PFA or Pfa may refer to:

Chemistry and engineering

Computers

Mathematics

Organizations

The Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) is the trade union for professional association footballers in England and Wales. The world's oldest professional sport trade union, it has 4,000 members.

The aims of the PFA are to protect, improve and negotiate the conditions, rights and status of all professional players by collective bargaining agreements.

The PFA is affiliated with the Professional Footballers' Association Scotland. The Northern Ireland PFA disbanded in 1995.

History

The Players' Union

The PFA was formed on 2 December 1907 as the Association of Football Players' and Trainers' Union (the AFPTU, commonly referred to at the time as the Players' Union). On that date, Charlie Roberts and Billy Meredith (who had been involved in the AFU), both of Manchester United, convened the Players' Union at Manchester’s Imperial Hotel.

This was the second attempt to organise a union of professional footballers in England, after the Association Footballers' Union (the "AFU"), formed in 1898, had been dissolved in 1901. The AFU had failed in its objectives of bringing about a relaxation of the restrictions on the movement of players from one club to another in the Football League and preventing the introduction of a maximum wage of £4 per week for players in the Football League.

The PFA-100 (Platelet Function Assay or Platelet Function Analyser) is a platelet function analyser that aspirates blood in vitro from a blood specimen into disposable test cartridges through a microscopic aperture cut into a biologically active membrane at the end of a capillary. The membrane of the cartridges are coated with collagen and adenosine diphosphate (ADP) or collagen and epinephrine inducing a platelet plug to form which closes the aperture.

The PFA test result is dependent on platelet function, plasma von Willebrand Factor level, platelet number, and (to some extent) the hematocrit. The PFA test is initially performed with the Collagen/Epinepherine membrane. A normal Col/Epi closure time (<180 seconds) excludes the presence of a significant platelet function defect. If the Col/Epi closure time is prolonged (>180 seconds), the Col/ADP test is automatically performed. If the Col/ADP result is normal (<120 seconds), aspirin-induced platelet dysfunction is most likely. Prolongation of both test results (Col/Epi >180 seconds, Col/ADP >120 seconds) may indicate the following;

A fist is an action where a hand has the fingers curled into the palm and the thumb retracted, displaying the knuckles. There can be an open fist or a closed fist.

Formation of a fist for the purpose of punching is the most basic knowledge taught in the sport of boxing. Fists are taught in martial arts like karate, kung fu, and taekwondo for the process of punching and striking. Fight 100% says "more than 90% of the people actually don't know how to make a fist correctly", and adds that correct formation means the user "won't break [their] hand", "won't strain their wrist", will "be able to launch very powerful punches", and "be able to knock someone out in one punch". Fists are also well-known revolution symbols — as "persistent symbol[s] of resistance and unity", in the form of a raised fist.

Various phenomema, which include the term "fist" in their name such as the sexual act of fisting or the fist bump greeting, involve the use of a fist.

Improper formation of the fist whilst punching or striking an object can cause bruising and broken small bones in the hand known as Boxer's Fracture. Boxer's Fracture occurs when metacarpals or small bones in the hand break on the side of the pinky and ring finger. The name derives from the fact that such injuries are most common in Boxers and practitioners of other fighting arts.

The symbol ☞ is a punctuation mark, called an index, manicule (from the Latin root manus for "hand" and manicula for "little hand") or fist. Other names for the symbol include printer's fist, bishop's fist, digit, mutton-fist, hand, hand director, pointer, and pointing hand.

History

The symbol originates in scribal tradition of the medieval and Renaissance period, appearing in the margin of manuscripts to mark corrections or notes.

Manicules are first known to appear in the 12th century in handwritten manuscripts in Spain, and became common in the 14th and 15th centuries in Italy with some very elaborate with shading and artful cuffs. Some were playful and elaborate, but others were as simple as "two squiggly strokes suggesting the barest sketch of a pointing hand" and thus quick to draw.

After the popularization of the printing press starting in the 1450s, the handwritten version continued in handwritten form as a means to annotate printed documents. Early printers using a type representing the manicule included Mathias Huss and Johannes Schabeler in Lyons in their 1484 edition of Paulus Florentinus' Breviarum totius juris canonici.

A fist is a hand with fingers curled into the palm and thumb retracted, displaying the knuckles.

Fist or FIST may also refer to:

In arts and entertainment

In military use

Other uses

Raise may refer to:

See also