A reconfiguration of the sex trade: How social and structural changes in eastern Zimbabwe left women involved in sex work and transactional sex more vulnerable.

Science.gov (United States)

Elmes, Jocelyn; Skovdal, Morten; Nhongo, Kundai; Ward, Helen; Campbell, Catherine; Hallett, Timothy B; Nyamukapa, Constance; White, Peter J; Gregson, Simon

2017-01-01

Understanding the dynamic nature of sex work is important for explaining the course of HIV epidemics. While health and development interventions targeting sex workers may alter the dynamics of the sex trade in particular localities, little has been done to explore how large-scale social and structural changes, such as economic recessions-outside of the bounds of organizational intervention-may reconfigure social norms and attitudes with regards to sex work. Zimbabwe's economic collapse in 2009, following a period (2000-2009) of economic decline, within a declining HIV epidemic, provides a unique opportunity to study community perceptions of the impact of socio-economic upheaval on the sex trade. We conducted focus group discussions with 122 community members in rural eastern Zimbabwe in January-February 2009. Groups were homogeneous by gender and occupation and included female sex workers, married women, and men who frequented bars. The focus groups elicited discussion around changes (comparing contemporaneous circumstances in 2009 to their memories of circumstances in 2000) in the demand for, and supply of, paid sex, and how sex workers and clients adapted to these changes, and with what implications for their health and well-being. Transcripts were thematically analyzed. The analysis revealed how changing economic conditions, combined with an increased awareness and fear of HIV-changing norms and local attitudes toward sex work-had altered the demand for commercial sex. In response, sex work dispersed from the bars into the wider community, requiring female sex workers to employ different tactics to attract clients. Hyperinflation meant that sex workers had to accept new forms of payment, including sex-on-credit and commodities. Further impacting the demand for commercial sex work was a poverty-driven increase in transactional sex. The economic upheaval in Zimbabwe effectively reorganized the market for sex by reducing previously dominant forms of commercial sex

A reconfiguration of the sex trade: How social and structural changes in eastern Zimbabwe left women involved in sex work and transactional sex more vulnerable.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jocelyn Elmes

Full Text Available Understanding the dynamic nature of sex work is important for explaining the course of HIV epidemics. While health and development interventions targeting sex workers may alter the dynamics of the sex trade in particular localities, little has been done to explore how large-scale social and structural changes, such as economic recessions-outside of the bounds of organizational intervention-may reconfigure social norms and attitudes with regards to sex work. Zimbabwe's economic collapse in 2009, following a period (2000-2009 of economic decline, within a declining HIV epidemic, provides a unique opportunity to study community perceptions of the impact of socio-economic upheaval on the sex trade. We conducted focus group discussions with 122 community members in rural eastern Zimbabwe in January-February 2009. Groups were homogeneous by gender and occupation and included female sex workers, married women, and men who frequented bars. The focus groups elicited discussion around changes (comparing contemporaneous circumstances in 2009 to their memories of circumstances in 2000 in the demand for, and supply of, paid sex, and how sex workers and clients adapted to these changes, and with what implications for their health and well-being. Transcripts were thematically analyzed. The analysis revealed how changing economic conditions, combined with an increased awareness and fear of HIV-changing norms and local attitudes toward sex work-had altered the demand for commercial sex. In response, sex work dispersed from the bars into the wider community, requiring female sex workers to employ different tactics to attract clients. Hyperinflation meant that sex workers had to accept new forms of payment, including sex-on-credit and commodities. Further impacting the demand for commercial sex work was a poverty-driven increase in transactional sex. The economic upheaval in Zimbabwe effectively reorganized the market for sex by reducing previously dominant forms

A framework for analyzing sex-selective abortion: the example of changing sex ratios in Southern Caucasus

Science.gov (United States)

Hohmann, Sophie A; Lefèvre, Cécile A; Garenne, Michel L

2014-01-01

The paper proposes a socioeconomic framework of supply, demand, and regulation to explain the development of sex-selective abortion in several parts of the world. The framework is then applied to three countries of southern Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia) where sex-selective abortion has developed since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The authors argue that sex-selective abortion cannot be explained simply by patriarchal social systems, sex discrimination, or son preference. The emphasis is put on the long-term acceptability of abortion in the region, on acceptability of sex-screening by both the medical establishment and by the population, on newly imported techniques of sex-screening, and on the changing demand for children associated with the major economic and social changes that followed the dismantlement of the Soviet Union. PMID:25349481

Sex Change in Clownfish: Molecular Insights from Transcriptome Analysis

KAUST Repository

Casas, Laura; Saborido-Rey, Fran; Ryu, Tae Woo; Michell, Craig; Ravasi, Timothy; Irigoien, Xabier

2016-01-01

steroidogenic machinery during sex change in clownfish, with the aromatase gene playing a central role, both in the brain and the gonad. This work constitutes the first genome-wide study in a social sex-changing species and provides insights into the genetic

Bidirectional optical rotation of cells

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiyi Wu

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Precise and controlled rotation manipulation of cells is extremely important in biological applications and biomedical studies. Particularly, bidirectional rotation manipulation of a single or multiple cells is a challenge for cell tomography and analysis. In this paper, we report an optical method that is capable of bidirectional rotation manipulation of a single or multiple cells. By launching a laser beam at 980 nm into dual-beam tapered fibers, a single or multiple cells in solutions can be trapped and rotated bidirectionally under the action of optical forces. Moreover, the rotational behavior can be controlled by altering the relative distance between the two fibers and the input optical power. Experimental results were interpreted by numerical simulations.

Bidirectional Associations Between Externalizing Behavior Problems and Maladaptive Parenting Within Parent-Son Dyads Across Childhood.

Science.gov (United States)

Besemer, Sytske; Loeber, Rolf; Hinshaw, Stephen P; Pardini, Dustin A

2016-10-01

Coercive parent-child interaction models posit that an escalating cycle of negative, bidirectional interchanges influences the development of boys' externalizing problems and caregivers' maladaptive parenting over time. However, longitudinal studies examining this hypothesis have been unable to rule out the possibility that between-individual factors account for bidirectional associations between child externalizing problems and maladaptive parenting. Using a longitudinal sample of boys (N = 503) repeatedly assessed eight times across 6-month intervals in childhood (in a range between 6 and 13 years), the current study is the first to use novel within-individual change (fixed effects) models to examine whether parents tend to increase their use of maladaptive parenting strategies following an increase in their son's externalizing problems, or vice versa. These bidirectional associations were examined using multiple facets of externalizing problems (i.e., interpersonal callousness, conduct and oppositional defiant problems, hyperactivity/impulsivity) and parenting behaviors (i.e., physical punishment, involvement, parent-child communication). Analyses failed to support the notion that when boys increase their typical level of problem behaviors, their parents show an increase in their typical level of maladaptive parenting across the subsequent 6 month period, and vice versa. Instead, across 6-month intervals, within parent-son dyads, changes in maladaptive parenting and child externalizing problems waxed and waned in concert. Fixed effects models to address the topic of bidirectional relations between parent and child behavior are severely underrepresented. We recommend that other researchers who have found significant bidirectional parent-child associations using rank-order change models reexamine their data to determine whether these findings hold when examining changes within parent-child dyads.

Comparative analyses of bidirectional promoters in vertebrates

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Taylor James

2008-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Orthologous genes with deep phylogenetic histories are likely to retain similar regulatory features. In this report we utilize orthology assignments for pairs of genes co-regulated by bidirectional promoters to map the ancestral history of the promoter regions. Results Our mapping of bidirectional promoters from humans to fish shows that many such promoters emerged after the divergence of chickens and fish. Furthermore, annotations of promoters in deep phylogenies enable detection of missing data or assembly problems present in higher vertebrates. The functional importance of bidirectional promoters is indicated by selective pressure to maintain the arrangement of genes regulated by the promoter over long evolutionary time spans. Characteristics unique to bidirectional promoters are further elucidated using a technique for unsupervised classification, known as ESPERR. Conclusion Results of these analyses will aid in our understanding of the evolution of bidirectional promoters, including whether the regulation of two genes evolved as a consequence of their proximity or if function dictated their co-regulation.

Cellular Mechanisms Underlying Behavioral State-Dependent Bidirectional Modulation of Motor Cortex Output

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Julia Schiemann

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Neuronal activity in primary motor cortex (M1 correlates with behavioral state, but the cellular mechanisms underpinning behavioral state-dependent modulation of M1 output remain largely unresolved. Here, we performed in vivo patch-clamp recordings from layer 5B (L5B pyramidal neurons in awake mice during quiet wakefulness and self-paced, voluntary movement. We show that L5B output neurons display bidirectional (i.e., enhanced or suppressed firing rate changes during movement, mediated via two opposing subthreshold mechanisms: (1 a global decrease in membrane potential variability that reduced L5B firing rates (L5Bsuppressed neurons, and (2 a coincident noradrenaline-mediated increase in excitatory drive to a subpopulation of L5B neurons (L5Benhanced neurons that elevated firing rates. Blocking noradrenergic receptors in forelimb M1 abolished the bidirectional modulation of M1 output during movement and selectively impaired contralateral forelimb motor coordination. Together, our results provide a mechanism for how noradrenergic neuromodulation and network-driven input changes bidirectionally modulate M1 output during motor behavior.

Casual hook up sex during the first year of college: Prospective associations with attitudes about sex and love relationships.

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Katz, Jennifer; Schneider, Monica E

2013-11-01

This study examined bidirectional relationships among emerging adults' involvement in casual hook up sex and attitudes about sex and love relationships. At the start and end of their first year in college, undergraduates (N = 163) responded to measures of sexual behavior, sexual attitudes, and attitudes about love relationships. In cross-sectional analyses, attitudes about sex and love both were associated with involvement in casual hook up sex. In prospective analyses, initial attitudes about sexual instrumentality uniquely predicted involvement in later hook up sex, even after controlling for past hook up sex. Furthermore, involvement in hook up sex during the first year of college predicted greater sexual permissiveness and comfort with casual genital contact, even after controlling for initial sexual attitudes and hook up behaviors. None of the associations between attitudes and behavior were qualified by gender. Experiences of causal hook up sex appear to have implications primarily for emerging adults' attitudes about sexual interactions rather than their attitudes about love relationships.

Stability and change in same-sex attraction, experience, and identity by sex and age in a New Zealand birth cohort.

Science.gov (United States)

Dickson, Nigel; van Roode, Thea; Cameron, Claire; Paul, Charlotte

2013-07-01

Gaps remain in knowledge of changes in sexual orientation past adolescence and early adulthood. A longitudinal study of a New Zealand birth cohort was used to examine differences by age and sex in change in sexual attraction between 21 (1993/1994) and 38 years (2010/2011), sexual experiences between 26 and 38 years, and sexual identity between 32 and 38 years. Any same-sex attraction was significantly more common among women than men at all ages. Among women, any same-sex attraction increased up to age 26 (from 8.8 to 16.6 %), then decreased slightly by age 38 (12.0 %); among men, prevalence was significantly higher at age 38 (6.5 %) than 21 (4.2 %), but not in the intermediate assessments. It is likely that the social environment becoming more tolerant was responsible for some of the changes. Same-sex attraction was much more common than same-sex experiences or a same-sex identity, especially among women, with no major sex differences in these latter dimensions. Women exhibited much greater change in sexual attraction between assessments than men; for change in experiences and identity, sex differences were less marked and not statistically confirmed. Changes in the respective dimensions appeared more likely among those initially with mixed attraction and experiences, and among those initially identifying as bisexual, but this did not account for the sex difference in likelihood of change. These results provide contemporary information about the extent and variation of reported sexual attraction, experiences, and identity that we show continues across early and mid-adulthood.

Bidirectional waveguide coupling with plasmonic Fano nanoantennas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Guo, Rui; Decker, Manuel, E-mail: manuel.decker@anu.edu.au; Staude, Isabelle; Neshev, Dragomir N.; Kivshar, Yuri S. [Nonlinear Physics Centre and Centre for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS), Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200 (Australia)

2014-08-04

We introduce the concept of a bidirectional, compact single-element Fano nanoantenna that allows for directional coupling of light in opposite directions of a high-index dielectric waveguide for two different operation wavelengths. We utilize a Fano resonance to tailor the radiation phases of a gold nanodisk and a nanoslit that is inscribed into the nanodisk to realize bidirectional scattering. We show that this Fano nanoantenna operates as a bidirectional waveguide coupler at telecommunication wavelengths and, thus, is ideally suitable for integrated wavelength-selective light demultiplexing.

Reward-timing-dependent bidirectional modulation of cortical microcircuits during optical single-neuron operant conditioning.

Science.gov (United States)

Hira, Riichiro; Ohkubo, Fuki; Masamizu, Yoshito; Ohkura, Masamichi; Nakai, Junichi; Okada, Takashi; Matsuzaki, Masanori

2014-11-24

Animals rapidly adapt to environmental change. To reveal how cortical microcircuits are rapidly reorganized when an animal recognizes novel reward contingency, we conduct two-photon calcium imaging of layer 2/3 motor cortex neurons in mice and simultaneously reinforce the activity of a single cortical neuron with water delivery. Here we show that when the target neuron is not relevant to a pre-trained forelimb movement, the mouse increases the target neuron activity and the number of rewards delivered during 15-min operant conditioning without changing forelimb movement behaviour. The reinforcement bidirectionally modulates the activity of subsets of non-target neurons, independent of distance from the target neuron. The bidirectional modulation depends on the relative timing between the reward delivery and the neuronal activity, and is recreated by pairing reward delivery and photoactivation of a subset of neurons. Reward-timing-dependent bidirectional modulation may be one of the fundamental processes in microcircuit reorganization for rapid adaptation.

Could changes in reported sex ratios at birth during China's 1958-1961 famine support the adaptive sex ratio adjustment hypothesis?

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Anna Reimondos

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Background: The adaptive sex ratio adjustment hypothesis suggests that when mothers are in poor conditions the sex ratio of their offspring will be biased towards females. Major famines provide opportunities for testing this hypothesis because they lead to the widespread deterioration of living conditions in the affected population. Objective: This study examines changes in sex ratio at birth before, during, and after China's 1958-1961 famine, to see whether they provide any support for the adaptive sex ratio adjustment hypothesis. Methods: We use descriptive statistics to analyse data collected by both China's 1982 and 1988 fertility sample surveys and examine changes in sex ratio at birth in recent history. In addition, we examine the effectiveness of using different methods to model changes in sex ratio at birth and compare their differences. Results: During China's 1958-1961 famine, reported sex ratio at birth remained notably higher than that observed in most countries in the world. The timing of the decline in sex ratio at birth did not coincide with the timing of the famine. After the famine, although living conditions were considerably improved, the sex ratio at birth was not higher but lower than that recorded during the famine. Conclusions: The analysis of the data collected by the two fertility surveys has found no evidence that changes in sex ratio at birth during China's 1958-1961 famine and the post-famine period supported the adaptive sex ratio adjustment hypothesis.

Generalized model of a bidirectional DC-DC converter

Science.gov (United States)

Hinov, Nikolay; Arnaudov, Dimitar; Penev, Dimitar

2017-12-01

The following paperwork presents models of bidirectional converters. A classic bidirectional converter and a new bidirectional circuit based on a ZCS resonant converter are investigated and compared. The developed models of these converters allow comparison between their characteristics showing their advantages and disadvantages. The models allow precise models of energy storage elements to be implemented as well, which is useful for examination of energy storage systems.

Cross-sex hormone treatment does not change sex-sensitive cognitive performance in gender identity disorder patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Haraldsen, Ira R; Egeland, Thore; Haug, Egil; Finset, Arnstein; Opjordsmoen, Stein

2005-12-15

Cognitive performance in untreated early onset gender identity disorder (GID) patients might correspond to their born sex and not to their perceived gender. As a current mode of intervention, cross-sex hormone treatment causes considerable physical changes in GID patients. We asked, as has been suggested, whether this treatment skews cognitive performance towards that of the acquired sex. Somatically healthy male and female early onset GID patients were neuropsychologically tested before, 3 and 12 months after initiating cross-sex hormone treatment, whereas untreated healthy subjects without GID served as controls (C). Performance was assessed by testing six cognitive abilities (perception, arithmetic, rotation, visualization, logic, and verbalization), and controlled for age, education, born sex, endocrine differences and treatment by means of repeated measures analysis of variance. GID patients and controls showed an identical time-dependent improvement in cognitive performance. The slopes were essentially parallel for males and females. There was no significant three-way interaction of born sex by group by time for the six investigated cognitive abilities. Only education and age significantly influenced this improvement. Despite the substantial somatic cross-sex changes in GID patients, no differential effect on cognition over time was found between C and GID participants. The cognitive performance of cross-sex hormone-treated GID patients was virtually identical to that of the control group. The documented test-retest effect should be taken into consideration when evaluating treatment effects generally in psychiatry.

Changes in Adolescents' Receipt of Sex Education, 2006-2013.

Science.gov (United States)

Lindberg, Laura Duberstein; Maddow-Zimet, Isaac; Boonstra, Heather

2016-06-01

Updated estimates of adolescents' receipt of sex education are needed to monitor changing access to information. Using nationally representative data from the 2006-2010 and 2011-2013 National Survey of Family Growth, we estimated changes over time in adolescents' receipt of sex education from formal sources and from parents and differentials in these trends by adolescents' gender, race/ethnicity, age, and place of residence. Between 2006-2010 and 2011-2013, there were significant declines in adolescent females' receipt of formal instruction about birth control (70% to 60%), saying no to sex (89% to 82%), sexually transmitted disease (94% to 90%), and HIV/AIDS (89% to 86%). There was a significant decline in males' receipt of instruction about birth control (61% to 55%). Declines were concentrated among adolescents living in nonmetropolitan areas. The proportion of adolescents talking with their parents about sex education topics did not change significantly. Twenty-one percent of females and 35% of males did not receive instruction about methods of birth control from either formal sources or a parent. Declines in receipt of formal sex education and low rates of parental communication may leave adolescents without instruction, particularly in nonmetropolitan areas. More effort is needed to understand this decline and to explore adolescents' potential other sources of reproductive health information. Copyright © 2016 The Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Intergenerational Transmission in a Bidirectional Context

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Jan De Mol

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Traditional approaches to the study of parent-child relationships view intergenerational transmission as a top-down phenomenon in which parents transfer their values, beliefs, and practices to their children. Furthermore, the focus of these unidirectional approaches regarding children's internalisation processes is on continuity or the transmission of similar values, beliefs, and practices from parents to children. Analogous unidirectional perspectives have also influenced the domain of family therapy. In this paper a cognitive-bidirectional and dialectical model of dynamics in parent-child relationships is discussed in which the focus is on continual creation of novel meanings and not just reproduction of old ones in the bidirectional transmission processes between parents and children. Parents and children are addressed as full and equally agents in their interdependent relationship, while these relational dynamics are embedded within culture. This cultural context complicates bidirectional transmission influences in the parent-child relationship as both parents and children are influenced by many other contexts. Further, current research in the domain of parent-child relationships and current concepts of intergenerational transmission in family therapy are reviewed from a bidirectional cognitive-dialectical perspective.

Bidirectional optical scattering facility

Data.gov (United States)

Federal Laboratory Consortium — Goniometric optical scatter instrument (GOSI)The bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) quantifies the angular distribution of light scattered from a...

Gonad development in Midas cichlids and the evolution of sex change in fishes.

Science.gov (United States)

Oldfield, Ronald G

2011-01-01

Some fishes mature and function as one sex and later transform to the other sex in response to social interactions. Previous evidence suggested that a change in developmental timing may be involved in the evolution of adult sex change in fishes. The most recent support for this idea came from reports that sex in the Midas cichlid, Amphilophus citrinellus, was determined by social conditions experienced at the juvenile stage. Differentiation as a male was reported to be dependent on large body size relative to group-mates, and thought to be mediated through aggressive interactions. Here I demonstrate that socially controlled sex determination does not occur as was originally reported. Previously, I found that sex was not associated with body size in juveniles either in nature or in captivity. Similarly, I found no association between aggressive behavior and sex in juveniles. I later demonstrated that socially controlled sex determination does not typically occur in the Midas cichlid and closely related species and supported an alternative mechanism to explain large body size in adult males. Finally, in the current study I analyze gonad histology of fish from the same population used by the original authors and lay to rest the idea of socially controlled sex determination in this species. Recent observations of socially controlled sex determination in juveniles of species that typically change sex at the adult stage are examples of phenotypic plasticity, not genetic variation. Therefore, juvenile socially controlled sex determination does not support a theory that a change in developmental timing is involved in the evolution of adult sex change in fishes. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Estrogenic control of behavioral sex change in the bluehead wrasse, Thalassoma bifasciatum.

Science.gov (United States)

Marsh-Hunkin, K Erica; Heinz, Heather M; Hawkins, M Beth; Godwin, John

2013-12-01

Estrogens activate male-typical sexual behavior in several mammalian and avian models. Estrogen signaling also appears critical in the control of sex change in some fishes, in which it is instead decreases in estradiol levels that may permit development of male-typical behaviors. The bluehead wrasse is a protogynous hermaphrodite that exhibits rapid increases in aggressive and male-typical courtship behavior as females undergo sex change. Removal of the ovaries does not prevent these changes. In two field experiments involving gonadally-intact and gonadectomized females, estradiol (E2) implants prevented behavioral sex change in large females who were made the largest members of their social groups through removals of more dominant fish. In contrast, cholesterol-implanted control females showed full behavioral sex change, along with a higher frequency both of aggressive interactions and of male-typical courtship displays than occurred in E2-implanted animals. To assess potential neural correlates of these behavioral effects of E2, we evaluated abundances of aromatase mRNA using in situ hybridization. Aromatase mRNA was more abundant in the POA of E2-implanted females than in cholesterol-implanted controls in gonadally-intact females. The lack of behavioral sex change coupled with increased levels of aromatase mRNA are consistent with an inhibitory role for E2, likely of neural origin, in regulating socially controlled sex change.

Effects of sex change on the implications of marine reserves for fisheries.

Science.gov (United States)

Chan, Neil C S; Connolly, Sean R; Mapstone, Bruce D

2012-04-01

Marine reserves have become widely used in biodiversity conservation and are increasingly proposed as fisheries management tools. Previous modeling studies have found that reserves may increase or decrease yields, depending on local environmental conditions and on the specific life-history traits of the fishery species. Sex-changing (female-to-male) fish are targets of some of the most important commercial and recreational fisheries in the world. The potential for disproportionate removal of the larger, older sex of such species requires new theory to facilitate our understanding of how reserves will affect the yields of surrounding fisheries, relative to fishes with separate sexes. We investigated this question by modeling the effects of marine reserves on a non-sex-changing and a sex-changing population. We used demographic parameter estimates for the common coral trout as a baseline, and we conducted extensive sensitivity analyses to determine how sustainable yields of sex-changing species are likely to be affected by reserves across a broad range of life-history parameters. Our findings indicate that fisheries for sex-changing species are unlikely to receive the same yield-enhancing benefit that non-sex-changing fisheries enjoy from marine reserves, and that often reserves tend to reduce sustainable yields for a given overall population size. Specifically, the increased egg production and high fertilization success within reserves is more than offset by the reduced egg production and fertilization success in the fished areas, relative to a system in which fishing mortality is distributed more evenly over the entire system. A key reason for this appears to be that fertilization success is reduced, on average, when males are unevenly distributed among subpopulations, as is the case when reserves are present. These findings suggests that, for sex-changing populations, reserves are more suited to rebuilding overfished populations and sustaining fishery viability

Bidirectional Associations among Sensitive Parenting, Language Development, and Social Competence

Science.gov (United States)

Barnett, Melissa A.; Gustafsson, Hanna; Deng, Min; Mills-Koonce, W. Roger; Cox, Martha

2012-01-01

Rapid changes in language skills and social competence, both of which are linked to sensitive parenting, characterize early childhood. The present study examines bidirectional associations among mothers' sensitive parenting and children's language skills and social competence from 24 to 36?months in a community sample of 174 families. In addition,…

A bidirectional Optimality Theoretic analysis of multiple negative ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

IT

6 All examples in this paper are colloquial Afrikaans unless otherwise ...... and bidirectional optimisation over these form-meaning pairs results in the selection of one or ..... Imperfective and perfective habituals in Polish: A bi-directional.

The lesser known challenge of climate change: thermal variance and sex-reversal in vertebrates with temperature-dependent sex determination.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jennifer L Neuwald

Full Text Available Climate change is expected to disrupt biological systems. Particularly susceptible are species with temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD, as in many reptiles. While the potentially devastating effect of rising mean temperatures on sex ratios in TSD species is appreciated, the consequences of increased thermal variance predicted to accompany climate change remain obscure. Surprisingly, no study has tested if the effect of thermal variance around high-temperatures (which are particularly relevant given climate change predictions has the same or opposite effects as around lower temperatures. Here we show that sex ratios of the painted turtle (Chrysemys picta were reversed as fluctuations increased around low and high unisexual mean-temperatures. Unexpectedly, the developmental and sexual responses around female-producing temperatures were decoupled in a more complex manner than around male-producing values. Our novel observations are not fully explained by existing ecological models of development and sex determination, and provide strong evidence that thermal fluctuations are critical for shaping the biological outcomes of climate change.

Image Captioning with Deep Bidirectional LSTMs

OpenAIRE

Wang, Cheng; Yang, Haojin; Bartz, Christian; Meinel, Christoph

2016-01-01

This work presents an end-to-end trainable deep bidirectional LSTM (Long-Short Term Memory) model for image captioning. Our model builds on a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) and two separate LSTM networks. It is capable of learning long term visual-language interactions by making use of history and future context information at high level semantic space. Two novel deep bidirectional variant models, in which we increase the depth of nonlinearity transition in different way, are propose...

Changes in Adolescents' Receipt of Sex Education, 2006–2013

OpenAIRE

Lindberg, Laura Duberstein; Maddow-Zimet, Isaac; Boonstra, Heather

2016-01-01

Purpose Updated estimates of adolescents? receipt of sex education are needed to monitor changing access to information. Methods Using nationally representative data from the 2006?2010 and 2011?2013 National Survey of Family Growth, we estimated changes over time in adolescents? receipt of sex education from formal sources and from parents and differentials in these trends by adolescents? gender, race/ethnicity, age, and place of residence. Results Between 2006?2010 and 2011?2013, there were ...

