MB

Postal abbreviation for the Canadian (.ca) province of Manitoba. Capital: Winnipeg.

(Mnemonic for capital: ``the Manatee is not a pinniped.'')

MB

Maxwell-Boltzmann. Refers to a Gaussian momentum or velocity distribution assumed by a noninteracting classical gas in equilibrium. The distribution is the classical limit of both the Bose-Einstein (for bosons) and Fermi-Dirac distributions (for fermions). Unlike those quantum distributions, the MB distribution depends on the density or chemical potential only through an overall scale. The MB distribution is isotropic, and perpendicular components of momentum described by it are completely uncorrelated. The class of MB distributions (i.e., the set of MB distributions for all temperatures and chemical potentials) is the set of all distributions having these two properties. In other words, the MB distribution can be derived from isotropy and separability, with a scale fixed by any single nonzero-dimensional, nonzero (in practice: even) moment of the distribution.

Near-equilibrium ensembles of particles with a current may be described by a ``drifted Maxwellian'' -- the usual MB Gaussian distribution translated to have a nonzero average momentum.

The electrons in a nondegenerate semiconductor band, although charged, can be approximated as noninteracting, and satisfy the MB distribution. One thus refers to a ``nondegenerate electron (or hole) gas'' or semiconductor plasma.

MB

Medicaid Bureau.

MB

MegaByte. 2²⁰ bytes.

mb

MilliBarn. A unit of cross section equal to 0.001 barn. Popular in nuclear scattering.

mB

MilliBel. The common abbreviation, rarely used, for a rare unit, commonly used. That is, volume is often defined internally in millibels, but the integer that stores it is typically thought of in ``hundredths of decibels'' (dB, which see).

MB

MotherBoard. Also politically correct equivalent MainBoard.

MB

Mushroom Body. A structure found in insect brains that seems to be associated with the chemosensory system.

Mb

(deoxy)MyogloBin. An Fe atom chelated to a small protein.

MBA, M.B.A.

Masters in Business Administration.

The ACBL publishes a Daily Bulletin during the Nationals. For Spring 2003, the Einstein's-birthday edition led with a story entitled ``Forget accounting: bridge is her passion.''

I suppose they should expand MBA as Mistresses in Business Administration when the holder is a woman.

There's more information about -- heck, there's information about -- the MBA at the GMAC entry.

MBA, mba

Michigan Bankers Association.

mbaqanga

A popular South African dance music that can played during Scrabble^® (according to OSPD4 and SOWPODS, which also agree that the word has a plural mbaqangas; TWL98 is not hip).

MBARI

Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

MBAS

Molecular Beam Atomic Scattering.

MBBA

N-(p-methoxybenzylidene)-p-butylaniline. A rod-like molecule that is in a nematic phase between 20 °C and 47 °C.

MBBNet

Minnesota Biomedical Business NETwork.

MBC

Merchant Banking Company.

MBC

The International Monitoring System (IMS) code for the seismic station at Mould Bay, Canada.

The slight linguistic divergences between the US and the British commonwealth have the effect, in a surprisingly large number of instances, of allowing homonyms to be distinguished in one orthographic tradition and not the other. For example, US usage distinguishes carat and karat, and preservation of the old form gotten as past participle of get allows this to be distinguished from the modal got. On the other side of the ledger, British usage continues to distinguish queane and queen (perhaps a bit more useful distinction in a monarchy) and also distinguishes mold and mould.

MBC

Museum of Broadcast Communications.

MBCA

Model Business Corporations Act.

MbCO

Carboxylmyoglobin. Carboxyl group (CO) bound to myoglobin (Mb).

MBD

Minimal Brain Dysfunction. Just don't throw any big words at me, and I'll be alright.

MBDA

Minority Business Development Agency.

MBDC

Minority Business Development Center. Vide MBDA.

MBE

MailBoxes, Etc. A one-stop mailroom-for-hire.

MBE

MegaBuck Epitaxy. An alternate descriptive name for Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE).

MBE

Member of the Order of the British Empire.

When I asked after one in a coin store in Cambridge in 1993, I was told the going rate was fifty quid. The perfect gift for the molecular beam jockey who has everything (or at least no more unused chamber access points).

Queen Elizabeth II awarded the MBE to all four Beatles on June 12, 1965.

