Screening

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One meaning of screening is the investigation of a great number of something (for instance, people) looking for those with a particular problem or feature. For example at an airport many bags are screened by x-ray to try to detect any which may contain weapons or explosives, and people are screened by passing through a metal detector. If only part of a population is screened, screening is equivalent to sampling in statistics.

Important cases of screening include:

Screening can also mean preventing access of something by some sort of barrier. Particular cases:

  • Electromagnetic shielding in physics, the exclusion of electric, magnetic, or electromagnetic fields by a metallic screen or shield
  • In atomic physics and chemistry, the screening effect or atomic shielding is the reduction of effective nuclear charge by intervening electron shells
  • Screening (printing), a process that represents lighter shades as tiny dots, rather than solid areas, of ink by passing ink through a perforated screen
  • The investigation of a large population is related; the members of a population are filtered by a metaphorical, rather than physical, screen
  • Screening is a process stage when cleaning paper pulp

Other uses: