striatal D1 receptors were slowed after chronic estradiol treatment, whereas recovery rates for striatal D2 dopamine receptors were unaffected.
  • (20) The specific rates of degradation of L-arginine-AMC, gly-proline-AMC, N-alpha-benzoyl-L-arginine-AMC and N-[p-toluene-sulphonyl]gly-pro-arginine-AMC were significantly greater in that group, indicating that the composition of their gingival crevicular fluid was different from that of the gingivitis group.