MBE

Molecular Beam Epitaxy. PVD used for compound semiconductor growth. A number of individual MBE labs have homepages, including

The Epi-Center MBE group at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).

The unofficial homepage from David Gotthold and the one from Alex Anselm, as well as the official homepage for Dr. Streetman's group's Varian at UT-Austin (visit their university homepage).

There's another Varian GEN II supervised by Prof. Ringel at the Optoelectronic and Microelectronic Materials Research Laboratories of the EE Dept. at the College of Engineering at Ohio State University (OSU).

When they finish constructing it, the homepage for the MBE group at the College of Engineering at Colorado State University (CSU) will be at this address.

MBE

Money Buys Everything. Another name for MegaBuck Epitaxy (MBE).

MBE

Multistate Bar Examination. It's multiple choice.

MBH

Manuel Bellisco Hernandez. A Spanish publisher of technical books. The publishing house (editorial in Spanish) and the retail bookstores (librerías) together are the Grupo Bellisco.

Editorial Bellisco publishes a Manual del Hormigón Armado (`Manual of Reinforced Concrete'; Manual de Hormigón Armado would be a reinforced concrete manual, and a good deal heavier). It was written by R. Ferreras, but for short, you could think of it as the Manual Bellisco de Hormigón (`Bellisco Manual of Concrete') and then you could recognize it from the MBH colophon. This is useful because the words along the binding are backwards... When an English-language book is lying closed on a horizontal surface, with the front cover on top, the lengthwise writing along the binding is right-side up. This is true in countries with right-hand-side driving and those with left-hand-side driving. (I would mention country where both left- and right-hand-side driving are common, but English is not an important language in West Texas.) A quick check proves that all books published in German, Spanish, Italian, and French follow the opposite convention. The great advantage of this is that if you have a multivolume work stacked on a table in order, with the first volume on top and all the front covers naturally facing down, then you can read the common title right-side-up (of course, the volume numbers are now facing sideways). An important exception to this rule is that books to teach English-speakers German, Spanish, etc., typically adopt the English orientation -- possibly because the books are manufactured by English-language publishers. If you've ever browsed a book-shelf that mixed the two orientations in comparable numbers, you'll probably agree that the greatest value of an orientation standard is not in its orientation but in the fact of its being a standard. Let me tell you, the EU was way ahead of you on this. In fact, they know exactly how much standardization is just right. In simple terms, it is this: globalization is bad; all Europe should be like France. First Brussels has to get the condom-dimension problem hammered down, so those things are not so monstrously large that they slip off Mr. Pencil, they will tackle book bindings. It's natural: they have to have you by the short hairs to get you to surrender sovereignty over your library.

But again to the manual/Manuel thing: Anglophones so frequently misspell the Spanish proper noun Manuel as Manual that at Amazon.com, some books are listed under both names: e.g., A Saint Is Born in Chima [or possibly in China], by the twins Manual Zapata Olivella and Manuel Zapata Olivella, tr. Thomas E. Kooreman; Self and Interpersonal Insight : How People Gain Understanding of Themselves and Others in Organizations, apparently by the father-and-son team of Manuel London and Manual London; Sounding Forth the Trumpet by Peter Marshall, David Manual [not credited on the cover], and David Manuel [no relation, I guess]. The anthology Menopause and the Heart includes Manual Neves-E-Castro among its editors, and has one Manuel Neves-e-Castro among its contributors.

This whole entry is going to be rewritten, but for now I'd just like to add that another way to describe how spine text on English-language books is normally printed is top-to-bottom. In Hebrew, writing is from right-to-left and as one reads, one turns pages on the left over to the right. (That is, books begin at what would be the back of an English book. This can cause confusion. Some years ago, I found a book of Talmud at the main library of UNM that had all the library markings upside down, so if you had no trouble reading Hebrew characters upside-down and from the bottom of the page up, you could open the book from the left and read it all left-to-right. Of course, a page of Talmud is segmented around a central text, so things are a little more complicated than that, but it was a nice thought.) Anyway, the point I wanted to make was that Hebrew books, at least the ones I've looked at, also have sideways text on the spine printed from top to bottom, which means that when you lay a Hebrew book down with the front cover up, you can easily read the spine text (unless you're more comfortable reading it upside down). The situation is more complicated with Japanese.

