All articles starting with R

Rapid prototyping

Rapid prototyping is the quick fabrication of a scale model of a physical part, historically by additive manufacturing, letting designers check form, fit, and function before production tooling.

Rapid qualitative analysis (RQA) is a family of team-based, structured techniques for analyzing interview and field data quickly, used in evaluation, implementation science, and other time-sensitive applied research.

Rapid reaction force

Rapid reaction force: a military formation at high readiness for short-notice deployment. Covers NATO's AMF (1960), NRF (2002–2024, ~40,000 troops), Allied Reaction Force (2024, 10-day deployment), plus the African Standby Force and EU battlegroups.

Rapid Refresh

The Rapid Refresh (RAP) is NOAA's continental-scale weather analysis and forecast system covering North America, updated every hour and run operationally since it replaced the Rapid Update Cycle in 2012.

Rapid Refresh Forecast System

The Rapid Refresh Forecast System (RRFS) is NOAA's next-generation convection-allowing weather prediction system, covering North America at 3 km and replacing several National Weather Service regional models in 2026.

Rapid review

A rapid review is a knowledge synthesis that simplifies or omits systematic review steps, producing evidence for decision-makers in weeks instead of the usual one to two years.

Rapid sand filter

A rapid sand filter, also called a rapid gravity filter, passes chemically pre-treated water downward through coarse sand at high rates, typically 5 to 15 m³/m²/h, and is cleaned by backwashing.

Rapid sequence induction

Rapid sequence induction (RSI), also called rapid sequence intubation, is an anesthetic technique for urgent intubation of aspiration-risk patients, placing the breathing tube before any assisted ventilation.

Rapid shutdown

Rapid shutdown (RSD) is a National Electrical Code safety requirement, in effect since 2014, requiring rooftop solar array conductors to drop to safe voltage limits within seconds so firefighters avoid electrocution.

Rapid Support Forces (قوات الدعم السريع)

The Rapid Support Forces is a Sudanese paramilitary group, formed from Janjaweed militias in 2013 and led by Hemedti, that has fought the Sudanese Armed Forces since 2023.

Oct 22, 2026

RaPID system

The RaPID system is an in vitro selection platform, developed in Hiroaki Suga's laboratory at the University of Tokyo, that produces macrocyclic peptide libraries of more than 10¹² sequences.

Rapid thermal processing

Rapid thermal processing (RTP) is a semiconductor manufacturing technique that heats a single silicon wafer with lamps to 500 to 1200 °C in under a minute.

Rapid transit

Rapid transit, also called rail rapid transit, is a class of urban public transport operating on its own right-of-way at higher speed and capacity than buses or trams.

Rapid tRNA decay and hypomodification surveillance

Rapid tRNA decay (RTD) is a quality-control pathway that degrades mature transfer RNAs lacking modifications or with unstable stems, using 5′→3′ exonucleases; related nuclear surveillance targets hypomodified initiator tRNA.

Rapid Update Cycle

The Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) was a NOAA numerical weather prediction system that produced hourly analyses and short-range forecasts over the US from 1994 to 2012.

Rapid Upper Limb Assessment

The Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) is an ergonomics survey method, published in 1993, that scores neck, trunk, and upper limb postures to screen for work-related upper limb disorders.

Rapid visual information processing (task)

The rapid visual information processing (RVIP) task is a computerized test that streams digits at 100 per minute and asks participants to respond to three-digit sequences, measuring sustained attention.

Rapid-onset childhood obesity-hypothalamic dysfunction-hypoventilation-autonomic dysregulation syndrome

ROHHAD (rapid-onset obesity with hypothalamic dysfunction, hypoventilation, and autonomic dysregulation) is an ultra-rare pediatric syndrome, under 200 cases, first described 1965, named 2007, no known gene, PHOX2B-negative, mortality 50-60 percent.

Rapid-onset dystonia-parkinsonism

Rapid-onset dystonia-parkinsonism (RDP, DYT12, DYT/PARK-ATP1A3) is a very rare autosomal dominant movement disorder from ATP1A3 mutations, causing abrupt stress-triggered dystonia and parkinsonism with onset ages 4-55.

Rapid-quench flow

Rapid-quench flow (RQF), also called chemical quench-flow, is a laboratory kinetic technique that mixes reactants, ages the reaction for milliseconds, and chemically stops it to trap intermediates.

Rapid7

Rapid7 is an American cybersecurity company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 2000 and known for its InsightVM platform, InsightIDR SIEM, and the open source Metasploit framework.

RapidAPI

RapidAPI, later renamed Rapid, is an API platform company founded in Israel in 2015 by Iddo Gino and Mickey Haslavsky, acquired by Nokia in 2024.

RapidDestroyer

RapidDestroyer is a British radio frequency directed energy weapon developed by a Thales UK-led consortium to detect, track, and defeat drones and drone swarms by damaging their electronics.

Rapides Parish

Rapides Parish (Paroisse des Rapides), central Louisiana parish with seat Alexandria; created 1807, named for Red River rapids; 130,023 residents (2020), second-largest parish by land area.

RapidEye

RapidEye was a commercial Earth-observation constellation of five identical satellites, launched on a single rocket in August 2008 and operated until March 2020, delivering 5-meter multispectral imagery for agriculture.

RapidIO

RapidIO is a packet-switched fabric interconnect standard, directed by the RapidIO Trade Association, for linking processors, DSPs, memory, and peripherals in embedded systems such as wireless base stations.

Rapidity

Rapidity is a quantity in special relativity and particle physics that describes motion relative to an axis, with successive boosts along the same axis simply adding.

Rapidly exploring random tree

The rapidly exploring random tree (RRT) is a sampling-based motion planning algorithm that grows a tree of feasible configurations toward random samples to find paths.

Rapidly involuting congenital hemangioma

Rapidly involuting congenital hemangioma (RICH, ORPHA:141184) is a rare benign vascular tumor fully formed in utero that shrinks rapidly after birth, usually within 6-14 months; GLUT1 negative, unlike infantile hemangioma.