(v. t.) To disapprove; to find fault with; to reprove; to censure; as, to improve negligence.
(v. t.) To make better; to increase the value or good qualities of; to ameliorate by care or cultivation; as, to improve land.
(v. t.) To use or employ to good purpose; to make productive; to turn to profitable account; to utilize; as, to improve one's time; to improve his means.
(v. t.) To advance or increase by use; to augment or add to; -- said with reference to what is bad.
(v. i.) To grow better; to advance or make progress in what is desirable; to make or show improvement; as, to improve in health.
(v. i.) To advance or progress in bad qualities; to grow worse.
(v. i.) To increase; to be enhanced; to rise in value; as, the price of cotton improves.
Example Sentences:
(1) These data indicate a steady improvement in laboratory performance over the last 10 years.
(2) Use of the improved operative technique contributed to reduction in number of complications.
(3) With UVB treatment clinical improvement was achieved, and a less pronounced decrease in epidermal LC was noticed.
(4) 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).
(5) In order to control noise- and vibration-caused diseases it was necessary not only to improve machines' quality and service conditions but also to pay special attention to the choice of operators and to the quality of monitoring their adaptation process.
(6) Symptomatic improvement was obtained in 14 of the 15 hands, and sensory-evoked response improved in 13 hands.
(7) McDonald said cutting better deals with suppliers and improving efficiency as well as raising some prices had only partly offset the impact of sterling’s fall against the dollar.
(8) Systemic corticosteroids (i.e., prednisone, prednisolone or methylprednisolone) have improved the survival rate of patients with moderate and severe ulcerative colitis.
(9) The active agents modestly improved treadmill exercise duration time until 1 mm ST segment depression (3%), and only propranolol and diltiazem had significant effects.
(10) A segment of vas deferens was transplanted to the contralateral deferens with the intention of improving treatment for certain cases of infertility caused by obstruction.
(11) Blood pressure control was marginally improved during the study and it is thought possible that better patient compliance might explain this.
(12) Since interferon alfa-2b (Intron A) is useful as a single agent, it is important to determine if interferon can be combined with standard chemotherapy to improve both response and survival in patients with cancer.
(13) Patients had improved sitting balance and endurance after surgery.
(14) However, further improvement of culture systems is needed for active replication of HBV in vitro.
(15) Symptoms, particularly colicky abdominal pain, improved during the period of chelation therapy.
(16) Her muscle weakness and hyperCKemia markedly improved by corticosteroid therapy, suggesting that the diagnosis was compatible with polymyositis (PM).
(17) An intact post-injury marriage was associated with improvement in education.
(18) A review is presented concerning the development of new neuroimaging techniques in the last decade which have improved the diagnostic exploration of patients with spinal cord injuries, including studies of possible sequelae.
(19) Akinetic symptoms were improved in 7 of 10 patients.
(20) What we’re doing is designed to improve people’s lives.” "I don't see race, colour or creed, and neither do my children," he added.
Meliorism
Definition:
(n.) The doctrine that there is a tendency throughout nature toward improvement.
Example Sentences:
(1) The favorable effect of the straw is related to its meliorating action.
(2) Drainage melioration in the Polesye resulted in a sharp increase in the number of tundra vole (Microtus oeconomus Pall.)
(3) In the general case of unequal initial links, the model derived from melioration differs from the revised model advanced by Squires and Fantino (1971) only in the factors affecting the delay-reduction terms (T - t2L) and (T - t2R).
(4) If there is no stabilisation of the haemodynamic parameters by conservative therapy, the left ventricular function is meliorated by surgical aneurysmectomy.
(5) In particular, in the case of equal initial links, the model derived from melioration coincides with Fantino's original model for full (reliable) reinforcement and with the model proposed by Spetch and Dunn (1987) for percentage (unreliable) reinforcement.
(6) Reconstruction surgery in posttraumatic deformities in the lower leg and the foot is indicated under different aspects: restoration of function, improvement of prognosis, improvement of function and melioration of physical appearance.
(7) Contrary to melioration, the absolute rate of reinforcement, not the local rate, was the controlling variable.
(8) Virus characterization studies were performed to meliorate the taxonomic status of three currently unclassified, serologically related viruses: Tanapox virus (causes vesicular skin lesions in humans), Yaba-like disease (YLD) virus (causes vesicular skin lesions in monkeys), and Yaba monkey tumor virus (YMTV, causes epidermal histiocytoma).
(9) Examinations were performed on the nervous system (directed anamnesis, neurological and vegetative status) of workers from enterprises for economic melioration and erosion control.
(10) PGE1 seems to meliorate the blood flow - causing better oxygen supply - and to inhibit thrombocyte aggregation.
(11) The subjective presentations confirm the melioration of sleep.
(12) The grain of the same sort grown under similar conditions but without the meliorative agent, served as control.
(13) Melioration theory entails that matching in concurrent schedules occurs because the subjects equalize the local reinforcement rates (reinforcers received for each alternative divided by the time allocated to each alternative).
(14) The data demonstrate, that under resting condition a normalisation and under exercise condition at least a melioration of pulse pressure and circulation is achieved after resection of the aneurysma.
(15) Many changes in the working through process could be attributed not only to meliorative effects of interpretation but to developmental progression as well.
(16) They are deepening not only because of the stresses of the new economy, which a functioning government would meliorate, or the threats brought on by global disorder, which must be managed and will be, but because fear, anxiety and resentment are the stock in trade of important media and the politicians allied or symbiotic with them.
(17) If one, however, opposes the MSR of A and B, there is a significant meliorated prognosis for patients, who have been operated in connection with a systematically applied X-ray therapy according to the sandwich method.
(18) This congruence of the models is recognized by naming the common model the delayed reinforcement model, which is then compared with other models of choice such as Killeen and Fetterman's (1988) behavioral theory of timing, Mazur's (1984) equivalence rule, and Vaughan's (1985) melioration theory.
(19) The assessment of the vibration loading of a group of tractor-drivers from the enterprise for melioration and erosion control is made on the basis of: measurement of general and local vibrations and noise of 5 tractors type C 100, C 100M and T 130; determination of the total vibration loading on the basis of data of measurements and average weekly hour individual engagement; comparison of the admissible values of vibration loading with the real determined at work with machines of different vibration characters at different hour engagement.
(20) Vaughan's (1985) melioration model, which was shown to be formally similar to Squires and Fantino's (1971) delay-reduction model, can be modified so as to predict these results without changing its underlying assumptions.