Activity-Dependent Bidirectional Regulation of GAD Expression in a Homeostatic Fashion Is Mediated by BDNF-Dependent and Independent Pathways

Science.gov (United States)

Hanno-Iijima, Yoko; Tanaka, Masami; Iijima, Takatoshi

2015-01-01

Homeostatic synaptic plasticity, or synaptic scaling, is a mechanism that tunes neuronal transmission to compensate for prolonged, excessive changes in neuronal activity. Both excitatory and inhibitory neurons undergo homeostatic changes based on synaptic transmission strength, which could effectively contribute to a fine-tuning of circuit activity. However, gene regulation that underlies homeostatic synaptic plasticity in GABAergic (GABA, gamma aminobutyric) neurons is still poorly understood. The present study demonstrated activity-dependent dynamic scaling in which NMDA-R (N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor) activity regulated the expression of GABA synthetic enzymes: glutamic acid decarboxylase 65 and 67 (GAD65 and GAD67). Results revealed that activity-regulated BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) release is necessary, but not sufficient, for activity-dependent up-scaling of these GAD isoforms. Bidirectional forms of activity-dependent GAD expression require both BDNF-dependent and BDNF-independent pathways, both triggered by NMDA-R activity. Additional results indicated that these two GAD genes differ in their responsiveness to chronic changes in neuronal activity, which could be partially caused by differential dependence on BDNF. In parallel to activity-dependent bidirectional scaling in GAD expression, the present study further observed that a chronic change in neuronal activity leads to an alteration in neurotransmitter release from GABAergic neurons in a homeostatic, bidirectional fashion. Therefore, the differential expression of GAD65 and 67 during prolonged changes in neuronal activity may be implicated in some aspects of bidirectional homeostatic plasticity within mature GABAergic presynapses. PMID:26241953

Bidirectional ventricular tachycardia of unknown etiology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ali, M.; Khan, J.A.; Masood, T.; Shamsi, F.; Dero, M.H.; Khan, S.

2013-01-01

A 45 years old male presented to the emergency department with palpitations, headache and apprehension. His electrocardiogram revealed bidirectional ventricular tachycardia. He remained vitally stable and responded to intravenous beta-blocker. Initially digitalis toxicity was suspected but history was negative for digitalis intake. The cause remained unidentified in patient despite detailed investigations. During a short follow-up (of 6 months) he remained asymptomatic and no cause was further identified during this period. Some other unseen causes of bidirectional ventricular tachycardia need to be explored. (author)

Decoded fMRI neurofeedback can induce bidirectional confidence changes within single participants.

Science.gov (United States)

Cortese, Aurelio; Amano, Kaoru; Koizumi, Ai; Lau, Hakwan; Kawato, Mitsuo

2017-04-01

Neurofeedback studies using real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rt-fMRI) have recently incorporated the multi-voxel pattern decoding approach, allowing for fMRI to serve as a tool to manipulate fine-grained neural activity embedded in voxel patterns. Because of its tremendous potential for clinical applications, certain questions regarding decoded neurofeedback (DecNef) must be addressed. Specifically, can the same participants learn to induce neural patterns in opposite directions in different sessions? If so, how does previous learning affect subsequent induction effectiveness? These questions are critical because neurofeedback effects can last for months, but the short- to mid-term dynamics of such effects are unknown. Here we employed a within-subjects design, where participants underwent two DecNef training sessions to induce behavioural changes of opposing directionality (up or down regulation of perceptual confidence in a visual discrimination task), with the order of training counterbalanced across participants. Behavioral results indicated that the manipulation was strongly influenced by the order and the directionality of neurofeedback training. We applied nonlinear mathematical modeling to parametrize four main consequences of DecNef: main effect of change in confidence, strength of down-regulation of confidence relative to up-regulation, maintenance of learning effects, and anterograde learning interference. Modeling results revealed that DecNef successfully induced bidirectional confidence changes in different sessions within single participants. Furthermore, the effect of up- compared to down-regulation was more prominent, and confidence changes (regardless of the direction) were largely preserved even after a week-long interval. Lastly, the effect of the second session was markedly diminished as compared to the effect of the first session, indicating strong anterograde learning interference. These results are interpreted in the framework

Bidirectional Relationship between Cognitive Function and Pneumonia

Science.gov (United States)

Shah, Faraaz Ali; Pike, Francis; Alvarez, Karina; Angus, Derek; Newman, Anne B.; Lopez, Oscar; Tate, Judith; Kapur, Vishesh; Wilsdon, Anthony; Krishnan, Jerry A.; Hansel, Nadia; Au, David; Avdalovic, Mark; Fan, Vincent S.; Barr, R. Graham

2013-01-01

Rationale: Relationships between chronic health conditions and acute infections remain poorly understood. Preclinical studies suggest crosstalk between nervous and immune systems. Objectives: To determine bidirectional relationships between cognition and pneumonia. Methods: We conducted longitudinal analyses of a population-based cohort over 10 years. We determined whether changes in cognition increase risk of pneumonia hospitalization by trajectory analyses and joint modeling. We then determined whether pneumonia hospitalization increased risk of subsequent dementia using a Cox model with pneumonia as a time-varying covariate. Measurements and Main Results: Of the 5,888 participants, 639 (10.9%) were hospitalized with pneumonia at least once. Most participants had normal cognition before pneumonia. Three cognition trajectories were identified: no, minimal, and severe rapid decline. A greater proportion of participants hospitalized with pneumonia were on trajectories of minimal or severe decline before occurrence of pneumonia compared with those never hospitalized with pneumonia (proportion with no, minimal, and severe decline were 67.1%, 22.8%, and 10.0% vs. 76.0%, 19.3%, and 4.6% for participants with and without pneumonia, respectively; P pneumonia, even in those with normal cognition and physical function before pneumonia (β = −0.02; P pneumonia were subsequently at an increased risk of dementia (hazard ratio, 2.24 [95% confidence interval, 1.62–3.11]; P = 0.01). Associations were independent of demographics, health behaviors, other chronic conditions, and physical function. Bidirectional relationship did not vary based on severity of disease, and similar associations were noted for those with severe sepsis and other infections. Conclusions: A bidirectional relationship exists between pneumonia and cognition and may explain how a single episode of infection in well-appearing older individuals accelerates decline in chronic health conditions and loss of

Self-oscillating Galvanic Isolated Bidirectional Very High Frequency DC-DC Converter

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Jeppe Arnsdorf; Madsen, Mickey Pierre; Knott, Arnold

2015-01-01

This paper describes a galvanic isolated bidirectional Very High Frequency (VHF = 30 MHz - 300MHz) ClassE converter. The reason for increasing the switching frequency is to minimize the passive components in the converter. To make the converter topology bidirectional the rectifier has to be synch......This paper describes a galvanic isolated bidirectional Very High Frequency (VHF = 30 MHz - 300MHz) ClassE converter. The reason for increasing the switching frequency is to minimize the passive components in the converter. To make the converter topology bidirectional the rectifier has...

Bidirectional reachability-based modules

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Nortje, R

2011-07-01

Full Text Available The authors introduce an algorithm for MinA extraction in EL based on bidirectional reachability. They obtain a significant reduction in the size of modules extracted at almost no additional cost to that of extracting standard reachability...

Analysis of Bi-directional Effects on the Response of a Seismic Base Isolation System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Hyung-Kui; Kim, Jung-Han; Kim, Min Kyu; Choi, In-Kil

2014-01-01

The floor response spectrum depends on the height of the floor of the structure. Also FRS depends on the characteristics of the seismic base isolation system such as the natural frequency, damping ratio. In the previous study, the floor response spectrum of the base isolated structure was calculated for each axis without considering bi-directional effect. However, the shear behavior of the seismic base isolation system of two horizontal directions are correlated each other by the bi-directional effects. If the shear behavior of the seismic isolation system changes, it can influence the floor response spectrum and displacement response of isolators. In this study, the analysis of a bi-directional effect on the floor response spectrum was performed. In this study, the response of the seismic base isolation system based on the bi-directional effects was analyzed. By analyzing the time history result, while there is no alteration in the maximum shear force of seismic base isolation system, it is confirmed that the shear force is generally more decreased in a one-directional that in a two-directional in most parts. Due to the overall decreased shear force, the floor response spectrum is more reduced in a two-directional than in a one-directional

Sexually selected sex differences in competitiveness explain sex differences in changes in drinking game participation.

Science.gov (United States)

Hone, Liana S E; McCullough, Michael

2015-05-14

Drinking games are a risk factor for behavioral and health problems among university students. Previous cross-sectional research by Hone, Carter, and McCullough (2013) replicated well-established sex differences in drinking game behaviors (i.e., that men are more active drinking game participants than are women) and university drinking problems more generally. Hone et al. (2013) also found that these male-specific behavioral patterns are attributable in part to the fact that men's generally unrestricted sexual strategies, plus their social competitiveness, motivate them to participate in drinking games to display their fortitude and compete with same-sex rivals. Here, the authors conducted a study to evaluate with greater causal rigor whether sex differences in sexual restrictedness and social competitiveness-and sex differences in motivations for participating in drinking games in particular-are partially responsible for the sex differences in university students' drinking game behaviors and drinking problems. Sex differences in changes in frequency of drinking game participation were partially mediated by competitive motivations for participating in drinking games and by the effects of social competitiveness on competitive drinking game motivation. These findings lend additional support to the proposition that participation in drinking games is motivated in part by their suitability as a venue for sexual competition in university students' day-to-day lives.

Behaviour change and associated factors among female sex workers in Kenya.

Science.gov (United States)

Nyagero, Josephat; Wangila, Samuel; Kutai, Vincent; Olango, Susan

2012-01-01

Initiatives aimed at behaviour change of key populations such as the female sex workers (FSWs) are pivotal in reducing the transmission of HIV. An 8-year implementation research to establish the predictor factors of behaviour change among FSWs in Kenya was initiated by the African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF) with Sida and DfID support. This cross-sectional survey interviewed 159 female sex workers (FSWs) identified through snowball procedure. The measurement of behaviour change was based on: the consistent use of condoms with both regular and non regular clients, reduced number of clients, routine checks for STIs, and involvement in alternative income generating activities. The adjusted odds ratios at 95% confidence interval computed during binary logistic regression analysis were used to determine the behaviour change predictor factors. Most FSWs (84%) had participated in AMREF's integrated intervention programme for at least one year and 59.1% had gone through behaviour change. The adjusted odds ratio showed that the FSWs with secondary education were 2.23 times likely to change behaviour, protestants were 4.61 times, those in sex work for >4 years were 2.36 times, FSWs with good HIV prevention knowledge were 4.37 times, and those engaged in alternative income generating activities were 2.30 times more likely to change their behaviour compared to respective counterparts. Behaviour change among FSWs was possible and is associated with the level of education, religious affiliation, number of years in sex work and one's level of HIV prevention knowledge. A re-orientation on the peer education programme to focus on HIV preventive measures beyond use of condoms is emphasized.

Piezoelectric power converter with bi-directional power transfer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

2014-01-01

The present invention relates to a bi-directional piezoelectric power converter com¬ prising a piezoelectric transformer. The piezoelectric transformer comprises an input electrode electrically coupled to a primary section of the piezoelectric transformer and an output electrode electrically...... coupled to an output section of the piezoelectric transformer to provide a transformer output signal. A bi-directional switching circuit is coupled between the output electrode and a DC or AC output voltage of the power converter. Forward and reverse current conducting periods of the bi......, a reverse current is conducted through the bi-directional switching circuit from the DC or AC output voltage to the output electrode to discharge the DC or AC output voltage and return power to the primary section of the piezoelectric transformer....

Bidirectional Dynamic Diversity Evolutionary Algorithm for Constrained Optimization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Weishang Gao

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Evolutionary algorithms (EAs were shown to be effective for complex constrained optimization problems. However, inflexible exploration-exploitation and improper penalty in EAs with penalty function would lead to losing the global optimum nearby or on the constrained boundary. To determine an appropriate penalty coefficient is also difficult in most studies. In this paper, we propose a bidirectional dynamic diversity evolutionary algorithm (Bi-DDEA with multiagents guiding exploration-exploitation through local extrema to the global optimum in suitable steps. In Bi-DDEA potential advantage is detected by three kinds of agents. The scale and the density of agents will change dynamically according to the emerging of potential optimal area, which play an important role of flexible exploration-exploitation. Meanwhile, a novel double optimum estimation strategy with objective fitness and penalty fitness is suggested to compute, respectively, the dominance trend of agents in feasible region and forbidden region. This bidirectional evolving with multiagents can not only effectively avoid the problem of determining penalty coefficient but also quickly converge to the global optimum nearby or on the constrained boundary. By examining the rapidity and veracity of Bi-DDEA across benchmark functions, the proposed method is shown to be effective.

Sexually Selected Sex Differences in Competitiveness Explain Sex Differences in Changes in Drinking Game Participation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liana S. E. Hone

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Drinking games are a risk factor for behavioral and health problems among university students. Previous cross-sectional research by Hone, Carter, and McCullough (2013 replicated well-established sex differences in drinking game behaviors (i.e., that men are more active drinking game participants than are women and university drinking problems more generally. Hone et al. (2013 also found that these male-specific behavioral patterns are attributable in part to the fact that men's generally unrestricted sexual strategies, plus their social competitiveness, motivate them to participate in drinking games to display their fortitude and compete with same-sex rivals. Here, the authors conducted a study to evaluate with greater causal rigor whether sex differences in sexual restrictedness and social competitiveness—and sex differences in motivations for participating in drinking games in particular—are partially responsible for the sex differences in university students' drinking game behaviors and drinking problems. Sex differences in changes in frequency of drinking game participation were partially mediated by competitive motivations for participating in drinking games and by the effects of social competitiveness on competitive drinking game motivation. These findings lend additional support to the proposition that participation in drinking games is motivated in part by their suitability as a venue for sexual competition in university students' day-to-day lives.

Integrable hydrodynamics of Calogero-Sutherland model: bidirectional Benjamin-Ono equation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abanov, Alexander G; Bettelheim, Eldad; Wiegmann, Paul

2009-01-01

We develop a hydrodynamic description of the classical Calogero-Sutherland liquid: a Calogero-Sutherland model with an infinite number of particles and a non-vanishing density of particles. The hydrodynamic equations, being written for the density and velocity fields of the liquid, are shown to be a bidirectional analog of the Benjamin-Ono equation. The latter is known to describe internal waves of deep stratified fluids. We show that the bidirectional Benjamin-Ono equation appears as a real reduction of the modified KP hierarchy. We derive the chiral nonlinear equation which appears as a chiral reduction of the bidirectional equation. The conventional Benjamin-Ono equation is a degeneration of the chiral nonlinear equation at large density. We construct multi-phase solutions of the bidirectional Benjamin-Ono equations and of the chiral nonlinear equations

Bidirectional Associations between Parenting Practices and Conduct Problems in Boys from Childhood to Adolescence: The Moderating Effect of Age and African-American Ethnicity

Science.gov (United States)

Pardini, Dustin A.; Fite, Paula J.; Burke, Jeffrey D.

2008-01-01

This study examined the bidirectional relationship between parent and teacher reported conduct problems in youth and parenting practices using a longitudinal sample of boys assessed from 6 to 16 years of age. Analyses tested whether these bidirectional associations changed across development and whether the nature of these associations varied…

Changes in formal sex education: 1995-2002.

Science.gov (United States)

Lindberg, Laura Duberstein; Santelli, John S; Singh, Susheela

2006-12-01

Although comprehensive sex education is broadly supported by health professionals, funding for abstinence-only education has increased. Using data from the 1995 National Survey of Adolescent Males, the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) and the 2002 NSFG, changes in male and female adolescents' reports of the sex education they have received from formal sources were examined. Life-table methods were used to measure the timing of instruction, and t tests were used for changes over time. From 1995 to 2002, reports of formal instruction about birth control methods declined among both genders (males, from 81% to 66%; females, from 87% to 70%). This, combined with increases in reports of abstinence education among males (from 74% to 83%), resulted in a lower proportion of teenagers' overall receiving formal instruction about both abstinence and birth control methods (males, 65% to 59%; females, 84% to 65%), and a higher proportion of teenagers' receiving instruction only about abstinence (males, 9% to 24%; females, 8% to 21%). Teenagers in 2002 had received abstinence education about two years earlier (median age, 11.4 for males, 11.8 for females) than they had received birth control instruction (median age, 13.5 for both males and females). Among sexually experienced adolescents, 62% of females and 54% of males had received instruction about birth control methods prior to first sex. A substantial retreat from formal instruction about birth control methods has left increasing proportions of adolescents receiving only abstinence education. Efforts are needed to expand teenagers' access to medically accurate and comprehensive reproductive health information.

Bidirectional modulation of goal-directed actions by prefrontal cortical dopamine.

Science.gov (United States)

Hitchcott, Paul K; Quinn, Jennifer J; Taylor, Jane R

2007-12-01

Instrumental actions are a vital cognitive asset that endows an organism with sensitivity to the consequences of its behavior. Response-outcome feedback allows responding to be shaped in order to maximize beneficial, and minimize detrimental, outcomes. Lesions of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) result in behavior that is insensitive to changes in outcome value in animals and compulsive behavior in several human psychopathologies. Such insensitivity to changes in outcome value is a defining characteristic of instrumental habits: responses that are controlled by antecedent stimuli rather than goal expectancy. Little is known regarding the neurochemical substrates mediating this sensitivity. The present experiments used sensitivity to posttraining outcome devaluation to index the action-habit status of instrumental responding. Infusions of dopamine into the ventral mPFC (vmPFC), but not dorsal mPFC, restored outcome sensitivity bidirectionally-decreasing responding following outcome devaluation and increasing responding when the outcome was not devalued. This bidirectionality makes the possibility that these infusions nonspecifically dysregulated vmPFC dopamine transmission unlikely. VmPFC dopamine promoted instrumental responding appropriate to outcome value. Reinforcer consumption data indicated that this was not a consequence of altered sensitivity to the reinforcer itself. We suggest that vmPFC dopamine reengages attentional processes underlying goal-directed behavior.

Geographic, genetic and life-history variability in a sex-changing fish

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chiara Benvenuto

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Sequential hermaphroditism, commonly referred to as sex change or sex reversal, is a striking phenomenon in mating-system evolution and the most remarkable example of sexual plasticity. Among vertebrates, it is specific to teleosts. Some fish species reproduce initially as females and then change into males (protogynous hermaphrodites or vice versa (protandrous hermaphrodites. The white sea bream, Diplodus sargus, exhibits a high degree of sexual plasticity: populations have been reported to be gonochoristic, protandrous or digynic (with primary females, derived from intersexual juveniles, and secondary females, derived from males. We analysed populations collected from eight different locations across the species distribution range (between the Mediterranean and the North-Eastern Atlantic. These populations are characterized by different degrees of connectivity, spatial demographics and life histories. Using individual-based analyses, we linked the genetic structure of each specimen with environmental heterogeneity, life-history traits and reproductive modes. Our aim is to gather a better understanding of the variation in reproductive life-history strategies in this sexually plastic species. Diplodus sargus is a valuable candidate organism to investigate sequential hermaphroditism and it also has a commercial value. The application of population genetics tools against the background of life-history theory can bring valuable insights for the management of marine resources. The geographical patterns of sex change (and of age- and size-at-sex change linked with population genetics can be pivotal for both theoretical investigations and conservation and management plans in marine areas.

The Topologies Research of a Soft Switching Bidirectional DC/DC Converter

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, Qi; Zhang, Yongping; Sun, Xiangdong

2017-01-01

A soft-switching solution implemented to the traditional bidirectional DC/DC converter is developed. The soft-switching cell, which composed of three auxiliary switches, one resonant capacitor and one resonant inductor, is equipped in the traditional bidirectional DC/DC converter to realize circuit...... circle. And the proposed topology of bidirectional soft-switching dc-dc converter(TASBC) performs ideal soft switching at boost operations. The characteristics of the proposed converter has been verified by MATLAB simulations and experimental results....

Deletion of Fmr1 results in sex-specific changes in behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Nolan, Suzanne O; Reynolds, Conner D; Smith, Gregory D; Holley, Andrew J; Escobar, Brianna; Chandler, Matthew A; Volquardsen, Megan; Jefferson, Taylor; Pandian, Ashvini; Smith, Tileena; Huebschman, Jessica; Lugo, Joaquin N

2017-10-01

In this study, we used a systemic Fmr1 knockout in order to investigate both genotype- and sex-specific differences across multiple measures of sociability, repetitive behaviors, activity levels, anxiety, and fear-related learning and memory. Fragile X syndrome is the most common monogenic cause of intellectual disability and autism. Few studies to date have examined sex differences in a mouse model of Fragile X syndrome, though clinical data support the idea of differences in both overall prevalence and phenotype between the sexes. Using wild-type and systemic homozygous Fmr1 knockout mice, we assessed a variety of behavioral paradigms in adult animals, including the open field test, elevated plus maze, nose-poke assay, accelerating rotarod, social partition task, three-chambered social task, and two different fear conditioning paradigms. Tests were ordered such that the most invasive tests were performed last in the sequence, and testing paradigms for similar behaviors were performed in separate cohorts to minimize testing effects. Our results indicate several sex-specific changes in Fmr1 knockout mice, including male-specific increases in activity levels, and female-specific increases in repetitive behaviors on both the nose-poke assay and motor coordination on the accelerating rotarod task. The results also indicated that Fmr1 deletion results in deficits in fear learning and memory across both sexes, and no changes in social behavior across two tasks. These findings highlight the importance of including female subjects in preclinical studies, as simply studying the impact of genetic mutations in males does not yield a complete picture of the phenotype. Further research should explore these marked phenotypic differences among the sexes. Moreover, given that treatment strategies are typically equivalent between the sexes, the results highlight a potential need for sex-specific therapeutics.

A bidirectional shape memory alloy folding actuator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paik, Jamie K; Wood, Robert J

2012-01-01

This paper presents a low-profile bidirectional folding actuator based on annealed shape memory alloy sheets applicable for meso- and microscale systems. Despite the advantages of shape memory alloys—high strain, silent operation, and mechanical simplicity—their application is often limited to unidirectional operation. We present a bidirectional folding actuator that produces two opposing 180° motions. A laser-patterned nickel alloy (Inconel 600) heater localizes actuation to the folding sections. The actuator has a thin ( < 1 mm) profile, making it appropriate for use in robotic origami. Various design parameters and fabrication variants are described and experimentally explored in the actuator prototype. (paper)

Mechanical analysis of non-uniform bi-directional functionally graded intelligent micro-beams using modified couple stress theory

Science.gov (United States)

Bakhshi Khaniki, Hossein; Rajasekaran, Sundaramoorthy

2018-05-01

This study develops a comprehensive investigation on mechanical behavior of non-uniform bi-directional functionally graded beam sensors in the framework of modified couple stress theory. Material variation is modelled through both length and thickness directions using power-law, sigmoid and exponential functions. Moreover, beam is assumed with linear, exponential and parabolic cross-section variation through the length using power-law and sigmoid varying functions. Using these assumptions, a general model for microbeams is presented and formulated by employing Hamilton’s principle. Governing equations are solved using a mixed finite element method with Lagrangian interpolation technique, Gaussian quadrature method and Wilson’s Lagrangian multiplier method. It is shown that by using bi-directional functionally graded materials in nonuniform microbeams, mechanical behavior of such structures could be affected noticeably and scale parameter has a significant effect in changing the rigidity of nonuniform bi-directional functionally graded beams.

Bidirectional uncompressed HD video distribution over fiber employing VCSELs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Estaran Tolosa, Jose Manuel; Vegas Olmos, Juan José; Rodes, G. A.

2012-01-01

We report on a bidirectional system in which VCSELs are simultaneously modulated with two uncompressed HD video signals. The results show a large power budget and a negligible penalty over 10 km long transmission links.......We report on a bidirectional system in which VCSELs are simultaneously modulated with two uncompressed HD video signals. The results show a large power budget and a negligible penalty over 10 km long transmission links....

Performance analysis and comparison of a minimum interconnections direct storage model with traditional neural bidirectional memories.

Science.gov (United States)

Bhatti, A Aziz

2009-12-01

This study proposes an efficient and improved model of a direct storage bidirectional memory, improved bidirectional associative memory (IBAM), and emphasises the use of nanotechnology for efficient implementation of such large-scale neural network structures at a considerable lower cost reduced complexity, and less area required for implementation. This memory model directly stores the X and Y associated sets of M bipolar binary vectors in the form of (MxN(x)) and (MxN(y)) memory matrices, requires O(N) or about 30% of interconnections with weight strength ranging between +/-1, and is computationally very efficient as compared to sequential, intraconnected and other bidirectional associative memory (BAM) models of outer-product type that require O(N(2)) complex interconnections with weight strength ranging between +/-M. It is shown that it is functionally equivalent to and possesses all attributes of a BAM of outer-product type, and yet it is simple and robust in structure, very large scale integration (VLSI), optical and nanotechnology realisable, modular and expandable neural network bidirectional associative memory model in which the addition or deletion of a pair of vectors does not require changes in the strength of interconnections of the entire memory matrix. The analysis of retrieval process, signal-to-noise ratio, storage capacity and stability of the proposed model as well as of the traditional BAM has been carried out. Constraints on and characteristics of unipolar and bipolar binaries for improved storage and retrieval are discussed. The simulation results show that it has log(e) N times higher storage capacity, superior performance, faster convergence and retrieval time, when compared to traditional sequential and intraconnected bidirectional memories.

Hormone response to bidirectional selection on social behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Amdam, Gro V; Page, Robert E; Fondrk, M Kim; Brent, Colin S

2010-01-01

Behavior is a quantitative trait determined by multiple genes. Some of these genes may have effects from early development and onward by influencing hormonal systems that are active during different life-stages leading to complex associations, or suites, of traits. Honey bees (Apis mellifera) have been used extensively in experiments on the genetic and hormonal control of complex social behavior, but the relationships between their early developmental processes and adult behavioral variation are not well understood. Bidirectional selective breeding on social food-storage behavior produced two honey bee strains, each with several sublines, that differ in an associated suite of anatomical, physiological, and behavioral traits found in unselected wild type bees. Using these genotypes, we document strain-specific changes during larval, pupal, and early adult life-stages for the central insect hormones juvenile hormone (JH) and ecdysteroids. Strain differences correlate with variation in female reproductive anatomy (ovary size), which can be influenced by JH during development, and with secretion rates of ecdysteroid from the ovaries of adults. Ovary size was previously assigned to the suite of traits of honey bee food-storage behavior. Our findings support that bidirectional selection on honey bee social behavior acted on pleiotropic gene networks. These networks may bias a bee's adult phenotype by endocrine effects on early developmental processes that regulate variation in reproductive traits. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Global evaluation of ammonia bidirectional exchange and livestock diurnal variation schemes

Science.gov (United States)

Bidirectional air–surface exchange of ammonia (NH3) has been neglected in many air quality models. In this study, we implement the bidirectional exchange of NH3 in the GEOS-Chem global chemical transport model. We also introduce an updated diurnal variability scheme for NH3...

Bidirectional Relations Between Dating Violence Victimization and Substance Use in a Diverse Sample of Early Adolescents.

