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Pallet: | A low, portable platform, usually of wood or metal, on which a heavy or bulky object is placed for storage, transport, or shipment (Nauert 1979).
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| Password: | Secret code word used for access. Used in computer and telephone systems, computer programs.
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| PCS Permit: | Any document designated as a "permit," 'license," "certificate," or any other document issued by the management authority or responsible agency or office to authorize, limit, or describe activity and signed by an authorized official.
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| pH: | An expression indicating the hydrogen-ion concentration of a solution; the negative logarithm of the hydrogen-ion concentration.
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| Pick (pick point): | The point above the center of gravity at which an object is lifted; the point at which the load line and the rigging meet.
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| Plant: | Any member of the plant kingdom, including seeds, roots, and other parts thereof.
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| Polyethylene foam. | Foam made by the introduction of gas or by inclusion of a gas-evolving chemical in molten polyethylene; sheets of polyethylene foam are inert and stable.
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| Polyprophylene foam: | Foam made from polyprophylene resin, similar in process to polyethylene foam. Sheets of polyprophylene are inert and stable.
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| Possession: | The detention and control, or the manual or ideal custody of anything that may be the subject of property, for one's use and enjoyment, either as owner or as the proprietor of a qualified right in it, and either held personally or by another who exercises it in one's place and name. Possession includes the act or state of possessing and that condition of facts under which one can exercise his power over a corporeal thing at his pleasure to the exclusion of all other persons. Possession includes constructive possession, which means not actual but assumed to exist, where one claims to hold by virtue of some title, without having actual custody (endangered species article).
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| Powder coating: | A coating made from spraying powdered thermosetting resins onto a metal substrate, which are then set by baking (Rose and de Torres 1992)
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| Provenance: | For works of art and historical objects, the background and history of ownership. The more
common term for anthropological collections is
"provenience," which defines an object in terms of the specific geographic location of origin. In scientific collections, the term "locality"," meaning specific geographic point of origin, is more acceptable (Nauert 1979).
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| Psychrometer: | An instrument for measuring the relative humidity by means of an air flow across two thermometers, one of which (the "wet" bulb) is covered by a moistened wick. Often used to help with calibration of hygrothermographs and as an independent check of relative humidity.
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| Rail and trolley: | A device that allows for the lateral movement of an object to be lifted. The trolley mounts to and rolls along the rail, the horizontal member of a gantry, usually an I-beam. Useful when an object is to be removed from a pedestal and then lowered to the floor or to a dolly
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| Reciprocity law: | The theoretical relationship between the length of the exposure (shutter speed) and the intensity of the light (aperture) that dictates that an increase in one will be balanced by a equal amount of decrease by the other. This means that if you meter a scene and decide the exposure will be f/5.6 at 1/60 second you could obtain the same exposure by doubling your f-stop and cutting your exposure in half: f/4 at 1/125 second. Or you could do the opposite obtaining an exposure of f/8 at 1/30 second.
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| Reciprocity failure: | The failure of the reciprocity law to apply. This occurs at one second and longer when the normal ratio of aperture and shutter speed will underexpose the film and at 1/10,000 second and faster. When using black-and-white film with exposures of one second or longer, exposures just need to be increased to avoid underexposure. When using color film in these conditions, color shifts will occur because the three emulsions do not respond to the reciprocity effect in the same manner. To compensate, follow exposure and filtering instructions provided with the film, along with a little trial and error.
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| Re-export: | Export of wildlife or plants that have been previously imported.
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| Registration: | The process of developing and maintaining an immediate, brief, and permanent means of identifying an object for which the institution has permanently or temporarily assumed responsibility (Nauert 1979).
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| Relative humidity (RH): | The proportion of actual vapor pressure of air to its saturation vapor pressure at that temperature.
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| Rigging: | (1) The art of combining and securing the proper slings and hitches to the proper pick of an object to be lifted. The person responsible for this is the rigger; (2) the actual slings and
equipment used in moving large objects.
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| Risk assessment: | Evaluation of museum object for suitability to travel.
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