UPSC SSC Q&A Analysis

2015-12-18 20:21:34   In 20th-century America, advances occurred in all aspects of dentistry. Frederick McKay, a young American dentist practicing in Colorado, observed a condition of mottling of his patients' teeth, in which there was an almost total absence of decay. Following years of research, McKay and others were able to show that this was due to the presence in the drinking water of high amounts of naturally occurring fluoride, which protects teeth against decay. As a result, public health officials established measures to add fluoride to public water supplies in communities around the United States. Since fluoridation was initiated in 1945, dental caries in children have decreased by more than 50 percent. Open / Comment

2015-12-18 20:13:00 Open / Comment

2015-12-18 20:12:55 CSE 2011 Open / Comment

2015-12-18 19:49:00 Certiorari

 : a writ issuing out of a superior court to call up the records of an inferior court or a body acting in a quasi-judicial capacity (as commissioners and assessors of taxes) in order that the party may have more sure and speedy justice or that errors and irregularities may be corrected Open / Comment

2015-12-18 19:47:33 certiorari

\ˌsərsh(ē)əˈrerē, -ˈrerˌī, -ˈrärē\ noun
(-s)
 Etymology: Middle English, from Latin, to be informed, be shown, passive infin. of certiorare to inform, from certior more certain, compar. of certuscertain; from the use of the word certiorari in the Latin form of the writ Open / Comment

2015-12-18 19:35:01 de·fo·liant 7 [defoliant defoliants] BrE [ˌdiːˈfəʊliənt]  NAmE [ˌdiːˈfoʊliənt]  noun countable,uncountable

a chemical that removes the leaves from plants, sometimes used as a weapon in war Open / Comment

2015-12-18 19:34:20 CSE 2011

Agent Orange [Agent Orange] BrE  NAmE noun [U]

a poisonous chemical used by US soldiers during the Vietnam War to remove the leaves from forests so that they could see the enemy. It caused birth ↑defects in many Vietnamese children, and after the war about 60 000 former US soldiers complained of illnesses. Open / Comment

2015-12-12 07:30:54 photovoltaic effect

 

physics

      process in which two dissimilar materials in close contact produce an electrical voltage when struck by light or other radiant energy. Light striking crystals such as silicon or germanium, in which electrons are usually not free to move from atom to atom within the crystal, provides the energy needed to free some electrons from their bound condition. Free electrons cross the junction between two dissimilar crystals more easily in one direction than in the other, giving one side of the junction a negative charge and, therefore, a negative voltage with respect to the other side, just as one electrode of a battery has a negative voltage with respect to the other. The photovoltaic effect can continue to provide voltage and current as long as light continues to fall on the two materials. This current can be used to measure the brightness of the incident light or as a source of power in an electrical circuit, as in a solar power system (see solar cell). Open / Comment

2015-12-10 16:47:51 BIOS


(Basic Input Output System) A set of routines residing in firmware that boots the operating system and sets up the hardware in an x86-based PC. Prior to loading the operating system, the BIOS provides software drivers for the basic peripheral support that is part of the motherboard, including the keyboard, mouse, monitor and hard disk. The drivers enable the user to edit configuration settings and allow the hardware to boot from the hard disk or other storage device.

After the operating system is loaded, more elaborate drivers are typically loaded, which replace the BIOS routines. The BIOS also supports internal services such as the real-time clock (time and date). Open / Comment

2015-12-09 22:09:04 Preloading data into a reserved area of memory (the buffer). In streaming audio or video from the Internet, buffering refers to downloading a certain amount of data before starting to play the music or movie. Having an advance supply of audio samples or video frames in memory at all times prevents disruption if there are momentary delays in transmission while the material is being played. Open / Comment