| 释义 |
operational, a.|ɒpəˈreɪʃənəl|
[f. operation + -al.]
1. a. Of or pertaining to operation or operations; spec. engaged in or connected with active military operations as distinct from being under training, in reserve, etc.
1922Edin. Rev. Oct. 212 The development of..air communications..ensuring the maintenance of a large and flourishing constructional and operational aircraft industry. 1928C. F. S. Gamble Story N. Sea Air Station x. 146 They were placed in various groups for disciplinary and operational purposes. 1940War Illustr. 5 Jan. 568/2 Each balloon can be raised to its operational ceiling in a very few minutes. 1941Economist 19 Apr. 521/2 The new status is not intended merely to prevent wastage. There are operational reasons. The range of women's duties in the Army and the Air Force is extending. 1943B. J. Hurren Eastern Med. xii. 129 The air forces moved up their advanced aerodromes (technically known as Operational Landing Grounds). 1962A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 246 The soundproof room equipped with control desk, gramophone and tape reproducers and high quality loudspeaker, which is occupied by production and operational staff. a1963J. Lusby in B. James Austral. Short Stories (1963) 222 They were young, quiet, and looked tired. Operational men, instructing for a ‘rest’. 1963C. W. Bary (title) Operational economics of electric utilities. 1964Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. CXV. 683 The problems of achieving adequate operational flexibility..underline the need for more appropriate computer systems. 1974M. Babson Stalking Lamb ii. xvii. 127 He intended to make the mews house his operational headquarters... It would be safe, quiet, unsuspected. 1977R.A.F. News 11–24 May 3/4 The real test lies in our operational efficiency.
b. operational research: a method of mathematically based investigation for providing a quantitative basis for management decisions (orig. for military planning); abbrev. O.R., OR (O 5 d); so operational researcher.
1941P. M. S. Blackett in Advancement of Sci. (1948) V. 27/1 The work of an Operational Research Section should be carried out at Command, Groups, Stations or Squadrons as circumstances dictate. Ibid. 29/1 One of the tasks of an Operational Research Section is to make possible..a numerical estimate of the merits of a change over from one device to another. 1945World Rev. June 49 The Operational Research Section..is a new element in the organisation of the Royal Air Force which has been evolved during the war. 1948Nature 13 Mar. 377/1 In war, operational research was applied to the use of weapons, to tactics, and to strategy. In the peace-time applications of operational research, studies are directed, for example, to the use of equipment and man-power, to operating procedures, and to the solution of those many problems faced by management..or by Government authorities. 1948Advancement of Sci. IV. 320/1 The operational researcher was visualised as requiring dual ranges of knowledge; on the one hand a wide and fairly detailed knowledge of technical possibilities..; on the other..a close personal knowledge of the working conditions. 1953Economist 15 Aug. 465/1 This technique is called ‘operational research’; and under it, teams that may include engineers, mathematicians, statisticians, economists and sociologists combine together. 1959Birmingham Mail 11 Mar. 1/5 London Transport has set up an operational research team to investigate the desirability of increasing the non-smoking accommodation in Tube coaches. 1964M. Argyle Psychol. & Social Probl. xvi. 194 The kind of research done by social scientists working for organizations can be divided into trend analysis, operational research and experiments. 1967R. Whitehead in Wills & Yearsley Handbk. Managem. Technol. 70 The operational researcher seeks to control the situation by making a model of the outside factors from which he can to some extent predict and form a plan of production. 1967E. Duckworth in Ibid. 99 The purpose of operational research is..to assist a manager to take decisions and to help him to take fewer decisions. 1971D. C. Hague Managerial Econ. (rev. ed.) 6 Managerial economics is a background subject which both the line manager and the operational researcher must understand if they are to be successful.
c. In a condition of readiness to perform some intended (esp. military) function.
1944H. St. G. Saunders Per Ardua xvii. 270 Only the Martinsyde F.4, not then operational, was superior to them. 1948‘N. Shute’ No Highway i. 19 ‘Could you..find out how many hours flying these machines have done?’..‘They can't have done much. They've only been operational for about a month.’ 1963R. M. Hare Freedom & Reason iii. 46 We are to make morality again (as the military writers say) ‘operational’. 1965New Statesman 14 May 758/1 The new Russian weapon is clearly operational. 1974Nature 22 Nov. 279/2 The Cambridge group operates the majority of operational catenary instruments.
d. Of, or pertaining to, mental operations (see operation 4 b).
1953Mays & Whitehead tr. Piaget's Logic & Psychol. p. xviii, The structures which emerge in the analysis of the operational mechanisms of thought. 1963J. H. Flavell Developmental Psychol. J. Piaget v. 168 The operational systems of middle childhood have certain definable properties. 1975M. D. Smith Educ. Psychol. ii. 40 When a learner becomes able to deal with things that are not actually present..and to relate images and memories to predict and control the future, then he is in the formal operational stage of thought.
2. a. Math. Of, involving, or employing operators.
1927H. Jeffreys (title) Operational methods in mathematical physics. 1937E. Stephens (title) The elementary theory of operational mathematics. 1957L. Fox Numerical Solution Two-Point Boundary Probl. ii. 8 We easily produce the operational equivalents E = ehD, E - 1 = Δ... With few restrictions these operators can be manipulated according to the rules of ordinary algebra. 1973L. E. Edwards PL/1 for Business Applications ii. 55 An expression may consist of a single variable or a single constant or a combination of these using operators, and is then referred to as an operational expression.
b. Electronics. operational amplifier: an amplifier with a very high open-loop gain and a very low output impedance that is used (usu. with negative feedback) as the basis of a circuit for performing a particular mathematical operation on an input voltage with high accuracy, the relation of output to input being effectively determined solely by the arrangement and magnitude of the other, passive, circuit elements.
1947J. R. Ragazzini et al. in Proc. IRE XXXV. 444/2 As an amplifier so connected can perform the mathematical operations of arithmetic and calculus on the voltages applied to its input, it is hereafter termed an ‘operational amplifier’. 1962Simpson & Richards Physical Princ. Junction Transistors xiii. 309 The operational amplifier is also valuable as a linear adder. Because the input and output resistances are very low, the base voltage may be made accurately proportional to the sum of a number of separate input voltages each ‘weighted’ by its own summing resistor. 1963B. Fozard Instrumentation Nucl. Reactors xii. 152 The basic unit of an electronic analogue computer is the operational amplifier. 1972Vassos & Ewing Analog & Digital Electronics v. 139 Deviations from ideality in operational amplifiers are very often negligible. For this reason the input–output relation is independent of the characteristics of the particular amplifier. This property brings about a unique simplicity of design, which is the key to the extensive use of operational amplifiers in instrumentation and control systems.
3. Of, pertaining to, or in accordance with operationalism.
1927P. W. Bridgman Logic Mod. Physics i. 8 Einstein, in thus analyzing what is involved in making a judgment of simultaneity..is actually adopting a new point of view as to what the concepts of physics should be, namely, the operational view. 1935Psychol. Rev. XLII. 517 Operational doctrine makes explicit recognition of the fact that a concept, or proposition, has empirical meaning only if it stands for definite, concrete operations capable of execution by normal human beings. 1937Harper's Mag. Dec. 51/1 Some deductions may still be sound, but all are suspect pending operational check in modern America. 1941A. Huxley Grey Eminence iii. 48 That ‘operational philosophy’ which contemporary scientific thinkers have begun to apply in the natural sciences. 1952G. Sarton Hist. Sci. I. xvi. 404 It [sc. the Platonic method] is sterile because it is unworkable, or, to use our modern terminology, it is not ‘operational’. 1955A. Huxley Genius & Goddess 21 ‘Wouldn't he have lived to eighty-seven without the pills?’..‘We can never know how his self-medication was related to his longevity. And where there's no possible operational answer, there's no conceivable sense in the question.’ 1971Brit. Med. Bull. XXVII. 37/2 The operational definition of hypertension in the population should be flexible. |