Max Planck
Institute for the History of Science.' In Berlin. The German word
Wissenschaft is usually translated `science,' and is often (as here)
used in that sense, but it really has the more general meaning of
`scholarship.'
MPL
Member of Provincial Legislature. South African term for a member of a
provincial body that functions like a parliament. Cf. MEC.
Mpls.
Minneapolis. Probably the one in Minnesota (MN).
MPLS
Multi-Protocol Label Switching. Here's a tutorial
slideshow on MPLS, by Peter Ashwood-Smith and Bilel N. Jamoussi of Nortel Networks, served at NANOG.
MPM
MultiPhoton Microscopy.
MPM
MultiProcessor Module.
MPM-TIRF
Multifrequency Phase and Modulation Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence.
MPO
Metropolitan Planning Organization. The US government has a program to
designate official MPO's. WILMAPCO is one such
official MPO. MPO's are a highly seductive form of faux federalism; under the
guise of seeking local advice on how to spend federal transportation dollars,
the federal government leverages tax money that it returns to the states,
setting the agenda and general goals. MPO's include local officials, public
transportation providers and state agency representatives. In other words,
they include enough competing interests that it will always be hard to oppose
overall federal plans, and much easier to compete against other MPO's by
committing state matching funds to implement federal plans. Freedom is a
gilded cage.
The government serves a directory of
MPO's that was current in October (October 1994). AMPO might have more
up-to-date information.
MPO
Military Post Office. A post office associated with a military
installation. Addresses in the US military take a form that is purposely
shoehorned into the civilian (USPS) form. For
example,
PFC Gomer Pyle
CMR 345, Box 12334
APO AE 09250
Here APO is the ``city'' and AE is the ``state'' code. APO (Army Post Office) and FPO (Fleet Post Office) are the only two ``cities''
that should occur. For the obvious historical reasons (see USAAF), APO serves for army and air
force installations. The only ``states'' are
``AA,''
``AE,'' and ``AP.''
MPO
Ministère des
Pêches et des Océans (du Canada). ``Pêches et
Océans Canada.''
MPOA
MultiProtocol Over ATM.
MPP
Massively Parallel Processor.
MPP
Maximum-Power Point.
An ideal voltage source drives as much current as its load wants to draw. This
implies that it provides as much power (voltage × current) as desired.
In your dreams. Real power supplies can only supply finite power, so they
deviate from ideal voltage sources. The voltage at zero current is called the
open-circuit voltage VOC (since zero
current flows when the circuit is open). Need I add that since no power is
supplied when no current is drawn, the maximum power from a real power supply
is achieved at nonzero voltage? No, of course I needn't add that. I'm just
bulking up the entry. I'm paid by the word, you know. The rate is pretty low
-- zero, to be precise -- but I'm hoping that with enough words it'll add up to
something.
Equivalently, one can view a power supply as a current source. The current
supplied when the power-supply voltage is zero is called the short-circuit
current ISC. Short-circuiting a power
supply is usually unhealthy for something and possibly someone.
The current I supplied by a real power source is a smooth function I(V) of the
voltage V. (It's a funny thing: smoothness assumptions are not approximations.
Instead, nondifferentiable functions in science and engineering are
approximations of more accurate functions that really are smooth. Even the
best examples of nondifferentiable functions, the singularities and
discontinuties called phase transitions in thermodyamics, are really the result
of taking the limit of infinitely large thermodynamic systems.
Large-but-finite systems are characterized by very rapidly varying
thermodynamic functions that are experimentally indistinguishable from singular
functions, as numbers like 10-24, in whatever macroscopic units, are
indistinguishable from 0.)
Anyway, by assumption the power P = V × I(V) is a
smooth function, and we maximize it by finding a point where the derivative
w.r.t. V is zero. Applying the product rule for
derivatives... (Just to interrupt here. For almost all readers, this
discussion is either blindingly obvious and staggeringly slow, or mysterious
and waaaaaaaay too fast. Sorry.)
... and doing a little rearranging, we find a condition
I dI
- = - --
V dV
satisfied at the MPP. If the load is just a dumb resistance R, then according
to Ohm's Law the left-hand side above is just R.
The right-hand side is just the internal resistance
r of the power supply at the MPP. (A very similar calculation leads to the
famous rule that power to a loudspeaker is maximized when the output impedance
of the final amplifier stage equals the impedance of the speaker.)
A standard figure-of-merit for power supplies is the
fill factor F. This is simply the maximum power
Pmax divided by the maximum conceivable power
VOCISC. Equivalently:
P V I
max MP MP
FF = ------ = --- × --- ,
V I V I
OC SC OC SC
where VMP and IMP are the voltage and current at the
MPP.
MPP
Member of [Canadian] Provincial Parliament
(also MLA). In Quebec, this is called an MNA.
MPP
Message Processing Program.
MPPA
Michigan Press Photographers
Association.
MPPC
Motion Picture Patents Company.
MPPD
Multi-Purpose Peripheral Device.
MPPDA
Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. An organization
headed throughout its existence under that name (1922-1945) by President
Will H. Hays. Hays is famous for the Hays Code, a code of voluntary
self-censorship by the movie industry. In 1945, Eric Johnston became president
of the organization, and it assumed its current name, abbreviated MPAA.
MPPL
Mishawaka-Penn-Harris
Public Library. See also P-H-M, SJCPL.
MPR
Minnesota Public Radio. I've never heard
anyone use this abbreviation in speech, probably because, despite the
exhausting length of ``Minnesota'' (use MN on
envelopes, Minn. when the abbreviation is not part
of an address), ``MPR'' sounds too much like ``NPR''
(National Public Radio). The only reason I put this entry here was to have a
link to the homepage for A Prairie Home
Companion.
MPR
Mouvement populaire de la révolution.
The political party that Mobutu created in 1967, a
little over a year after Mobutu's coup of November 24, 1965. This was not just
made the sole legal party of the one-party state; even the option of sullen
nonparticipation was foreclosed: MPR membership was obligatory for all Zairians (or maybe all adults, I'm not sure if there was
any sort of lower age limit). Actually, they weren't ``Zairians'' until 1971,
when Mobutu changed the country's name. That year he also held national
``elections.'' In the presidential, uh, contest, Mr. Mobutu ran unopposed.