MBI

Max Born Institute.

mbira

An African musical instrument. I don't know whether it's a string, wind, or percussion instrument, but no matter what your musical training, I'm sure you can play it in Scrabble^® -- you can even play multiple mbiras. (You can play it according to any of the three major Scrabble dictionaries.)

MBK

Medications and Bandage Kit.

MBL

Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

MBNA

Monument Builders of North America. An association of memorial and memorialization companies dealing with creating memorials, tombstones, and markers. I still wonder how they dealt with their Y2K problem. (You know -- the stones pre-engraved ``died 19  .'')

MBO

Management Buy-Out. Meaning that the management team buys (a controlling stake in) the company, not that the company buys out the remainder of the management's contract.

MBO

Management By Objectives. Usually by conflicting objectives.

MBP

MacBook Pro. A line of laptop computers.

MBP

Materials and Bulk Processes.

Mbps

Megabits per second. Note that the bit rate, or data rate, is not the same as baud rate.

MBS

Maximum Burst Size. Nothing to do with the Fourth of July.

MBS

Modified Barium Swallow.

MBS

Mortgage-Backed Security. Sometimes rather backless, more like a mortgage-backed insecurity.

MBS

Multiple-Blade Slurry (saw).

MBT

Main Battle Tank.

MBT

Molecular Beam Technique[s].

MBTA

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Public transit operator in the greater Boston (MA) area. Once called MTA.

MBTI

Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator. Sort of like a geek code for nonprogrammers, except that it's not especially informative. Created by Katherine Meyers and Isabel Briggs following the inspiration of Jung (God help us, the Swiss did not). Every person is categorized willy-nilly according to four binary distinctions: Extroverted/Introverted, iNtuitive/Sensing, Feeling/Thinking, and the Judgmental/Perceptive, each of the sixteen groups being labelled according to the four relevant letters -- ENFJ, ISTP, etc. Occasionally appears in personals ads. It's such a speciously plausible and ultimately misguided idea, it's surprising it's not more popular.

Here's one of many (approximately) equally otiose MBTI classifiers on the web. The one by David M. Keirsey seems to be quite popular.

MBWA

Management by Wandering Around. Lording it over your subordinates. Euphemism devised by Tom Peters, an idol of management theorists and other philosophasters.

MB20

MatchBox TWENTY. Their first album came out in 1996. In 2007 they released an album entitled ``Exile on Mainstream.'' In case you're having trouble placing it, that's an allusion to the Rolling Stones' ``Exile on Main St.,'' a platinum double album released in 1972.

MC

Marginal Cost[s]. The derivative of price with respect to quantity, or an equivalent measure (the difference quotient of the same functions, or simply the cost of a single additional unit of a discretely countable good or service).

MC

MasterCard.

MC

Master of Ceremonies. More commonly ``emcee.''

An MC is sometimes an accomplished entertainer in his or her own right, and as such may have achieved mastery of some artistic skill. Unlike a Master of Arts, however, one may become an MC without first being a Bachelor of Ceremonies. I think.

MC

Master of Counseling. The National Board for Certified Counselors Examination (NBCCE) handles national and state individual certification in the US. Curricula are usually more specialized: MC/CC -- Community Counseling,
MC/MFCC -- Marriage, Family, and Child Counseling,
MC/MFT -- Marriage and Family Therapy,
MC/MHC -- Mental Health Counseling.

M.C., MC

Medium-Capacity (bomb). WWII RAF designation for a bomb that was 40-50% explosive by weight. Hence, the term is also sometimes expanded ``Medium-Casing.'' MC bombs were made in 500-lb, to 2000-lb. sizes. Continue reading now at the CWR entry or you'll be sorry.

MC

Medium Coeli. Latin, `center of the sky.' The point of the Zodiac which is closest to the zenith.

MC

Member of Congress. That is, a congressman, congresswoman, or congressperson (in the cases of male, female, or other congresspeople, resp.). MC is a rather unusual abbreviation, for obvious reasons too tedious to enumerate.

M.C.

Michigan City, Indiana. A city on the southeast shore of Lake Michigan, southwest of Michigan.

.mc

(Domain code for) Monaco. A principality containing Monte Carlo, and more royal scandals per square meter than London.

MC

MonoChorionic. To understand what this means, see the mo-mo entry.

MC

Monte Carlo.

MC

MotorCycle. In Indiana, riding an MC with improper headgear is a 4-point violation -- as bad as driving 16 to 25 mph over the speed limit. Since most MC drivers don't wear any headgear at all, I guess ``improper headgear'' refers to driving under the influence of Carmen Miranda (CM).

