complement

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complement

Complements are words or groups of words that are necessary to complete the meaning of another part of the sentence. Complements act like modifiers to add additional meaning to the word or words they are attached to. However, unlike adjunct modifiers, they do not add supplemental information—they provide information that is necessary to achieve the intended meaning in the sentence.
Complements, even those that complete the meaning of the subject, are always part of the predicate.
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complement

1. the officers and crew needed to man a ship
2. Maths the angle that when added to a specified angle produces a right angle
3. Logic Maths the class of all things, or of all members of a given universe of discourse, that are not members of a given set
4. Music the inverted form of an interval that, when added to the interval, completes the octave
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Complement

A group of proteins in the blood and body fluids that play an important role in humoral immunity and the generation of inflammation. When activated by antigen-antibody complexes, or by other agents such as proteolytic enzymes (for example, plasmin), complement kills bacteria and other microorganisms. In addition, complement activation results in the release of peptides that enhance vascular permeability, release histamine, and attract white blood cells (chemotaxis). The binding of complement to target cells also enhances their phagocytosis by white blood cells. The most important step in complement system function is the activation of the third component of complement (C3), which is the most abundant of these proteins in the blood.

Genetic deficiencies of certain complement subcomponents have been found in humans, rabbits, guinea pigs, and mice. Certain deficiencies lead to immune-complex diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus; other deficiencies result in increased susceptibility to bacterial infections, particularly those of the genus Neisseria (for example, gonorrhea and meningococcal meningitis), and hereditary angioneurotic edema. See Complement-fixation test, Immunity

McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Bioscience. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

complement

[′käm·plə·mənt]
(immunology)
A heat-sensitive, complex system in fresh human and other sera which, in combination with antibodies, is important in the host defense mechanism against invading microorganisms.
(mathematics)
The complement of a number A is another number B such that the sum A + B will produce a specified result.
For a subset of a set, the collection of all members of the set which are not in the given subset.
For a fuzzy set A with membership function mA, the complement of A is the fuzzy set Ā whose membership function m Ā has the value 1 -mA (x) for every element x.
The complement of a simple graph, G, is the graph, G with the same vertices as G, in which there is an edge between two vertices if and only if there is no edge between those vertices in G.
The complement of an angle A is another angle B such that the sum A + B equals 90°.
radix complement
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

complement

(logic)
The other value or values in the set of possible values.

See logical complement, bitwise complement, set complement.
This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Complement

 

a protein complex found in fresh blood serum; an important factor in natural immunity in animals and man. The term was introduced in 1899 by the German scientists P. Ehrlich and J. Morgenroth.

Complement consists of nine components, designated C’1 to C’9. The first component includes three subunits. All 11 proteins in complement may be isolated by immunochemical and physicochemical methods. Complement decomposes readily when serum is heated, stored for a long time, or exposed to light.

Complement participates in a number of immunological reactions. Attaching itself to an antigen-antibody complex on the surface of the cell membrane, it produces the lysis of bacteria, erythrocytes, and other cells that have been treated with the appropriate antibodies. All nine components of complement are required for the destruction of the membrane and the subsequent lysis of the cell. Some components of complement have enzymic activity; a component that attaches itself to the antigen-antibody complex catalyzes the attachment of the next component. In the body, complement also participates in antigen-antibody reactions that do not lead to cell lysis. The body’s resistance to pathogenic microbes, the release of histamine in allergic reactions of the immediate type, and autoimmune processes are all connected with the action of complement. In medicine, preserved preparations of complement are used in the serological diagnosis of a number of infectious diseases and in the detection of antigens and antibodies.

REFERENCES

Reznikova, L. S. Komplement i ego znachenievimmunologicheskikhreaktsiiakh. Moscow, 1967.
Complement. Edited by G. E. W. Wolstenholme and J. Knight. London, 1965.
Müller-Eberhard, H. J. “Chemistry and Reaction Mechanisms of Complement.” Advances in Immunology,1968, vol. 8.

O. V. ROKHLIN

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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