Voters supporting the incumbent could cast a green ballot paper, symbolizing
``progress.'' Voters opposed to the election of the incumbent could cast a red
ballot paper, described as symbolizing ``chaos'' (or anyway, the consequences
of a vote against). According to the government count, 157 red ballots were
cast. Cf. ARV.
MPRE
Multi-state Professional Responsibility Examination.
MPS
Marginal Propensity to Save. The fraction of extra income that is saved.
An optimistic view of fiscal stimulus holds that, because of knock-on effects,
putting an amount x in consumers' pockets generates a larger-than-x increase in
overall spending. Explicitly, the initial spending x goes into the pockets of
someone else, who spends a fraction MPC
(marginal propensity to consume) of it, generating a further contribution xMPC
to total consumption. That in its turn generates a further contribution
x(MPC)2 in the next round, and so forth. It's obviously a geometric
series, and an infinite one to some approximation, so the total increase in
consumption is really
x( 1 + MPC + MPC2 + ...) = x/(1-MPC).
This enhancement is called the multiplier effect, and the factor 1/(1-MPC) is
called the GDP multiplier. (See the relevant bit
connected with Joseph Black for another economic factor.) On the reasoning
that money not spent is saved, MPC+MPS=1, and the multiplier factor is 1/MPS.
There is a lot wrong with this analysis, of course. Just off the top of my
head, here are a couple -- my downpayment on a complete entry:
- Initial spending: The original computation envision the initial
fiscal stimulus as an increase in direct spending by the government. In
practice, however, part (sometimes much) of the fiscal stimulus is in the form
of transfers to private consumers. No matter how this fiscal stimulus is put
into potential consumers' pockets, it isn't consumption until it leaves those
pockets to make purchases. So the multiplier for this part is really
MPC0/MPS, where is MPC0 is the consumers' marginal
propensity to spend money received as ``fiscal stimulus'' (really as a tax
credit, say). A simple assumption is that MPC0=MPC, which would
yield a multiplier of MPC/(1-MPC), for which the maximum value is 1, when
MPC=0.5. Hence, the multiplier is essentially always less than unity. There
are, in fact, many arguments and some economics-``Nobel''-prize-winning
empirical research that suggest that MPC0 will in fact be lower than
MPC, further decreasing the effect of the stimulus.
- Marginal propensity to pay taxes and service overdue debt: It ain't
zero. You can do this one yourself: MPC = 1 - MPS... - MPT - MPD. It lowers
MPC and consequently the multiplier.
MPS
Medium-Powered Satellite. One kind of ``consumer satellite'' (the other
is DBS, q.v.). Has lower power (50 W per
channel) than DBS, but more channels.
MPS
Message { Processing | Passing } System. IF the teacher catches you,
be ready to do hard time at the end of the school day.
MPS
Military Postal Service.
MPS
MPOA Server.
MPS
MultiProcessor Specification.
MPSA
(US) Military Postal Service Agency. Information on this system has been
delivered to the MPO entry.
MPSIMS
Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share.
MPT
Microwave Power Transmission. I don't have much to say here, so you can
either come back in a decade or two, when I'm sure to have added something, or
go now to the rectenna or SPS entry.
MPU
MicroProcessor unit. (CPU on a single chip.)
MPV
Methane-Powered Vehicle.
MPW
Macintosh Programmer's Workbench.
MPW
Medical Physics World. Bulletin of the IOMP.
MP3
MPEG-1 Layer-3 Audio.
MP4
MPEG-1 Layer-4 Audio.
.mq
(Domain name code for) Martinique.
MQCA
Magnetic Quantum Cellular Automata.
MQH
Memory Queue Handler.
MQM
Muttahida Qaumi Movement. A secular Pakistani political grouping of
muhajirs (immigrants or refugees from India in 1947). Its leader, Altai Husain, lives in
exile; the group itself has turned increasingly fascist in recent years.
MQW
Multiple Quantum Well. Refers to a heterostructure engineered
with multiple conduction-band minima. Vide
QW.
MQWR, MQWire
Multiple Quantum Wire. Vide
QWR.
MR
Macroporous Resin. A filtration material consisting of resin beads
(macrospheres) with pores made by incorporating microspheres during manufacture.
MR
Magnetic Resonance.
MR
MagnetoResist{ance | ivity | ive }.
MR
Materials Research. A productive prefix, as in
MRC, MRS, and Penn
State's MRI.
.mr
(Domain name code for) Mauritania. Apparently this is
not the same place as Mauritius (.mu).
M.R.
Miniature Railroading. A magazine published 1938-41. Not sure
anyone ever used this abbreviation, but if you even momentarily thought that
this might be what you sought an expansion for, you should check
MR below.
Mr
MisteR. In British usage, and somewhat less commonly in Commonwealth
usage, periods are now often omitted from a great many abbreviations that used
to, and in the US still do, have them. This started out as an imitation of
French practice that was advocated for English by Fowler. More later, okay?
Mr.
Mister.
MR
Model Railroader.
The most popular railroad modelers' magazine, published since 1934.
Hey Mark -- there's nothing in the early 2004 ToC's
about BR.
(You can ignore that. It was just a note to the editor. It turned out to be
the wrong MR anyway. It was Modern
Railways. You have no idea of the magnitude of selfless research
effort that goes into writing this apparently careless reference work!)
MR
Not a good abbreviation for Model Railroading Magazine,
published since 1979. Because of the namespace collision and priority, this is
normally abbreviated MRG (by the magazine itself and
by modelers generally).
MR
Modem Ready. A standard light on external modems.
MR
Modern Railways.
A monthly.
``Modern Railways has been published since 1962 but its predecessor title,
Trains Illustrated, first began publication in the 1940s. ...''
Covers all aspects of the business in Britain ``and abroad.''
MR
Modified Richmond. MR magazines are a kind of subterranean concrete
bunker used as ammo dumps for nuclear weapons.
MRA
Magnetic Resonance Angiography.
MRA
Malaysian Retailers Association.
MRA
Multiple Regression Analysis. Name applied to various statistical methods
that attempt to isolate the effects of multiple independent variables
on a single dependent variable.
MRAM
Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (RAM).
A chip that stores bits as magnetic material orientation, and reads out by
detection of magnetoresistive effect.