MC

Motorola Chip prefix.

MC

Multiple Choice. A type of test question in which the test-taker must choose answers from among a finite and usually small set. Some or all of the answers offered are wrong. Also known as ``multiple guess.''

MCA

Don't know yet what the M C A stand for in MCA Records, but that's no reason why I should withold a link, I suppose.

MCA

Micro Channel Architecture (IBM).

MCA

Monetary Compensatory Amount. A part of the EU's common agriculture policy (CAP) back when it was the EEC. MCA's were subsidies designed to shelter farmers from exchange-rate movements. They were especially intended to protect German farmers from being undercut by farmers in EEC countries with weaker currencies than the DM (i.e., all other EEC countries). MCA's were phased out after some haggling in 1984-5. (Nowadays, of course, all Euroland has a common currency, so there are no exchange-rate issues and everyone is happy;-)

MCA

MultiChannel Access. Super-duper walkie-talkie.

MCA

MultiChannel Analy{s|z}er.

MCAC

Mid-Continent Athletic Conference.

MCAD

Mechanical (Engineering) Computer-Aided Design (CAD).

MCAP

Mine-Clearing Armor-Protected. As in ``MCAP dozer.''

MCAS

Marine Corps Air Station.

MCAS

Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System. State exams in mathematics and in English and language skills, that a student must pass to be graduated from high school.

MCAT

Medical College Admission Test. A day-long punishment administered by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) to students craving admission to medical school.

MCB

Mendoza College of Business. Alternate abbreviation for MCoB, q.v. I've seen both initialisms used on the same announcement.

MCB

Muslim Council of Britain.

MCC

Men's Classical Caucus. A nonexistent organization. (Cf. WCC.) Not to be confused with the Mens Classical Caucus -- the organization dedicated to promoting thoughtfulness within the APA. This organization is also nonexistent.

For more thoughts on mens, see the ASICS entry.

MCC

Microelectronics & Computer Consortia.

MCC

Mortgage Credit Certificate.

MCC

Mott Community College. In nearby Flint, Michigan. The first question on the homepage is ``Why MCC?'' Why indeed. One answer: ``MCC is the only college in the world (have they checked in Pakistan?) with the mission to serve the residents of the 21 schools districts in Genesee County [Michigan].'' Hey -- if you graduated from high school in Genesee -- you're in like Flint!

``In 1950 Charles Stewart Mott gave $1 million to develop Flint Junior College into a four-year institution in collaboration with the University of Michigan...''

Today, MCC is still a two-year college, but for a bunch of years it provided facilities for the University of Michigan -- Flint.

MC/CC

Master of Counseling in Community Counseling.

MC-CDMA, MC/CDMA

MultiCarrier Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA). A hybrid of DS/CDMA and OFDMA.

MCCE

Minnesota Chamber of Commerce Executives. See ACCE.

MCCM

Malay Chamber of Commerce in Malaysia. Cf. ACCCIM.

mcd

MilliCanDela. A unit of light intensity.

MCD

Magnetic Circular Dichroism.

MCD

Malaysian Central Depository.

MCD

Minor Civil Division. The US Census Bureau's concept most closely approximating the civil concept of a township (in its most common North American sense).

Here's some text from Places, Towns and Townships (Lanham, Md.: Bernan, a division of The Kraus Organization Limited [I wonder if they use ``TKO''], 3/e, 2003), ed. Deirdre A. Gaquin and Katherine A. DeBrandt. Specifically, it's from the two-page Appendix A.

The primary political divisions of most states are termed counties. Minor civil divisions (MCDs) are the primary governmental or administrative divisions of a county in many states (parish in Louisiana). MCDs represent many different kinds of legal entities with a variety of governmental and/or administrative functions. MCDs are variously designated as American Indian reservations, assessment districts, boroughs, charter townships, election districts, election precincts, gores, grants, locations, magisterial districts, parish governing authority districts, plantations, precincts, purchases, road districts, supervisors' districts, towns, and townships. [Especially townships, in like 33 states.] In some states, all or some incorporated places are not located in any [state-defined] MCD (independent places) and thus serve as MCDs in their own right [for census purposes]. In other states, incorporated places are part of the MCDs in which they are located (dependent places), or the pattern is mixed--some incorporated places are independent of MCDs and others are included within one or more MCDs. In Maine and New York, there are American Indian reservations and off-reservation trust lands that serve as MCD equivalents; a separate MCD is created in each case where the American Indian area crosses a county boundary. [Exhale.]