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Katherine A; Sullivan, Terri N

2017-09-01

Substance use and dating violence victimization are common in adolescence and represent significant public health concerns. Although theoretical accounts suggest a bidirectional association between substance use and victimization within dating relationships, this has not been tested during early adolescence. Thus, the current study examined bidirectional associations between physical and psychological dating violence victimization and substance use across 6 months among an ethnically diverse sample of early adolescents. Sex was also examined as a moderator. Participants included two cohorts of sixth graders from 37 schools who were in dating relationships in the last 3 months at Wave 1, in the fall of sixth grade, and 6 months later at Wave 2, in the spring of sixth grade ( n = 2,022; 43% female; 55% Black, 17% Latino/a, 16% White, 9% as multiracial, and 3% as another race/ethnicity). Students reported on the frequency of dating violence in the past 3 months and substance use in the past 30 days. Multilevel models, with students at Level 1 and classes (i.e., clusters of students in the same cohort at the same school; n = 74) at Level 2, tested hypotheses that positive reciprocal relations between physical and psychological dating violence victimization and substance use would be found over time, and that relations would be stronger for girls than boys. Sex, race/ethnicity, and family structure variables were included as Level 1 covariates; intervention condition and neighborhood concentrated disadvantage were included as Level 2 covariates. Results showed that higher levels of physical dating violence victimization at Wave 1 predicted increased substance use at Wave 2. Higher levels of substance use at Wave 1 predicted increased physical and psychological dating violence victimization at Wave 2. Findings highlight the importance of prevention efforts for dating violence and substance use early in adolescence.

Bidirectional semantic associations between social power and weight.

Science.gov (United States)

He, Xiaoling; Chen, Jun; Li, Jianan

2018-02-01

Two experiments were conducted to examine bidirectional semantic associations between power and weight using a priming paradigm. Bidirectionality in the relationship between power and weight was demonstrated, utilising tasks that were identical except that the orders in which the stimuli were presented were reversed. In Experiment 1, an empty scale leaning either leftward or rightward was used as a priming stimulus, and a scale that appeared in equilibrium with a pair of power words was used as a target stimulus. In Experiment 2, a scale with a pair of words that appeared in equilibrium was used as a priming stimulus, and an empty scale leaning either leftward or rightward was used as a target stimulus. We identified interaction effects between power and weight in both experiments. Associations between power and weight provide evidence for both conceptual metaphor views and evolutionary theory. The bidirectionality of metaphorical effects is in line with the strong version of metaphoric structuring. Both language and experiential correlations play important roles in the development of the mapping between power and weight. © 2016 International Union of Psychological Science.

Performance and cavitation characteristics of bi-directional hydrofoils

Science.gov (United States)

Nedyalkov, Ivaylo; Wosnik, Martin

2013-11-01

Tidal turbines extract energy from flows which reverse direction. One way to address this bi-directionality in horizontal axis turbines that avoid the use of complex and maintenance-intensive yaw or blade pitch mechanisms, is to design bi-directional blades which perform (equally) well in either flow direction. A large number of proposed hydrofoil designs were investigated using numerical simulations. Selected candidate foils were also tested (at various speeds and angles of attack) in the High-Speed Cavitation Tunnel (HICaT) at the University of New Hampshire. Lift and drag were measured using a force balance, and cavitation inception and desinence were recorded. Experimental and numerical results were compared, and the foils were compared to each other and to reference foils. Bi-directional hydrofoils may provide a feasible solution to the problem of reversing flow direction, when their performance and cavitation characteristics are comparable to those for unidirectional foils, and the penalty in decreased energy production is outweighed by the cost reduction due to lower complexity and respectively lower installation and maintenance costs.

Bidirectional brain-gut interactions and chronic pathological changes after traumatic brain injury in mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Elise L; Smith, Allen D; Desai, Neemesh; Cheung, Lumei; Hanscom, Marie; Stoica, Bogdan A; Loane, David J; Shea-Donohue, Terez; Faden, Alan I

2017-11-01

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has complex effects on the gastrointestinal tract that are associated with TBI-related morbidity and mortality. We examined changes in mucosal barrier properties and enteric glial cell response in the gut after experimental TBI in mice, as well as effects of the enteric pathogen Citrobacter rodentium (Cr) on both gut and brain after injury. Moderate-level TBI was induced in C57BL/6mice by controlled cortical impact (CCI). Mucosal barrier function was assessed by transepithelial resistance, fluorescent-labelled dextran flux, and quantification of tight junction proteins. Enteric glial cell number and activation were measured by Sox10 expression and GFAP reactivity, respectively. Separate groups of mice were challenged with Cr infection during the chronic phase of TBI, and host immune response, barrier integrity, enteric glial cell reactivity, and progression of brain injury and inflammation were assessed. Chronic CCI induced changes in colon morphology, including increased mucosal depth and smooth muscle thickening. At day 28 post-CCI, increased paracellular permeability and decreased claudin-1 mRNA and protein expression were observed in the absence of inflammation in the colon. Colonic glial cell GFAP and Sox10 expression were significantly increased 28days after brain injury. Clearance of Cr and upregulation of Th1/Th17 cytokines in the colon were unaffected by CCI; however, colonic paracellular flux and enteric glial cell GFAP expression were significantly increased. Importantly, Cr infection in chronically-injured mice worsened the brain lesion injury and increased astrocyte- and microglial-mediated inflammation. These experimental studies demonstrate chronic and bidirectional brain-gut interactions after TBI, which may negatively impact late outcomes after brain injury. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A psychophysically validated metric for bidirectional texture data reduction

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Filip, Jiří; Chantler, M.J.; Green, P.R.; Haindl, Michal

2008-01-01

Roč. 27, č. 5 (2008), s. 138:1-138:11 ISSN 0730-0301 R&D Projects: GA AV ČR 1ET400750407; GA ČR GA102/08/0593 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10750506 Keywords : Bidirectional Texture Functions * texture compression Subject RIV: BD - Theory of Information Impact factor: 3.383, year: 2008 http://library.utia.cas.cz/separaty/2008/RO/haindl-a psychophysically validated metric for bidirectional texture data reduction.pdf

Contextual modulation of social and endocrine correlates of fitness: insights from the life history of a sex changing fish.

Science.gov (United States)

Pradhan, Devaleena S; Solomon-Lane, Tessa K; Grober, Matthew S

2015-01-01

Steroid hormones are critical regulators of reproductive life history, and the steroid sensitive traits (morphology, behavior, physiology) associated with particular life history stages can have substantial fitness consequences for an organism. Hormones, behavior and fitness are reciprocally associated and can be used in an integrative fashion to understand how the environment impacts organismal function. To address the fitness component, we highlight the importance of using reliable proxies of reproductive success when studying proximate regulation of reproductive phenotypes. To understand the mechanisms by which the endocrine system regulates phenotype, we discuss the use of particular endocrine proxies and the need for appropriate functional interpretation of each. Lastly, in any experimental paradigm, the responses of animals vary based on the subtle differences in environmental and social context and this must also be considered. We explore these different levels of analyses by focusing on the fascinating life history transitions exhibited by the bi-directionally hermaphroditic fish, Lythrypnus dalli. Sex changing fish are excellent models for providing a deeper understanding of the fitness consequences associated with behavioral and endocrine variation. We close by proposing that local regulation of steroids is one potential mechanism that allows for the expression of novel phenotypes that can be characteristic of specific life history stages. A comparative species approach will facilitate progress in understanding the diversity of mechanisms underlying the contextual regulation of phenotypes and their associated fitness correlates.

Numerical Modelling of a Bidirectional Long Ring Raman Fiber Laser Dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Sukhanov, S. V.; Melnikov, L. A.; Mazhirina, Yu A.

2017-11-01

The numerical model for the simulation of the dynamics of a bidirectional long ring Raman fiber laser is proposed. The model is based on the transport equations and Courant-Isaacson-Rees method. Different regimes of a bidirectional long ring Raman fiber laser and long time-domain realizations are investigated.

Generational Perspectives of Unprotected Sex and Sustainable Behavior Change in Nigeria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amaechi D. Okonkwo

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Despite the HIV/AIDS pandemic and over two decades of safe-sex communication and condom social marketing in Nigeria, unmarried people continue to engage in unprotected sex. Understanding their perspectives of unprotected sex will be imperative for sustainable policy and intervention design. To realize this objective, the author synthesized Giddens’s structuration theory and Rob Stones’s structurationist project research brackets to develop a long interview guide used to elicit unmarried university students’ perspectives of influences on unprotected sex, and the feasibility of sustainable behavior change in Nigeria. Participants’ constructed unprotected sex as prescripted, and the cumulative outcome of complex institutional (structural, interpersonal, and agential influences. Their narratives challenge the popular but narrow loss of control, sensation-seeking, and ignorance theses of unprotected sex. Instead, participants’ narratives implicate an interrelated web of persuasive and insidious institutional and agential influences, in a manner that privilege neither structure nor agency. To promote safer sexual practices therefore, stakeholders must concurrently engage with institutional and agential influences on unprotected sex—and not focus on unmarried people’s sexual agencies alone, as current interventions do in Nigeria.

Changes in Reported Sexual Orientation Following US States Recognition of Same-Sex Couples

Science.gov (United States)

Corliss, Heather L.; Spiegelman, Donna; Williams, Kerry; Austin, S. Bryn

2016-01-01

Objectives. To compare changes in self-reported sexual orientation of women living in states with any recognition of same-sex relationships (e.g., hospital visitation, domestic partnerships) with those of women living in states without such recognition. Methods. We calculated the likelihood of women in the Nurses’ Health Study II (n = 69 790) changing their reported sexual orientation between 1995 and 2009. Results. We used data from the Nurses’ Health Study II and found that living in a state with same-sex relationship recognition was associated with changing one’s reported sexual orientation, particularly from heterosexual to sexual minority. Individuals who reported being heterosexual in 1995 were 30% more likely to report a minority orientation (i.e., bisexual or lesbian) in 2009 (risk ratio = 1.30; 95% confidence interval = 1.05, 1.61) if they lived in a state with any recognition of same-sex relationships compared with those who lived in a state without such recognition. Conclusions. Policies recognizing same-sex relationships may encourage women to report a sexual minority orientation. Future research is needed to clarify how other social and legal policies may affect sexual orientation self-reports. PMID:27736213

Framewise phoneme classification with bidirectional LSTM and other neural network architectures.

Science.gov (United States)

Graves, Alex; Schmidhuber, Jürgen

2005-01-01

In this paper, we present bidirectional Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) networks, and a modified, full gradient version of the LSTM learning algorithm. We evaluate Bidirectional LSTM (BLSTM) and several other network architectures on the benchmark task of framewise phoneme classification, using the TIMIT database. Our main findings are that bidirectional networks outperform unidirectional ones, and Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) is much faster and also more accurate than both standard Recurrent Neural Nets (RNNs) and time-windowed Multilayer Perceptrons (MLPs). Our results support the view that contextual information is crucial to speech processing, and suggest that BLSTM is an effective architecture with which to exploit it.

Constrained bidirectional propagation and stroke segmentation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mori, S; Gillespie, W; Suen, C Y

1983-03-01

A new method for decomposing a complex figure into its constituent strokes is described. This method, based on constrained bidirectional propagation, is suitable for parallel processing. Examples of its application to the segmentation of Chinese characters are presented. 9 references.

Sex-specific mouse liver gene expression: genome-wide analysis of developmental changes from pre-pubertal period to young adulthood

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Conforto Tara L

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Early liver development and the transcriptional transitions during hepatogenesis are well characterized. However, gene expression changes during the late postnatal/pre-pubertal to young adulthood period are less well understood, especially with regards to sex-specific gene expression. Methods Microarray analysis of male and female mouse liver was carried out at 3, 4, and 8 wk of age to elucidate developmental changes in gene expression from the late postnatal/pre-pubertal period to young adulthood. Results A large number of sex-biased and sex-independent genes showed significant changes during this developmental period. Notably, sex-independent genes involved in cell cycle, chromosome condensation, and DNA replication were down regulated from 3 wk to 8 wk, while genes associated with metal ion binding, ion transport and kinase activity were up regulated. A majority of genes showing sex differential expression in adult liver did not display sex differences prior to puberty, at which time extensive changes in sex-specific gene expression were seen, primarily in males. Thus, in male liver, 76% of male-specific genes were up regulated and 47% of female-specific genes were down regulated from 3 to 8 wk of age, whereas in female liver 67% of sex-specific genes showed no significant change in expression. In both sexes, genes up regulated from 3 to 8 wk were significantly enriched (p p Ihh; female-specific Cdx4, Cux2, Tox, and Trim24 and may contribute to the developmental changes that lead to global acquisition of liver sex-specificity by 8 wk of age. Conclusions Overall, the observed changes in gene expression during postnatal liver development reflect the deceleration of liver growth and the induction of specialized liver functions, with widespread changes in sex-specific gene expression primarily occurring in male liver.

Outpatient blood pressure monitoring using bi-directional text messaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Anthony, Chris A; Polgreen, Linnea A; Chounramany, James; Foster, Eric D; Goerdt, Christopher J; Miller, Michelle L; Suneja, Manish; Segre, Alberto M; Carter, Barry L; Polgreen, Philip M

2015-05-01

To diagnose hypertension, multiple blood pressure (BP) measurements are recommended. We randomized patients into three groups: EMR-only (patients recorded BP measurements in an electronic medical record [EMR] web portal), EMR + reminders (patients were sent text message reminders to record their BP measurements in the EMR), and bi-directional text messaging (patients were sent a text message asking them to respond with their current BP). Subjects were asked to complete 14 measurements. Automated messages were sent to each patient in the bi-directional text messaging and EMR + reminder groups twice daily. Among 121 patients, those in the bi-directional text messaging group reported the full 14 measurements more often than both the EMR-only group (P text messaging is an effective way to gather patient BP data. Text-message-based reminders alone are an effective way to encourage patients to record BP measurements. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A programme for bidirectional phonology and phonetics and their acquisition and evolution

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boersma, P.; Benz, A.; Mattausch, J.

2011-01-01

This paper summarizes an existing bidirectional six-level model of phonology and phonetics (and a bit of morphology). Bidirectionality in this case refers to the modelling of both the speaking process (production) and the listening process (comprehension). The elements of the grammar (the

Network Coding in the Bidirectional Cross

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ertli, Gergö; Paramanathan, Achuthan; Rein, Stephan Alexander

2013-01-01

This paper presents a detailed performance evaluation of inter-session network coding in wireless meshed networks in terms of throughput and energy consumption. A full analytical model is given for three different communication approaches for the bidirectional cross topology using an IEEE 802.11 ...

A New Bi-Directional Projection Model Based on Pythagorean Uncertain Linguistic Variable

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huidong Wang

2018-04-01

Full Text Available To solve the multi-attribute decision making (MADM problems with Pythagorean uncertain linguistic variable, an extended bi-directional projection method is proposed. First, we utilize the linguistic scale function to convert uncertain linguistic variable and provide a new projection model, subsequently. Then, to depict the bi-directional projection method, the formative vectors of alternatives and ideal alternatives are defined. Furthermore, a comparative analysis with projection model is conducted to show the superiority of bi-directional projection method. Finally, an example of graduate’s job option is given to demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method.

Model based feasibility study on bidirectional check valves in wave energy converters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Anders Hedegaard; Pedersen, Henrik C.; Andersen, Torben Ole

2014-01-01

Discrete fluid power force systems have been proposed as the primary stage for Wave Energy Converters (WEC’s) when converting ocean waves into electricity, this to improve the overall efficiency of wave energy devices. This paper presents a model based feasibility study of using bidirectional check....../Off and bidirectional check valves. Based on the analysis it is found that the energy production may be slightly improved by using bidirectional check valves as compared to on/off valves, due to a decrease in switching losses. Furthermore a reduction in high flow peaks are realised. The downside being increased...

Role of Serotonin Transporter Changes in Depressive Responses to Sex-Steroid Hormone Manipulation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Frokjaer, Vibe Gedsoe; Pinborg, Anja; Holst, Klaus Kähler

2015-01-01

.6 ± 2.2) and at follow-up (16.2 ± 2.6 days after intervention start). RESULTS: Sex hormone manipulation with GnRHa significantly triggered subclinical depressive symptoms within-group (p = .003) and relative to placebo (p = .02), which were positively associated with net decreases in estradiol levels (p......BACKGROUND: An adverse response to acute and pronounced changes in sex-hormone levels during, for example, the perimenopausal or postpartum period appears to heighten risk for major depression in women. The underlying risk mechanisms remain elusive but may include transiently compromised...... serotonergic brain signaling. Here, we modeled a biphasic ovarian sex hormone fluctuation using a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) and evaluated if emergence of depressive symptoms was associated with change in cerebral serotonin transporter (SERT) binding following intervention. METHODS...

Featurized Bidirectional GAN: Adversarial Defense via Adversarially Learned Semantic Inference

OpenAIRE

Bao, Ruying; Liang, Sihang; Wang, Qingcan

2018-01-01

Deep neural networks have been demonstrated to be vulnerable to adversarial attacks, where small perturbations are intentionally added to the original inputs to fool the classifier. In this paper, we propose a defense method, Featurized Bidirectional Generative Adversarial Networks (FBGAN), to capture the semantic features of the input and filter the non-semantic perturbation. FBGAN is pre-trained on the clean dataset in an unsupervised manner, adversarially learning a bidirectional mapping b...

Fungal Infection Induces Sex-Specific Transcriptional Changes and Alters Sexual Dimorphism in the Dioecious Plant Silene latifolia.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Niklaus Zemp

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Sexual dimorphism, including differences in morphology, behavior and physiology between females and males, is widespread in animals and plants and is shaped by gene expression differences between the sexes. Such expression differences may also underlie sex-specific responses of hosts to pathogen infections, most notably when pathogens induce partial sex reversal in infected hosts. The genetic changes associated with sex-specific responses to pathogen infections on the one hand, and sexual dimorphism on the other hand, remain poorly understood. The dioecious White Campion (Silene latifolia displays sexual dimorphism in floral traits and infection with the smut fungus Micobrotryum lychnidis-dioicae induces a partial sex reversal in females. We find strong sex-specific responses to pathogen infection and reduced sexual dimorphism in infected S. latifolia. This provides a direct link between pathogen-mediated changes in sex-biased gene expression and altered sexual dimorphism in the host. Expression changes following infection affected mainly genes with male-biased expression in healthy plants. In females, these genes were up-regulated, leading to a masculinization of the transcriptome. In contrast, infection in males was associated with down-regulation of these genes, leading to a demasculinization of the transcriptome. To a lesser extent, genes with female-biased expression in healthy plants were also affected in opposite directions in the two sexes. These genes were overall down-regulated in females and up-regulated in males, causing, respectively, a defeminization in infected females and a feminization of the transcriptome in infected males. Our results reveal strong sex-specific responses to pathogen infection in a dioecious plant and provide a link between pathogen-induced changes in sex-biased gene expression and sexual dimorphism.

Fungal Infection Induces Sex-Specific Transcriptional Changes and Alters Sexual Dimorphism in the Dioecious Plant Silene latifolia.

Science.gov (United States)

Zemp, Niklaus; Tavares, Raquel; Widmer, Alex

2015-10-01

Sexual dimorphism, including differences in morphology, behavior and physiology between females and males, is widespread in animals and plants and is shaped by gene expression differences between the sexes. Such expression differences may also underlie sex-specific responses of hosts to pathogen infections, most notably when pathogens induce partial sex reversal in infected hosts. The genetic changes associated with sex-specific responses to pathogen infections on the one hand, and sexual dimorphism on the other hand, remain poorly understood. The dioecious White Campion (Silene latifolia) displays sexual dimorphism in floral traits and infection with the smut fungus Micobrotryum lychnidis-dioicae induces a partial sex reversal in females. We find strong sex-specific responses to pathogen infection and reduced sexual dimorphism in infected S. latifolia. This provides a direct link between pathogen-mediated changes in sex-biased gene expression and altered sexual dimorphism in the host. Expression changes following infection affected mainly genes with male-biased expression in healthy plants. In females, these genes were up-regulated, leading to a masculinization of the transcriptome. In contrast, infection in males was associated with down-regulation of these genes, leading to a demasculinization of the transcriptome. To a lesser extent, genes with female-biased expression in healthy plants were also affected in opposite directions in the two sexes. These genes were overall down-regulated in females and up-regulated in males, causing, respectively, a defeminization in infected females and a feminization of the transcriptome in infected males. Our results reveal strong sex-specific responses to pathogen infection in a dioecious plant and provide a link between pathogen-induced changes in sex-biased gene expression and sexual dimorphism.

Bilateral Coordination Strategy of Supply Chain with Bidirectional Option Contracts under Inflation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nana Wan

2015-01-01

Full Text Available As far as the price increase and the demand contraction caused by inflation are concerned, we establish a Stackelberg game model that incorporates bidirectional option contracts and the effect of inflation and derive the optimal ordering and production policies on a one-period two-stage supply chain composed of one supplier and one retailer. Through using the model of wholesale price contracts as the benchmark, we find that the introduction of bidirectional option contracts can benefit both the supplier and the retailer under inflation scenarios. Based on the conclusions drawn above, we design the bilateral coordination mechanism from the different perspective of two members involved and discuss how bidirectional option contracts should be set to achieve channel coordination under inflation scenarios. Through the sensitivity analysis, we illustrate the effect of inflation on the optimal decision variables and the optimal expected profits of the two parties with bidirectional option contracts.

The Bidirectional Relationship between Sleep and Immunity against Infections

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elizabeth G. Ibarra-Coronado

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Sleep is considered an important modulator of the immune response. Thus, a lack of sleep can weaken immunity, increasing organism susceptibility to infection. For instance, shorter sleep durations are associated with a rise in suffering from the common cold. The function of sleep in altering immune responses must be determined to understand how sleep deprivation increases the susceptibility to viral, bacterial, and parasitic infections. There are several explanations for greater susceptibility to infections after reduced sleep, such as impaired mitogenic proliferation of lymphocytes, decreased HLA-DR expression, the upregulation of CD14+, and variations in CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes, which have been observed during partial sleep deprivation. Also, steroid hormones, in addition to regulating sexual behavior, influence sleep. Thus, we hypothesize that sleep and the immune-endocrine system have a bidirectional relationship in governing various physiological processes, including immunity to infections. This review discusses the evidence on the bidirectional effects of the immune response against viral, bacterial, and parasitic infections on sleep patterns and how the lack of sleep affects the immune response against such agents. Because sleep is essential in the maintenance of homeostasis, these situations must be adapted to elicit changes in sleep patterns and other physiological parameters during the immune response to infections to which the organism is continuously exposed.

Profile of male Brazilian injecting drug users who have sex with men

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ferreira Aline Dayrell

2006-01-01

Full Text Available This study aims to characterize the profile of male injecting drug users who have sex with other men (MSM IDUs recruited through a cross-sectional multi-city survey (AjUDE-Brasil II Project in six Brazilian cities, in 2000-2001. MSM IDUs were compared to other male IDUs using bivariate and multivariate procedures (logistic regression and answer tree analysis with the CHAID algorithm. Among the 709 male IDUs, 187 (26.4% reported ever having had sex with other men, while only 37 reported sex with other men in the previous six months. MSM IDUs were more likely to be unemployed (OR = 2.3, to have injected tranquilizers (OR = 3.6, and to be HIV-seropositive (OR = 2.1, compared to other male IDUs. Male same-sex relations in this subgroup appear to be associated with strategies to finance drug consuming habits, including sex for drugs with occasional female partners or obtaining injection paraphernalia from occasional sex partners. Further studies should focus on this especially vulnerable subgroup of IDUs, due to the bidirectional and complex interrelationships between their drug injecting habits and sexual risk behaviors.

ABOUT HYBRID BIDIRECTIONAL ASSOCIATIVE MEMORY NEURAL NETWORKS WITH DISCRETE DELAYS

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

无

2010-01-01

In this paper, hybrid bidirectional associative memory neural networks with discrete delays is considered. By ingeniously importing real parameters di > 0(i = 1,2,···,n) which can be adjusted, we establish some new sufficient conditions for the dynamical characteristics of hybrid bidirectional associative memory neural networks with discrete delays by the method of variation of parameters and some analysis techniques. Our results generalize and improve the related results in [10,11]. Our work is significant...

Sex Behaviour Change in Response to the HIV/AIDS Threat among ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Sex Behaviour Change in Response to the HIV/AIDS Threat among University ... active, and prior studies have documented an appreciable knowledge of the HIV ... Design: A cross sectional descriptive survey of selfreported sexual behaviour ...

Bi-directional electrons in the near-Earth plasma sheet

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Shiokawa

2003-07-01

Full Text Available We have studied the occurrence characteristics of bi-directional electron pitch angle anisotropy (enhanced flux in field-aligned directions, F^ /F|| > 1.5 at energies of 0.1–30 keV using plasma and magnetic field data from the AMPTE/IRM satellite in the near-Earth plasma sheet. The occurrence rate increases in the tailward direction from XGSM = - 9 RE to - 19 RE . The occurrence rate is also enhanced in the midnight sector, and furthermore, whenever the elevation angle of the magnetic field is large while the magnetic field intensity is small, B ~ 15 nT. From these facts, we conclude that the bi-directional electrons in the central plasma sheet are produced mainly in the vicinity of the neutral sheet and that the contribution from ionospheric electrons is minor. A high occurrence is also found after earthward high-speed ion flows, suggesting Fermi-type field-aligned electron acceleration in the neutral sheet. Occurrence characteristics of bi-directional electrons in the plasma sheet boundary layer are also discussed.Key words. Magnetospheric physics (magnetospheric configuration and dynamics; magnetotail; plasma sheet

[Transsexualism or delusions of sex change? Avoiding misdiagnosis].

Science.gov (United States)

Urban, Małgorzata

2009-01-01

The aim of this paper was to present basic data about gender identity disorders and psychotic transsexual desires. From time to time in scientific literature there are descriptions of a diagnosis of psychotic disorders in persons previously diagnosed and treated as transsexuals, in whom the transsexual thinking disappears after using antipsychotic agents. Coexistence of transsexualism and schizophrenia causes a lot of doubt--it is observed in scientists opinions but also in the diagnostic criteria of DSM-IV and ICD-10. Moreover, delusions of sex change are probably more frequent than it is thought. It causes, that in some cases the differential diagnosis of psychosis and gender identity disorders may be very difficult. Transsexuals treatment is on one hand connected with expected effects but on the other hand with many serious, often irreversible health consequences (e.g. cardiovascular disease, risk of neoplasma development, infertility, consequences of surgical sex reassignment). That is why the differential diagnosis of transsexualism and schizophrenia should be made carefully and thoughtfully.