MRAP
Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected vehicle. Pronounced ``em-wrap.'' The
specific ones to which this term is applied are manufactured for the US
military by three companies, each with their own models. Their first
deployments were in Iraq and Afghanistan.
MRAP, Mrap
Mouvement contre le
Racisme et pour l'Amitié entre les
Peuples. See next entry for some of
the history.
MRAP
Mouvement contre le Racisme et
l'Antisémitisme et pour la Paix. This organization
was founded in 1949 (i.e., after the war),
in part by former members of the MNCR. It changed
its name to Mouvement contre le Racisme et pour
l'Amitié entre les Peuples in 1977.
Mr. Blackwell
Mr. B doesn't use a first name.
He is known for his annual (since 1960) worst dressed list of women and
transvestites. Mr. B is bowtie-positive.
As a literary stylist, Mr. B is quite a ladies' fashion designer. Here
are some vital statistics on his recycled word fashions:
- ``right dress in the wrong century''
- 1976:
Loretta Lynn, #8
- 1978:
Olivia Newton-John, #7
- Titanic
- 1976:
Lee Radziwill, #7 (designer went down with)
- 1988:
Shirley Temple Black, #6 (Good Ship Lollipop to)
- 1997:
Francis [sic?] Fisher, #9 (dresses should have gone down with)
(rhymes with international panic)
- 1998:
Kate Winslet, #3 (dresses should have gone down with)
(rhymes with fashion panic)
- neo-gothic
- 1997:
Madonna, #2 (Neo Gothic fright)
- 1998:
Marilyn Manson, #10 (neo-Gothic nightmare)
- She's foobar ... in heels!
- 1992:
Geena Davis, #2 (foobar = Big Bird)
- 1997:
Jennifer Tilly, #5 (foobar = El Niño)
- 1998:
Carmen Electra, #4 (foobar ... = fashion Viagra -) (note that
ellipsis has been modernized to hyphen; exclamation mark remains)
- Madonna
- Bette Midler
- 1973: #1
- 1975: #4
- 1978: #10
- 1982: #4
- 1991:
eighth on the honors list of fabulous fashion independents
- 1993:
seventh on the honors list of fabulous fashion independents
- 1996:
again seventh on the honors list of fabulous fashion independents
- Clintons
- Hillary Rodham:
1993:
first on the honors list of fabulous fashion independents
1995:
fourth on the honors list of fabulous fashion independents
1998:
sixth on the honors list of fabulous fashion independents; behind
even Madeleine Albright
- Chelsea:
1996:
fifth on the honors list of fabulous fashion independents; just
beats out Whitney Houston. Time for a new dartboard.
MRBM
Medium-Range Ballistic Missile. Range between 1000 and about 2500 km.
You'd get a lot more invitations to summits and prestigious international
parlays if just put a couple of hundred million into developing IRBM's. Everybody's got MRBM's now. Isn't it
about time you moved up?
MRC
Materials Research Center.
MRC
Medical Research Council. One of the
UK's seven research
councils. The research councils report to the Office of Science and
Technology within the Department of Trade
and Industry.
MRC
Medical Research Council of Canada.
Seems to be related to the CRM.
MRC
Medical Research Council of South
Africa. (I can assure you that it is also referred to in writing as the
``South African Medical Research Council.'')
MRC
Mission Research Corporation.
MRC
Multinationals
Resource Center.
MRC
Multiple-Relay Channel.
MRCI
MultiReference Configuration Interaction. Something for quantum chemists
to do with any extra cycles.
MRCS
Multi-Rate Circuit Switching.
Mrd
MilliaRD. An American billion.
Abbreviation that occurs in EU statistical
literature. Cf. Mio (million).
mRDC
Mobile Remote Deposit Capture. A feature of many banking apps for
smartphones that allows users to deposit checks by photographing them with the
phone.
Mr. Ed
A television show about a
talking horse, and the eponymous horse. There's a bit of context for the
show at our AF (for Armed Forces) entry, and it's
mentioned for context at our ST:TOS entry.
MRE
MagnetoResistive Element.
MRE
Meal Ready-to-Eat. Food for US troops on the move. Also expanded
``Meals Rejected by the Enemy,'' and during the Ethiopian famine
``Meals Rejected by Ethiopians.''
MRE
Mission Readiness Exercise. Military usage. Practive makes perfect, if
the enemy cooperates.
MRE
Morally Reprehensible Elite. US Army nickname for Haitian upper class,
according to Thomas Friedman op-ed (p. A21) on Wed, 20 DEC 95 NYT.
MRFC
Malawi Rural Finance Company.
MRG
Model RailroadinG Magazine. Published since 1979. The G serves to
distinguish it from the Model Railroader, which has seniority
(MR).
MRGO
Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet. Pronounced ``Mister Go.'' MRGO is a
shipping channel that was dug in the 1960's as a shortcut to New Orleans and
a way to boost development of reclaimed swampland east of the city. Many
scientists and activists have claimed that MRGO boosted the flooding and
destruction of that reclaimed swampland, and low-lying eastern parts of the
city.
MRH
MagnetoResistive Head. (Magnetic recording and sensing element.)
MRI
Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Imaging using NMR.
Invented by Dr. Raymond Damadian and patented in 1974. Fashionable
medical imaging technology that can image soft tissue with great
sensitivity to histology. The data processing involved is quite
nontrivial. Originally called NMR imaging, its current name presumably
reflects ignorant public resistance to anything with ``nookyuler'' in it.
Vide NMR. Then again, there's also
Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) for it to be
confused with.
Noninvasive, but getting inside the magnet makes many people claustrophobic.
In the 7 March 1994 New Yorker, Alfred Kazin wrote
My cancer is so real to a lot of people that they feel free to probe me
front and behind, stick me, prick me, haul me up and down, insert my
claustrophobic head in the drum of one scan after another, in a process
splendidly named Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
MRI
Management Recruiters International.
MRI
Materials Research (MR) Institute at Penn
State. There are probably some others with the same name.
MRI
Medical Records Institute. I
admire them for sticking with the initialism. In the future, I plan to say
things like ``I guess you must mean magnetic resonance imaging, rather than
Medical Records Institute,'' just to be a pain in the ass.
mridanga
A drum of India that can be played in Scrabble®.