If you want to see where the MCD's are on a map, you want to travel to the Lima entry for bibliographic details of Township Atlas of the United States.

MCD

Roman numeral for the number 1400.

MCF

Thousand (M) Cubic Feet. Abbreviation of unit used for gas fuel consumption. CCF.

MCFC

Molten-Carbonate Fuel Cell. A fuel cell (FC) in which the electrolyte is molten carbonate. Experimental MCFC's operate around 650°C and the charge carriers are carbonate ions -- (CO₃)^2-. Like FC's with solid-oxide electrolyte (SOFC), MCFC's can be used to combust carbon monoxide.

MC & G

Mapping, Charting, and Geodesy.

McGraw-Hill

Apparently offers no more than a gopher site on line.

MCH

Maternal and Child Health.

MCH

MethylCycloHexane.

MCHB

Maternal and Child Health Board. Part of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). Currently charged with administering Title V of the Social Security Act (enacted 1935), which authorized the creation of the Maternal and Child Health Services programs.

For actual information, see the Title V Information System maintained by the NCEMCH.

MCHP

Movimiento Comunitario para el Hábitat Popular. `Community movement for the people's habitat,' an Argentine organization. Hey, I just translate it; I don't know what it means.

MCHS

Marion County (Kentucky) High School. Here Internet Explorer is more informative on the status bar than Netscape Navigator. IE reports ``Done, but with errors on the page.''

``The faculty believes that each person is endowed with an intellect;'' -- whoa, stop the press! -- ``hence [logic in action!], the educational process of MCHS students is to develop that individual to the greatest possible degree in the mental, physical, ethical, and social aspects of his or her personality.''

Look, I realize that it's extremely unfair to take what's posted prominently on the MCHS web page and reproduce it here accurately for your amusement. So I want you to know that I'm not holding Kentucky up for special scorn. In the Boston area there's a school principal who has suspended a dozen of his teachers without pay because they've failed the state English competency tests, but he himself has failed them in a number of tries (as of early August 2003). He makes excuses and says it's ``frustrating,'' but I haven't seen the word ``embarrassing'' there yet.

``MCHS has as its philosophy the desire to meet adequately the needs of each individual student.''

MCI

Media Control Interface. What the White House Spokesperson tries to be.

MC/I

MicroPhone Included.

MCI

Microwave Communications Incorporated. Merged with WorldCom 1997-1998 to become MCI Worldcom, a provider of long-distance telephone service, and later internet service. While WorldCom has been in bankruptcy, they've taken the name MCI as less tainted.

The original name MCI reflects the history of the break-up of Ma Bell: when AT&T was a regulated monopoly, it charged businesses relatively high rates for long-distance service. Microwave links made this service cheap, and discounters competed for the business long-lines service. After years in anti-trust litigation, ATT agreed to be broken up (into seven original baby Bells that provided local service, ATT long lines, Bell Labs -- which last became Lucent -- and I forget what else; some other Bell Labs -- i.e., not in Murray Hill, NJ -- became corporate labs for Western Electric and whatnot). Part of the stated motive for agreeing to the break-up was the perception that increasing competition in long-distance services was draining the profit from ATT's most lucrative business while regulation as a monopoly prevented it from competing in emerging businesses.

MCI

Mild Cognitive Impairment. Like having a slight buzz on, but with dimmer prospects for recovery.

MCI

Montessori Centre International, based in London. You know, not all of these many Montessori organizations go by an acronym. For example, there's the Montessori Foundation based in Florida, established in 1992 by four leaders of the AMS. You don't think I'm going to put a separate entry in for every one, do you?

MCIS

Master in Communication and Information Studies.

MCL

Maximum Contaminant Level.

MCL

MonoCLinic. A crystal lattice; not a clinic specializing in mononucleosis.

MCL, McL

Much {C|K}lown Love. Obscene variants (maybe I should write that using the standard illiterate plural form variant's -- nah) exist, such as MMCL or MMFCL.

MCLG

Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) Goal.

MCLS

Microsoft-Certified Latrine Scrubber.