Energy-efficient three-phase bidirectional converter for grid-connected storage applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Colmenar-Santos, Antonio; Linares-Mena, Ana-Rosa; Velázquez, Jesús Fernández; Borge-Diez, David

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Storage control system developed based on AC DC three phase bidirectional converter. • Bidirectional AC DC converter for storage integration into distribution grids. • Efficiencies over 98% for values over 30% of the bidirectional converter rated power. • Sensitivity analysis of the parameters set by the transmission system operator. • Low-cost option for control and integration of new grid-connected storage systems. - Abstract: Grid connected energy storage systems are expected to play an essential role in the development of Smart Grids, providing, among other benefits, ancillary services to power grids. It is therefore crucial to design and develop control and conversion systems that represent the key instrument where intelligence for decision-making is applied, in order to validate and ensure its optimal operation as part and parcel of the electrical system. The present research describes the design and development of a battery energy storage system based on an AC-DC three-phase bidirectional converter capable of operating either in charge mode to store electrical energy, or in discharge mode to supply load demands. The design is modelled with MATLAB® Simulink® environment in order to evaluate the performance during load variations. Moreover, the assessment is complemented by a global sensitivity analysis for variations in the operating parameters set by the transmission system operator. The effectiveness of the simulation is confirmed by implementing the system and carrying out grid connection tests, obtaining efficiencies over 98% for values over the 30% of the bidirectional converter rated power.

A Sex Work Research Symposium: Examining Positionality in Documenting Sex Work and Sex Workers’ Rights

OpenAIRE

Megan Lowthers; Magdalena Sabat; Elya M. Durisin; Kamala Kempadoo

2017-01-01

Historically, academic literature on sex work has documented the changing debates, policies, and cultural discourse surrounding the sex industry, and their impact on the rights of sex workers worldwide. As sex work scholars look to the future of sex workers’ rights, however, we are also in a critical moment of self-reflection on how sex work scholarship engages with sex worker communities, produces knowledge surrounding sex work, and represents the lived experiences of sex workers’ rights, or...

Contextual modulation of social and endocrine correlates of fitness: insights from the life history of a sex changing fish

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Devaleena S Pradhan

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Steroid hormones are critical regulators of reproductive life history, and the steroid sensitive traits (morphology, behavior, physiology associated with particular life history stages can have substantial fitness consequences for an organism. Hormones, behavior and fitness are reciprocally associated and can be used in an integrative fashion to understand how the environment impacts organismal function. To address the fitness component, we highlight the importance of using reliable proxies of reproductive success, when studying proximate regulation of reproductive phenotypes. To understand the mechanisms by which the endocrine system regulates phenotype, we discuss the use of particular endocrine proxies and the need for appropriate functional interpretation of each. Lastly, in any experimental paradigm, the responses of animals vary based on the subtle differences in environmental and social context and this must also be considered. We explore these different levels of analyses by focusing on the fascinating life history transitions exhibited by the bi-directionally hermaphroditic fish, Lythrypnus dalli. Sex changing fish are excellent models for providing a deeper understanding of the fitness consequences associated with the behavioral and endocrine variation. We close by proposing that local regulation of steroids is one potential mechanism that allows for the expression of novel phenotypes that can be characteristic of specific life history stages. A comparative species approach will facilitate progress in understanding the diversity of mechanisms underlying the contextual regulation of phenotypes and their associated fitness correlates.

Exact bidirectional X -wave solutions in fiber Bragg gratings

Science.gov (United States)

Efremidis, Nikolaos K.; Nye, Nicholas S.; Christodoulides, Demetrios N.

2017-10-01

We find exact solutions describing bidirectional pulses propagating in fiber Bragg gratings. They are derived by solving the coupled-mode theory equations and are expressed in terms of products of modified Bessel functions with algebraic functions. Depending on the values of the two free parameters, the general bidirectional X -wave solution can also take the form of a unidirectional pulse. We analyze the symmetries and the asymptotic properties of the solutions and also discuss additional waveforms that are obtained by interference of more than one solution. Depending on their parameters, such pulses can create a sharp focus with high contrast.

Analysis of bi-directional piezoelectric-based converters for zero-voltage switching operation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ekhtiari, Marzieh; Zhang, Zhe; Andersen, Michael A. E.

2016-01-01

This paper deals with a thorough analysis of zerovoltage switching especially for bi-directional, inductorless, piezoelectric transformer-based switch-mode power supplies with a half-bridge topology. Practically, obtaining zero-voltage switching for all of the switches in a bi-directional piezoel......This paper deals with a thorough analysis of zerovoltage switching especially for bi-directional, inductorless, piezoelectric transformer-based switch-mode power supplies with a half-bridge topology. Practically, obtaining zero-voltage switching for all of the switches in a bi......-directional piezoelectric power converter is a difficult task. However, the analysis in this work will be convenient for overcoming this challenge. The analysis defines the zero-voltage region indicating the operating points whether or not soft switching can be met over the switching frequency and load range. For the first...... time, a comprehensive analysis is provided, which can be used as a design guideline for applying control techniques in order to drive switches in piezoelectric transformer-based converters. This study further conveys the proposed method to the region where all the switches can obtain soft switching...

Change in schistosome sex ratio under the influence of a biotic environmental-related factor.

Science.gov (United States)

Moné, H

1997-04-01

Schistosoma mansoni is a dioecious trematode responsible for intestinal schistosomiasis in man. The sex ratio was determined for S. mansoni adults derived from cercariae obtained from infected Biomphalaria glabrata maintained in the presence of the nonvector molluse. Marisa cornuarietis. The presence of M. cornuarietis is responsible for enhanced growth of B. glabrata and for a change in the sex ratio of the schistosome, which becomes more male-biased as compared to control snails maintained in aquaria lacking M. cornuarietis. This is the first time the presence of another species in the environment has been shown to influence schistosome sex ratios. Two nonexclusive hypotheses are proposed to explain this variation in the sex ratio: sexual competition between male and female sporocysts; and sex reversal.

Bidirectional communication in an HF hybrid organic/solution-processed metal-oxide RFID tag

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Myny, K.; Rockelé, M.; Chasin, A.; Pham, D.V.; Steiger, J.; Botnaras, S.; Weber, D.; Herold, B.; Ficker, J.; Van Putten, B.D.; Gelinck, G.H.; Genoe, J.; Dehaene, W.; Heremans, P.

2014-01-01

A bidirectional communication protocol allows radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags to have readout of multiple tags in the RF field without collision of data. In this paper, we realized bidirectional communication between a reader system and thin-film RFID tag by introducing a novel protocol

Uncertainties in the Bidirectional Biodiesel Supply Chain

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bot, Pieter; van Donk, Dirk Pieter; Pennink, Bartjan; Simatupang, Togar M.

2015-01-01

For remote areas, small-scale local biodiesel production is particularly attractive if producers and consumers are the same. Such supply chains are labeled as bidirectional. However, little is known on how raw material supply, transportation, logistics, production and operations uncertainties impact

Stress and serial adult metamorphosis: Multiple roles for the stress axis in socially regulated sex change

OpenAIRE

Tessa K Solomon-Lane; Erica J Crespi; Erica J Crespi; Matthew Scott Grober; Matthew Scott Grober

2013-01-01

Socially regulated sex change in teleost fishes is a striking example of social status information regulating biological function in the service of reproductive success. The establishment of social dominance in sex changing species is translated into a cascade of changes in behavior, physiology, neuroendocrine function, and morphology that transforms a female into a male, or vice versa. The hypothalamic-pituitary-interrenal axis (HPI, homologous to HP-adrenal axis in mammals and birds) has ...

Stress and serial adult metamorphosis: multiple roles for the stress axis in socially regulated sex change

OpenAIRE

Solomon-Lane, Tessa K.; Crespi, Erica J.; Grober, Matthew S.

2013-01-01

Socially regulated sex change in teleost fishes is a striking example of social status information regulating biological function in the service of reproductive success. The establishment of social dominance in sex changing species is translated into a cascade of changes in behavior, physiology, neuroendocrine function, and morphology that transforms a female into a male, or vice versa. The hypothalamic-pituitary-interrenal axis (HPI, homologous to HP-adrenal axis in mammals and birds) has be...

On Training Bi-directional Neural Network Language Model with Noise Contrastive Estimation

OpenAIRE

He, Tianxing; Zhang, Yu; Droppo, Jasha; Yu, Kai

2016-01-01

We propose to train bi-directional neural network language model(NNLM) with noise contrastive estimation(NCE). Experiments are conducted on a rescore task on the PTB data set. It is shown that NCE-trained bi-directional NNLM outperformed the one trained by conventional maximum likelihood training. But still(regretfully), it did not out-perform the baseline uni-directional NNLM.

Bidirectional association between parental child-feeding practices and body mass index at 4 and 7 y of age.

Science.gov (United States)

Afonso, Lisa; Lopes, Carla; Severo, Milton; Santos, Susana; Real, Helena; Durão, Catarina; Moreira, Pedro; Oliveira, Andreia

2016-03-01

Evidence of the association between parental child-feeding practices and the child's body mass index (BMI) is controversial, and bidirectional effects have been poorly studied. We aimed to examine bidirectional associations between parental child-feeding practices and BMI at 4 and 7 y of age. This study included 3708 singleton children from the Generation XXI birth cohort with data on parental child-feeding practices and BMI at 4 and 7 y old. Feeding practices were assessed through a self-administered questionnaire by combining the Child Feeding Questionnaire and the Overt/Covert Control scale and then adapting it to Portuguese preschool children. Weight and height were measured according to standardized procedures, and age- and sex-specific BMI z scores were computed based on the WHO Growth References. Linear regression models were used to estimate the bidirectional associations between each practice and BMI z score. Crosslagged analyses were performed to compare the directions of those associations (the mean score of each practice and BMI z score at both ages were standardized to enable effect size comparisons). After adjustments, pressure to eat and overt control at 4 y of age were associated with a lower BMI z score 3 y later (β: -0.05; 95% CI: -0.08, -0.03 and β: -0.05; 95% CI: -0.09, -0.01, respectively). Regarding the opposite direction of association, a higher BMI z score at 4 y of age was significantly associated with higher levels of restriction and covert control at 7 y of age (β: 0.06; 95% CI: 0.03, 0.08 and β: 0.06; 95% CI: 0.04, 0.08, respectively) and with lower levels of pressure to eat (β: -0.17; 95% CI: -0.20, -0.15). The only bidirectional practice, pressure to eat, was more strongly influenced by the BMI z score than the reverse (βstandardized: -0.17 compared with βstandardized: -0.04; likelihood ratio test: P parents both respond to and influence the child's weight; thus, this child-parent interaction should be considered in future

Bidirectional Thermo-Mechanical Properties of Foam Core Materials Using DIC

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Taher, Siavash Talebi; Thomsen, Ole Thybo; M Dulieu-Barton, Janice

2011-01-01

mechanical properties at room and at elevated temperatures. The MAF enables the realization of pure compression or high compression to shear bidirectional loading conditions that is not possible with conventional Arcan fixtures. The MAF is attached to a standard universal test machine equiped...... with an environmental chamber using specially designed grips that allow the specimen to rotate, and hence reduces paristic effects due to misalignment. The objective is to measure the unidirectional and bidirectional mechanical properties of PVC foam materials at elevated tempreature using digital image correlation...

Socio-Hydrology: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges in the Bidirectional Coupling of Human and Water Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, C. A.

2014-12-01

This presentation reviews conceptual advances in the emerging field of socio-hydrology that focuses on coupled human and water systems. An important current challenge is how to better couple the bidirectional influences between human and water systems, which lead to emergent dynamics. The interactions among (1) the structure and dynamics of systems with (2) human values and norms lead to (3) outcomes, which in turn influence subsequent interactions. Human influences on hydrological systems are relatively well understood, chiefly resulting from developments in the field of water resources. The ecosystem-service concept of cultural value has expanded understanding of decision-making beyond economic rationality criteria. Hydrological impacts on social processes are less well developed conceptually, but this is changing with growing attention to vulnerability, adaptation, and resilience, particularly in the face of climate change. Methodological limitations, especially in characterizing the range of human responses to hydrological events and drivers, still pose challenges to modeling bidirectional human-water influences. Evidence from multiple case studies, synthesized in more broadly generic syndromes, helps surmount these methodological limitations and offers the potential to improve characterization and quantification of socio-hydrological systems.

Bidirectional Effects between Parenting and Aggressive Child Behavior in the Context of a Preventive Intervention.

Science.gov (United States)

Te Brinke, Lysanne W; Deković, Maja; Stoltz, Sabine E M J; Cillessen, Antonius H N

2017-07-01

Over time, developmental theories and empirical studies have gradually started to adopt a bidirectional viewpoint. The area of intervention research is, however, lagging behind in this respect. This longitudinal study examined whether bidirectional associations between (changes in) parenting and (changes in) aggressive child behavior over time differed in three conditions: a child intervention condition, a child + parent intervention condition and a control condition. Participants were 267 children (74 % boys, 26 % girls) with elevated levels of aggression, their mothers and their teachers. Reactive aggression, proactive aggression and perceived parenting were measured at four measurement times from pretest to one-year after intervention termination. Results showed that associations between aggressive child behavior and perceived parenting are different in an intervention context, compared to a general developmental context. Aggressive behavior and perceived parenting were unrelated over time for children who did not receive an intervention. In an intervention context, however, decreases in aggressive child behavior were related to increases in perceived positive parenting and decreases in perceived overreactivity. These findings underscore the importance of addressing child-driven processes in interventions aimed at children, but also in interventions aimed at both children and their parents.

Implantable neurotechnologies: bidirectional neural interfaces--applications and VLSI circuit implementations.

Science.gov (United States)

Greenwald, Elliot; Masters, Matthew R; Thakor, Nitish V

2016-01-01

A bidirectional neural interface is a device that transfers information into and out of the nervous system. This class of devices has potential to improve treatment and therapy in several patient populations. Progress in very large-scale integration has advanced the design of complex integrated circuits. System-on-chip devices are capable of recording neural electrical activity and altering natural activity with electrical stimulation. Often, these devices include wireless powering and telemetry functions. This review presents the state of the art of bidirectional circuits as applied to neuroprosthetic, neurorepair, and neurotherapeutic systems.

A Novel PPFHB Bidirectional DC-DC Converter for Supercapacitor Application

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, Zhe; Thomsen, Ole Cornelius; Andersen, Michael Andreas E.

2009-01-01

This paper presents a novel bidirectional DC-DC converter for the supercapacitor application. In the proposed converter, push-pull forward with half bridge (PPFHB) voltage doubler structure is used to reduce the number of the power switches and get higher voltage gain. Based on phase-shift modula......This paper presents a novel bidirectional DC-DC converter for the supercapacitor application. In the proposed converter, push-pull forward with half bridge (PPFHB) voltage doubler structure is used to reduce the number of the power switches and get higher voltage gain. Based on phase...

Bidirectional optimization of the melting spinning process.

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Xiao; Ding, Yongsheng; Wang, Zidong; Hao, Kuangrong; Hone, Kate; Wang, Huaping

2014-02-01

A bidirectional optimizing approach for the melting spinning process based on an immune-enhanced neural network is proposed. The proposed bidirectional model can not only reveal the internal nonlinear relationship between the process configuration and the quality indices of the fibers as final product, but also provide a tool for engineers to develop new fiber products with expected quality specifications. A neural network is taken as the basis for the bidirectional model, and an immune component is introduced to enlarge the searching scope of the solution field so that the neural network has a larger possibility to find the appropriate and reasonable solution, and the error of prediction can therefore be eliminated. The proposed intelligent model can also help to determine what kind of process configuration should be made in order to produce satisfactory fiber products. To make the proposed model practical to the manufacturing, a software platform is developed. Simulation results show that the proposed model can eliminate the approximation error raised by the neural network-based optimizing model, which is due to the extension of focusing scope by the artificial immune mechanism. Meanwhile, the proposed model with the corresponding software can conduct optimization in two directions, namely, the process optimization and category development, and the corresponding results outperform those with an ordinary neural network-based intelligent model. It is also proved that the proposed model has the potential to act as a valuable tool from which the engineers and decision makers of the spinning process could benefit.

Bi-directional interhemispheric inhibition during unimanual sustained contractions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ni Zhen

2009-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The interaction between homologous muscle representations in the right and left primary motor cortex was studied using a paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS protocol known to evoke interhemispheric inhibition (IHI. The timecourse and magnitude of IHI was studied in fifteen healthy right-handed adults at several interstimulus intervals between the conditioning stimulus and test stimulus (6, 8, 10, 12, 30, 40, 50 ms. IHI was studied in the motor dominant to non-dominant direction and vice versa while the right or left hand was at rest, performing isometric contraction of the first dorsal interosseous (FDI muscle, and isometric contraction of the FDI muscle in the context of holding a pen. Results Compared with rest, IHI was reduced at all ISIs during contraction of either type (with or without the context of pen. IHI was reduced bi-directionally without evidence of hemispheric dominance. Further, contraction of the hand contralateral to the conditioning and test pulse yielded similar reductions in IHI. Conclusion These data provide evidence for bi-directional reduction of IHI during unimanual contractions. During unimanual, sustained contractions of the hand, the contralateral and ipsilateral motor cortices demonstrate reduced inhibition. The data suggest that unimanual movement decreases inhibition bi-directionally across motor hemispheres and offer one explanation for the observation of ipsilateral M1 activity during hand movements.

Family of multiport bidirectional DC-DC converters

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tao, H.; Kotsopoulos, A.; Duarte, J.L.; Hendrix, M.A.M.

2006-01-01

Multiport DC-DC converters are of potential interest in applications such as generation systems utilising multiple sustainable energy sources. A family of multiport bidirectional DC-DC converters derived from a general topology is presented. The topology shows a combination of DC-link and magnetic

Bi-directional Multi Dimension CAP Transmission for Smart Grid Communication Services

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, Xu; Binti Othman, Maisara; Pang, Xiaodan

2012-01-01

We experimentally demonstrate bi-directional multi dimension carrierless amplitude and phase (CAP) transmission for smart grid communication services based on optical fiber networks. The proposed system is able to support multi-Gb/s transmission with high spectral efficiency.......We experimentally demonstrate bi-directional multi dimension carrierless amplitude and phase (CAP) transmission for smart grid communication services based on optical fiber networks. The proposed system is able to support multi-Gb/s transmission with high spectral efficiency....

Bi-directional magnetic resonance based wireless power transfer for electronic devices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kar, Durga P.; Nayak, Praveen P.; Bhuyan, Satyanarayan; Mishra, Debasish

2015-01-01

In order to power or charge electronic devices wirelessly, a bi-directional wireless power transfer method has been proposed and experimentally investigated. In the proposed design, two receiving coils are used on both sides of a transmitting coil along its central axis to receive the power wirelessly from the generated magnetic fields through strongly coupled magnetic resonance. It has been observed experimentally that the maximum power transfer occurs at the operating resonant frequency for optimum electric load connected across the receiving coils on both side. The optimum wireless power transfer efficiency is 88% for the bi-directional power transfer technique compared 84% in the one side receiver system. By adopting the developed bi-directional power transfer method, two electronic devices can be powered up or charged simultaneously instead of a single device through usual one side receiver system without affecting the optimum power transfer efficiency

Bi-directional magnetic resonance based wireless power transfer for electronic devices

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kar, Durga P.; Nayak, Praveen P.; Bhuyan, Satyanarayan; Mishra, Debasish [Department of Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering, Institute of Technical Education and Research, Siksha ‘O’ Anushandhan University, Bhubaneswar 751030 (India)

2015-09-28

In order to power or charge electronic devices wirelessly, a bi-directional wireless power transfer method has been proposed and experimentally investigated. In the proposed design, two receiving coils are used on both sides of a transmitting coil along its central axis to receive the power wirelessly from the generated magnetic fields through strongly coupled magnetic resonance. It has been observed experimentally that the maximum power transfer occurs at the operating resonant frequency for optimum electric load connected across the receiving coils on both side. The optimum wireless power transfer efficiency is 88% for the bi-directional power transfer technique compared 84% in the one side receiver system. By adopting the developed bi-directional power transfer method, two electronic devices can be powered up or charged simultaneously instead of a single device through usual one side receiver system without affecting the optimum power transfer efficiency.

Silent and Efficient Supersonic Bi-Directional Flying Wing

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — We propose a Phase I study for a novel concept of a supersonic bi-directional (SBiDir) flying wing (FW) that has the potential to revolutionize supersonic flight...

Bidirectional communication using delay coupled chaotic directly ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

A symmetric bidirectional coupling is identified as a suitable method for isochronal synchronization of such lasers. The optimum values of coupling and feedback strength that can provide maximum quality of synchronization are identified. This method is successfully employed for encoding/decoding both analog and digital ...

Block-classified bidirectional motion compensation scheme for wavelet-decomposed digital video

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zafar, S. [Argonne National Lab., IL (United States). Mathematics and Computer Science Div.; Zhang, Y.Q. [David Sarnoff Research Center, Princeton, NJ (United States); Jabbari, B. [George Mason Univ., Fairfax, VA (United States)

1997-08-01

In this paper the authors introduce a block-classified bidirectional motion compensation scheme for the previously developed wavelet-based video codec, where multiresolution motion estimation is performed in the wavelet domain. The frame classification structure described in this paper is similar to that used in the MPEG standard. Specifically, the I-frames are intraframe coded, the P-frames are interpolated from a previous I- or a P-frame, and the B-frames are bidirectional interpolated frames. They apply this frame classification structure to the wavelet domain with variable block sizes and multiresolution representation. They use a symmetric bidirectional scheme for the B-frames and classify the motion blocks as intraframe, compensated either from the preceding or the following frame, or bidirectional (i.e., compensated based on which type yields the minimum energy). They also introduce the concept of F-frames, which are analogous to P-frames but are predicted from the following frame only. This improves the overall quality of the reconstruction in a group of pictures (GOP) but at the expense of extra buffering. They also study the effect of quantization of the I-frames on the reconstruction of a GOP, and they provide intuitive explanation for the results. In addition, the authors study a variety of wavelet filter-banks to be used in a multiresolution motion-compensated hierarchical video codec.

Bidirectional relations between work-related stress, sleep quality and perseverative cognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Laethem, Michelle; Beckers, Debby G J; Kompier, Michiel A J; Kecklund, Göran; van den Bossche, Seth N J; Geurts, Sabine A E

2015-11-01

In this longitudinal two-wave study, bidirectional relations between work-related stress and sleep quality were examined. Moreover, it was investigated whether perseverative cognition is a potential underlying mechanism in this association, related to both work-related stress and sleep quality. A randomly selected sample of Dutch employees received an online survey in 2012 and 2013. Of all invited employees, 877 participated in both waves. Structural equation modeling was performed to analyze the data. We found evidence for reversed relations between work-related stress and sleep quality. Specifically, when controlling for perseverative cognition, work-related stress was not directly related to subsequent sleep quality, but low sleep quality was associated with an increase in work-related stress over time. Moreover, negative bidirectional associations over time were found between perseverative cognition and sleep quality, and positive bidirectional associations were found between work-related stress and perseverative cognition. Lastly, a mediation analysis showed that perseverative cognition fully mediated the relationship between work-related stress and sleep quality. The study findings suggest that perseverative cognition could be an important underlying mechanism in the association between work-related stress and sleep quality. The bidirectionality of the studied relationships could be an indication of a vicious cycle, in which work-related stress, perseverative cognition, and sleep quality mutually influence each other over time. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Personalized recommendation based on heat bidirectional transfer

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Wenping; Feng, Xiang; Wang, Shanfeng; Gong, Maoguo

2016-02-01

Personalized recommendation has become an increasing popular research topic, which aims to find future likes and interests based on users' past preferences. Traditional recommendation algorithms pay more attention to forecast accuracy by calculating first-order relevance, while ignore the importance of diversity and novelty that provide comfortable experiences for customers. There are some levels of contradictions between these three metrics, so an algorithm based on bidirectional transfer is proposed in this paper to solve this dilemma. In this paper, we agree that an object that is associated with history records or has been purchased by similar users should be introduced to the specified user and recommendation approach based on heat bidirectional transfer is proposed. Compared with the state-of-the-art approaches based on bipartite network, experiments on two benchmark data sets, Movielens and Netflix, demonstrate that our algorithm has better performance on accuracy, diversity and novelty. Moreover, this method does better in exploiting long-tail commodities and cold-start problem.

Optical properties (bidirectional reflectance distribution function) of shot fabric.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, R; Koenderink, J J; Kappers, A M

2000-11-01

To study the optical properties of materials, one needs a complete set of the angular distribution functions of surface scattering from the materials. Here we present a convenient method for collecting a large set of bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) samples in the hemispherical scattering space. Material samples are wrapped around a right-circular cylinder and irradiated by a parallel light source, and the scattered radiance is collected by a digital camera. We tilted the cylinder around its center to collect the BRDF samples outside the plane of incidence. This method can be used with materials that have isotropic and anisotropic scattering properties. We demonstrate this method in a detailed investigation of shot fabrics. The warps and the fillings of shot fabrics are dyed different colors so that the fabric appears to change color at different viewing angles. These color-changing characteristics are found to be related to the physical and geometrical structure of shot fabric. Our study reveals that the color-changing property of shot fabrics is due mainly to an occlusion effect.

Synchronization and bidirectional communication without delay line using strong mutually coupled semiconductor lasers

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Guang-Hui; Wang, An-Bang; Feng, Ye; Wang, Yang

2010-07-01

This paper numerically demonstrates synchronization and bidirectional communication without delay line by using two semiconductor lasers with strong mutual injection in a face-to-face configuration. These results show that both of the two lasers' outputs synchronize with their input chaotic carriers. In addition, simulations demonstrate that this kind of synchronization can be used to realize bidirectional communications without delay line. Further studies indicate that within a small deviation in message amplitudes of two sides (±6%), the message can be extracted with signal-noise-ratio more than 10 dB; and the signal-noise-ratio is extremely sensitive to the message rates mismatch of two sides, which may be used as a key of bidirectional communication.

Synchronization and bidirectional communication without delay line using strong mutually coupled semiconductor lasers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guang-Hui, Li; An-Bang, Wang; Ye, Feng; Yang, Wang

2010-01-01

This paper numerically demonstrates synchronization and bidirectional communication without delay line by using two semiconductor lasers with strong mutual injection in a face-to-face configuration. These results show that both of the two lasers' outputs synchronize with their input chaotic carriers. In addition, simulations demonstrate that this kind of synchronization can be used to realize bidirectional communications without delay line. Further studies indicate that within a small deviation in message amplitudes of two sides (±6%), the message can be extracted with signal-noise-ratio more than 10 dB; and the signal-noise-ratio is extremely sensitive to the message rates mismatch of two sides, which may be used as a key of bidirectional communication. (general)

Changes in Plasma Sex Hormone Levels in Women with Severe Concomitant Injury

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. N Yezhova

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Objective: to perform a complex study of the plasma levels of 11 sex hormones and their functional values in women with severe concomitant injury (SCI. Subjects and methods. The study enrolled 16 women aged 18—45 years who had SCI. Admission APACHE II scores were 18.9±1.3. According to the outcome of a posttraumatic period, all the patients were divided into 2 groups: A survivors; B deceased subjects. The normal values were used to comparatively analyze the concentrations of reproductive hormones. The time course of changes in hormone concentration was studied on postoperative days 1, 3, and 7. The hormone profile was examined by BSL test kits (USA on a STAT Fax 2100 enzyme immunoanalyzer (Awareness Technology Inc., USA. The content of prolactin, luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, progesterone, 17-hydroxyprogesterone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S, androstendione (A, testosterone (T, dihydrotestosterone, estrone, and estradiol (E were measured. Results. The complex study of changes in the profile of 11 plasma sex hormones was first conducted in women in the posttraumat-ic period. Moreover, the typical plasma hormonal changes were elevated prolactin levels, a decrease in the concentrations of gonadotropins, and increases in some androgens, A, T, and E. The deceased women showed lower concentrations of DHEA-S and T. Analysis revealed an inverse correlation between the plasma concentration of DHEA-S and the injury severity. This change seems to suggest that an adrenal adaptation reaction is exhausted. The changes revealed in hormonal levels are of significance in understanding the pathogenesis of SCT. This may serve as a basis for the development of new therapy modalities using reproductive hormones in the postresuscitative period. Key words: severe concomitant injury, sex hormones, prolactin, luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, progesterone, 17-hydroxyprogesterone, androgens, estrogens.