(All three major Scrabble dictionaries
agree and accept a plural mridangas. I never realized how common the -s
plural inflection is.)
MRIF
Materials Research Instrument Facility. Part of CAPEM at UB.
MRM
Multi-Resolution Model.
MRMC
Medical Research Modernization
Committee. By ``modernization'' they mean the elimination of animal
models.
mRNA
Messenger RNA (vide RNA). A segment of
RNA that transcribes genes coded in DNA.
MRP
Manufacturing Requirements Planning.
MRO
Maintenance, Repair, and Operations,
MRO
Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter. A NASA vehicle that
weighs one ton fully fuelled. It's the first NASA mission to Mars since the
twin rovers (Spirit and Opportunity) landed in January 2004. Launched on an
Atlas 5 rocket on August 12, 2005, MRO will orbit Mars at an average altitude
of 300 kilometers. Observations should begin in November 2006.
It has the largest telescopic camera ever sent to another planet, and plans are
for it to orbit Mars for at least four years. Data from MRO will help in
planning where to land two robotic subsequent explorers: the Phoenix Mars
Scout, to be launched in 2007, which will search for organic chemicals, and the
Mars Science Laboratory to be launched 2009.
MRP
Manufacturing Resource Planning.
MRP
Material Resource Planning.
Mrs.
Missus. Used as a courtesy title for married women and widows. (Back
when people were more careful about these things, before the women's rights
movement, and especially before mass direct mail solicitations, a further
convention dictated the use of a woman's first name if she was widowed, and
her husband's given name if she was not.)
Originally an abbreviation of mistress, but now the latter word has
some offensive denotations, so a slurred version (missis, missus) of the
original word is used. Nevertheless, the word missus continues to
be regarded by many as slang, and while other courtesy titles (Mister, Miss,
Reverend) are occasionally written out, Mrs. is much less frequently
written out, and rarely as Missus. A lot of people wonder what the
arr (r) in Mrs. stands for.
The word madam has suffered similar depredations. However, the
abbreviation Mmes. of its plural is used in lieu of an accepted
plural for Mrs.
Even though Drs. is the plural of Dr., Mrs. is not the plural of Mr.
MRS
Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy.
MRS
Materials Research Society.
MRSA
Market Research Society of Australia. Now the
AMSRS.
MRSA
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus. Sometimes pronounced
``merza.'' When MRSA was first identified in the 1960's, it was transmitted
primarily in hospitals, sort of like child-bed fever, and affected only those
with weakened immune systems. More recently at least two new strains
have appeared that are being transmitted outside hospitals and being contracted
by otherwise healthy individuals. The familiar old group of strains is now
distinguished as HA-MRSA (hospital-acquired MRSA)
and the new group of strains is called CA-MRSA
(community-acquired). See also VRSA. Here's a
summary from APUA.
MRSEC
Materials Research Science and Engineering Center.
MRT
Mass Rail Transit. The Singapore subway.
MS
Management System(s).
ms., MS
Manuscript.
MS
Mass Spectro { metry | scopy }. The first term is more accurate, the
second term ( -scopy) is more common.
[The initialism seems to be used principally in the
abbreviation of compounds, like MS/MS.]
An
introduction is served by Virginia Tech.
MS, M.S.
Master of Science.
MS
Mean Square. Often used in ANOVA to designate the variance (i.e.,
mean value of the square of the deviation from the mean; a/k/a the square of
the standard deviation). Possibly the reason it's a more common usage in
ANOVA is that the heavy numerical burden long ago put computers into the
middle of the discussion, when they didn't speak Greek characters.
MS
Meta Signaling.
MS
Metal-Semiconductor.
MS, M$
MicroSoft, Inc.
(The first abbreviation is commonly used in product names.)
Here's what
you need to understand.
MS
Middle School. Name for two- or three-year school (grades 7-8 or 6-8)
preceding high school (grades 9-12). In other systems, grades 7-12 are
divided into junior high school (7-9) and
senior high (10-12). This is the
province of the states, by settled interpretation of the
tenth amendment to the US
constitution.
During the 1990's, one of the more widespread education fads was the idea that
children of middle school age have special in-between needs that are not well
served by either elementary school or high school. It gives you some idea of
how dim the education poobahs are, that this crude and essentially empty
thought was seen as a cogent reason for converting junior high-senior high
school systems into middle school-high school systems.
MS
Military Science. Cf. Military
Intelligence.
ms, msec
MilliSecond.
MS
Mississippi.
USPS abbreviation only.
Literate abbreviation is Miss.
The Villanova University Law School provides some links to state government
web sites for
Mississippi. USACityLink.com has
a page with mostly city and town
links for the state.
Ms.
Mizz.
M & S
Modeling and Simulation. Here's
a glossary thereof.
MS
MonoStable (multivibrator).
.ms
(Domain name code for) Montserrat.
MS
Mössbauer Spectroscopy.
MS
Multiple Sclerosis. The mouseketeer Annette Funicello has it and tells
about living with it in her autobiography.
Find out MS it from the
Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, Inc.
MSA
Master of Science in Accountacy. Also...
MSA
Master of Science in Administration. A graduate business degree. This
expansion is more common than the preceding one. One possible interpretation
is that administration is more of a science than accountancy. I'm okay widdat.
MSA
Medical Savings Account. Sort of like a Christmas savings plan, but with
tax benefits. An Archer MSA is also known as Medicare Advantage MSA.
MSA
Methane Sulfonic Acid.
MSA
Metropolitan Statistical Area. Defined by the US Census Bureau after every
census (i.e., every ten years). For US commercial purposes, RMA and MSA are the two standard definitions of
urban regions. Read about it in this PDF file.
MSA
Microscopy
Society of America.
MSA
Midwest Surgical Association.
It's self-described as an organization ``of surgeons who have established
reputations as practitioners, authors, teachers, and/or original investigators.
The objective of this society is to exemplify and promote the highest standards
of surgical practice, especially among young surgeons in the Midwest. The
annual meeting is held in August each year in different locations throughout
the Midwest and consists of a stimulating scientific program of the highest
quality and a social program planned with children and families in mind.''
MSA
Minnesota Software Association. This
glossary is beginning to resemble page two of USA Today (the McPaper). An
affiliate (MSA is) of ITTA.