MCLS

Midwest Collaborative for Library Services. Yeah, ``Collaborative'' is a substantive here. MCLS has a popular Cataloging Certification Program.

MCLS

Monroe County (Michigan) Library System.

MCLVI

Metropolitan Council of Low Vision Individuals. New York affiliate of the CCLVI, I kid you not.

MCM

Mine CounterMeasures.

MCM

Molecular Crystal Model. A Hamiltonian for polaron studies, introduced by T. Holstein [Ann. Phys.(N.Y.) 8, 325 (1959)]. Tight-binding electron Hamiltonian with local linear coupling to phonon.

MCM

MultiChip Module. A package in which bare chips are bonded and interconnected directly on the substrate. Cf. SCM.

MC/MFCC

Master of Counseling with a specialization in Marriage, Family, and Child Counseling. Seems to be the most common of the MC's.

MC/MFT

Master of Counseling in Marriage and Family Therapy.

MC/MHC

Master of Counseling in Mental Health Counseling.

MCNC

Microelectronics Center of North Carolina.

MCNE

Master Certified Novell Engineer (CNE).

MCNF

Mean Cumulative Number of Failures.

MCO

{ Magnetically | Magnetic-field }-Controlled Oscillator.

MCO

Managed Care Organizations.

MCoB, MCOB

Mendoza College Of Business. The B-school of the University of Notre Dame. The acronym is pronounced ``EM cob.'' Alternative initialism: MCB. Previous acronym: COBA.

MCP

Machine Control Panel.

MCP

Male Chauvinist Pig.

MCP

MetaCarpoPhalangeal. I.e., of the metacarpus (or metacarpi) and phalanx (or phalanges). Or maybe instead of `of the phalanx (or phalanges)' that should read phalagis (vel phalangum). Those Romans must have been real anatomy wizards.

MCP

(Japanese) Molecular Computation Project.

MCP

MultiChip Package. See MCM.

MCP

MicroChannel Plate[s].

MCPM

Multiple Colliding-Pulse Mode-lock{ ing | ed laser }. See, for example, J. F. Martins-Filho, E. A. Avrutin, C. N. Ironside, and J. S. Roberts, ``Monolithic Multiple Colliding Pulse Mode-locked Quantum-Well lasers: Experiment and Theory'' IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, vol. 1, pp. 539-551, (1995).

Cf. KLM.

MCPW

Microstrip CoPlanar Waveguide.

MCQ

Multiple Choice Question[s].

MCR

Minimum Cell Rate.

MCS

Material Control System.

MCS

Message, Command, Status.

MCS

Method of Corresponding { States | Solutions }.

MCS

Multicell Convective (storm) System.

MCS

MultiChannel Spectrometer.

MCS

MultiChannel Scaling. A feature of some optical multichannel analyzers (MCA).

MCS

Multiple Chemical Sensitivit{y|ies}. Allergy to many slightly volatile, usually organic (plastic) modern blessings. Also ``environmental illness.'' Controversial. This page is from a group that says it's real.

MCSCF

Multiple Configuration Self-Consistent Field (SCF) calculation. Another name for CASSCF, q.v..

MCSD

Microsoft-Certified Solution Developer. Why be so negative? Program for fun, not to solve some suit's wretched little ``problem.''

MCSDBA

Microsoft-Certified Solution DataBase Administrator.

MCSE

Microsoft-Certified Systems Engineer. Corresponds to Novell's CNE.

MCSO

Maricopa County (Arizona) Sheriff's Office.

MCSSB

Manufacturers Council of Small School Buses. An NTEA group formed in 1990 ``to address various small school bus issues and work with federal agencies and other industry groups in revising existing standards and developing new standards that affect the industry.''

MCT

Mercury Cadmium Telluride. [Usually called ``Mercadtel'' in colloquial speech.] A common II-VI alloy semiconductor. Mercury telluride (HgTe and cadmium telluride (CdTe) have similar lattice constants (6.373 Å and 6.482 Å, respectively), and form a stable ternary (pseudobinary) at all intermediate concentrations, with zero bandgap at about Hg_0.2Cd_0.8Te.

MCT

MOS-Controlled Thyristor.

MCTD

Mean Cell Transfer Delay.

McTMA

Multi-Center Traffic Management Advisor.

MCU

MicroController Unit.

MCU

Multipoint Control Unit.

MCZ

Magnetic CZochralski. Semiconductor growth method.

MD

Managing Director.

MCW

Music Club of Westfield (New Jersey).

MD, Md.

Maryland. USPS state code (capitals, no period) and ordinary abbreviation (mixed case, punctuated).

Maryland Electronic Capital is a good starting point for official information. The Villanova University Law School provides some links to state government web sites for Maryland. USACityLink.com has a page with mostly city and town links for the state.

A clickable map of the state's counties is served by Historic Inns & Famous Homes of Maryland. Another one is served by Maryland Electronic Capital.

MD

Market-Dominated.

One way to categorize business environments is by considering whether their market and technological environments are stable or volatile. Not that these questions always have definite answers, but it might be a useful idealization for puposes of discussion or of writing a speciously convincing business plan.

If both market and technology are stable, then the environment is dull, and the organization that deals with it is ``hierarchical'' or ``bureacratic.'' That doesn't sound very good, but it's a flattering way to describe the challenges faced by the Dusty Ridge, Oklahoma news-stand.

If both market and technology are volatile, you can say the environment is dangerous, and the organization must be ``flexible'' or ``dynamic'' or at least have its résumé up to date.

If either the market or the technology environment is volatile, and the other is stable, then the organization that is supposed to best suited to deal with it is ``mixed.'' Whatever is volatile dominates changes and drives decision-making. Hence `MD mixed'' and ``TD mixed'' organizations.

MD, M.D.

Medical Doctor. As opposed to a Ph.D., say.

Md

Chemical symbol for the element Mendelevium. Atomic number 101. An actinide.

Learn more at its entry in WebElements and its entry at Chemicool.

MD

Ministry of Defence (US spelling Defense.)

• Brazil (Ministério da Defesa do Brasil)
• Republic of Bulgaria (Ministerstvo na Otbranata na Republika Bulgariia)
• Spain (Ministerio de Defensa de España -- standard abbrev. MDE)

MD

Misfit Dislocation[s].

.md

(Domain code for) Moldova.

MD

Molecular Diversity. Affirmative Action for the really little guy.

MD

Muscular Dystrophy. Related entry: MDA.

MDA

Magen David Adom. Red Star-of-David. The Israeli organization that corresponds to the Red Cross or the Red Crescent in other countries, but which is essentially blackballed from ordinary membership in the International Red Cross.

MDA

Mail Delivery Agent.

MDA

Missile Defense Administration. Within the US DoD.

MDA

Monochrome Display Adapter. History marches on.

MDA

Muscular Dystrophy Association. It's ``a voluntary health agency -- a dedicated partnership between scientists and concerned citizens aimed at conquering neuromuscular diseases that affect more than a million Americans.'' I didn't realize that the word agency still had enough cachet for an NGO to want to use it in self-description.

``MDA was created in 1950 by a group of adults with muscular dystrophy, parents of children with muscular dystrophy, and a physician-scientist studying the disorder. Since its earliest days it has been energized by its number-one volunteer and national chairman, entertainer Jerry Lewis.

The Association's programs are funded almost entirely by individual private contributors. MDA seeks no government grants, United Way funding or fees from those it serves.''

MDA is best known for its annual Labor Day telethon, still hosted in 2005 by Jerry Lewis, age 79. In the telethon context, children suffering from MD are ``Jerry's kids.''

``First broadcast over Labor Day weekend in 1966 by a lone TV station in New York City, the unique event starring popular comedian Jerry Lewis quickly caught the public's attention -- and raised more than $1 million in pledges.''

MDAP

Momentum Distribution of (electron-positron) Annihilation Pairs. Measured in positron annihilation studies.

MDB

Multilateral Development Bank. Like the World Bank (WB).

MDBS

Microcomputer DataBase System.

MDC

Major Diagnostic Category.

MDC

Management Document Collection. Something to do with the Special Libraries Association (SLA). What's that, the pile of papers scattered on the boss's desk? That's special.

MDC

Movement for Democratic Change. A Zimbabwean movement led by Morgan Tsvangirai, still free (charged with treason, out on bail) as of June 4, 2003.

MDCP

Media Device Control Protocol. See MAC about ``Media.''

MDD

Major Depressive Disorder.

MDD

Medium-Doped [MOSFET] Drain.

mdd.

Spanish, millones de dólares, `millions of dollars.' E.g., in 1997, according to Forbes, the boxer Oscar de la Hoya (``the pride of East LA'') ganó 38 mdd., placing him third among rich athletes.