Social factors and aromatase gene expression during adult male-to-female sex change in captive leopard grouper Mycteroperca rosacea.

Science.gov (United States)

Romo-Mendoza, Daniel; Campos-Ramos, Rafael; Vázquez-Islas, Grecia; Burgos-Aceves, Mario A; Esquivel-Gutiérrez, Edgar R; Guerrero-Tortolero, Danitzia A

2018-01-25

Social factors and aromatase gene expression in the leopard grouper Mycteroperca rosacea was studied when captive fish were separated by sex during the reproductive (April-June) and post-reproductive (July-September) seasons. Monosex females, monosex males, and mixed-sex, held in social sextet units were analyzed for sex steroids throughout confinement. At the end of the experiment, the gonad-sex was defined by histology, and gonad and brain aromatase gene expressions were quantified. Only males held in the monosex social units changed sex. Histology showed one male remained unchanged, six were found in a transitional sexual stage, in which two had intersex-predominantly-testes, and four had a more defined intersex ovo-testes pattern, and 11 were immature de novo females (neofemales). Neofemales and most intersex fish did not survive. In spring, 11-ketosterone showed a specific male profile, which suggests that male-to-female sex change was not triggered during the reproductive season. The low steroid levels in summer made it impossible to associate the sex change to a gonad hormonal shift; in September, gonad aromatase gene expression was not significantly different among groups. However, brain aromatase expression in intersex fish was significantly higher than monosex females, mixed-sex females, and neofemale groups. These results suggest that in the absence of female hormonal compounds, and at a time when male gonad steroidogenesis was diminished, the brain mediated male-to-male social-behavioral interactions, including stress, by increasing aromatization, resulting in derived intersex-male, which triggered more aromatization, followed by a sex change. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Bidirectional Multi-Port DC-DC Converter Integrating Voltage Equalizer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chen, Jianfei; Hou, Shiying; Deng, Fujin

2015-01-01

A novel bidirectional multi-port dc-dc converter integrating voltage equalizer based on switched-capacitor voltage accumulator (SCVA) is proposed. It has two operating modes of charging and discharging for battery modules. All battery modules are connected in series indirectly and can be equalize...... battery modules with different voltages. Simulation results has shown the feasibility of the proposed converter.......A novel bidirectional multi-port dc-dc converter integrating voltage equalizer based on switched-capacitor voltage accumulator (SCVA) is proposed. It has two operating modes of charging and discharging for battery modules. All battery modules are connected in series indirectly and can be equalized...

Changes in Attitudes towards Drug Educators as a Function of Communicator Sex and Role.

Science.gov (United States)

Cotten-Huston, Annie L.; Baum, Carlene Stober

1980-01-01

Significant interactions between role and sex of communicator indicated that male ex-addicts produced more positive changes in evaluation than female ex-addicts, while female specialists produced more positive changes in evaluation than male specialists. Female specialists produced more positive changes in ratings of potency than male specialists.…

A New Bi-Directional Projection Model Based on Pythagorean Uncertain Linguistic Variable

OpenAIRE

Huidong Wang; Shifan He; Xiaohong Pan

2018-01-01

To solve the multi-attribute decision making (MADM) problems with Pythagorean uncertain linguistic variable, an extended bi-directional projection method is proposed. First, we utilize the linguistic scale function to convert uncertain linguistic variable and provide a new projection model, subsequently. Then, to depict the bi-directional projection method, the formative vectors of alternatives and ideal alternatives are defined. Furthermore, a comparative analysis with projection model is co...

Nanotechnology to rescue bacterial bidirectional extracellular electron transfer in bioelectrochemical systems

KAUST Repository

Kalathil, Shafeer

2016-03-17

An electrically active bacterium transports its metabolically generated electrons to insoluble substrates such as electrodes via a process known as extracellular electron transport (EET). Bacterial EET is a crucial process in the geochemical cycling of metals, bioremediation and bioenergy devices such as microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Recently, it has been found that electroactive bacteria can reverse their respiratory pathways by accepting electrons from a negatively poised electrode to produce high-value chemicals such as ethanol in a process termed as microbial electrosynthesis (MES). A poor electrical connection between bacteria and the electrode hinders the EET and MES processes significantly. Also, the bidirectional EET process is sluggish and needs to be improved drastically to extend its practical applications. Several attempts have been undertaken to improve the bidirectional EET by employing various advanced nanostructured materials such as carbon nanotubes and graphene. This review covers the recent progress in the bacterial bidirectional EET processes using advanced nanostructures in the light of current understandings of bacteria–nanomaterial interactions.

Changes in the Plasma Sex Hormone Profile in Males with Severe Concomitant Injury

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. N Yezhova

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Objective: to perform a complex study of typical plasma sex hormone changes and their functional significance in males with severe concomitant injury (SCI. Subjects and methods. Fifty-nine males aged 18—49 years who had SCI were enrolled in the study. The admission severity was an APACHE II score of 18.6±2.4. According to the outcome of the disease, all the patients were divided into 2 groups: A survivors; B deceased persons. A control comprised 12 healthy male donors aged 19-36 years, in whom the levels of 8 sex steroids were measured. The standard procedures were used to comparatively analyze the concentrations of pituitary reproductive hormones and aldosterone. Hormonal concentrations were studied over time on posttraumatic days 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, and 15. The plasma hormone profile was examined by test kits (BSL, USA on a Stat Fax 2100 device (Awareness Technology Inc., USA for enzyme immunoassay. Prolactin, luteinizing hormone (LH, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH, progesterone (P, 17-hydroxyprogesterone (17-OH-P, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S, androstendione (A, testosterone (T, dihydrotestosterone (DHT, estrone (E1, estradiol (E2, and aldosterone were determined. Results. The complex study of phasic changes in the profile of 11 plasma sex hormones was first conducted in males in the posttraumatic period. Moreover, the typical plasma hormonal changes were elevated prolactin levels and their phasic variations, normal LH and FSH levels with a tendency for further phasic LH changes and FSH reduction. After the injury, the plasma concentration of P was increased and that of 17-OH-P was decreased. The levels of A and DHEA-S varied in the normal range with a tendency for DHEA-S to be lower during the process. In the posttraumatic period, the plasma content of T and DHT was substantially reduced and that of E1 and E2 was increased. The deceased patients generally showed higher levels of A, DHEA-S, and estrogens as a reflection of

Sex Differences in Depression: Does Inflammation Play a Role?

Science.gov (United States)

Derry, Heather M; Padin, Avelina C; Kuo, Jennifer L; Hughes, Spenser; Kiecolt-Glaser, Janice K

2015-10-01

Women become depressed more frequently than men, a consistent pattern across cultures. Inflammation plays a key role in initiating depression among a subset of individuals, and depression also has inflammatory consequences. Notably, women experience higher levels of inflammation and greater autoimmune disease risk compared to men. In the current review, we explore the bidirectional relationship between inflammation and depression and describe how this link may be particularly relevant for women. Compared to men, women may be more vulnerable to inflammation-induced mood and behavior changes. For example, transient elevations in inflammation prompt greater feelings of loneliness and social disconnection for women than for men, which can contribute to the onset of depression. Women also appear to be disproportionately affected by several factors that elevate inflammation, including prior depression, somatic symptomatology, interpersonal stressors, childhood adversity, obesity, and physical inactivity. Relationship distress and obesity, both of which elevate depression risk, are also more strongly tied to inflammation for women than for men. Taken together, these findings suggest that women's susceptibility to inflammation and its mood effects may contribute to sex differences in depression. Depression continues to be a leading cause of disability worldwide, with women experiencing greater risk than men. Due to the depression-inflammation connection, these patterns may promote additional health risks for women. Considering the impact of inflammation on women's mental health may foster a better understanding of sex differences in depression, as well as the selection of effective depression treatments.

Engineering controllable bidirectional molecular motors based on myosin

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Lu; Nakamura, Muneaki; Schindler, Tony D.; Parker, David; Bryant, Zev

2012-04-01

Cytoskeletal motors drive the transport of organelles and molecular cargoes within cells and have potential applications in molecular detection and diagnostic devices. Engineering molecular motors with controllable properties will allow selective perturbation of mechanical processes in living cells and provide optimized device components for tasks such as molecular sorting and directed assembly. Biological motors have previously been modified by introducing activation/deactivation switches that respond to metal ions and other signals. Here, we show that myosin motors can be engineered to reversibly change their direction of motion in response to a calcium signal. Building on previous protein engineering studies and guided by a structural model for the redirected power stroke of myosin VI, we have constructed bidirectional myosins through the rigid recombination of structural modules. The performance of the motors was confirmed using gliding filament assays and single fluorophore tracking. Our strategy, in which external signals trigger changes in the geometry and mechanics of myosin lever arms, should make it possible to achieve spatiotemporal control over a range of motor properties including processivity, stride size and branchpoint turning.

Temporal and bi-directional associations between sleep duration and physical activity/sedentary time in children: An international comparison.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Yingyi; Tremblay, Mark S; Katzmarzyk, Peter T; Fogelholm, Mikael; Hu, Gang; Lambert, Estelle V; Maher, Carol; Maia, Jose; Olds, Timothy; Sarmiento, Olga L; Standage, Martyn; Tudor-Locke, Catrine; Chaput, Jean-Philippe

2018-06-01

The purpose of this multinational and cross-sectional study was to investigate whether nighttime sleep duration was associated with physical activity (PA) and sedentary time (SED) the following day, whether daytime PA/SED were associated with sleep duration the subsequent night, and whether the associations were modified by sex and study sites. Data from 5779 children aged 9-11years were analyzed. A waist-worn Actigraph GT3X+ accelerometer was used to assess children's 24-h movement behaviours for 7days, i.e. sleep duration, total SED, light-intensity physical activity (LPA), and moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA). Multilevel linear regression models were used to account for the repeated measures nested within participants (there were up to 7 sleep→PA/SED and PA/SED→sleep pairings per participant) and schools, and adjusted for covariates. To facilitate interpretation, all sleep and PA/SED variables were standardized. Results showed that the relationship between sleep and PA/SED is bi-directional in this international sample of children. Specifically, for each one standard deviation (SD) unit increase in sleep duration, SED the following day decreased by 0.04 SD units, while LPA and MVPA increased by 0.04 and 0.02 SD units, respectively. Sleep duration decreased by 0.02 SD units and increased by 0.04 SD units for each one SD unit increase in SED and MVPA, respectively. Sleep duration was not affected by changes in LPA. These associations differed across sex and study sites in both directions. However, since the observed effect sizes are subtle, public health initiatives should consider the clinical and practical relevance of these findings. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Bidirectional User Throughput Maximization Based on Feedback Reduction in LiFi Networks

OpenAIRE

Soltani, Mohammad Dehghani; Wu, Xiping; Safari, Majid; Haas, Harald

2017-01-01

Channel adaptive signalling, which is based on feedback, can result in almost any performance metric enhancement. Unlike the radio frequency (RF) channel, the optical wireless communications (OWCs) channel is fairly static. This feature enables a potential improvement of the bidirectional user throughput by reducing the amount of feedback. Light-Fidelity (LiFi) is a subset of OWCs, and it is a bidirectional, high-speed and fully networked wireless communication technology where visible light ...

Sex differences in drug-related stress-system changes: implications for treatment in substance-abusing women.

Science.gov (United States)

Fox, Helen C; Sinha, Rajita

2009-01-01

Extensive research indicates that chronic substance abuse disrupts stress and reward systems of the brain. Gender variation within these stress-system alterations, including the impact of sex hormones on these changes, may influence sex-specific differences in both the development of, and recovery from, dependency. As such, gender variations in stress-system function may also provide a viable explanation for why women are markedly more vulnerable than men to the negative consequences of drug use. This article therefore initially reviews studies that have examined gender differences in emotional and biophysiological changes to the stress and reward system following the acute administration of drugs, including cocaine, alcohol, and nicotine. The article then reviews studies that have examined gender differences in response to various types of stress in both healthy and drug-abusing populations. Studies examining the impact of sex hormones on these gender-related responses are also reported. The implications of these sex-specific variations in stress and reward system function are discussed in terms of both comorbid psychopathology and treatment outcome.

Bidirectional pulser made from pulse lines for linear induction accelerators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hotta, E.; Mori, T.; Kobayashi, T.; Okino, A.; Haginomori, E.; Ko, K.C.

1996-01-01

In order to obtain high-current charged particle beams, linear induction accelerators (LIA's) of two types have been already constructed. Conventional LIA's adopt a unidirectional pulse injected from an external pulser. The other LIA's, one of which has been proposed and constructed by Pavlovskii et al., have accelerating cavities made from pulse forming lines (PFL's). In this case, no magnetic core loaded in the cavity is necessary. However, the injected pulse must be a bidirectional one. Since a part of the voltage pulse with reversed polarity is used to accelerate a beam, it is possible to make the time integral of the output voltage zero. Thus the final magnetic energy stored in the cavity can be made zero at the end of the pulse, and the pulser-accelerator system attains the energy transfer efficiency of 100%. Accelerators of this type can be divided into two kinds, one of which has cavities with internal energy storage, and the other has cavities with energy injected from external bidirectional pulsers. The accelerator of latter type has been first proposed by Smith, but it has not been realized. Several bidirectional pulsers, which consist of three individual PFL's with arbitrary impedances and a closing switch, are analyzed. Output voltages are analytically calculated by using the method proposed by Dommel for digital computations of electromagnetic transients in networks, and conditions for attaining the maximum efficiency of energy transfer from the pulser to the beam are derived. Thus, 4 bidirectional pulsers of internal energy storage type and 2 of external pulse injection type with energy transfer efficiency of 100% are obtained, including the pulsers already reported by other authors

Strong electron bidirectional anisotropies in the distant tail: ISEE 3 observations of polar rain

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baker, D.N.; Bame, S.J.; Feldman, W.C.; Gosling, J.T.; Zwickl, R.D.; Slavin, J.A.; Smith, E.J.

1986-01-01

A detailed observational treatment of bidirectional electrons (--50 to 50 eV)in the distant magnetotail (rapprox. >100 R/sub E/) is presented. It is found that electrons in this energy range commonly exhibit strong, field-aligned anisotropies in the tail lobes. Because of large tail motions, the ISEE 3 data provide extensive sampling of both the north and south lobes in rapid succession. These data demonstrate directly the strong asymmetries that exist between the north and south lobes at any one time. The bidirectional fluxes are found to occur predominantly in the lobe directly connected to the sunward interplanetary magnetic field in the open magnetosphere model (north lobe for away sectors and south lobe for toward sectors). Electron anisotropy and magnetic field data are presented which show the transition from unidirectional (sheath) electron populations to bidirectional (lobe) populations. Thus we demonstrate the open nature of the distant magnetopause and show that the source of the higher-energy, bidirectional lobe electrons is the tailward directed electron heat flux population in the distant magnetosheath. Taken together, the present evidence suggests that the bidirectional electrons that we observe in the distant tail are closely related to the polar rain electrons observed previously at lower altitudes. Furthermore, these data provide strong evidence that the distant tail is composed largely of open magnetic field lines in contradistinction to some recently advanced models

5W1H Information Extraction with CNN-Bidirectional LSTM

Science.gov (United States)

Nurdin, A.; Maulidevi, N. U.

2018-03-01

In this work, information about who, did what, when, where, why, and how on Indonesian news articles were extracted by combining Convolutional Neural Network and Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory. Convolutional Neural Network can learn semantically meaningful representations of sentences. Bidirectional LSTM can analyze the relations among words in the sequence. We also use word embedding word2vec for word representation. By combining these algorithms, we obtained F-measure 0.808. Our experiments show that CNN-BLSTM outperforms other shallow methods, namely IBk, C4.5, and Naïve Bayes with the F-measure 0.655, 0.645, and 0.595, respectively.

Bidirectional electron anisotropies in the distant tail: ISEE-3 observations of polar rain

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baker, D.N.; Bame, S.J.; Feldman, W.C.; Gosling, J.T.; Zwickl, R.D.; Slavin, J.A.; Smith, E.J.

1985-01-01

A detailed observational treatment of bidirectional electrons (50 approx.500 eV) in the distant magnetotail (r greater than or equal to 100 R/sub E/) is presented. It is found that electrons in this energy range commonly exhibit strong, field-aligned anisotropies in the tail lobes. Because of large tail motions, the ISEE-3 data provide extensive sampling of both the north and south lobes in rapid succession, demonstrating directly the strong asymmetries that exist between the north and south lobes at any one time. The bidirectional fluxes are found to occur predominantly in the lobe directly connected to the sunward IMF in the open magnetosphere model (north lobe for away sectors and south lobe for toward sectors). Electron anisotropy and magnetic field data are presented which show the transition from unidirectional (sheath) electron populations to bidirectional (lobe) populations. Taken together, the present evidence suggests that the bidirectional electrons that we observe in the distant tail are closely related to the polar rain electrons observed previously at lower altitudes. Furthermore, these data provide strong evidence that the distant tail is comprised largely of open magnetic field lines in contradistinction to some recently advanced models

Bidirectional soliton spectral tunneling effects in the regime of optical event horizon

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gu, Jie; Guo, Hairun; Wang, Shaofei

2015-01-01

We study the cross-phase-modulation-induced soliton spectral shifting in the regime of the optical event horizon. The perturbed soliton to either red-shifting or blue-shifting is controllable, which could evoke bidirectional soliton spectral tunneling effects.......We study the cross-phase-modulation-induced soliton spectral shifting in the regime of the optical event horizon. The perturbed soliton to either red-shifting or blue-shifting is controllable, which could evoke bidirectional soliton spectral tunneling effects....

Television Sex Roles in the 1980s: Do Viewers' Sex and Sex Role Orientation Change the Picture?

Science.gov (United States)

Dambrot, Faye H.; And Others

1988-01-01

Investigates the viewer perceptions of female and male television characters as a result of viewer sex and sex role orientation, based on the responses of 677 young adults to the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ). Viewer gender had an impact on the rating of female characters. (FMW)

Personalized recommendation based on preferential bidirectional mass diffusion

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Guilin; Gao, Tianrun; Zhu, Xuzhen; Tian, Hui; Yang, Zhao

2017-03-01

Recommendation system provides a promising way to alleviate the dilemma of information overload. In physical dynamics, mass diffusion has been used to design effective recommendation algorithms on bipartite network. However, most of the previous studies focus overwhelmingly on unidirectional mass diffusion from collected objects to uncollected objects, while overlooking the opposite direction, leading to the risk of similarity estimation deviation and performance degradation. In addition, they are biased towards recommending popular objects which will not necessarily promote the accuracy but make the recommendation lack diversity and novelty that indeed contribute to the vitality of the system. To overcome the aforementioned disadvantages, we propose a preferential bidirectional mass diffusion (PBMD) algorithm by penalizing the weight of popular objects in bidirectional diffusion. Experiments are evaluated on three benchmark datasets (Movielens, Netflix and Amazon) by 10-fold cross validation, and results indicate that PBMD remarkably outperforms the mainstream methods in accuracy, diversity and novelty.

Moral judgment modulation by disgust is bi-directionally moderated by individual sensitivity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

How Hwee eOng

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Modern theories of moral judgment predict that both conscious reasoning and unconscious emotional influences affect the way people decide about right and wrong. In a series of experiments, we tested the effect of subliminal and conscious priming of disgust facial expressions on moral dilemmas. Trolley-car-type scenarios were used, with subjects rating how acceptable they found the utilitarian course of action to be. On average, subliminal priming of disgust facial expressions resulted in higher rates of utilitarian judgments compared to neutral facial expressions. Further, in replication, we found that individual change in moral acceptability ratings due to disgust priming was modulated by individual sensitivity to disgust, revealing a bi-directional function. Our second replication extended this result to show that the function held for both subliminally and consciously presented stimuli. Combined across these experiments, we show a reliable bi-directional function, with presentation of disgust expression primes to individuals with higher disgust sensitivity resulting in more utilitarian judgments (i.e., number-based and presentations to individuals with lower sensitivity resulting in more deontological judgments (i.e., rules-based. Our results may reconcile previous conflicting reports of disgust modulation of moral judgment by modeling how individual sensitivity to disgust determines the direction and degree of this effect.

Moral judgment modulation by disgust is bi-directionally moderated by individual sensitivity

Science.gov (United States)

Ong, How Hwee; Mullette-Gillman, O’Dhaniel A.; Kwok, Kenneth; Lim, Julian

2014-01-01

Modern theories of moral judgment predict that both conscious reasoning and unconscious emotional influences affect the way people decide about right and wrong. In a series of experiments, we tested the effect of subliminal and conscious priming of disgust facial expressions on moral dilemmas. “Trolley-car”-type scenarios were used, with subjects rating how acceptable they found the utilitarian course of action to be. On average, subliminal priming of disgust facial expressions resulted in higher rates of utilitarian judgments compared to neutral facial expressions. Further, in replication, we found that individual change in moral acceptability ratings due to disgust priming was modulated by individual sensitivity to disgust, revealing a bi-directional function. Our second replication extended this result to show that the function held for both subliminally and consciously presented stimuli. Combined across these experiments, we show a reliable bi-directional function, with presentation of disgust expression primes to individuals with higher disgust sensitivity resulting in more utilitarian judgments (i.e., number-based) and presentations to individuals with lower sensitivity resulting in more deontological judgments (i.e., rules-based). Our results may reconcile previous conflicting reports of disgust modulation of moral judgment by modeling how individual sensitivity to disgust determines the direction and degree of this effect. PMID:24639665

Lanthanide ions induce hydrolysis of hemoglobin-bound 2,3-diphosphoglycerate (2,3-DPG), conformational changes of globin and bidirectional changes of 2,3-DPG-hemoglobin's oxygen affinity.

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Y; Lin, H; Xue, D; Li, R; Wang, K

2001-02-14

The changes in structure and function of 2,3-diphosphoglycerate-hemoglobin (2,3-DPG-Hb) induced by Ln(3+) binding were studied by spectroscopic methods. The binding of lanthanide cations to 2,3-DPG is prior to that to Hb. Ln(3+) binding causes the hydrolysis of either one from the two phosphomonoester bonds in 2,3-DPG non-specifically. The results using the ultrafiltration method indicate that Ln(3+) binding sites for Hb can be classified into three categories: i.e. positive cooperative sites (N(I)), non-cooperative strong sites (N(S)) and non-cooperative weak sites (N(W)) with binding constants in decreasing order: K(I)>K(S)>K(W). The total number of binding sites amounts to about 65 per Hb tetramer. Information on reaction kinetics was obtained from the change of intrinsic fluorescence in Hb monitored by stopped-flow fluorometry. Fluctuation of fluorescence dependent on Ln(3+) concentration and temperature was observed and can be attributed to the successive conformational changes induced by Ln(3+) binding. The results also reveal the bidirectional changes of the oxygen affinity of Hb in the dependence on Ln(3+) concentration. At the range of [Ln(3+)]/[Hb]<2, the marked increase of oxygen affinity (P(50) decrease) with the Ln(3+) concentration can be attributed to the hydrolysis of 2,3-DPG, while the slight rebound of oxygen affinity in higher Ln(3+) concentration can be interpreted by the transition to the T-state of the Hb tetramer induced by Ln(3+) binding. This was indicated by the changes in secondary structure characterized by the decrease of alpha-helix content.

Asymmetry, sex differences and age-related changes in the white matter in the healthy elderly: a tract-based study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fukusumi Masami

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Hemispherical asymmetry, sex differences and age-related changes have been reported for the human brain. Meanwhile it was still unclear the presence of the asymmetry or sex differences in the human brain occurred whether as a normal development or as consequences of any pathological changes. The aim of this study was to investigate hemispherical asymmetry, sex differences and age-related changes by using a tract-based analysis in the nerve bundles. Methods 40 healthy elderly subjects underwent magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging, and we calculated fractional anisotropy (FA and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC values along the major white matter bundles. Results We identified hemispherical asymmetry in the ADC values for the cingulate fasciculus in the total subject set and in males, and a sex difference in the FA values for the right uncinate fasciculus. For age-related changes, we demonstrated a significant increase in ADC values with advancing age in the right cingulum, left temporal white matter, and a significant decrease in FA values in the right superior longitudinal fasciculus. Conclusion In this study, we found hemispherical asymmetry, sex differences and age-related changes in particular regions of the white matter in the healthy elderly. Our results suggest considering these differences can be important in imaging studies.

Occupational Segregation by Sex: Determinants and Changes.

Science.gov (United States)

Beller, Andrea H.

1982-01-01

This study found that occupational sex segregation began to diminish during the 1970s, in conjunction with enforcement of the equal employment opportunity laws against sex discrimination in employment. The success of these laws suggests that discrimination was originally a determinant of occupational segregation. (Author/SK)

DRAWING FOR TRAFFIC MARKING USING BIDIRECTIONAL GRADIENT-BASED DETECTION WITH MMS LIDAR INTENSITY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Takahashi

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Recently, the development of autonomous cars is accelerating on the integration of highly advanced artificial intelligence, which increases demand for a digital map with high accuracy. In particular, traffic markings are required to be precisely digitized since automatic driving utilizes them for position detection. To draw traffic markings, we benefit from Mobile Mapping Systems (MMS equipped with high-density Laser imaging Detection and Ranging (LiDAR scanners, which produces large amount of data efficiently with XYZ coordination along with reflectance intensity. Digitizing this data, on the other hand, conventionally has been dependent on human operation, which thus suffers from human errors, subjectivity errors, and low reproductivity. We have tackled this problem by means of automatic extraction of traffic marking, which partially accomplished to draw several traffic markings (G. Takahashi et al., 2014. The key idea of the method was extracting lines using the Hough transform strategically focused on changes in local reflection intensity along scan lines. However, it failed to extract traffic markings properly in a densely marked area, especially when local changing points are close each other. In this paper, we propose a bidirectional gradient-based detection method where local changing points are labelled with plus or minus group. Given that each label corresponds to the boundary between traffic markings and background, we can identify traffic markings explicitly, meaning traffic lines are differentiated correctly by the proposed method. As such, our automated method, a highly accurate and non-human-operator-dependent method using bidirectional gradient-based algorithm, can successfully extract traffic lines composed of complex shapes such as a cross walk, resulting in minimizing cost and obtaining highly accurate results.