MSA
(UN) Mission
Subsistence Allowance.
MSAP
Management Service Access Point.
MSAU
MultiStation Access Unit. Also MAU.
MSB
Main Support Battalion.
MSB
Malawi Savings Bank. Founded in 1994, in the
process of privatizing since 2003 or before. The latest I read was than in
mid-2005, in Phase II of a three-phase project, the government owned 100% of the
bank.
MSB
MSB Ltd - Managing the Service Business.
MSB
Marshall School of
Business. Part of USC. Cf.
MSB.
MSB
Massive Sulphide Body. A geological formation; think lead ore and ores for
other metals.
MSB
Master of Science in Business. I imagine
that the MSBA and
MSA are totally unrelated. Don't forget the
MSB-IS.
MSB
Maxisegar Sdn Bhd.
MSB
McCombs School of
Business. Part of the University of Texas at
Austin. The school itself is known as McCombs; ``MSB'' seems to occur
primarily in compounds like ``MSB [email] account.''
Cf. MSB.
MSB
Robert Emmett McDonough School of
Business. Part of Georgetown
University.
Cf. MSB.
MSB
William G. McGowan School of
Business. Part of King's College in
Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Cf. MSB.
MSB
Meinders School of
Business. Part of the OCU.
Cf. MSB.
MSB
Robert G. Merrick School of
Business. Part of the University of Baltimore (UB). Cf. MSB.
MSB
Minnesota School of
Business.
Cf. MSB.
Teamed with Globe College as MSBGC.
MSB
Mona School of
Business. In Kingston, Jamaica.
Cf. MSB.
MSB
Monetary Stabilization Bond. MSB's of various descriptions, in terms up to
a couple of years, are issued by the Bank of Korea
in order to control inflation generated by a weak-won policy.
Christopher
Lingle's analysis (over my head) is at TCS.
Maintaining an artificially low exchange rate against major foreign currencies
is a common strategy of export-led economies. However, maintaining a weak
currency feeds domestic inflation by raising the prices of imported goods as
well as the local-currency value of export earnings. (``Raising'' them
relative to what they would be absent aggressive quasi-mercantilist government
interventions.) The monetary approach to this problem is to soak up the excess
liquidity with MSB's. (Another strategy is to keep a well-employed population
from spending its earnings is to promote domestic investment in government
savings bonds, as the US did to control inflation during
WWII.)
Some other countries in the region with growth strategies similar to Korea's
are currently (2005) using similar instruments: in
Malaysia the BNM issues
Bank Negara bills, and Bank Indonesia offers Sertifikat Bank Indonesia. From
time to time, other countries have issued such bonds, but South Korea is
apparently the only country that currently calls them by the generic name of
MSB's. (No, I don't know the Korean for that.) Since we're talking won
and inflation, you want to make sure you're familiar with the material at the
WIN entry.
MSB
Moore School of Business.
Founded in 1919. Part of the University of South
Carolina. Better write that out -- a USC on the other coast also has an
MSB.
MSB
Most Significant Bit.
MSB
Motorola Standard Building. Occurs in ``MSB communications site package.''
MSB
MSB Communications.
MSBA
Master of Science in Business Administration. Also called the MSB.
MSB Communications
A political consulting and telephone campaigning firm based in
Salem, Oregon. The MSB of the name appears to be constructed from the
final initials of co-owners Kristina McCall, Marilyn Shannon (former
state senator from Brooks), and Mike Basinger.
MSBGC, MSB/GC
Minnesota School of
Business and Globe College. Construed singular (e.g. ``Minnesota
School of Business and Globe College provides the job training and skills
necessary to be successful...'').
MSB-IS, MSBIS
Master of Science in Business and
Information Science. The University of Kansas offers
one.
MSBMA
Mid-Size Bus
Manufacturers Association. An NTEA group
formed in 1993 ``to improve professionalism, safety and product quality in the
mid-size bus industry. Mid-size buses are defined as passenger-carrying motor
coaches, built on a cutaway or rail chassis or on monocoque construction, under
40' in length and having a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) class of VII or less.''
MSBVW
MagnetoStatic Backward Volume Wave[s].
MSC, MSC/ATA
Management Systems
Council (of the American Trucking Associations
(ATA)).
MSC
Men who Sex Chicks. They work in the poultry industry. What were you
thinking? I was thinking the same thing, after adding
a new MSM entry below.
MSC
Mobile Switching Center.
MSC
Motorcycle Safety Center. Vide MSF
below.
M.S.D., MSD
Mediaeval Studies Doctorate. Also ``Doctorate in Mediaeval Studies.'' You
know how really cruel, gruesome torture is often
described as ``medieval''? That is
the sense in which the word is used in this expansion. If you are a sensitive
person, or if you think you are not a sensitive person but then again you
haven't visited hell yet, then you should pause here and consider just how
badly you want to know the significance of the M.S.D. They say that LSD can sometimes drive you crazy, but...
Very well, then, but don't say you weren't warned.
Usually, ``doctorate'' implies some sort of Ph.D..
That's not its sense in M.S.D. At PIMS, which
administers the M.S.D., a Ph.D. is just a prerequisite for candidacy to
a different degree, the LMS. In contrast, the MSD
isn't something you apply or ask for. Instead, according to this detailed confession, a
``Licentiate candidate who has shown unusual promise as a research scholar may
be invited to enter the MSD programme, which consists of at least two
full years of study and research beyond the Licence.'' [Emphasis added.]
As Bud Abbott would have put it, ``a p-p-, a p-p- -- a post-post-doctoral
doctorate!'' When they get the news, the disbelieving ``invitees'' fall to
their knees and scream ``NOOOOoooo!!!'' as tears of maniacal joy stream down
their contorted faces and they are dragged away.
Incidentally, rumors that the letters ess and em in MSD stand for sadism and
masochism are obviously untrue. Given the order in which they appear, they
would have to stand for masochism first, and then sadism.
MSD
Most Significant Digit. I'd have to go with the index or middle finger on
this one, on the right hand, anyway. For binary representation, MSD is MSB.
MSD
Modified Signed Digit (number encoding).
MSDF
Maritime Self-Defense Force. The Japanese Navy.
Cf. ASDF.
MSDN
MicroSoft Developer Network.
