An associate degree is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study intended to usually last two years. It is considered to be a greater level of education than a high school diploma or GED. The first associate degrees were awarded in the U.K. in 1873 before spreading to the U.S. in 1898. They have since been introduced in a small number of other countries.
Monocytes are the largest of the white blood cells. These are the cells that 'clean up' our blood the most. Monocytes also employ phagocytosis to 'eat' foreign particles, bacteria and dead neutrophils.
Another type of white blood cells are the large granular cells which include NK cells and macrophages (which I work on) which have quite big nucleus and lots of cytoplasm. In their cytoplasm they have lots of granules (thus the name!) and they need these to perform their functions.