Dilation (or dilatation) may refer to:
Physiology or medicine
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Cervical dilation Cervical dilation (or cervical dilatation) is the opening of the cervix, the entrance to the uterus, during childbirth, miscarriage, induced abortion, or gynecological surgery. Cervical dilation may occur naturally, or may be induced surgically o ...
, the widening of the cervix in childbirth, miscarriage etc.
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Coronary dilation Coronary reflex is the change of coronary diameter in response to chemical, neurological or mechanical stimulation of the coronary arteries.
The coronary reflexes are stimulated differently from the rest of the vascular system.
Causes of coronary ...
, or coronary reflex
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Dilation and curettage
Dilation (or dilatation) and curettage (D&C) refers to the dilation (widening/opening) of the cervix and surgical removal of part of the lining of the uterus and/or contents of the uterus by scraping and scooping (curettage). It is a gynecolog ...
, the opening of the cervix and surgical removal of the contents of the uterus
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Dilation and evacuation
Dilation and evacuation (D&E) is the dilation of the cervix and surgical evacuation of the uterus (potentially including the fetus, placenta and other tissue) after the first trimester of pregnancy. It is a method of abortion as well as a common ...
, the dilation of the cervix and evacuation of the contents of the uterus
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Esophageal dilatation
Esophageal dilatation is a therapeutic endoscopic procedure that enlarges the lumen of the esophagus.
Indications
It can be used to treat a number of medical conditions that result in narrowing of the esophageal lumen, or decrease motility in t ...
, a procedure for widening a narrowed esophagus
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Pupillary dilation
Pupillary response is a physiological response that varies the size of the pupil, via the optic and oculomotor cranial nerve.
A constriction response ( miosis), is the narrowing of the pupil, which may be caused by scleral buckles or drugs such ...
(also called mydriasis), the widening of the pupil of the eye
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Vasodilation
Vasodilation is the widening of blood vessels. It results from relaxation of smooth muscle cells within the vessel walls, in particular in the large veins, large arteries, and smaller arterioles. The process is the opposite of vasoconstrictio ...
, the widening of luminal diameter in blood vessels
Mathematics
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Dilation (affine geometry), an affine transformation
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Dilation (metric space) In mathematics, a dilation is a function f from a metric space M into itself that satisfies the identity
:d(f(x),f(y))=rd(x,y)
for all points x, y \in M, where d(x, y) is the distance from x to y and r is some positive real number.
In Euclidean spa ...
, a function from a metric space into itself
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Dilation (operator theory) In operator theory, a dilation of an operator ''T'' on a Hilbert space ''H'' is an operator on a larger Hilbert space ''K'', whose restriction to ''H'' composed with the orthogonal projection onto ''H'' is ''T''.
More formally, let ''T'' be a boun ...
, a dilation of an operator on a Hilbert space
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Dilation (morphology) Dilation (usually represented by ⊕) is one of the basic operations in mathematical morphology. Originally developed for binary images, it has been expanded first to grayscale images, and then to complete lattices. The dilation operation usually ...
, an operation in mathematical morphology
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Scaling (geometry)
In affine geometry, uniform scaling (or isotropic scaling) is a linear transformation that enlarges (increases) or shrinks (diminishes) objects by a '' scale factor'' that is the same in all directions. The result of uniform scaling is simil ...
, including:
** Homogeneous dilation (
homothety
In mathematics, a homothety (or homothecy, or homogeneous dilation) is a transformation of an affine space determined by a point ''S'' called its ''center'' and a nonzero number ''k'' called its ''ratio'', which sends point X to a point X' by th ...
), the scalar multiplication operator on a vector space or affine space
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Inhomogeneous dilation, where scale factors may differ in different directions
Chemistry and physics
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Thermal expansion
Thermal expansion is the tendency of matter to change its shape, area, volume, and density in response to a change in temperature, usually not including phase transitions.
Temperature is a monotonic function of the average molecular kinetic ...
of crystalline triglycerides is referred to as dilation
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Scale invariance
In physics, mathematics and statistics, scale invariance is a feature of objects or laws that do not change if scales of length, energy, or other variables, are multiplied by a common factor, and thus represent a universality.
The technical term ...
, a feature of objects or laws that do not change if length scales (or energy scales) are multiplied by a common factor
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Time dilation
In physics and relativity, time dilation is the difference in the elapsed time as measured by two clocks. It is either due to a relative velocity between them ( special relativistic "kinetic" time dilation) or to a difference in gravitational ...
, the observation that another's clock is ticking at a slower rate as measured by one's own clock
Music
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''Dilate'' (Bardo Pond album)
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''Dilate'' (Ani DiFranco album)
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Dilate (musical project)
Dilate was an ambient solo project begun in 1996 by composer and synthesizer player Victor Wulf, formerly of the sound collage and industrial music band Vampire Rodents. Wulf released the studio album's '' Cyclos'' and ''Octagon'' for Hypnoti ...
, ambient solo project of Vampire Rodents keyboardist Victor Wulf
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''Dilation'' (album), 2011 album by comedian Rory Scovel
See also
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Dilution (disambiguation)
{{disambiguation