What is "shunt"

Shunt \Shunt\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Shunted; p. pr. & vb. n. Shunting.] [Prov. E., to move from, to put off, fr. OE. shunten, schunten, schounten; cf. D. schuinte a slant, slope, Icel. skunda to hasten. Cf. Shun.]

1. To shun; to move from. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]

2. To cause to move suddenly; to give a sudden start to; to shove. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]
   --Ash.

3. To turn off to one side; especially, to turn off, as a grain or a car upon a side track; to switch off; to shift.

   For shunting your late partner on to me.
   --T. Hughes.

4. (Elec.) To provide with a shunt; as, to shunt a galvanometer.

Shunt \Shunt\, v. i. To go aside; to turn off.

Shunt \Shunt\, n. [Cf. D. schuinte slant, slope, declivity. See Shunt, v. t.]

1. (Railroad) A turning off to a side or short track, that the principal track may be left free.

2. (Elec.) A conducting circuit joining two points in a conductor, or the terminals of a galvanometer or dynamo, so as to form a parallel or derived circuit through which a portion of the current may pass, for the purpose of regulating the amount passing in the main circuit.

3. (Gunnery) The shifting of the studs on a projectile from the deep to the shallow sides of the grooves in its discharge from a shunt gun.

   Shunt dynamo (Elec.), a dynamo in which the field circuit is connected with the main circuit so as to form a shunt to the letter, thus employing a portion of the current from the armature to maintain the field.

   Shunt gun, a firearm having shunt rifling. See under Rifling.

early 13c., "to shy, start," perhaps from shunen "to shun" (see shun), and altered by influence of shot or shut. Meaning "to turn aside" is from late 14c.; that of "move out of the way" is from 1706. Adopted by railways from 1842. Related: Shunted; shunting.

1838, in railway use, from shunt (v.). By technicians in the sense of "electrical conductor" from 1863. Medical use dates from 1923.

n. 1 A switch on a railway 2 A connection used as an alternative path between parts of an electric circuit 3 A passage between body channels constructed surgically as a bypass 4 (context informal British English) A minor collision 5 (context firearms English) The shifting of the studs on a projectile from the deep to the shallow sides of the grooves in its discharge from a shunt gun. vb. 1 (context obsolete UK dialect English) To turn away or aside. 2 (context obsolete UK dialect English) To cause to move suddenly; to give a sudden start to; to shove. 3 To move a train from one track to another, or to move carriages etc from one train to another. 4 To divert electric current by providing an alternative path. 5 To divert the flow of a body fluid using surgery. 6 To move data in memory to a physical disk. 7 (context informal British English) To have a minor collision, especially in a motor car. 8 To provide with a shunt. 9 To divert to a less important place, position or state

1. n. a passage by which a bodily fluid (especially blood) is diverted from one channel to another; "an arteriovenus shunt"

2. a conductor having low resistance in parallel with another device to divert a fraction of the current [syn: electrical shunt, bypass]

3. implant consisting of a tube made of plastic or rubber; for draining fluids within the body

4. v. transfer to another track, of trains

5. provide with or divert by means of an electrical shunt

In electronics, a shunt is a device which allows electric current to pass around another point in the circuit by creating a low resistance path. The term is also widely used in photovoltaics to describe an unwanted short circuit between the front and back surface contacts of a solar cell, usually caused by wafer damage. The origin of the term is in the verb 'to shunt' meaning to turn away or follow a different path.

In medicine, a shunt is a hole or a small passage which moves, or allows movement of, fluid from one part of the body to another. The term may describe either congenital or acquired shunts; and acquired shunts (sometimes referred to as iatrogenic shunts) may be either biological or mechanical.