Drawing for Traffic Marking Using Bidirectional Gradient-Based Detection with MMS LIDAR Intensity

Science.gov (United States)

Takahashi, G.; Takeda, H.; Nakamura, K.

2016-06-01

Recently, the development of autonomous cars is accelerating on the integration of highly advanced artificial intelligence, which increases demand for a digital map with high accuracy. In particular, traffic markings are required to be precisely digitized since automatic driving utilizes them for position detection. To draw traffic markings, we benefit from Mobile Mapping Systems (MMS) equipped with high-density Laser imaging Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) scanners, which produces large amount of data efficiently with XYZ coordination along with reflectance intensity. Digitizing this data, on the other hand, conventionally has been dependent on human operation, which thus suffers from human errors, subjectivity errors, and low reproductivity. We have tackled this problem by means of automatic extraction of traffic marking, which partially accomplished to draw several traffic markings (G. Takahashi et al., 2014). The key idea of the method was extracting lines using the Hough transform strategically focused on changes in local reflection intensity along scan lines. However, it failed to extract traffic markings properly in a densely marked area, especially when local changing points are close each other. In this paper, we propose a bidirectional gradient-based detection method where local changing points are labelled with plus or minus group. Given that each label corresponds to the boundary between traffic markings and background, we can identify traffic markings explicitly, meaning traffic lines are differentiated correctly by the proposed method. As such, our automated method, a highly accurate and non-human-operator-dependent method using bidirectional gradient-based algorithm, can successfully extract traffic lines composed of complex shapes such as a cross walk, resulting in minimizing cost and obtaining highly accurate results.

Design of PI Controlled Non Isolated Bidirectional DC to DC Converter for Electric Vehicle Application

Science.gov (United States)

Geetha, A.; Subramani, C.; Thamizh Thentral, T. M.; Krithika, V.; Usha, S.

2018-04-01

Non isolated Bidirectional DC-DC Converter (NIBDDC) is a good interface between DC source and inverter Fed induction motor drive. This paper deals with comparison between open loop and PI controlled Bidirectional DC to DC Converter Inverter System (BDDCIS). The modelling and control of BDDC is becomes an important issue. Open loop BDDCIS and closed loop PI controlled BDDCIS are designed, modelled and simulated using Matlab- simulink and their results are presented. The investigations indicate superior performance of PI controlled BDDCIS. The proposed BDDCIS has advantages like bidirectional power transfer ability, reduced hardware count and improved dynamic response.

Parenting and children's externalizing behavior: Bidirectionality during toddlerhood

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verhoeven, Marjolein; Junger, Marianne; van Aken, Chantal; Dekovic, Maja; van Aken, Marcel A.G.

2010-01-01

This study examined the bidirectional relationship between parenting and boys' externalizing behaviors in a four-wave longitudinal study of toddlers. Participants were 104 intact two-parent families with toddler sons. When their sons were 17, 23, 29, and 35 months of age, mothers and fathers

A Current-Fed Isolated Bidirectional DC-DC Converter

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sun, Xiaofeng; Wu, Xiaoying; Shen, Yanfeng

2017-01-01

This paper proposes a current-fed isolated bidirectional DC-DC converter (CF-IBDC) which has the advantages of wide input voltage range, low input current ripple, low conduction losses, and soft switching over the full operating range. Compared with conventional CF-IBDCs, the voltage spikes...

Optimization Control of Bidirectional Cascaded DC-AC Converter Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tian, Yanjun

in bidirectional cascaded converter. This research work analyses the control strategies based on the topology of dual active bridges converter cascaded with a three phase inverter. It firstly proposed a dc link voltage and active power coordinative control method for this cascaded topology, and it can reduce dc....... The connections of the renewable energy sources to the power system are mostly through the power electronic converters. Moreover, for high controllability and flexibility, power electronic devices are gradually acting as the interface between different networks in power systems, promoting conventional power...... the bidirectional power flow in the distribution level of power systems. Therefore direct contact of converters introduces significant uncertainties to power system, especially for the stability and reliability. This dissertation studies the optimization control of the two stages directly connected converters...

Bidirectional selection between two classes in complex social networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Bin; He, Zhe; Jiang, Luo-Luo; Wang, Nian-Xin; Wang, Bing-Hong

2014-12-19

The bidirectional selection between two classes widely emerges in various social lives, such as commercial trading and mate choosing. Until now, the discussions on bidirectional selection in structured human society are quite limited. We demonstrated theoretically that the rate of successfully matching is affected greatly by individuals' neighborhoods in social networks, regardless of the type of networks. Furthermore, it is found that the high average degree of networks contributes to increasing rates of successful matches. The matching performance in different types of networks has been quantitatively investigated, revealing that the small-world networks reinforces the matching rate more than scale-free networks at given average degree. In addition, our analysis is consistent with the modeling result, which provides the theoretical understanding of underlying mechanisms of matching in complex networks.

Learning to Monitor Machine Health with Convolutional Bi-Directional LSTM Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Rui; Yan, Ruqiang; Wang, Jinjiang; Mao, Kezhi

2017-01-30

In modern manufacturing systems and industries, more and more research efforts have been made in developing effective machine health monitoring systems. Among various machine health monitoring approaches, data-driven methods are gaining in popularity due to the development of advanced sensing and data analytic techniques. However, considering the noise, varying length and irregular sampling behind sensory data, this kind of sequential data cannot be fed into classification and regression models directly. Therefore, previous work focuses on feature extraction/fusion methods requiring expensive human labor and high quality expert knowledge. With the development of deep learning methods in the last few years, which redefine representation learning from raw data, a deep neural network structure named Convolutional Bi-directional Long Short-Term Memory networks (CBLSTM) has been designed here to address raw sensory data. CBLSTM firstly uses CNN to extract local features that are robust and informative from the sequential input. Then, bi-directional LSTM is introduced to encode temporal information. Long Short-Term Memory networks(LSTMs) are able to capture long-term dependencies and model sequential data, and the bi-directional structure enables the capture of past and future contexts. Stacked, fully-connected layers and the linear regression layer are built on top of bi-directional LSTMs to predict the target value. Here, a real-life tool wear test is introduced, and our proposed CBLSTM is able to predict the actual tool wear based on raw sensory data. The experimental results have shown that our model is able to outperform several state-of-the-art baseline methods.

Learning to Monitor Machine Health with Convolutional Bi-Directional LSTM Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rui Zhao

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In modern manufacturing systems and industries, more and more research efforts have been made in developing effective machine health monitoring systems. Among various machine health monitoring approaches, data-driven methods are gaining in popularity due to the development of advanced sensing and data analytic techniques. However, considering the noise, varying length and irregular sampling behind sensory data, this kind of sequential data cannot be fed into classification and regression models directly. Therefore, previous work focuses on feature extraction/fusion methods requiring expensive human labor and high quality expert knowledge. With the development of deep learning methods in the last few years, which redefine representation learning from raw data, a deep neural network structure named Convolutional Bi-directional Long Short-Term Memory networks (CBLSTM has been designed here to address raw sensory data. CBLSTM firstly uses CNN to extract local features that are robust and informative from the sequential input. Then, bi-directional LSTM is introduced to encode temporal information. Long Short-Term Memory networks(LSTMs are able to capture long-term dependencies and model sequential data, and the bi-directional structure enables the capture of past and future contexts. Stacked, fully-connected layers and the linear regression layer are built on top of bi-directional LSTMs to predict the target value. Here, a real-life tool wear test is introduced, and our proposed CBLSTM is able to predict the actual tool wear based on raw sensory data. The experimental results have shown that our model is able to outperform several state-of-the-art baseline methods.

Encoding Strategy for Maximum Noise Tolerance Bidirectional Associative Memory

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Shen, Dan

2003-01-01

In this paper, the Basic Bidirectional Associative Memory (BAM) is extended by choosing weights in the correlation matrix, for a given set of training pairs, which result in a maximum noise tolerance set for BAM...

Stationary oscillation for nonautonomous bidirectional associative memory neural networks with impulse

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Yinping

2009-01-01

In this paper, we study the existence, uniqueness and global stability of periodic solution (i.e. stationary oscillation) for general bidirectional associative memory neural networks with impulses. Some sufficient conditions are obtained for stationary oscillation of the nonautonomous bidirectional associative memory neural networks with impulses. It is derived by using a new method which is different from those of previous literatures, and a assumption in previous results does not required. The model considered is more general and some previous results are extended and improved. An illustrative example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness and less conservativeness of the obtained results.

Colours sometimes count: awareness and bidirectionality in grapheme-colour synaesthesia.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Addie; Jepma, Marieke; de Jong, Ritske

2007-10-01

Three experiments were conducted with 10 grapheme-colour synaesthetes and 10 matched controls to investigate (a) whether awareness of the inducer grapheme is necessary for synaesthetic colour induction and (b) whether grapheme-colour synaesthesia may be bidirectional in the sense that not only do graphemes induce colours, but that colours influence the processing of graphemes. Using attentional blink and Stroop paradigms with digit targets, we found that some synaesthetes did report "seeing" synaesthetic colours even when they were not able to report the inducing digit. Moreover, congruency effects (effects of matching the colour of digit presentation with the synaesthetic colour associated with that digit) suggested that grapheme-colour synaesthesia can be bidirectional, at least for some synaesthetes.

Bidirectional dc-to-dc Power Converter

Science.gov (United States)

Griesbach, C. R.

1986-01-01

Solid-state, series-resonant converter uses high-voltage thyristors. Converter used either to convert high-voltage, low-current dc power to lowvoltage, high current power or reverse. Taking advantage of newly-available high-voltage thyristors to provide better reliability and efficiency than traditional converters that use vacuum tubes as power switches. New converter essentially maintenance free and provides greatly increased mean time between failures. Attractive in industrial applications whether or not bidirectional capability is required.

Engineering controllable bidirectional molecular motors based on myosin

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Lu; Nakamura, Muneaki; Schindler, Tony D.; Parker, David; Bryant, Zev

2012-01-01

Cytoskeletal motors drive the transport of organelles and molecular cargoes within cells1, and have potential applications in molecular detection and diagnostic devices2,3. Engineering molecular motors with dynamically controllable properties will allow selective perturbation of mechanical processes in living cells, and yield optimized device components for complex tasks such as molecular sorting and directed assembly3. Biological motors have previously been modified by introducing activation/deactivation switches that respond to metal ions4,5 and other signals6. Here we show that myosin motors can be engineered to reversibly change their direction of motion in response to a calcium signal. Building on previous protein engineering studies7–11 and guided by a structural model12 for the redirected power stroke of myosin VI, we constructed bidirectional myosins through the rigid recombination of structural modules. The performance of the motors was confirmed using gliding filament assays and single fluorophore tracking. Our general strategy, in which external signals trigger changes in the geometry and mechanics of myosin lever arms, should enable spatiotemporal control over a range of motor properties including processivity, stride size13, and branchpoint turning14. PMID:22343382

Sickness-induced changes in physiology do not affect fecundity or same-sex behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Sylvia, Kristyn E; Báez Ramos, Patricia; Demas, Gregory E

2018-02-01

Previous work in our lab has shown that early-life infection affects female reproductive physiology and function (i.e., smaller ovaries, abnormal estrous cycles) and alters investigation and aggression towards male conspecifics in a reproductive context. Although many studies have investigated the effects of postnatal immune challenge on physiological and behavioral development, fewer studies have examined whether these changes have ultimate effects on reproduction. In the current study, we paired Siberian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus) and simulated a bacterial infection in early life by administering lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to male and female pups on pnd3 and pnd5. In adulthood, hamsters were paired with novel individuals of the same sex, and we scored an array of social behaviors (e.g., investigation, aggression). We then paired animals with individuals of the opposite sex for 5 consecutive nights, providing them with the opportunity to mate. We found that females exhibited impaired reproductive physiology and function in adulthood (i.e., smaller ovaries and abnormal estrous cycles), similar to our previous work. However, both LPS-treated males and females exhibited similar same-sex social behavior when compared with saline-treated controls, they successfully mated, and there were no significant changes in fecundity. These data suggest that the physiological changes in response to neonatal immune challenge may not have long-term effects on reproductive success in a controlled environment. Collectively, the results of this study are particularly important when investigating the relationships between physiology and behavior within an ultimate context. Animals exposed to early-life stress may in fact be capable of compensating for changes in physiology in order to survive and reproduce in some contexts. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Expression profile of doublesex/male abnormal-3-related transcription factor-1 during gonadal sex change in the protogynous wrasse, Halichoeres trimaculatus.

Science.gov (United States)

Nozu, Ryo; Horiguchi, Ryo; Kobayashi, Yasuhisa; Nakamura, Masaru

2015-11-01

Sex change in fish involves a dramatic transformation of gonadal tissue and a switch in gametogenesis. Doublesex/male abnormal-3-related transcription factor-1 (DMRT1), encoded by the DMRT1 gene, is involved in testicular differentiation in a wide range of vertebrates as well as in sexual differentiation and gonadal sex change. In the present study, we investigated changes in the expression of dmrt1 during artificial gonadal sex change in the three-spot wrasse, Halichoeres trimaculatus, by real-time quantitative PCR and immunolocalization, using an anti-wrasse-Dmrt1 antibody that we prepared. We found that dmrt1 expression was predominantly observed in the testes, and that Dmrt1 was expressed in Sertoli cells of testes and a few granulosa cells surrounding vitellogenic oocytes of the ovary. Additionally, the upregulation of dmrt1 expression was consistent with an increase in spermatogenic cyst quantity rather than proliferation of presumptive spermatogonia, suggesting that dmrt1 is involved in the progression of spermatogenesis during sex change. Changes in the localization of Dmrt1 during gonadal sex change further implied that Sertoli cells originate from somatic cells adjacent to gonial germ cells during testicular formation in the three-spot wrasse. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Linearly and nonlinearly bidirectionally coupled synchronization of hyperchaotic systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhou Jin; Lu Junan; Wu Xiaoqun

2007-01-01

To date, there have been many results about unidirectionally coupled synchronization of chaotic systems. However, much less work is reported on bidirectionally-coupled synchronization. In this paper, we investigate the synchronization of two bidirectionally coupled Chen hyperchaotic systems, which are coupled linearly and nonlinearly respectively. Firstly, linearly coupled synchronization of two hyperchaotic Chen systems is investigated, and a theorem on how to choose the coupling coefficients are developed to guarantee the global asymptotical synchronization of two coupled hyperchaotic systems. Analysis shows that the choice of the coupling coefficients relies on the bound of the chaotic system. Secondly, the nonlinearly coupled synchronization is studied; a sufficient condition for the locally asymptotical synchronization is derived, which is independent of the bound of the hyperchaotic system. Finally, numerical simulations are included to verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the developed theorems

Sex ratio selection and multi-factorial sex determination in the housefly : A dynamic model

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kozielska, M.A.; Pen, I.R.; Beukeboom, L.W.; Weissing, F.J.

Sex determining (SD) mechanisms are highly variable between different taxonomic groups and appear to change relatively quickly during evolution. Sex ratio selection could be a dominant force causing such changes. We investigate theoretically the effect of sex ratio selection on the dynamics of a

Compiling a Bidirectional Dictionary Bridging English and the Sotho ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

rbr

bi-directional Sesotho sa Leboa ↔ Sesotho, Sesotho sa Leboa ↔ Setswana and ... example, the 100 most frequently used words in Sesotho sa Leboa in ranking .... Consider in this regard a selection of such mutual lexical items with high.

10 Gb/s bidirectional single fibre long reach PON link with distributed Raman amplification

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tafur Monroy, Idelfonso; Kjær, Rasmus; Jeppesen, Palle

2006-01-01

We report operation of a single fibre bidirectional 80 km long reach PON link with symmetric up- and-downstream data rate of 10 Gb/s supported by distributed Raman fibre amplification only.......We report operation of a single fibre bidirectional 80 km long reach PON link with symmetric up- and-downstream data rate of 10 Gb/s supported by distributed Raman fibre amplification only....

Günther Tulip inferior vena cava filter retrieval using a bidirectional loop-snare technique.

Science.gov (United States)

Ross, Jordan; Allison, Stephen; Vaidya, Sandeep; Monroe, Eric

2016-01-01

Many advanced techniques have been reported in the literature for difficult Günther Tulip filter removal. This report describes a bidirectional loop-snare technique in the setting of a fibrin scar formation around the filter leg anchors. The bidirectional loop-snare technique allows for maximal axial tension and alignment for stripping fibrin scar from the filter legs, a commonly encountered complication of prolonged dwell times.

Use of asymmetric bidirectional catheters with different curvature radius for catheter ablation of cardiac arrhythmias.

Science.gov (United States)

Mantziari, Lilian; Suman-Horduna, Irina; Gujic, Marko; Jones, David G; Wong, Tom; Markides, Vias; Foran, John P; Ernst, Sabine

2013-06-01

The impact of recently introduced asymmetric bidirectional ablation catheters on procedural parameters and acute success rates of ablation procedures is unknown. We retrospectively analyzed data regarding ablations using a novel bidirectional catheter in a tertiary cardiac center and compared these in 1:5 ratio with a control group of procedures matched for age, gender, operator, and ablation type. A total of 50 cases and 250 controls of median age 60 (50-68) years were studied. Structural heart disease was equally prevalent in both groups (39%) while history of previous ablations was more common in the study arm (54% vs 30%, P = 0.001). Most of the ablation cases were for atrial fibrillation (46%), followed by atrial tachycardia (28%), supraventricular tachycardia (12%), and ventricular tachycardia (14%). Median procedure duration was 128 (52-147) minutes with the bidirectional, versus 143 (105-200) minutes with the conventional catheter (P = 0.232), and median fluoroscopy time was 17 (10-34) minutes versus 23 (12-39) minutes, respectively (P = 0.988). There was a trend toward a lower procedure duration for the atrial tachycardia ablations, 89 (52-147) minutes versus 130 (100-210) minutes, P = 0.064. The procedure was successfully completed in 96% of the bidirectional versus 84% of the control cases (P = 0.151). A negative correlation was observed between the relative fluoroscopy duration and the case number (r = -0.312, P = 0.028), reflecting the learning curve for the bidirectional catheter. The introduction of the bidirectional catheter resulted in no prolongation of procedure parameters and similar success rates, while there was a trend toward a lower procedure duration for atrial tachycardia ablations. ©2013, The Authors. Journal compilation ©2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Twenty-three generations of mice bidirectionally selected for open-field thigmotaxis: selection response and repeated exposure to the open field.

Science.gov (United States)

Leppänen, Pia K; Ravaja, N; Ewalds-Kvist, S B M

2006-03-01

We examined: (a) the response to bidirectional selection for open-field (OF) thigmotaxis in mice for 23 generations and (b) the effects of repeated exposure (during 5 days) on different OF behaviors in the selectively bred high OF thigmotaxis (HOFT) and low OF thigmotaxis (LOFT) mice. A total of 2049 mice were used in the study. Prior to the testing in the selection experiment, the mice were exposed to the OF apparatus for approximately 2 min on each of 4 consecutive days. Thus, the selection was based on the scores registered on the 5th day after the four habituation periods. The HOFT mice were more thigmotactic than the LOFT mice in almost each generation. The HOFT mice also tended to rear less than the LOFT mice, which was explained by the inverse relationship between emotionality and exploratory tendencies. The lines did not generally differ in ambulation. Sex differences were found in thigmotaxis, ambulation, and rearing. In the repeated exposure experiment, the development of nine different OF behaviors across the 5 days of testing was addressed. Both lines ambulated, explored, and reared most on the 1st, 4th, and 5th days. Grooming and radial latency decreased and thigmotaxis increased linearly across the testing days. Line differences were found in ambulation, exploration, grooming, and rearing, while sex differences were manifested in ambulation and exploration. The line difference in thigmotaxis was evident only on the 5th day. Temporal changes were partially at variance with the general assumptions. OF thigmotaxis was found to be a powerful characteristic for producing two diverging lines of mice.

Malignant melanoma and breast carcinoma: a bidirectional correlation.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Ho, W L

2012-02-01

BACKGROUND: Epidemiologic and genetic studies have suggested a bidirectional association between breast carcinoma (BC) and malignant melanoma (MM). OBSERVATION: We present a series of patients with MM and BC detected in our department within a span of 6 months, raising concerns for the high associations between the two malignancies. This led us to match the concordance of the two tumours in the National Irish Cancer Registry. CONCLUSION: The national figures provide evidence of a link between BC and MM. We recommend increased awareness among clinicians leading to more detailed surveillance of both second primary tumours. All MM patients with a family history of BC should be referred to a breast clinic. Women above the age of 40 with MM should undergo annual mammography and those less than 40 may be better evaluated with a breast MRI. All breast cancer patients should be made aware of the significance of changing moles and those with suspicious lesions referred to a dermatologist for evaluation.

Malignant melanoma and breast carcinoma: a bidirectional correlation.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Ho, W L

2009-03-05

BACKGROUND: Epidemiologic and genetic studies have suggested a bidirectional association between breast carcinoma (BC) and malignant melanoma (MM). OBSERVATION: We present a series of patients with MM and BC detected in our department within a span of 6 months, raising concerns for the high associations between the two malignancies. This led us to match the concordance of the two tumours in the National Irish Cancer Registry. CONCLUSION: The national figures provide evidence of a link between BC and MM. We recommend increased awareness among clinicians leading to more detailed surveillance of both second primary tumours. All MM patients with a family history of BC should be referred to a breast clinic. Women above the age of 40 with MM should undergo annual mammography and those less than 40 may be better evaluated with a breast MRI. All breast cancer patients should be made aware of the significance of changing moles and those with suspicious lesions referred to a dermatologist for evaluation.

Parenting and Children's Externalizing Behavior: Bidirectionality during Toddlerhood

Science.gov (United States)

Verhoeven, Marjolein; Junger, Marianne; van Aken, Chantal; Dekovic, Maja; van Aken, Marcel A. G.

2010-01-01

This study examined the bidirectional relationship between parenting and boys' externalizing behaviors in a four-wave longitudinal study of toddlers. Participants were 104 intact two-parent families with toddler sons. When their sons were 17, 23, 29, and 35 months of age, mothers and fathers reported on a broad range of parenting dimensions…

Bi-directional Reflectance of Icy Surface Analogs: A Dual Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Quinones, Juan Manuel; Vides, Christina; Nelson, Robert M.; Boryta, Mark; Mannat, Ken s.

2018-01-01

Bi-directional reflectance measurements of analogs for planetary regolith have provided insight into the surface properties of planetary satellites and small bodies. Because Aluminum Oxide (Al2O3) and water ice share a similar hexagonal crystalline structure, the former has been used in laboratory experiments to simulate the regolith of both icy and dusty planetary bodies. By measuring various sizes of well sorted size fractions of Al2O3, the reflectance phase curve and porosity of a planetary regolith can be determined. We have designed an experiment to test the laboratory measurements produced by Nelson et al. (2000). Additionally, we made reflectance measurements for other alkali-halide compounds that could be used for applications beyond astronomy and planetary science.In order to provide an independent check on the Nelson et al. data, we designed an instrument with a different configuration. While both instruments take bidirectional reflectance measurements, our instrument, the Rigid Photometric Goniometer (RPG), is fixed at a phase angle of 5° and detects the scattered light with a photomultiplier tube (PMT). The PMT current is then measured with an electrometer. Following the example of Nelson et al., we measured the bidirectional reflectance of Al2O3 particulate size fractions between 0.1sizes from 20size that provided optimal, or maximum, reflectance for each compound. Our conclusions bring confirmation and clarity to photometric sciences.

Performance Analysis of Video PHY Controller Using Unidirection and Bi-directional IO Standard via 7 Series FPGA

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Das, Bhagwan; Abdullah, M F L; Hussain, Dil muhammed Akbar

2017-01-01

graphics consumes more power, this creates a need of designing the low power design for Video PHY controller. In this paper, the performance of Video PHY controller is analyzed by comparing the power consumption of unidirectional and bi-directional IO Standard over 7 series FPGA. It is determined...... that total on-chip power is reduced for unidirectional IO Standard based Video PHY controller compared to bidirectional IO Standard based Video PHY controller. The most significant achievement of this work is that it is concluded that unidirectional IO Standard based Video PHY controller consume least...... standby power compared to bidirectional IO Standard based Video PHY controller. It is defined that for 6 GHz operated frequency Video PHY controller, the 32% total on-chip power is reduced using unidirectional IO Standard based Video PHY controller is less compared to bidirectional IO Standard based Video...

Bidirectional Barbed Sutures for Wound Closure: Evolution and Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Paul, Malcolm D.

2009-01-01

Traditionally, wound closure sutures have in common the need to tie knots with the inherent risk of extrusion, palpability, microinfarcts, breakage, and slippage. Bidirectional barbed sutures have barbs arrayed in a helical fashion in opposing directions on either side of an unbarbed midsegment. This suture is inserted at the midpoint of a wound and pulled through till resistance is encountered from the opposing barbs; each half of the suture is then advanced to the lateral ends of the wound. This design provides a method of evenly distributing tension along the incision line, a faster suture placement and closure time with no need to tie knots, and the possibility of improved cosmesis. Bidirectional barbed sutures, which are available in both absorbable and nonabsorbable forms, can be used for simple closures, multilayered closures, and closure of high-tension wounds in a variety of surgical settings. PMID:24527114

Bidirectional fiber-wireless and fiber-VLLC transmission system based on an OEO-based BLS and a RSOA.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Hai-Han; Li, Chung-Yi; Lu, Ting-Chien; Wu, Chang-Jen; Chu, Chien-An; Shiva, Ajay; Mochii, Takao

2016-02-01

A bidirectional fiber-wireless and fiber-visible-laser-light-communication (VLLC) transmission system based on an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO)-based broadband light source (BLS) and a reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Through an in-depth observation of such bidirectional fiber-wireless and fiber-VLLC transmission systems, good bit error rate performances are obtained over a 40 km single-mode fiber and a 10 m RF/optical wireless transport. Such a bidirectional fiber-wireless and fiber-VLLC transmission system is an attractive option for providing broadband integrated services.

Primary Parallel Isolated Boost Converter with Bidirectional Operation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hernandez Botella, Juan Carlos; Mira Albert, Maria del Carmen; Sen, Gökhan

2012-01-01

This paper presents a bidirectional dc/dc converter operated with batteries both in the input and output. Primary parallel isolated boost converter (PPIBC) with transformer series connection on the high voltage side is preferred due to its ability to handle high currents in the low voltage side. ...... and output battery banks with a defined ramp....

Correcting Bidirectional Effects in Remote Sensing Reflectance from Coastal Waters

Science.gov (United States)

Stamnes, K. H.; Fan, Y.; Li, W.; Voss, K. J.; Gatebe, C. K.

