Attenuation
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Attenuation is the decrease of the amount, force, magnitude, or value of something. For example,
- In biology, attenuation is a mechanism in the regulation of gene expression
- In ecology and geochemistry, attenuation is the ability to withhold contaminants in soil and groundwater by various mechanisms like adsorption, dilution, dispersion or biological degradation (biodegradation, bioremediation), causing a decrease in concentration and toxicity compared to the total amount of the contaminant. In environmental engineering and remediation this is often called natural attenuation[1].
- In wine and beer making, attenuation is the measure of thoroughness of fermentation. It is typically given as a percentage number describing how much available sugar has been converted to alcohol during the fermentation process.
- In physical oceanography, light attenuation is the decrease in light intensity with depth in the water column due to absorption (by water molecules) and scattering (by suspended particulates).
- In telecommunication, attenuation is the decrease in intensity of a signal, beam, or wave as a result of absorption of energy and of scattering out of the path to the detector, but not including the reduction due to geometric spreading.
- In statistics, attenuation is another term for regression dilution. See also disattenuation of correlation coefficients.
- In computer industry buzzwords, the word attenuation is not clearly defined but gaining popularity.
- In electronics and audio, attenuation is the decrease in amplitude of an electrical signal. Attenuation is the opposite of amplification. For example a volume control on an audio system may be referred to as an attenuator.
- In Kant's philosophy, though the word attenuation is not mentioned directly, it occurs as attention 27 times, and is one of the most important words in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, his Critical Tables[2]