MS-DOS
MicroSoft DOS, ``MS-DOS,'' ``MS-DOG,''
``Maybe SomeDay an Operating System.'' Slightly
different from PC-DOS, which Microsoft developed
for and sold to IBM for its PC. The difference
enabled it to run on other machines based on Intel
chips (clones) without crashing due to intellectual-property problems. If
Kildall had thought of this, maybe ... (lament FOLDOC's
CP/M entry).
MSDS
Material Safety
Data Sheets.
NOAA serves a list of links to publicly accessible
MSDS information, including the above (whose URL's, if they change, will
more likely be up-to-date at NOAA than here). The whole thing is
mirrored in Japan. A short link list is at Michigan State U.
MSE
Master of Science in Engineering.
MSE
Materials Science and Engineering.
MSE
Mean Square[d] Error. This has nothing to do with the other things
designated by the same acronym. An accident of letters! Mere homonyms!
MSE
Mobile Subscriber Equipment.
MSE
Montréal Stock Exchange.
MSEL
Master Scenario Events List. Part of the civilian war-gaming for
emergencies.
MSF
Médecins Sans Frontières.
Increasingly referred to by the English `Doctors Without Borders' (DWB).
``Wine Stewards Without Borders'' is the caption of a New Yorker cartoon
(p. 75, issue of Feb. 18 & 25, 2002; cartoonist so famous his signature
need not be legible). Attired for an upscale fine dining experience, the
WSWB pours a drink for the reclining wino on a streetcorner.
MSF
Motorcycle Safety Foundation.
A US nonprofit founded in March 1973 and based in based in Irvine, CA, MSF is
sponsored by the US manufacturers and distributors of
BMW
Ducati,
Harley-Davidson,
Honda,
Kawasaki,
KTM,
Piaggio/Vespa,
Suzuki,
Triumph,
Victory,
and
Yamaha
motorcycles.
This entry used to be a lot more fun back in the old days. MSF didn't have its
own web site, so I just went weaving back and forth on the web -- surfing
without a helmet. Unofficial, unauthorized information providers were the wind
in my bandana, most of them long since
highsided into the /dev/null, alas.
Here are a few sedate, speed-limit-obeying survivors:
Minnesota's
Motorcycle Safety Center (MSC), Oregon's
Motorcycle Safety Program,
and a page of links from what used to be a
Motorcycle Rider Education Program.
MSFC
Marshall Space Flight Center.
MSFVW
MagnetoStatic Forward Volume Wave[s].
MSG
Madison Square Garden.
MSG
MeSsaGe.
MSG
MonoSodium Glutamate. It's typically made from chumetz, so it's not
kosher l'Pesach. If this does not compute, then it's very unlikely to
be as big of a headache for you as Chinese take-out.
MSG was first isolated by Japanese scientists, and Japan today has the world's
highest per capita consumption of MSG. MSG was introduced to China
around the beginning of the twentieth century, and China is today the world's
largest producer and consumer of MSG, producing 650,000 tons a year (as of
1999). Most of that goes to domestic human consumption, an
estimated 1.3 lb. per capita per annum. It's also used in medicines and in a
salty hard candy that is a popular export to West Africa. There are also
proposals to put it in livestock feed to fatten animals more quickly. The
Chinese name for MSG is wei jing, `flavor essence,' essentially
equivalent to the Japanese name umami.
MSG first became widely known in the US through its use in Chinese restaurants.
Chinese restaurant syndrome is the reaction of sensitive people to high doses
of MSG. A wide variety of side effects have been reported from MSG, including
fainting and headaches. (Hair loss is one feared in China.) Animal and human
studies suggest that sensitivity to or inadequate metabolization of MSG results
from vitamin B6 deficiency and can be reversed with B6 supplementation.
MSG is well known to be a major ingredient of flavor enhancers like
Accent®. However, it is often also present in hydrolyzed vegetable protein, textured vegetable protein, gelatin, yeast
extracts, calcium and sodium caseinate, vegetable broth, whey, smoke flavoring,
malt extracts, and several other food components. When MSG is only introduced
indirectly as a component of such ingredients, the ingredients list of a food
will not list MSG.
In 1987 the WHO placed MSG on its list of safest
ingredients, with items like salt and vinegar. In 1995 an FDA report concluded that ``MSG and related substances
are safe food ingredients for most people when eaten at the customary level.''
It also concluded, however, that large quantities can produce transient
symptoms, particularly in asthmatics.
In addition to its main flavor effect, MSG also tastes salty, since salt taste
is caused by sodium ions. However, MSG does not have a high degree of
ionization in water (or saliva), so the degree of saltiness per sodium ion is
low. This has led to problems with cooks who season with MSG by saltiness.
That is, using MSG as weak salt, they end up using too much MSG as MSG.
Msgr.
MonSiGnoR.
MSGT, M-SGT
Multi-pillar Surrounding-Gate Transistor (SGT).
MSI
Medium-Scale Integration. (Chips containing 10-100 transistors; early
sixties microelectronic technology.) (That's the nineteen sixties.)
MSI
Mega PSI. I suppose you could expand that as
Millions of pounds per Square Inch, but another more common abbreviation,
KSI, established a presumptive pattern of metric
prefixes. 1 MSI = 6.895 GPa.
MSI
Metal-Semiconductor Interface.
M'sian
MalaySIAN.
MSIC
Mixed-Signal Integrated Circuit.
MSIE
Microsoft Internet Explorer. A graphical
web browser. Back in 1996-7, about 50% of visitors to SBF used MSIE; most of the rest use Netscape Navigator. As of 2002, MSIE is at
well over 90%. Microsoft's practice of strong-arming software developers and
PC retailers into closing Netscape out of market share, and eventual
integration of the MS's IE browser with its
Windows Explorer (the file-manipulation application) were at the center
of the antitrust litigation against Microsoft from 1999 or so. Early on in
that story, Netscape (along with Time-Warner, and some other media
conglomerates comprising formerly independent companies) was swallowed up by
AOL.
MSIL
MicroSoft Intermediate Language. Usually called IL, when context is
adequate. In the Microsoft.NET Framework (usually ``.NET Framework'') or maybe
it's on the ``.NET Platform,'' programming languages are compiled into IL.
