(lo )
1. A scientific statement that is found to apply to a class of natural occurrences.
2. A body of rules, regulations, and legal opinions of conduct and action that are made by controlling authority and are legally binding.
The body of law in the form of decisions, rules, regulations, and orders created by administrative agencies under the direction of the executive branch of the government used to carry out the duties of such agencies. Regulations of nursing practice are considered administrative laws.
The weakest stimulus capable of producing a response produces the maximum contraction of cardiac and skeletal muscle cells, and the maximal impulse transmission rate in neurons.
A colloquial term for any legal statute that encourages health care providers to acknowledge and disclose medical errors openly. Although apology laws vary from one jurisdiction to another, most include some measure of legal protection for the individual or agency making the apology.
SEE: Avogadro, Amedeo
SEE: Beer law
SEE: Bell, Sir Charles
A fundamental law of radiation biology that states that the radiosensitivity of a tissue is increased the greater the number of undifferentiated cells in the tissue, the greater the mitotic activity, and the greater the length of time that they are actively proliferating.
The discredited theory in embryology that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, i.e., an individual in its development recapitulates stages in its evolutionary development.
SYN: SEE: Haeckel law
SEE: Boyle law
Opinions or decisions made by the courts.
SEE: Charles law
A system of law that originated in medieval England and is based on former legal decisions (precedent) and custom, not on legislation. Common law constantly evolves from previous decisions and changing custom. It forms the basis of the legal system in the U.S. (except Louisiana), the U.K. and most other English-speaking countries and is therefore the most frequent source of legal precedent for malpractice cases.
1. A mathematical law that describes the relationship between the sides and angles of any triangle.
2. In radiological treatment, the effectiveness of radiant energy and the angle at which it strikes tissue. The maximum amount of energy transfer occurs when the energy strikes tissue at a 90° angle. As the angle changes, the effectiveness of the energy is reduced by the multiple of the cosine of the angle: Effective energy = applied energy × cosine of the angle.
1. A law stating that if two ideas occur together, then the recollection of one will likely stimulate recall of the other.
2. A law stating that if combined stimuli precede contraction of a muscle, then, when those stimuli are repeated, the muscle will contract again.
The area of the law relating to violations of statutes that pertain to public offenses or acts committed against the public. For example, a health care provider can be prosecuted for criminal acts such as assault and battery, fraud, and abuse.
SEE: Dalton law
Two or more elements when united to form a new substance do so in a constant and fixed proportion by weight.
SEE: Dalton's law
The psychological principle that positively reinforced behaviors will be repeated and negatively reinforced behaviors will diminish or be extinguished.
SEE: Fechner law
SEE: Fick, Adolf Eugen
SEE: Starling law.
A statute that regulates the appropriateness of health care provider behavior in billing practices, receipt of payments, and provision of medically necessary services.
Charles law.
The legal protection given to those who stop and render care in an emergency situation.
SEE: Graham law
SEE: Biogenetic law.
Other things being equal, the stroke volume of the heart varies as the extent of diastolic filling, that is, the energy of contraction is a function of the initial length of the muscle fibers.
SEE: Hellin law
SEE: Henry law
SEE: Hilton, John
SEE: Hooke law
Moderate distention of the intestine at a point causes relaxation distally (below the point) and contraction above it.
The intensity of radiation or light at any distance is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the irradiated surface and a point source. Thus, a light with a certain intensity at a 4-ft distance will have only one-fourth that intensity at 8 ft and would be four times as intense at a 2-ft distance.
SEE: law of Laplace
SEE: Bell, Sir Charles
SEE: Marey law
Boyle law.
In any chemical reaction, the ratio of the mathematical products of the concentrations of the products (raised to the power of the chemical coefficients in the balanced equation) to the mathematical products of the concentrations of the reactants (similarly raised) is constant at a given temperature.
SEE: Mendel laws
When two substances unite to form a series of chemical compounds, the proportions in which they unite are simple multiples of one another or of one common proportion.
SEE: Dalton law
SEE: Nysten law
SEE: Ohm law
The physical and chemical properties of chemical elements are periodic functions of their atomic number. A natural classification of elements is made according to their atomic number. When arranged in order (through calcium, atomic number 20), elements show regular variations in most of their physical and chemical properties.
SEE: Poiseuille law
As temperature (in degrees Kelvin) decreases, chemical activity decreases.
In chemistry, the proportions in which two elementary bodies unite with a third one are simple multiples or simple fractions of the proportions in which these two bodies unite with each other.
Any milliamperage multiplied by an exposure time setting that gives the same milliamperage-second outcome should give the same relative density to an image. However, this law is dramatically affected by the image receptor response curve, esp. when it is not a 45° linear curve. In radiographic intensifying film and screen technologies, the reciprocity law does not hold at long exposure times because of the reversal of the D log E response curve.
A law that dictates that employers must inform their employees of the health effects and chemical hazards of the toxic substances used in each workplace. The employer must provide information concerning the generic and chemical names of the substances used; the level at which the exposure is hazardous; the effects of exposure at hazardous levels; the symptoms of such effects; the potential for flammability, explosion, and reactivity of the substances; the appropriate emergency treatment; proper conditions for safe use and exposure to the substances; and procedures for cleanup of leaks and spills. The law provides that an employee may refuse to work with a toxic substance until he or she has received information concerning its potential for hazard.
SEE: hazardous material; SEE: health hazard; SEE: material safety data sheet; SEE: permissible exposure limits
SEE: Rubner laws
SEE: Starling law
SEE: Stoke law
SEE: Sutton law
SEE: van 't Hoff law
SEE: Weber law
SEE: Weigert, Carl
SEE: Wolff law