Word: constrictiveness
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...about to be consigned to a watery grave. Later this month, Chinese Premier Li Peng will preside over the symbolic first pouring of concrete in what is intended to be the world's largest hydroelectric dam. Already, mammoth earthworks on both banks of the construction site have begun to constrict the flow of the river where it gushes forth from the Xiling Gorge. Over the next 14 years, if all goes as planned, first an earthen coffer dam and then a 200-yd.-high concrete spillway and adjacent set of ship-lifting locks will block the swirling channel, transforming...
...asthma patients, the muscles surrounding the bronchial passages constrict, blocking the passage of air and making breathing difficult. Senior Environmental Protection Agency scientist Joel D. Schwarz, who collaborated with Weiss on the study, explained that the caffeine, a bronchodilator, is effective against such constriction because it relaxes these muscles...
...back her theory, Profet relies on electron-microscopy studies that show bacteria attached to the heads and tails of wriggling sperm. She also cites the existence of spiral-shaped arteries in the uterus. These specialized blood vessels constrict and dilate in a sequence timed to induce menstruation. And, she claims, the blood that washes over the uterine walls differs from blood that circulates throughout the rest of the body. Menstrual blood lacks ingredients that cause clotting and is rich in special immune cells called macrophages. Even so, says Debrovner, "there is no reason to believe that blood, no matter what...
Once asthma begins, it establishes a powerful feedback loop that may not even need an allergen to trigger an attack. General irritants such as cigarette smoke and urban smog can cause the already inflamed airways to constrict. "It is my opinion that parents or caregivers who smoke in the presence of a child are guilty of child abuse," says Dr. Allan Luskin of the Rush Medical Center in Illinois. "Smoke not only increases the risk of a child getting asthma in the first place, it makes asthma worse when it is there...
...that's somewhat conservative attire for Lauderdale. He says he likes wearing dresses because they are more comfortable than tuxedos, which "confine and constrict movement." Women's accessories are not always as liberating, Lauderdale says. "Heels kill...