Where does termination collide?

The final step of making an RNA copy of a gene, at which the enzyme that has been reading the DNA stops, lets go of the template, and releases the finished RNA strand. Roberts's 1969 Termination factor for RNA synthesis identified the Rho protein that drives this release in bacteria, showing that stopping is an active, controlled event and not merely running out of template. The referent is a molecular machine halting on a strand of DNA and freeing its product, and it has nothing to do with ending a job, proving that a computer program halts, or capping a wire with a resistor.[1]

Unit

One release event of a polymerase or ribosome from its template

Recovery means

The enzyme is freed and can be recruited to begin again elsewhere

Measured by

Detected by where transcripts end, by released RNA in vitro, and by factors such as Rho or a terminator DNA sequence

The bringing to an end of a legal relationship, most visibly the ending of a contract or of someone's employment, whether for cause, for convenience, or wrongfully. Blades's 1967 Employment at will vs. individual freedom examined how far an employer may go in ending a worker's job and argued for limits on the abusive exercise of that power, framing the debate over wrongful dismissal. The referent is a change in legal rights and duties between parties, argued in courts and statutes, and it is unrelated to an enzyme releasing RNA, an algorithm halting, or a resistor on a cable.[2]

Unit

One ending of a contract or relationship between named parties

Recovery means

Parties may negotiate a new agreement, but the ended one does not resume

Measured by

Established by notice, breach, cause, or convenience, and adjudicated against the contract terms and governing law

The property that a program or algorithm finishes rather than running forever, so that every loop and recursion eventually stops. Turing's 1936 On computable numbers proved that no general procedure can decide, for every program and input, whether it will halt, which makes termination a deep and undecidable question; Cook, Podelski, and Rybalchenko's 2011 Proving program termination surveyed the methods that nonetheless prove it for many real programs. The referent is a logical guarantee about a computation coming to an end, and it does not describe an enzyme leaving DNA, the ending of a contract, or the electrical closing of a line.[3][4]

Unit

One guarantee that a given computation reaches a stopping state

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Argued by a ranking function that strictly decreases, or by automated termination analysis over the program