Normal-abnormal terminology

Prion protein nomenclature or Abandon hope all ye who enter here . There is no doubt that the nomenclamre of the TSE field can be confusing to outside observers and seasoned researchers alike. Part of this confusion arises from the genuine uncertainty that exists about the normal function (s) of PrP, the nature of TSE infectivity, and the various and variable abnormal properties of PrP most relevant to infectivity and/or TSE pathogenesis. No attempt has been made to unify the terminology used in the different chapters of this volume for two reasons. Eirst, this seems like a hopeless task. Second, it is my belief that the nomenclature in any rapidly changing field should evolve with the facts as they are revealed. This state of flux will naturally require that authors carefully define and redefine their usage of terminology from time to time. Unfortunately, it also may require that readers of literature have the patience of Job and the semantic acumen of Supreme Court justices. 

In this chapter, as in the previous chapter, we have problems with labels. Diagnostic terminology in clinical practice often complicates our understanding of the scientific literature on mental disorder. Many psychiatric diagnoses—labels that describe which symptoms characterize a psychiatric disorder and distinguish it from another—have varied with time and place over many years, with much debate still going on to this day about where to draw the line between the normal and the abnormal and between various states of the abnormal. Ordinary behavior in one culture may not be considered ordinary behavior... 

Various terminologies have been used for specific subclasses of non-classical carbenes normal carbenes include all carbenes that can be represented by a neutral canonical resonance form and abnormal carbenes those for which a valence bond representation requires the introduction of formal charges on some nuclei (for example, C4-bound imidazolylidenes. Scheme 5.1)." Carbenes with no heteroatom in the position a to the carbene carbon atom are denoted remote carbenes. Hence, remote carbenes can be either normal or abnormal (E or I respectively. Figure 5.1). 

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