Go here if you want to find out how much that is in American money. (Short answer: a lot.)

MDE

Ministerio de Defensa de España. `Ministry of Defense of Spain.'

MDF

Main Distribution Frame.

MDF

(South African) Media Defence Fund. An FXI subcommittee that continues some of the work of the earlier MDT (Trust).

MDF

Medium-Density Fiberboard. A building construction material. Wood fiber embedded in a binder (typically a synthetic ``resin'' or plastic) under heat and pressure. Density 30-55 lb./cu.ft. (Water has a density of 62 lb./cu.ft.) MDF is available in thicknesses up 2 in. Cf. Particleboard (PB) is made the same way generally, but with wood particles, or a mix of particles and fibers, instead of only wood fibers. Hardboard is denser, and uses only fibers and the naturally occurring lignin as binder. See S1S (hardboard smooth on one side) entry. The LMA's downloadable glossary had more information; it may have migrated to the CPA website after the merger in 2004, but I haven't had time to check.

MDGA

Medical Doctor Global Assessment. When written out or spoken, this is more likely to be called a `physician global assessment.' However, a related metric is the patient global assessment (PGA); evidently the MD abbreviation is used to maintain a distinction in the initialisms.

MDH

Migration Data Host.

MDI

Methylene DiIsocyanate. A hard constituent in copolymer polyureas.

MDI

{ MultiDocument | Multiple Document } Interface. (MS Windows term.) Cf. SDI.

MDIP

Molded Dual-In-Line Package. See National Semiconductor's specs. Their illustration is above.

MDJCL

Maryland (MD) chapter of Junior Classical League.

MDJCL sponsors the Medusa Mythology examination.

MDL

Method Detection Limit.

MDL

Minimum Description Length. See J. Rissannen, ``A universal data compression system,'' IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory, vol. 29(#5), pp. 656-664 (Sep. 1983).

MDM

Medical Decision Making. A journal.

MDMMS

Multidimensional Microscopes and Maize Structures Research Group.

mDNA

Mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondria are one of a small class of cell organelles that function like symbiotes in the cells that contain them, reproducing asexually in a process distinct from the host's reproduction, and carrying their own DNA. Mitochondria generally come from the egg in sexual reproduction, so they are passed strictly along the maternal line. (How that happens is still unclear. For a long time it was claimed that the sperm mitochondria are jettisoned at fertilization, but the direct evidence for that is apparently not so clear.)

The simple genetics of maternal-line heredity makes mDNA an attractive subject for archaeogenetic studies. Another attraction is that the typical human cell has about a thousand mitochondria, so there's more DNA material to work with.

MDP

Millennium Democratic Party. One of South Korea's major political parties. In December 2002, human-rights lawyer Roh Moo-hyun won election as president on the MDP ticket. In 2003, MDP split, leaving the part with 62 seats in the 273-member National Assembly, while 46 suporters of Mr. Roh bolted to form the new ``Uri'' party. Roh left the MDP in September 2003, but had not formally joined Uri as of March 2004.

MDPH

Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

MdR

Marina del Rey. Abbreviation in California classified ads. Cf. PdR.

MDR

MultiDrug-Resistant (TB). See MDR-TB.

MDRF

Mark Diamond Research Fund.

MDR-TB

MultiDrug-Resistant TB. When it appeared in the 1990's it was defined as TB with resistance to the first-line TB drugs isoniazid and rifampin. Cf. XDR-TB.

MDS

MyeloDysplastic Syndrome.

mdse.

MerchanDiSE.

MDT

(South African) Media Defence Trust. Founded in 1988 and now defunct. An NGO that served during the apartheid era as a legal defense fund for South African journalists and as a lobbying/research organization during the transition to majority rule. Some of the work of this organization is continued by the MDF (... Fund) of FXI.

MDT

Multi-Drug Therapy.

MDTA

Miami-Dade (formerly Metro Dade) Transit Authority. Miami, FL, is in Dade County.

MDW

IATA code for MiDWay Airport in Chicago, IL, USA. Here's its status in real time from the ATCSCC.

MDX

Modular Digital eXchange.

MD5

Message Digest algorithm #5. It is successor to MD-4, so I don't think the fact that it is based on 32-bit words (32=2^5) has aught to do with the name.

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