Word: functional
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...This committee was the direct ancestor of the MCAD," writes Leon H. Mayhew in his 1968 study of the commission. "Its function was to carry out investigations and to sponsor and assist educational programs designed to combat discrimination...
Commuters who drive to work often show up too tired or too irritated to function effectively. Chronic exposure to traffic congestion, according to a study by Psychologist Raymond Novaco at the University of California at Irvine, tends to give drivers "an increase in baseline blood pressure, lowering of frustration tolerance, increase in negative mood and aggressive driving habits." The outbreak of freeway violence in California last year, when more than 100 freeway shootings and rock-throwing incidents took place, was not an aberration. On one Sunday last month, five separate highway shootings occurred in Oregon and Colorado...
...parakeet than for her patient. And Allan's best friend (John Pankow) is a mad scientist of the cybernetic age, Cuisinarting the genes of capuchin monkeys. One of these -- she's called Ella -- is placed in the care of the comely Melanie (Kate McNeil), who trains simians to function as the hands of the disabled. As Allan's new housekeeper, Ella is a dream. She fetches; she spoon-feeds him; she even does windows. The clever little monkey has a mind of her own. Whoops! She wants to give it to Allan...
...organ. Most important, unlike any conventional computer, the brain can learn from its mistakes. Researchers have tried for years to program computers to mimic the brain's abilities, but without success. Now a growing number of designers believe they have the answer: if a computer is to function more like a person and less like an overgrown calculator, it must be built more like a brain, which distributes information across a vast interconnected web of nerve cells, or neurons...
Conventional computers function by following a chainlike sequence of detailed instructions. Although very fast, their processors can perform only one task at a time. This lockstep approach works best in solving problems that can be broken down into simpler logical pieces. The processors in a neural- network computer, by contrast, form a grid, much like the nerve cells in the brain. Since these artificial neurons are interconnected, they can share information and perform tasks simultaneously. This two-dimensional approach works best at recognizing patterns...