At run time, the .NET JIT
compiler compiles the IL to produce an executable application in memory.
MSKCC
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
MSL
Martha Stewart Living. A magazine. (Not this kind.) This MS character -- does she have
qualifications or anything?
MSL
Mean Sea Level. (Altitudes are quoted ``350 m MSL'' to indicate
altitude above the computed MSL. Cf.
``AGL.'')
M.S.L.
Mediaeval Studies Licence. Also LMS. A
license to study mediaevals, evidently. You can get an official one from PIMS.
(A ``licence'' is an even more general term than ``baccalaureate,'' and the
latter has been used to refer to a range of academic levels of accomplishment
(sometimes in the same school at the same time). In Latin America and Iberia,
the licenciatura is now some kind of undergraduate degree, although the
term has also been used for an honors secondary degree that was regarded as a
first undergraduate degree. At PIMS it's a post-doctoral program. Go
figure.)
MSL
Mirrored Server Link.
MSLP
Mixed Signal and Logic Product.
MSLT
Multiple Sleep Latency Test.
MSM
MainStream [news]Media. In principle, this term needn't be pejorative, but
in practice it and its initialism are. One reason might be that those
satisfied with the performance of the MSM think of them simply as ``the
media.''
MSM
Man Seeking Man. I think that ``men seeking men'' may be MSM's. Acronyms
can make a hash of any language's morphology. I don't think one needs an
acronym for ``men seeking man.'' It sounds a touch ominous, like a posse after
Clyde Barrow. Why would men seek men (otherwise)? If you have to ask, the
next entry may provide enlightenment.
MSM
Man who has Sex with Men. Or maybe the category Men who have Sex with Men.
The initialism is used in medicine, and in public health and social services.
Look, once you know the expansion, you can write the entry yourself. If you
(think the terms medicine and public health overlap too much,
just get out your crayon and edit.) MSM is a useful term because it makes no
reference to sexual preference. It thus includes men who are not regarded as
gay (like all those institutionalized men inteviewed by Kinsey) or who do not
regard themselves as gay or who resist self-identifying as ``gay'' or
``homosexual.'' There's a bit of movie dialogue relevant to this at the entry
for Wow, who's the mother? For
other thoughts, cf. see this WSW entry.
MSM
Metal-Semiconductor-Metal. May characterize metal electrode patterns such
as interdigitated fingers on semiconductor (often deposited by metal lift-off
process, q.v.).
MSM
Movimiento Sin Miedo. Spanish:
`Fearless Movement,' a Bolivian political party of
the left, founded in June 1999.
MSMPD
Metal-Semiconductor-Metal PhotoDetectors (PD's).
These are vertical structures -- i.e., not interdigitated like
some MSM's.
MS/MS
Tandem Mass Spectrometry.
MSN
Medicare Summary Notice.
MSN
MicroSoft Network.
MSN
Monitoring cell Sequence Number.
MSO
Maritime Security Operation[s].
MSO
Mees Solar
Observatory in Hawaii.
MSO
Multiple Service Operator.
MSP
Member of Scottish Parliament. Interesting word, ``member.''
Tory MSP Jamie McGrigor, twice-married and a father of five, was at a
parliamentary dinner in Edinburgh with some Pfizer executives when discussion
turned to the needs of isolated sheep farmers. One problem they face,
according to the Scottish Daily Record & Sunday Mail, is ``find[ing]
themselves snowed-in for weeks at a time in deepest winter.'' This apparently
suggested an opportunity to address another problem: the declining number of
Highlands shepherds. (According to the trashy but aptly named tabloid
The People, ``the population of the Highlands is set to fall below
200,000 by 2017.'') Pfizer manufactures Viagra, and McGrigor suggested that
the company might distribute it free to shepherds, to help raise the sagging
population. (That's how he should have phrased it, but his exact words were
not reliably reported.) McGrigor, 54, is a stockbroker as well as a ``hill
[i.e. sheep] farmer.'' He said later that ``[i]t was a bit of a joke
but it is not a bad idea. I am still waiting to hear from Pfizer.'' Pfizer
already distributes freebies like jackets to promote its animal husbandry
products, nudge-nudge, wink-wink, such as sheep dip. (Mmmm-mmm! Goes great
with blue pills!) A spokesman for Pfizer said later that they were ``actively
considering Jamie's proposition. Anything we can do to help valued customers
such as Scotland's sheep farmers is worth considering.''
This news was reported on June 27, 2004. The very next day, there was a load
of stories, including this one in The
Scotsman, about khat. Khat is an African plant which is chewed for its
hallucinogenic and stimulant effects. At the time, khat was illegal in the US
and Canada, and in most of the EU but not the UK, where it is popular in the
Somali community.
The active ingredient in khat is cathinone, which is broken down into various
phenylpropanolamines (PPA's). PPA's are a common
class of stimulants, sold OTC and by prescription in
various diet and asthma medications. As you can imagine, that's not why I
mention them here in the entry for Scottish Parliament members. The
news reported on June 28, 2004, was on findings reported that day in Berlin, at
the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and
Embryology. It turns out that certain PPA's from cathinone help sperm cells
through the final stage of maturation, when they develop the ability to
fertilize.
Indepthopaedia:
The research was reported by Professor Lynn Fraser (who gave the talk) and
Dr. Susan Adeoya-Osiguwa, of King's College London. Uh, yeah, there's more,
but I'm too squeamish to include it.
MSPB
Merit Systems Protection Board.
MSPS
Million Samples Per Second. A unit used in DSP
and data acquisition.
MSPS
Multicultural Student Programs & Services. There's one at the
University of Notre Dame, and it's based in the
Intercultural Center, with an office in the La Fortune Student Center.
That's right -- apparently concentric centers.
On Tuesday, at a McDonald's on I-80 in
Pennsylvania, I listened attentively as
the girl behind the counter mixed up orders and chatted with her coworkers. I made a big problem for her: my
order cost $4.47, I gave her a ten and, as she efficiently keyed in $10 on the
cash register, I gave her seven cents. Now she was in a bind since, to perform
the modified change calculation, she might have to do something complicated
like cancel the order. Thrown back on her own resources, she DID THE MATH IN
HER HEAD! This involved a carry operation, I believe. Then she asked her
scurrying coworkers at large if $5.60 was correct, explaining as she did the
charge and the cash tendered. I'm afraid that rather dulled the shine on her
immediately previous achievement. Later, as my food item was being assembled, she chatted on
about how she was going to take Geometry again, because she enjoyed it so much
the first time. I was relatively quiet.