• Cardiac shunts may be described as right-to-left, left-to-right or bidirectional, or as systemic-to-pulmonary or pulmonary-to-systemic.
• Cerebral shunt: In cases of hydrocephalus and other conditions that cause chronic increased intracranial pressure, a one-way valve is used to drain excess cerebrospinal fluid from the brain and carry it to other parts of the body. This valve usually sits outside the skull, but beneath the skin, somewhere behind the ear.
• Lumbar-peritoneal shunt: In cases of chronic increased intracranial pressure such as Idiopathic intracranial hypertension and Hydrocephalus, a tube or shunt with or without a one-way valve is used to drain the excess cerebrospinal fluid from the brain and transport it to the peritoneal cavity, which is a cavity located in the abdomen area of the body. This shunt is usually inserted in between two of the vertebrae in the lumbar and punctures the cerebrospinal fluid sack or lumbar subarachnoid space, it then runs beneath the skin to the peritoneal cavity, where it is eventually drained away by the normal bodily fluid drainage system.
• A Peritoneovenous shunt: (also called Denver shunt) is a shunt which drains peritoneal fluid from the peritoneum into veins, usually the internal jugular vein or the superior vena cava. It is sometimes used in patients with refractory ascites. It is a long tube with a non-return valve running subcutaneously from the peritoneum to the internal jugular vein in the neck, which allows ascitic fluid to pass directly into the systemic circulation.

1. Bleeding from varices
2. DIC (Disseminated intravascular coagulation)
3. Infection
4. Superior vena caval thrombosis
5. Pulmonary edema

• Pulmonary shunts exist when there is normal perfusion to an alveolus, but ventilation fails to supply the perfused region.
• A portosystemic shunt (PSS), also known as a liver shunt, is a bypass of the liver by the body's circulatory system. It can be either a congenital or acquired condition. Congenital PSS is an uncommon condition in dogs and cats, found mainly in small dog breeds such as Miniature Schnauzers and Yorkshire Terriers, and in cats such as Persians, Himalayans, and mix breeds. Acquired PSS is also uncommon and is found in older dogs with liver disease causing portal hypertension, especially cirrhosis.
• A portacaval shunt/ portal caval shunt is a treatment for high blood pressure in the liver.
• VASP (Vesicoamniotic shunting procedure): Fetal lower urinary tract outflow obstruction prevents the unborn baby from passing urine. This can result in a reduction in the volume of amniotic fluid, and problems with the development of the baby’s lungs and kidneys. A vesico–amniotic shunt is a tube that it is inserted into the unborn baby’s bladder to drain the excess fluid into the surrounding space.

Shunt may refer to:

• Shunt (medical)—a hole or passage allowing fluid to move from one part of the body to another, including:
  • arteriovenous shunt
  • atriocaval shunt
  • Blalock–Taussig shunt
  • cardiac shunt
  • cerebral shunt
  • Cimino shunt
  • distal splenorenal shunt
  • lumbar–peritoneal shunt
  • peritoneovenous shunt
  • portosystemic shunt (also known as a liver shunt)
  • portacaval shunt
  • pulmonary shunt
  • pulmonary-to-systemic shunt
  • right-to-left shunt
  • Sano shunt
  • transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt
• Shunt (electrical)—a device allowing electric current to pass around a point in a circuit, including:
  • Ayrton shunt
  • shunt generator
  • shunt wound motor
  • magnetically controlled shunt reactor
  • shunt regulator
  • variable shunt reactor
• Shunt impedance—a term used in accelerator physics
• Shunt (railway operations)—the process of sorting items of rolling stock into train sets or consists, also called "switching"
  • head shunt
  • shunt platform
• Shunt (theatre company)—an experimental theatre company based in London
• An alternative metabolic pathway, most commonly used to refer to the hexose monophosphate shunt, which bypasses or runs parallel to glycolysis
• Shunt, a house robot in the TV series Robot Wars

Shunt is a London-based performance collective, founded in 1998. Most of the co-founders of Shunt met at Central School of Speech and Drama in London on the Advanced Theatre Practice MA in 1997/1998, which specialises in collaborative practice.

In summer 1998 Shunt's final term show 'Twist' was taken to Hill Street Theatre for the Edinburgh Festival under the company name Stephanie's Fridge. The members of the company at that time were David Rosenberg, Lizzie Clachan, Louise Mari, Mischa Twitchin, Gisele Edwards, Su Jin Lee, Laura, Catherine Bowman Shaw, Kirsty Yuill, Hannah Ringham, Serena Bobowski, Gemma Brockis and Heather Uprichard.

Shunt's work is centered on immersive, site-specific performance, usually in a grand scale, and has been supported by Britain's Royal National Theatre, NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) and Arts Council England. It has been the subject of much critical and academic discussion over the last decade.

Shunt has been awarded the Peter Brook Empty Space Award, in 2003 and 2005, the Time Out Live Award in 2003, the Total Theatre Award in 2000 as part of the London International Mime Festival, and many critics' awards in the United Kingdom.