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In evolutionary biology, function is the reason some object or process occurred in a system that evolved through natural selection. That reason is typically that it achieves some result, such as that chlorophyll helps to capture the energy of sunlight in photosynthesis. Hence, the organism that contains it is more likely to survive and ...
t. e. In mathematics, a function from a set X to a set Y assigns to each element of X exactly one element of Y. [1] The set X is called the domain of the function [2] and the set Y is called the codomain of the function. [3] Functions were originally the idealization of how a varying quantity depends on another quantity.
Function (computer programming) In computer programming, a function (also procedure, method, subroutine, routine, or subprogram) is a callable unit[1] of software logic that has a well-defined interface and behavior and can be invoked multiple times. Callable units provide a powerful programming tool. [2] The primary purpose is to allow for the ...
History of the function concept. The mathematical concept of a function dates from the 17th century in connection with the development of the calculus; for example, the slope of a graph at a point was regarded as a function of the x -coordinate of the point. Functions were not explicitly considered in antiquity, but some precursors of the ...
Functional programming. In computer science, functional programming is a programming paradigm where programs are constructed by applying and composing functions. It is a declarative programming paradigm in which function definitions are trees of expressions that map values to other values, rather than a sequence of imperative statements which ...
In computer science, function composition is an act or mechanism to combine simple functions to build more complicated ones. Like the usual composition of functions in mathematics, the result of each function is passed as the argument of the next, and the result of the last one is the result of the whole. Programmers frequently apply functions ...
Gain-of-function research (GoF research or GoFR) is medical research that genetically alters an organism in a way that may enhance the biological functions of gene products. This may include an altered pathogenesis, transmissibility, or host range, i.e., the types of hosts that a microorganism can infect. This research is intended to reveal ...
Rational function. In mathematics, a rational function is any function that can be defined by a rational fraction, which is an algebraic fraction such that both the numerator and the denominator are polynomials. The coefficients of the polynomials need not be rational numbers; they may be taken in any field K.