Nad

Also the TLA for Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide, a very common cellular cofactor involved in redox reactions. Dehydrogenases use it to remove (or add, if running the other way) hydride ions from their substrates. Alcohol dehydrogenase for example oxidises ethanol to ethanal which is then broken down further by ALDH (aldehyde dehydrogenase) to pyruvate. In the process NAD is converted to NADH and can be used elsewhere to reduce other substrates. As the name suggests, it is a dinucleotide, logically formed from AMP and NMP (nicotinamide mononucleotide) by joining the phosphates. This is the basis for rossman fold binding - since each half is bound by a separate copy of the fold.

Also stands for Network Attachment Device, a device which Bell uses to connect your house to the multiplex line going off the telephone pole. Basically it splits the line into 4 seperate pairs for each of the lines you can theoretically have in your house. If you have more than 4 pairs, you'll prolly have a second NAD somewhere, also SDSL sometimes gets you another one as well.

Nad was a buggy MP3 player for Windows from the 1998 range of computer history. It had a clunky, weird interface, was CPU intensive, hung easily, and stopped being updated at version 0.93. Why do i remember it so well? Because it had MP3 playback that just blew my mind back then. I dealt with the bugs, and the hangs and the lack of features for the magic that program produced.

We had hoped for a long time that the author was going to update his little player, and iron out all of the problems. It was a sad day when we had learned that the engine had been sold to someone (they would not say whom at the time).

Luckily we can have even better MP3 playback today in Sonique, the purchaser of that engine, who today has an even more advanced decoding scheme by the same author.

Nad is a manufacturer of HiFi components established in 1972. Their aim, as stated on the web site www.nadelectronics.com is for performance, value and simplicity. Indeed, their specialism seems to be in producing components that intentionally do not include a large amount of gimmicks, or too many equaliser controls which spoil the pure signal from the input to the amplifier. For example their CD player the C520, awarded 5 stars by What HiFI? lacks such a common feature as an optical output – presumably a result of the pursuit of quality over features.

The logo of the Nad mp3 player looks vaguely similar, so I think perhaps it was based on the HiFi manufacturer.

NAD is one of my favourite acronyms in the medical world. Depending on the context, it can mean "No Abnormalities Detected", "No Apparent Distress" and, my personal favourite, "Not Actually Done".

So ... when they come after you to sue you for negligence or whatever and they ask you, "So, Dr. so and so, when this patient Mr. J Smith died of a dissecting aortic aneurysm that you missed, you were the medical officer who first examined him and noted 'NAD' right beside the space for cardiovascular examination. Just what did you mean by that?"

... then, you will say, "I meant 'No Abnormalities Detected', of course", while wondering if you had really meant 'Not Actually Done' all those years ago ...

Nad (?), Nad"de (?). [Contr. fr. ne hadde.]

Had not.

[Obs.]

Chaucer.

 

© Webster 1913.