2016-02-01

Understanding bidirectional effects including sunglint is important for GEO-CAPE for several reasons: (i) correct interpretation of ocean color data; (ii) comparing consistency of spectral radiance data derived from space observations with a single instrument for a variety of illumination and viewing conditions; (iii) merging data collected by different instruments operating simultaneously. We present a new neural network (NN) method to correct bidirectional effects in water-leaving radiance for both Case 1 and Case 2 waters. We also discuss a new BRDF and 2D sun-glint model that was validated by comparing simulated surface reflectances with Cloud Absorption Radiometer (CAR) data. Finally, we present an extension of our marine bio-optical model to the UV range that accounts for the seasonal dependence of the inherent optical properties (IOPs).

A new setup to measure bidirectional reflectance distribution functions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Roosjen, P.P.J.; Clevers, J.G.P.W.; Bartholomeus, H.

2012-01-01

The Plant Facility, a new laboratory goniometer system, built by the Wageningen University has been tested in order to take bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) measurements. An ASD FieldSpec 3 spectroradiometer mounted on an industrial robot arm is able to measure small targets

Optical properties (bidirectional reflectance distribution function) of shot fabric

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lu, Rong; Koenderink, Jan J.; Kappers, Astrid M L

2000-01-01

To study the optical properties of materials, one needs a complete set of the angular distribution functions of surface scattering from the materials. Here we present a convenient method for collecting a large set of bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) samples in the hemispherical

Bidirectional current-voltage converters based on magnetostrictive/piezoelectric composites

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jia, Y.; Or, S.W.; Chan, H.L.W.; Jiao, J.; Luo, H.; Van der Zwaag, S.

2009-01-01

We report a power supply-free, bidirectional electric current-voltage converter based on a coil-wound laminated composite of magnetostrictive alloy and piezoelectric crystal. An electric current applied to the coil induces a magnetic field, resulting in an electric voltage from the composite due to

Isolated Bidirectional DC–DC Converter for SuperCapacitor Applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dehnavi, Sayed M. D.; Sen, Gökhan; Thomsen, Ole Cornelius

2011-01-01

This paper proposes a new bidirectional DC/DC converter for supercapacitor applications. The proposed converter has a parallel structure in supercapacitor side (where voltage is low and current is high) and a series structure in the other side. This structure increases efficiency of the converter...

Changes in the Distribution of Sex Partners in the United States: 2002 to 2011-2013.

Science.gov (United States)

Harper, Christopher R; Dittus, Patricia J; Leichliter, Jami S; Aral, Sevgi O

2017-02-01

The purpose of the current analysis is to examine subgroup differences in the distribution of opposite-sex sex partners in the United States across an approximate 10-year period to identify patterns that may inform sexually transmitted infection research and prevention. Data were drawn from the 2002 and 2011-2013 National Survey of Family Growth, a US probability-based household survey focusing on sexual and reproductive health. The measures included in this analysis were lifetime opposite-sex sex partners and opposite-sex sex partners in the past year. Analyses were conducted separately for men and women. All analyses were conducted in R and R-studio with the "survey" package, focusing on medians, the 80th, and 95th quartile. In 2002, there were significant differences between men and women in median number of lifetime sex partners with men reporting more lifetime partners. However, in the 2011-2013 data, these differences are no longer significant. Still, the findings suggest that the top 20% and top 5% of men are reporting significantly more lifetime partners than their female counterparts. In comparison, partners in the past year remain relatively unchanged for both men and women. These findings suggest that there were important changes in the distribution of sex partners between 2002 and 2011-2013 that have implications for sexually transmitted infection prevention. Median lifetime partners are no longer different for women and men: however, the distribution of lifetime partners among men is becoming even more skewed.

Finite-Time Stability for Fractional-Order Bidirectional Associative Memory Neural Networks with Time Delays

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu Chang-Jin; Li Pei-Luan; Pang Yi-Cheng

2017-01-01

This paper is concerned with fractional-order bidirectional associative memory (BAM) neural networks with time delays. Applying Laplace transform, the generalized Gronwall inequality and estimates of Mittag–Leffler functions, some sufficient conditions which ensure the finite-time stability of fractional-order bidirectional associative memory neural networks with time delays are obtained. Two examples with their simulations are given to illustrate the theoretical findings. Our results are new and complement previously known results. (paper)

Changes in sexual behavior following a sex education program in Brazilian public schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Andrade, Heloísa Helena Siqueira Monteiro; Mello, Maeve Brito de; Sousa, Maria Helena; Makuch, Maria Yolanda; Bertoni, Neilane; Faúndes, Anibal

2009-05-01

This paper describes an evaluation of possible changes in sexual behavior in adolescents who participated in a school-based sex education program in selected public schools in four municipalities in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The program is inserted within the context of reproductive rights, deals with risks involved in unsafe sexual practices and focuses on the positive aspects of sexuality. A quasi-experimental design with pre and post-tests and a non-equivalent control group was used to evaluate the intervention. A total of 4,795 questionnaires were included in this analysis. The program succeeded in more than doubling consistent condom use with casual partners and in increasing the use of modern contraceptives during last intercourse by 68%. The intervention had no effect on age at first intercourse or on adolescents' engagement in sexual activities. The sex education program was effective in generating positive changes in the sexual behavior of adolescents, while not stimulating participation in sexual activities.

Criminalizing Sex Work Clients and Rushed Negotiations among Sex Workers Who Use Drugs in a Canadian Setting.

Science.gov (United States)

Landsberg, Adina; Shannon, Kate; Krüsi, Andrea; DeBeck, Kora; Milloy, M-J; Nosova, Ekaterina; Kerr, Thomas; Hayashi, Kanna

2017-08-01

Previous research indicates that criminalization of sex work is associated with harms among sex workers. In 2013, the Vancouver Police Department changed their sex work policy to no longer target sex workers while continuing to target clients and third parties in an effort to increase the safety of sex workers (similar to "end-demand sex work" approaches being adopted in a number of countries globally). We sought to investigate the trends and correlates of rushing negotiations with clients due to police presence among 359 sex workers who use drugs in Vancouver before and after the guideline change. Data were derived from three prospective cohort studies of people who use drugs in Vancouver between 2008 and 2014. We used sex-stratified multivariable generalized estimating equation models. The crude percentages of sex workers who use drugs reporting rushing client negotiations changed from 8.9% before the guideline change to 14.8% after the guideline change among 259 women, and from 8.6 to 7.1% among 100 men. In multivariable analyses, there was a significant increase in reports of rushing client negotiation after the guideline change among women (p = 0.04). Other variables that were independently associated with increased odds of rushing client negotiation included experiencing client-perpetrated violence (among both men and women) and non-heterosexual orientation (among women) (all p sex workers who use drugs. It was also associated with client-perpetrated violence and other markers of vulnerability. These findings lend further evidence that criminalizing the purchase of sexual services does not protect the health and safety of sex workers.

Protein remote homology detection based on bidirectional long short-term memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Shumin; Chen, Junjie; Liu, Bin

2017-10-10

Protein remote homology detection plays a vital role in studies of protein structures and functions. Almost all of the traditional machine leaning methods require fixed length features to represent the protein sequences. However, it is never an easy task to extract the discriminative features with limited knowledge of proteins. On the other hand, deep learning technique has demonstrated its advantage in automatically learning representations. It is worthwhile to explore the applications of deep learning techniques to the protein remote homology detection. In this study, we employ the Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BLSTM) to learn effective features from pseudo proteins, also propose a predictor called ProDec-BLSTM: it includes input layer, bidirectional LSTM, time distributed dense layer and output layer. This neural network can automatically extract the discriminative features by using bidirectional LSTM and the time distributed dense layer. Experimental results on a widely-used benchmark dataset show that ProDec-BLSTM outperforms other related methods in terms of both the mean ROC and mean ROC50 scores. This promising result shows that ProDec-BLSTM is a useful tool for protein remote homology detection. Furthermore, the hidden patterns learnt by ProDec-BLSTM can be interpreted and visualized, and therefore, additional useful information can be obtained.

Effect of particle nonsphericity on bidirectional reflectance of cirrus clouds

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mishchenko, M.I.; Rossow, W.B.; Macke, A.; Lacis, A.A. [Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY (United States)

1996-04-01

This paper describes the use of the fractal ice particle method to study the differences in bidirectional reflectance caused by the differences in the single scattering phase functions of spherical water droplets and nonspherical ice crystals.

Longitudinal Bidirectional Relations between Adolescents' Sympathy and Prosocial Behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Carlo, Gustavo; Padilla-Walker, Laura M.; Nielson, Matthew G.

2015-01-01

Despite the importance of understanding sympathy and prosocial behaviors, research on the development of these tendencies in adolescence remains relatively sparse. In the present study, we examined age trends and bidirectional longitudinal relations in sympathy and prosocial behaviors across early to middle adolescents. Participants were 500…

Bidirectional relations between parenting practices and child externalizing behavior: a cross-lagged panel analysis in the context of a psychosocial treatment and 3-year follow-up.

Science.gov (United States)

Shaffer, Anne; Lindhiem, Oliver; Kolko, David J; Trentacosta, Christopher J

2013-02-01

In the current study, we examined longitudinal changes in, and bidirectional effects between, parenting practices and child behavior problems in the context of a psychosocial treatment and 3-year follow-up period. The sample comprised 139 parent-child dyads (child ages 6-11) who participated in a modular treatment protocol for early-onset ODD or CD. Parenting practices and child behavior problems were assessed at six time-points using multiple measures and multiple reporters. The data were analyzed using cross-lagged panel analyses. Results indicated robust temporal stabilities of parenting practices and child behavior problems, in the context of treatment-related improvements, but bidirectional effects between parenting practices and child behavior were less frequently detected. Our findings suggest that bidirectional effects are relatively smaller than the temporal stability of each construct for school-age children with ODD/CD and their parents, following a multi-modal clinical intervention that is directed at both parents and children. Implications for treatment and intervention are discussed.

Evaluation of complex gonioapparent samples using a bidirectional spectrometer.

Science.gov (United States)

Rogelj, Nina; Penttinen, Niko; Gunde, Marta Klanjšek

2015-08-24

Many applications use gonioapparent targets whose appearance depends on irradiation and viewing angles; the strongest effects are provided by light diffraction. These targets, optically variable devices (OVDs), are used in both security and authentication applications. This study introduces a bidirectional spectrometer, which enables to analyze samples with most complex angular and spectral properties. In our work, the spectrometer is evaluated with samples having very different types of reflection, concerning spectral and angular distributions. Furthermore, an OVD containing several different grating patches is evaluated. The device uses automatically adjusting exposure time to provide maximum signal dynamics and is capable of doing steps as small as 0.01°. However, even 2° steps for the detector movement showed that this device is more than capable of characterizing even the most complex reflecting surfaces. This study presents sRGB visualizations, discussion of bidirectional reflection, and accurate grating period calculations for all of the grating samples used.

A Bidirectional Relationship between Conceptual Organization and Word Learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tanya Kaefer

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This study explores the relationship between word learning and conceptual organization for preschool-aged children. We proposed a bidirectional model in which increases in word learning lead to increases in taxonomic organization, which, in turn, leads to further increases in word learning. In order to examine this model, we recruited 104 4-year olds from Head Start classrooms; 52 children participated in a two-week training program, and 52 children were in a control group. Results indicated that children in the training program learned more words and were more likely to sort taxonomically than children in the control condition. Furthermore, the number of words learned over the training period predicted the extent to which children categorized taxonomically. Additionally, this ability to categorize taxonomically predicted the number of words learned outside the training program, over and above the number of words learned in the program. These results suggest a bi-directional relationship between conceptual organization and word learning.

Bidirectional magnetic microactuators for uTAS

Science.gov (United States)

Hilbich, Daniel D.; Khosla, Ajit; Gray, Bonnie L.; Shannon, Lesley

2011-02-01

We present the design, fabrication and characterization of a novel bidirectional magnetic microactuator. The actuator has a planar structure and is easily fabricated using processes based on laser micromachining and soft lithography, allowing it to be readily integrated into microfluidic, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and lab-on-a-chip (LOC) designs. The new microactuator is a thin magnetic membrane with a central magnet feature. The membrane and magnet are both composed of a magnetic nanocomposite polymer (M-NCP) material that is fabricated by embedding magnetic powder in a polydimethysiloxane (PDMS) polymer matrix. The magnetic powder (MQP-12-5) has the chemical composition of (Nd0.7Ce0.3)10.5Fe83.9B5.6, and contains grains that are 5-6 microns in size. The powder is uniformly dispersed at a weight percentage of 75 wt-% in the PDMS matrix, and micropatterned using soft lithography micromolding to realize magnetic microstructures, which sit on a thinner magnetic PDMS membrane of the same material. The molds are fabricated by laser-etching into Poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) using a Universal Laser System's VersaLASERlaser ablation system. The PDMS-based M-NCP is then poured and spun over the mold patterns, producing a thin polymer membrane to which the polymer micromagnets are attached, forming a one-piece actuator. The M-NCP is initially un-magnetized, but is then magnetized by placing it in a 2.5T magnetic field to produce permanent bidirectional magnetization that is polarized in the specified direction. To characterize the bidirectional actuators, a uniform magnetic field is established via a Helmholtz coil pair, and is characterized by applying varying currents. The magnetic field (and thus the actuator deflection) is controlled by regulating the current in the Helmholtz pair. Using this apparatus, deflection versus field characteristics are obtained, with maximum deflections varying as a function of actuator dimensions and the applied magnetic

Bidirectional Telemetry Controller for Neuroprosthetic Devices

Science.gov (United States)

Sharma, Vishnu; McCreery, Douglas B.; Han, Martin; Pikov, Victor

2010-01-01

We present versatile multifunctional programmable controller with bidirectional data telemetry, implemented using existing commercial microchips and standard Bluetooth protocol, which adds convenience, reliability, and ease-of-use to neuroprosthetic devices. Controller, weighing 190 g, is placed on animal's back and provides bidirectional sustained telemetry rate of 500 kb/s, allowing real-time control of stimulation parameters and viewing of acquired data. In continuously-active state, controller consumes ∼420 mW and operates without recharge for 8 h. It features independent 16-channel current-controlled stimulation, allowing current steering; customizable stimulus current waveforms; recording of stimulus voltage waveforms and evoked neuronal responses with stimulus artifact blanking circuitry. Flexibility, scalability, cost-efficiency, and a user-friendly computer interface of this device allow use in animal testing for variety of neuroprosthetic applications. Initial testing of the controller has been done in a feline model of brainstem auditory prosthesis. In this model, the electrical stimulation is applied to the array of microelectrodes implanted in the ventral cochlear nucleus, while the evoked neuronal activity was recorded with the electrode implanted in the contralateral inferior colliculus. Stimulus voltage waveforms to monitor the access impedance of the electrodes were acquired at the rate of 312 kilosamples/s. Evoked neuronal activity in the inferior colliculus was recorded after the blanking (transient silencing) of the recording amplifier during the stimulus pulse, allowing the detection of neuronal responses within 100 μs after the end of the stimulus pulse applied in the cochlear nucleus. PMID:19933010

Bidirectional telemetry controller for neuroprosthetic devices.

Science.gov (United States)

Sharma, Vishnu; McCreery, Douglas B; Han, Martin; Pikov, Victor

2010-02-01

We present versatile multifunctional programmable controller with bidirectional data telemetry, implemented using existing commercial microchips and standard Bluetooth protocol, which adds convenience, reliability, and ease-of-use to neuroprosthetic devices. Controller, weighing 190 g, is placed on animal's back and provides bidirectional sustained telemetry rate of 500 kb/s , allowing real-time control of stimulation parameters and viewing of acquired data. In continuously-active state, controller consumes approximately 420 mW and operates without recharge for 8 h . It features independent 16-channel current-controlled stimulation, allowing current steering; customizable stimulus current waveforms; recording of stimulus voltage waveforms and evoked neuronal responses with stimulus artifact blanking circuitry. Flexibility, scalability, cost-efficiency, and a user-friendly computer interface of this device allow use in animal testing for variety of neuroprosthetic applications. Initial testing of the controller has been done in a feline model of brainstem auditory prosthesis. In this model, the electrical stimulation is applied to the array of microelectrodes implanted in the ventral cochlear nucleus, while the evoked neuronal activity was recorded with the electrode implanted in the contralateral inferior colliculus. Stimulus voltage waveforms to monitor the access impedance of the electrodes were acquired at the rate of 312 kilosamples/s. Evoked neuronal activity in the inferior colliculus was recorded after the blanking (transient silencing) of the recording amplifier during the stimulus pulse, allowing the detection of neuronal responses within 100 mus after the end of the stimulus pulse applied in the cochlear nucleus.

Performance Evaluation of IEEE 802.11ah Networks With High-Throughput Bidirectional Traffic.

Science.gov (United States)

Šljivo, Amina; Kerkhove, Dwight; Tian, Le; Famaey, Jeroen; Munteanu, Adrian; Moerman, Ingrid; Hoebeke, Jeroen; De Poorter, Eli

2018-01-23

So far, existing sub-GHz wireless communication technologies focused on low-bandwidth, long-range communication with large numbers of constrained devices. Although these characteristics are fine for many Internet of Things (IoT) applications, more demanding application requirements could not be met and legacy Internet technologies such as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) could not be used. This has changed with the advent of the new IEEE 802.11ah Wi-Fi standard, which is much more suitable for reliable bidirectional communication and high-throughput applications over a wide area (up to 1 km). The standard offers great possibilities for network performance optimization through a number of physical- and link-layer configurable features. However, given that the optimal configuration parameters depend on traffic patterns, the standard does not dictate how to determine them. Such a large number of configuration options can lead to sub-optimal or even incorrect configurations. Therefore, we investigated how two key mechanisms, Restricted Access Window (RAW) grouping and Traffic Indication Map (TIM) segmentation, influence scalability, throughput, latency and energy efficiency in the presence of bidirectional TCP/IP traffic. We considered both high-throughput video streaming traffic and large-scale reliable sensing traffic and investigated TCP behavior in both scenarios when the link layer introduces long delays. This article presents the relations between attainable throughput per station and attainable number of stations, as well as the influence of RAW, TIM and TCP parameters on both. We found that up to 20 continuously streaming IP-cameras can be reliably connected via IEEE 802.11ah with a maximum average data rate of 160 kbps, whereas 10 IP-cameras can achieve average data rates of up to 255 kbps over 200 m. Up to 6960 stations transmitting every 60 s can be connected over 1 km with no lost packets. The presented results enable the fine tuning

Bidirectional Prospective Associations between Cardiac Autonomic Activity and Inflammatory Markers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hu, Mandy X; Lamers, Femke; Neijts, Melanie; Willemsen, Gonneke; de Geus, Eco J C; Penninx, Brenda W J H

2018-01-01

OBJECTIVE: Autonomic nervous system (ANS) imbalance has been cross-sectionally associated with inflammatory processes. Longitudinal studies are needed to shed light on the nature of this relationship. We examined cross-sectional and bidirectional prospective associations between cardiac autonomic

Bidirectional Associations Between Adolescents' Sexual Behaviors and Psychological Well-Being

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nogueira Avelar e Silva, Raquel; van de Bongardt, Daphne; Baams, Laura; Raat, Hein

Purpose: Assessing bidirectional longitudinal associations between early sexual behaviors (≤16.0 years) and psychological well-being (global self-esteem, physical self-esteem, depression) among 716 adolescents, and the direct and buffering effect of parent-adolescent relationship quality. Methods:

Transparent organic light-emitting diodes with different bi-directional emission colors using color-conversion capping layers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Jonghee, E-mail: jonghee.lee@etri.re.kr [OLED Research Center, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), Daejeon 305-700 (Korea, Republic of); Institut für Angewandte Photophysik, Technische Universität Dresden, George-Bähr-Straße 1, 01062 Dresden (Germany); Koh, Tae-Wook [Department of Electrical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 305-701 (Korea, Republic of); Cho, Hyunsu [OLED Research Center, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), Daejeon 305-700 (Korea, Republic of); Department of Electrical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 305-701 (Korea, Republic of); Schwab, Tobias [Institut für Angewandte Photophysik, Technische Universität Dresden, George-Bähr-Straße 1, 01062 Dresden (Germany); Lee, Jae-Hyun [Department School of Global Convergence Studies, Hanbat National University, San 16-1, Duckmyoung-dong, Daejeon 305-719 (Korea, Republic of); Hofmann, Simone [Institut für Angewandte Photophysik, Technische Universität Dresden, George-Bähr-Straße 1, 01062 Dresden (Germany); Lee, Jeong-Ik [OLED Research Center, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), Daejeon 305-700 (Korea, Republic of); Yoo, Seunghyup [Department of Electrical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 305-701 (Korea, Republic of); and others

2015-06-15

We report a study on transparent organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with different bi-directional emission colors, enabled by color-conversion organic capping layers. Starting from a transparent blue OLED with an uncapped Ag top electrode exhibiting an average transmittance of 33.9%, a 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-methyl-6-(4-dimethylaminostyryl)-4H-pyran (DCM)-doped tris-(8-hydroxy-quinolinato)-aluminum (Alq3) capping layer is applied to achieve color-conversion from blue to orange-red on the top side while maintaining almost unchanged device transmittance. This color-conversion capping layer does not only change the color of the top side emission, but also enhances the overall device efficiency due to the optical interaction of the capping layer with the primary blue transparent OLED. Top white emission from the transparent bi-directional OLED exhibits a correlated color temperature around 6000–7000 K, with excellent color stability as evidenced by an extremely small variation in color coordinate of Δ(x,y)=(0.002, 0.002) in the forward luminance range of 100–1000 cd m{sup −2}. At the same time, the blue emission color of bottom side is not influenced by the color conversion capping layer, which finally results in different emission colors of the two opposite sides of our transparent OLEDs. - Highlights: • We report transparent organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with different bi-directional emission colors. • Transparent blue OLED with color-conversion organic capping layers (CCL) shows orange top side emission. • Top white emission exhibits a CCT around 7000 K, with excellent color stability on a driving voltage.

Transparent organic light-emitting diodes with different bi-directional emission colors using color-conversion capping layers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Jonghee; Koh, Tae-Wook; Cho, Hyunsu; Schwab, Tobias; Lee, Jae-Hyun; Hofmann, Simone; Lee, Jeong-Ik; Yoo, Seunghyup

2015-01-01

We report a study on transparent organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with different bi-directional emission colors, enabled by color-conversion organic capping layers. Starting from a transparent blue OLED with an uncapped Ag top electrode exhibiting an average transmittance of 33.9%, a 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-methyl-6-(4-dimethylaminostyryl)-4H-pyran (DCM)-doped tris-(8-hydroxy-quinolinato)-aluminum (Alq3) capping layer is applied to achieve color-conversion from blue to orange-red on the top side while maintaining almost unchanged device transmittance. This color-conversion capping layer does not only change the color of the top side emission, but also enhances the overall device efficiency due to the optical interaction of the capping layer with the primary blue transparent OLED. Top white emission from the transparent bi-directional OLED exhibits a correlated color temperature around 6000–7000 K, with excellent color stability as evidenced by an extremely small variation in color coordinate of Δ(x,y)=(0.002, 0.002) in the forward luminance range of 100–1000 cd m −2 . At the same time, the blue emission color of bottom side is not influenced by the color conversion capping layer, which finally results in different emission colors of the two opposite sides of our transparent OLEDs. - Highlights: • We report transparent organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with different bi-directional emission colors. • Transparent blue OLED with color-conversion organic capping layers (CCL) shows orange top side emission. • Top white emission exhibits a CCT around 7000 K, with excellent color stability on a driving voltage

Cross-species mapping of bidirectional promoters enables prediction of unannotated 5' UTRs and identification of species-specific transcripts

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Lewin Harris A

2009-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Bidirectional promoters are shared regulatory regions that influence the expression of two oppositely oriented genes. This type of regulatory architecture is found more frequently than expected by chance in the human genome, yet many specifics underlying the regulatory design are unknown. Given that the function of most orthologous genes is similar across species, we hypothesized that the architecture and regulation of bidirectional promoters might also be similar across species, representing a core regulatory structure and enabling annotation of these regions in additional mammalian genomes. Results By mapping the intergenic distances of genes in human, chimpanzee, bovine, murine, and rat, we show an enrichment for pairs of genes equal to or less than 1,000 bp between their adjacent 5' ends ("head-to-head" compared to pairs of genes that fall in the same orientation ("head-to-tail" or whose 3' ends are side-by-side ("tail-to-tail". A representative set of 1,369 human bidirectional promoters was mapped to orthologous sequences in other mammals. We confirmed predictions for 5' UTRs in nine of ten manual picks in bovine based on comparison to the orthologous human promoter set and in six of seven predictions in human based on comparison to the bovine dataset. The two predictions that did not have orthology as bidirectional promoters in the other species resulted from unique events that initiated transcription in the opposite direction in only those species. We found evidence supporting the independent emergence of bidirectional promoters from the family of five RecQ helicase genes, which gained their bidirectional promoters and partner genes independently rather than through a duplication process. Furthermore, by expanding our comparisons from pairwise to multispecies analyses we developed a map representing a core set of bidirectional promoters in mammals. Conclusion We show that the orthologous positions of bidirectional

Mechanical and abrasive wear characterization of bidirectional and chopped E-glass fiber reinforced composite materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Siddhartha,; Gupta, Kuldeep

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► Bi-directional and chopped E-glass fiber reinforced epoxy composites are fabricated. ► Three body abrasive wear behavior of fabricated composites has been assessed. ► Results are validated against existing microscopic models of Lancaster and Wang. ► Tensile strength of bi-directional E-glass fiber reinforced composites increases. ► Chopped glass fiber composites are found better in abrasive wear situations. -- Abstract: Bi-directional and chopped E-glass fiber reinforced epoxy composites are fabricated in five different (15, 20, 25, 30 and 35) wt% in an epoxy resin matrix. The mechanical characterization of these composites is performed. The three body abrasive wear behavior of fabricated composites has been assessed under different operating conditions. Abrasive wear characteristics of these composites are successfully analysed using Taguchi’s experimental design scheme and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results obtained from these experiments are also validated against existing microscopic models of Ratner-Lancaster and Wang. It is observed that quite good linear relationships is held between specific wear rate and reciprocal of ultimate strength and strain at tensile fracture of these composites which is an indicative that the experimental results are in fair agreement with these existing models. Out of all composites fabricated it is found that tensile strength of bi-directional E-glass fiber reinforced composites increases because of interface strength enhancement. Chopped glass fiber reinforced composites are observed to perform better than bi-directional glass fiber reinforced composites under abrasive wear situations. The morphology of worn composite specimens has been examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to understand about dominant wear mechanisms.

Effect of bidirectional rotation of an acupuncture needle at LI10 on acupuncture needle sensation and experimentally-induced contact heat pain in healthy human volunteers.