MSR
Main Street Rag. ``Main Street
Rag Publishing Company has been publishing our print magazine: Main Street Rag,
uninterrupted since 1996. Among its features are poetry, short fiction,
photography and graphic images, essays, interviews, reviews, cartoons and
commentary.''
MSRC
Marine Sciences Research Center
at the SUNY-SB.
MSRP
Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price. In principle, any manufactured
product sold retail might have an MSRP, but in practice the term and the
initialism are most commonly used in the context of new private passenger
vehicle sales. This term probably originated as a compression of phrases on
the pattern of ``retail price ... suggested by the manufacturer'' that occur in
the Automobile Information Disclosure Act of 1958 (AIDA). That law required all new cars to bear
window stickers, removable only by the purchaser, stating various sorts of
information. (The sticker is called the Monroney sticker, after the author of
the AIDA. And here you thought that was Verdi.)
Inter alii, the sticker must list the MSRP of the base (``stripped'')
vehicle, of options included in the particular vehicle, the amount the
manufacturer charged the dealer for transportation from final point of
assembly, and total MSRP (``full sticker price''), is the sum of those.
Some or all of the dollar amounts are meaningless in principle, particularly
since certain combinations of options are rare or nonexistent. In practice, it
may be conceded that the sticker does provide some useful information to the
prospective buyer, including what options are included, and now the EPA mileage estimates (YMMV).
The total sticker price provides a point of reference. In particular, no one
pays the full sticker price except on high-demand/short-supply vehicles.
Once it became legally required, the MSRP was added to the palette of artists
(car salesmen and car salespersons) who create attractive images for
car-buyers. To inflate the price, they can add ``preparation charges,''
``advertising charges'' (I kid you not), extra transportation charges. Once
upon a time, dealers were often in the business of installing post-manufacture
options, and charges for these things could be inflated. The price inflation
serves two main purposes. One is for the dealer to quote you a low-ball price
exclusive of the extras, and then add them to bring the price up after getting
past ``yes.'' The other is to appear to offer a better deal by offering to
discount the inflated price or offering better financing or a bigger trade-in
allowance.
Car dealers have long had the reputation of being the sleaziest of all
retailers, and I don't know anyone who thinks that reputation is undeserved.
Maybe I'll ask around. Anyway, many people I know have delayed or avoided
buying a new car (or buying a used car from a lot rather than from an owner)
simply because dealing with dealers is a degrading and stressful experience.
In theory, this might create a niche for honest dealers, and perhaps they
exist, but the main market manifestations of the disgust have been
work-arounds: information services of various sorts and buying or bidding
services. If one knows more or less precisely what kind of car one wants, the
latter services make it possible to reach a final purchase price without having
to interact directly with a dealer.
Car information services take many forms. For particular used cars, there's
CARFAX Vehicle History
Reports. In general, Edmunds.com and
Kelley Blue Book are good places to start for
both used and new cars. There are many others, all doing something like what
the AIDA was originally intended to do. You know how to google, don't you?
For new cars, the main piece of information that has changed the dynamics of
car-buying is the dealer invoice price. Back around 1990, when this
information began to be widely available, new-car dealers protested the
unfairness of having their costs revealed, when other retailers (the kind that
aren't nearly so sleazy) can mark up with impunity. After all, they have fixed
costs! Eventually they adjusted. I don't know to what extent it was part of
the adjustment, and to what extent it was a pre-existing arrangement, but one
thing that makes the invoice price less informative than it seems is the
``holdback.'' Typically on cars sold in the US there is a 3% holdback that the
manufacturer pays the dealer once the vehicle is sold. (About 3% of the MSRP,
or a slightly larger percentage of dealer invoice.) This is why it is easy for
dealers to advertise ``BELOW INVOICE! BELOW DEALER INVOICE!!'' (That's before
various other charges, of course, to say nothing of government-imposed costs --
DMV registration, sales tax, and especially
whatever.)
In addition to the holdback, from time to time manufacturers may offer ``dealer
incentives'' of, say, a few hundred dollars per vehicle. Sometimes
manufacturers offer incentives directly to purchasers.
mss., MSS
Manuscripts.
MSS
Mobile Satellite Service.
MS San E
Master of Science in SANitary Engineering.
MSSM
Minimal Supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model.
MSRR
Modeling and Simulation Resource Repository.
Something about it here, I suppose. See also Modeling and Simulation
(M & S) entry.
MST
Mathematics, Science, and Technology.
MST
MicroSystem[s] Technology.
MST
Mountain Standard Time. GMT - 7 hrs.
You can get a reading of the time by telnetting to
``india.colorado.edu 13'' (You must specify port 13).
MST
Multi-Stage Tapped (ring oscillator).
MSTE
Multi-Source Thermal Evaporation.
MStud
Master of Studies. Oxford usage.
MST3K
Mystery Science Theater 3000. (Site
crashes Netscape. Visit this FAQ or the IMDB entry instead.)
MSU
Michigan State University.
MSU
Mississippi State University. Located in Starkville, in
Oktibbeha County
of Mississippi and has its own place on the
net.
MSU
Moscow State University. Not in Idaho.
Nor in Alabama,
Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky,
Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas,
Vermont, Virginia,
West Virginia, or Wisconsin.
MSUCOM
Michigan State University College of
Osteopathic Medicine.
MSUM
Minnesota State University Moorhead.
MSVC
Meta-Signaling Virtual Channel.
MSVU
Mount Saint Vincent University. Founded
as Mount St. Vincent Academy by the Sisters of Charity in 1872, it has
undergone a sequence of minor name changes, the last one in 1966. In 1967
the school admitted male students for the first time, but as of 2004, the
ratio of female to male students was still about 4:1. The school is commonly
referred to as ``The Mount.'' See cheating.
MSW
MagnetoStatic Wave[s] (microwave devices).
MSW
Master (s degree in) Social Work.
MSWIP
Midwest Division of
the Society for Women In Philosophy.
MSY
Maximum Sustainable Yield.
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