They are also subject to gradual failure due to using up the reactive materials, and may lose sensitivity in cold conditions.

Tool wear describes the gradual failure of cutting tools due to regular operation.

"He's showing the same signs as the Oanis did- slowed pulse and respiration, gradual failure of internal organs.

A breach can be a sudden or gradual failure, caused either by surface erosion or by subsurface weakness in the levee.

The canyon is rocked by a series of earthquakes, which Church attributes to the gradual failure of the memory unit in which he is trapped.

The concluding chapter of the "Life and Letters" gives some account of the gradual failure in health which was perceptible in the last year of Mr. Darwin's life.

The gradual failure of the cells to repair or replace themselves lies at the basis of the physical changes of ageing, and can be found in every organ or tissue of the body.

The long, bitter fight over the unknowing Terri Schiavo was a stark contrast to the passing of this pontiff, whose own mind was keenly aware of the gradual failure of his body.

Seeing each other die, and observing the gradual failure of their own bodies, may have helped convince pre-Ndoli humans of their common humanity; certainly, there were countless references in their literature to the equalising power of death.

It may be due to the gradual failure in the "satellite cells" which help to regenerate skeletal muscle fibres, and a decrease in sensitivity to or the availability of secreted growth factors which are necessary to maintain muscle mass and satellite cell survival.

Raymond D. Horton, the chairman of the management department at the Columbia University Business School, who has been studying city government for 25 years, offered one theory: "It is the gradual failure of the Civil Service system that's brought about the need for other ways to recruit young people.

CGI was used in the first two seasons, and again in season 5 after the sinking of the Katmai, to demonstrate how the severely cold water of the Bering Sea causes men without survival suits to drown within minutes, showing the decrease in blood flow and the gradual failure of vital organs.