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Benham, Alex; Johnson, Mark I

2014-06-01

There is insufficient evidence of a relationship between acupuncture needle sensations (de qi) and hypoalgesia. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of bidirectional needle rotation at LI10 on acupuncture needle sensations and heat pain thresholds. Twenty-two healthy participants received one acupuncture needle at LI10 with bidirectional rotation of the needle in one experimental session and one acupuncture needle at LI10 with mock rotation in a separate session, in a randomised order. Measurements of heat pain thresholds were taken before needle insertion, during needle retention and 15 min after needle removal. At each measurement time point, participants rated needle sensations using the Massachusetts Acupuncture Sensation Scale (MASS) and a visual analogue scale (VAS) of overall intensity of needle sensation. Bidirectional needle rotation produced significantly higher scores for VAS, MASStotal, MASSpain and MASSsensation compared with mock rotation (all psensation and change in pain threshold after needling was only found when data from mock and rotation interventions were combined. Needle rotation increases the magnitude of hypoalgesia. There is tentative evidence that needle sensation may be associated with the amount of change in pain threshold. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Bidirectional automatic release of reserve for low voltage network made with low capacity PLCs

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Popa, I.; Popa, G. N.; Diniş, C. M.; Deaconu, S. I.

2018-01-01

The article presents the design of a bidirectional automatic release of reserve made on two types low capacity programmable logic controllers: PS-3 from Klöckner-Moeller and Zelio from Schneider. It analyses the electronic timing circuits that can be used for making the bidirectional automatic release of reserve: time-on delay circuit and time-off delay circuit (two types). In the paper are present the sequences code for timing performed on the PS-3 PLC, the logical functions for the bidirectional automatic release of reserve, the classical control electrical diagram (with contacts, relays, and time relays), the electronic control diagram (with logical gates and timing circuits), the code (in IL language) made for the PS-3 PLC, and the code (in FBD language) made for Zelio PLC. A comparative analysis will be carried out on the use of the two types of PLC and will be present the advantages of using PLCs.

Studi Komparasi Fungsi Keanggotaan Fuzzy sebagai Kontroler Bidirectional DC-DC Converter pada Sistem Penyimpan Energi

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Eka Prasetyono

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Bidirectional DC-DC converter is needed in the energy storage system. The converter topology used in this paper was a non-isolated bidirectional DC-DC buck-boost converter. This converter worked in two ways, which the charging mode stored energy into battery when load current was less than nominal main DC current (set point and discharging mode transferred energy from battery to the load when its current exceeded set point value. Both of these modes worked automatically according to the load current. The charging and discharging currents were controlled by fuzzy logic controller which was implemented on microcontroller ARM Cortex-M4F STM32F407VG. This paper compares two types of fuzzy membership function (triangular and sigmoid in controlling bidirectional DC-DC converter. The results showed that fuzzy logic controller with triangle membership function and sigmoid as control bidirectional DC-DC converter had no significant different response, both had an average error for charging and discharging process under 4% with ripple current on the main DC bus around 0.5%. The computing time of program for fuzzy logic controller with triangular membership functions had 19.01% faster than sigmoid, and fuzzy logic computation time on a microcontroller with hardware floating point was 60% faster than software floating point.

Changing trend? Sex ratios of children born to Indian immigrants in Norway revisited.

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Tønnessen, Marianne; Aalandslid, Vebjørn; Skjerpen, Terje

2013-09-05

In some Western countries, a disturbingly low share of girls has been observed among new-borns from Indian immigrants. Also in Norway, a previous study based on figures from 1969-2005 showed a high percentage of boys among children of Indian origin living in Norway, when the birth was of higher order (third birth or later). This was suggested to reflect a practice of sex-selective abortions in the Indian immigrant population. In this article we have seen whether extended time series for the period 2006-2012 give further support to this claim. Based on data from the Norwegian Central Population Register we used observations for the sex of all live births in Norway for the period 1969-2012 where the mother was born in India. The percentage of boys was calculated for each birth order, during four sub periods. Utilising a binomial probability model we tested whether the observed sex differences among Indian-born women were significantly different from sex differences among all births. Contrary to findings from earlier periods and other Western countries, we found that Indian-born women in Norway gave birth to more girls than boys of higher order in the period 2006-2012. This is somewhat surprising, since sex selection is usually expected to be stronger if the mother already has two or more children. The extended time series do not suggest a prevalence of sex selective abortions among Indian-born women in Norway. We discuss whether the change from a majority of boys to a majority of girls in higher order could be explained by new waves of immigrant women, by new preferences among long-residing immigrant women in Norway - or by mere coincidence.

A nonlinear plasmonic waveguide based all-optical bidirectional switching

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Bana, Xiaoqiang; Pang, Xingxing; Li, Xiaohui; Hu, Bin; Guo, Yixuan; Zheng, Hairong

2018-01-01

In this paper, an all-optical switching with a nanometer coupled ring resonator is demonstrated based on the nonlinear material. By adjusting the light intensity, we implement the resonance wavelength from 880 nm to 940 nm in the nonlinear material structure monocyclic. In the bidirectional switch structure, the center wavelength (i.e. 880 nm) is fixed. By changing the light intensity from I = 0 to I = 53 . 1 MW /cm2, the function of optical switching can be obtained. The results demonstrate that both the single-ring cavity and the T-shaped double-ring structure can realize the optical switching effect. This work takes advantage of the simple structure. The single-ring cavity plasmonic switches have many advantages, such as nanoscale size, low pumping light intensity, ultrafast response time (femtosecond level), etc. It is expected that the proposed all-optical integrated devices can be potentially applied in optical communication, signal processing, and signal sensing, etc.

A novel bidirectional expression system for simultaneous expression of both the protein-coding genes and short hairpin RNAs in mammalian cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hung, C.-F.; Cheng, T.-L.; Wu, R.-H.; Teng, C.-F.; Chang, W.-T.

2006-01-01

RNA interference (RNAi) is an extremely powerful and widely used gene silencing approach for reverse functional genomics and molecular therapeutics. In mammals, the conserved poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 2 (PARP-2)/RNase P bidirectional control promoter simultaneously expresses both the PARP-2 protein and RNase P RNA by RNA polymerase II- and III-dependent mechanisms, respectively. To explore this unique bidirectional control system in RNAi-mediated gene silencing strategy, we have constructed two novel bidirectional expression vectors, pbiHsH1 and pbiMmH1, which contained the PARP-2/RNase P bidirectional control promoters from human and mouse, for simultaneous expression of both the protein-coding genes and short hairpin RNAs. Analyses of the dual transcriptional activities indicated that these two bidirectional expression vectors could not only express enhanced green fluorescent protein as a functional reporter but also simultaneously transcribe shLuc for inhibiting the firefly luciferase expression. In addition, to extend its utility for the establishment of inherited stable clones, we have also reconstructed this bidirectional expression system with the blasticidin S deaminase gene, an effective dominant drug resistance selectable marker, and examined both the selection and inhibition efficiencies in drug resistance and gene expression. Moreover, we have further demonstrated that this bidirectional expression system could efficiently co-regulate the functionally important genes, such as overexpression of tumor suppressor protein p53 and inhibition of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 at the same time. In summary, the bidirectional expression vectors, pbiHsH1 and pbiMmH1, should provide a simple, convenient, and efficient novel tool for manipulating the gene function in mammalian cells

Integrating high dimensional bi-directional parsing models for gene mention tagging.

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Hsu, Chun-Nan; Chang, Yu-Ming; Kuo, Cheng-Ju; Lin, Yu-Shi; Huang, Han-Shen; Chung, I-Fang

2008-07-01

Tagging gene and gene product mentions in scientific text is an important initial step of literature mining. In this article, we describe in detail our gene mention tagger participated in BioCreative 2 challenge and analyze what contributes to its good performance. Our tagger is based on the conditional random fields model (CRF), the most prevailing method for the gene mention tagging task in BioCreative 2. Our tagger is interesting because it accomplished the highest F-scores among CRF-based methods and second over all. Moreover, we obtained our results by mostly applying open source packages, making it easy to duplicate our results. We first describe in detail how we developed our CRF-based tagger. We designed a very high dimensional feature set that includes most of information that may be relevant. We trained bi-directional CRF models with the same set of features, one applies forward parsing and the other backward, and integrated two models based on the output scores and dictionary filtering. One of the most prominent factors that contributes to the good performance of our tagger is the integration of an additional backward parsing model. However, from the definition of CRF, it appears that a CRF model is symmetric and bi-directional parsing models will produce the same results. We show that due to different feature settings, a CRF model can be asymmetric and the feature setting for our tagger in BioCreative 2 not only produces different results but also gives backward parsing models slight but constant advantage over forward parsing model. To fully explore the potential of integrating bi-directional parsing models, we applied different asymmetric feature settings to generate many bi-directional parsing models and integrate them based on the output scores. Experimental results show that this integrated model can achieve even higher F-score solely based on the training corpus for gene mention tagging. Data sets, programs and an on-line service of our gene

Sex selection and restricting abortion and sex determination.

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Zilberberg, Julie

2007-11-01

Sex selection in India and China is fostered by a limiting social structure that disallows women from performing the roles that men perform, and relegates women to a lower status level. Individual parents and individual families benefit concretely from having a son born into the family, while society, and girls and women as a group, are harmed by the widespread practice of sex selection. Sex selection reinforces oppression of women and girls. Sex selection is best addressed by ameliorating the situations of women and girls, increasing their autonomy, and elevating their status in society. One might argue that restricting or prohibiting abortion, prohibiting sex selection, and prohibiting sex determination would eliminate sex selective abortion. But this decreases women's autonomy rather than increases it. Such practices will turn underground. Sex selective infanticide, and slower death by long term neglect, could increase. If abortion is restricted, the burden is placed on women seeking abortions to show that they have a legally acceptable or legitimate reason for a desired abortion, and this seriously limits women's autonomy. Instead of restricting abortion, banning sex selection, and sex determination, it is better to address the practice of sex selection by elevating the status of women and empowering women so that giving birth to a girl is a real and positive option, instead of a detriment to the parents and family as it is currently. But, if a ban on sex selective abortion or a ban on sex determination is indeed instituted, then wider social change promoting women's status in society should be instituted simultaneously.

Control of parallel-connected bidirectional AC-DC converters in stationary frame for microgrid application

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lu, Xiaonan; Guerrero, Josep M.; Teodorescu, Remus

2011-01-01

With the penetration of renewable energy in modern power system, microgrid has become a popular application worldwide. In this paper, parallel-connected bidirectional converters for AC and DC hybrid microgrid application are proposed as an efficient interface. To reach the goal of bidirectional...... power conversion, both rectifier and inverter modes are analyzed. In order to achieve high performance operation, hierarchical control system is accomplished. The control system is designed in stationary frame, with harmonic compensation in parallel and no coupled terms between axes. In this control...

Colours sometimes count : Awareness and bidirectionality in grapheme-colour synaesthesia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Johnson, Addie; Jepma, Marieke; de Jong, Ritske

2007-01-01

Three experiments were conducted with 10 grapheme-colour synaesthetes and 10 matched controls to investigate (a) whether awareness of the inducer grapheme is necessary for synaesthetic colour induction and (b) whether grapheme-colour synaesthesia may be bidirectional in the sense that not only do

Bidirectional electrostatic linear shuffle motor with two degrees of freedom

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sarajlic, Edin; Berenschot, Johan W.; Fujita, H.; Krijnen, Gijsbertus J.M.; Elwenspoek, Michael Curt

2005-01-01

We report on an electrostatic linear inchworm micromotor with two translational degrees-of-freedom. The motor employs built-in mechanical leverage to convert normal deflection of a flexible cross-plate into a small in-plane step and four electrostatic clamps to enable bidirectional inchworm motion

Magnetically actuated bi-directional microactuators with permalloy and Fe/Pt hard magnet

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pan, C.T.; Shen, S.C.

2005-01-01

Bi-directional polyimide (PI) electromagnetic microactuator with different geometries are designed, fabricated and tested. Fabrication of the electromagnetic microactuator consists of 10 μm thick Ni/Fe (80/20) permalloy deposition on the PI diaphragm by electroplating, high aspect ratio electroplating of copper planar coil with 10 μm in thickness, bulk micromachining, and excimer laser selective ablation. They were fabricated by a novel concept avoiding the etching selectivity and residual stress problems during wafer etching. A mathematical model is created by ANSYS software to analyze the microactuator. The external magnetic field intensity (H ext ) generated by the planar coil is simulated by ANSYS software. ANSYS software is used to predict the deflection angle of the microactuator. Besides, to provide bi-directional and large deflection angle of microactuator, hard magnet Fe/Pt is deposited at a low temperature of 300 deg. C by sputtering onto the PI diaphragm to produce a perpendicular magnetic anisotropic field. This magnetic field can enhance the interaction with H ext to induce attractive and repulsive bi-directional force to provide large displacement. The results of magnetic microactuator with and without hard magnets are compared and discussed. The preliminary result reveals that the electromagnetic microactuator with hard magnet shows a greater deflection angle than that without one

Female sex work and international sport events - no major changes in demand or supply of paid sex during the 2010 Soccer World Cup: a cross-sectional study

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Background Important unanswered questions remain on the impact of international sporting events on the sex industry. Speculation about increased demand and supply of sex work often generates significant attention, but also additional funding for HIV programmes. This study assessed whether changes occurred in the demand and supply of paid sex during the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa. Methods Trained sex worker interviewers conducted face-to-face semi-structured interviews among consenting female sex workers during May-September 2010. Using bivariate analyses we compared supply, demand, sexual risk-taking, and police and health services contact pre-World Cup, to levels during the World Cup and after the event. Results No increases were detected in indicators of sex work supply, including the proportion of sex workers newly arrived in the city ( 92.4% in all phases). Health-care utilisation decreased non-significantly from the pre- to during World Cup period (62.4% to 57.0%; P = 0.075). Across all periods, about thirty percent of participants had interacted with police in the preceding month, two thirds of whom had negative interactions. Conclusions Contrary to public opinion, no major increases were detected in the demand or supply of paid sex during the World Cup. Although the study design employed was unable to select population-based samples, these findings do not support the public concern and media speculation prior to the event, but rather signal a missed opportunity for public health action. Given the media attention on sex work, future sporting events offer strategic opportunities to implement services for sex workers and their clients, especially as health service utilisation might decrease in this period. PMID:22967260

Changing behaviours and continuing silence: sex in the post-immigration lives of mainland Chinese immigrants in Canada.

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Zhou, Yanqiu Rachel

2012-01-01

In China, reluctance to discuss sex continues to be widely observed despite the sexual revolution there. That silence generates questions about health risks in the contexts of HIV/AIDS and international migration. Based on a qualitative study of mainland Chinese immigrants in Canada, this paper explores the impacts of immigration processes on sex and sexuality. The findings reveal a gap between these individuals' changing sexual behaviours and the continuing silence on sex. Although Canada has exposed them to a new living environment that has shaped the dynamics and patterns of their sexual practices, their incomplete integration into the host society and their close connections with China as the home country mean that traditional Chinese norms continue to influence their understanding of these changes. With the increasing openness of these immigrants' sexual relationships, the obsolescence of their consciousness and knowledge of sexuality should be addressed in order to reduce their vulnerability to sexual inequalities and consequent health risks.

Interplanetary magnetic field orientations associated with bidirectional electron heat fluxes detected at ISEE 3

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stansberry, J.A.; Gosling, J.T.; Thomsen, M.F.; Bame, S.J.; Smith, E.J.

1988-01-01

A statistical survey of interplanetary magnetic field orientations associated with bidirectional electron heat fluxes observed at ISEE 3 in orbit about the Sunward Lagrange point indicates that magnetic connection of the spacecraft to the Earth's bow shock was frequently the source of the bidirectionality. When the interplanetary magnetic field was oriented within 5 0 of the Earth-spacecraft line, backstreaming electrons from the bow shock were clearly observed approximately 18% of the time, and connections apparently occurred for angles as large as ∼30 0 --35 0 . copyright American Geophysical Union 1988

Making Healthy Decisions About Sex

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... For Teens: How to Make Healthy Decisions About Sex Page Content Article Body Before you decide to ... alcohol or use drugs. Are You Ready for Sex? Sex can change your life and relationships. Having ...

Age-related changes in the craniofacial region in a modern Greek population sample of known age and sex.

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Chovalopoulou, Maria-Eleni; Bertsatos, Andreas; Papageorgopoulou, Christina

2017-07-01

The aim of this paper is to investigate ageing changes in craniofacial region in both sexes and evaluate whether these shape changes are substantial to achieve age discrimination of samples used in anthropological analyses. The study sample consisted of 157 crania of known sex and age (81 males and 76 females) belonging to individuals who lived in Greece during the twentieth century. The sample was divided in three age groups: young adults (YA, 18-39 years old), middle adults (MA, 40-59 years old) and old adults (OA, >60 years old). The three-dimensional coordinates of 31 ecto-cranial landmarks were digitized using a Microscribe 3DX contact digitizer, and landmark configurations were analyzed using the generalized least-squares Procrustes method. The results indicate that both males and females show significant difference among the age groups; however, shape differences can not be used for age group discrimination due to a large range on the accuracy of age group classification. The morphometric changes related to age were different between sexes.

Bidirectional Relations between Authoritative Parenting and Adolescents' Prosocial Behaviors

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Padilla-Walker, Laura M.; Carlo, Gustavo; Christensen, Katherine J.; Yorgason, Jeremy B.

2012-01-01

This study examined the bidirectional relations between authoritative parenting and adolescents' prosocial behavior over a 1-year time period. Data were taken from Time 2 and 3 of the Flourishing Families Project, and included reports from 319 two-parent families with an adolescent child (M age of child at Time 2 = 12.34, SD = 1.06, 52% girls).…

Pharmacological Modulation of 5-HT2C Receptor Activity Produces Bidirectional Changes in Locomotor Activity, Responding for a Conditioned Reinforcer, and Mesolimbic DA Release in C57BL/6 Mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Browne, Caleb J; Ji, Xiaodong; Higgins, Guy A; Fletcher, Paul J; Harvey-Lewis, Colin

2017-10-01

Converging lines of behavioral, electrophysiological, and biochemical evidence suggest that 5-HT 2C receptor signaling may bidirectionally influence reward-related behavior through an interaction with the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system. Here we directly test this hypothesis by examining how modulating 5-HT 2C receptor activity affects DA-dependent behaviors and relate these effects to changes in nucleus accumbens (NAc) DA release. In C57BL/6 mice, locomotor activity and responding for a conditioned reinforcer (CRf), a measure of incentive motivation, were examined following treatment with three 5-HT 2C receptor ligands: the agonist CP809101 (0.25-3 mg/kg), the antagonist SB242084 (0.25-1 mg/kg), or the antagonist/inverse agonist SB206553 (1-5 mg/kg). We further tested whether doses of these compounds that changed locomotor activity and responding for a CRf (1 mg/kg CP809101, 0.5 mg/kg SB242084, or 2.5 mg/kg SB206553) also altered NAc DA release using in vivo microdialysis in anesthetized mice. CP809101 reduced locomotor activity, responding for a CRf, and NAc DA release. In contrast, both SB242084 and SB206553 enhanced locomotor activity, responding for a CRf, and NAc DA release, although higher doses of SB206553 produced opposite behavioral effects. Pretreatment with the non-selective DA receptor antagonist α-flupenthixol prevented SB242084 from enhancing responding for a CRf. Thus blocking tonic 5-HT 2C receptor signaling can release serotonergic inhibition of mesolimbic DA activity and enhance reward-related behavior. The observed bidirectional effects of 5-HT 2C receptor ligands may have important implications when considering the 5-HT 2C receptor as a therapeutic target for psychiatric disorders, particularly those presenting with motivational dysfunctions.

Bidirectional Tachycardia after an Acute Intravenous Administration of Digitalis for a Suicidal Gesture

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Diletta Sabatini

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Acute digoxin intoxication is a life-threating condition associated with severe cardiotoxicity. Female gender, age, low lean body mass, hypertension, and renal insufficiency may worsen the prognosis. Arrhythmias caused by digitalis glycosides are characterized by an increased automaticity coupled with concomitant conduction delay. Bidirectional tachycardia is pathognomonic of digoxin intoxication, but it is rarely observed. An 83-year-old woman was admitted to the Emergency Department after self-administration of 5 mg of digoxin i.v. for suicidal purpose. Her digoxin serum concentration was 17.4 ng/mL. The patient developed a bidirectional tachycardia and the Poison Control Center of the hospital provided digoxin immune fab. Bidirectional tachycardia quickly reversed and the patient remained stable throughout the hospital stay. This case shows that a multiple disciplinary approach, involving cardiologists and toxicologists, is essential for the management of digoxin intoxication. The optimal treatment of this rare event depends on the clinical conditions and on the serum drug concentration of the patient. Digoxin immune fab represents a safe, effective, and specific method for rapidly reversing digitalis cardiotoxicity and should be started as soon as the diagnosis is defined.

Bidirectional Associations between Peer Relations and Attention Problems from 9 to 16 Years.

Science.gov (United States)

Ji, Linqin; Pan, Bin; Zhang, Wenxin; Zhang, Liang; Chen, Liang; Deater-Deckard, Kirby

2018-05-12

We examined the bidirectional relations between peer relations and attention problems from middle childhood through adolescence. Using data from the Longitudinal Study of Chinese Children and Adolescents (LSCCA, N = 2157, 51.9% male), three key aspects of peer relations (acceptance, rejection, and victimization) were assessed annually from 9 to 16 years of age. Attention problems were assessed at 9 and 15 years. Latent growth modeling indicated that greater attention problems at age 9 were linked with a lower intercept for peer acceptance, and higher intercepts for rejection and victimization. Also, prior lower acceptance and greater rejection and victimization, along with a higher increase over time in rejection and lower decrease over time in victimization, predicted attention problems at age 15. Cross-lagged analysis showed that attention problems were associated with less subsequent peer acceptance and greater subsequent rejection and victimization. Only peer rejection (but neither victimization nor acceptance) predicted more subsequent attention problems. Findings point to bidirectional associations between attention problems and peer relations in the developmental transition across adolescence. Evidence for differential bidirectionality of attention problems with the multiple peer experience (group versus dyadic; good versus bad) emerged, and future replications are needed.

MECHANICAL AND THERMO–MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF BI-DIRECTIONAL AND SHORT CARBON FIBER REINFORCED EPOXY COMPOSITES

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G. AGARWAL

2014-10-01

Full Text Available This paper based on bidirectional and short carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composites reports the effect of fiber loading on physical, mechanical and thermo-mechanical properties respectively. The five different fiber loading, i.e., 10wt. %, 20wt. %, 30wt. %, 40wt. % and 50wt. % were taken for evaluating the above said properties. The physical and mechanical properties, i.e., hardness, tensile strength, flexural strength, inter-laminar shear strength and impact strength are determined to represent the behaviour of composite structures with that of fiber loading. Thermo-mechanical properties of the material are measured with the help of Dynamic Mechanical Analyser to measure the damping capacity of the material that is used to reduce the vibrations. The effect of storage modulus, loss modulus and tan delta with temperature are determined. Finally, Cole–Cole analysis is performed on both bidirectional and short carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composites to distinguish the material properties of either homogeneous or heterogeneous materials. The results show that with the increase in fiber loading the mechanical properties of bidirectional carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composites increases as compared to short carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composites except in case of hardness, short carbon fiber reinforced composites shows better results. Similarly, as far as Loss modulus, storage modulus is concerned bidirectional carbon fiber shows better damping behaviour than short carbon fiber reinforced composites.

Evaluation of a bi-directional aluminum honeycomb impact limiter design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doman, M.J.

1995-01-01

A 120 Ton shipping cask is being developed for the on-site shipment of dry spent fuel at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. Impact limiters were incorporated in the cask design to limit the inertial load of the package and its contents during the hypothetical 9-meter (30-foot) drop accident required by 10CFR71. The design process included: (1) a series of static and dynamic tests to determine the crush characteristics of the bi-directional aluminum honeycomb impact limiter material, (2) the development of an analytical model to predict the cask deceleration force as a function of impact limiter crush, and (3) a series of quarter scale model drop tests to qualify the analytical model. The scale model testing, performed at Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico, revealed several design aspects which should be considered in developing bi-directional aluminum honeycomb impact limiters and several other design aspects which should be considered for impact limiter designs in general

Bidirectional composition on lie groups for gradient-based image alignment.

Science.gov (United States)

Mégret, Rémi; Authesserre, Jean-Baptiste; Berthoumieu, Yannick

2010-09-01

In this paper, a new formulation based on bidirectional composition on Lie groups (BCL) for parametric gradient-based image alignment is presented. Contrary to the conventional approaches, the BCL method takes advantage of the gradients of both template and current image without combining them a priori. Based on this bidirectional formulation, two methods are proposed and their relationship with state-of-the-art gradient based approaches is fully discussed. The first one, i.e., the BCL method, relies on the compositional framework to provide the minimization of the compensated error with respect to an augmented parameter vector. The second one, the projected BCL (PBCL), corresponds to a close approximation of the BCL approach. A comparative study is carried out dealing with computational complexity, convergence rate and frequence of convergence. Numerical experiments using a conventional benchmark show the performance improvement especially for asymmetric levels of noise, which is also discussed from a theoretical point of view.

Sex Reversal in Reptiles: Reproductive Oddity or Powerful Driver of Evolutionary Change?

Science.gov (United States)

Holleley, Clare E; Sarre, Stephen D; O'Meally, Denis; Georges, Arthur

2016-01-01

Is sex a product of genes, the environment, or both? In this review, we describe the diversity of sex-determining mechanisms in reptiles, with a focus on systems that display gene-environment interactions. We summarise the field and laboratory-based evidence for the occurrence of environmental sex reversal in reptiles and ask whether this is a widespread evolutionary mechanism affecting the evolution of sex chromosomes and speciation in vertebrates. Sex determination systems exist across a continuum of genetic and environmental influences, blurring the lines between what was once considered a strict dichotomy between genetic sex determination and temperature-dependent sex determination. Across this spectrum, we identify the potential for sex reversal in species with clearly differentiated heteromorphic sex chromosomes (Pogona vitticeps, Bassiana duperreyi, Eremias multiocellata, Gekko japonicus), weakly differentiated homomorphic sex chromosomes (Niveoscincus ocellatus), and species with only a weak heritable predisposition for sex (Emys orbicularis, Trachemys scripta). We argue that sex reversal is widespread in reptiles (Testudines, Lacertidae, Agamidae, Scincidae, Gekkonidae) and has the potential to have an impact on individual fitness, resulting in reproductively, morphologically, and behaviourally unique phenotypes. Sex reversal is likely to be a powerful evolutionary force responsible for generating and maintaining lability and diversity in reptile sex-determining modes. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Bidirectional Retroviral Integration Site PCR Methodology and Quantitative Data Analysis Workflow.

Science.gov (United States)

Suryawanshi, Gajendra W; Xu, Song; Xie, Yiming; Chou, Tom; Kim, Namshin; Chen, Irvin S Y; Kim, Sanggu

2017-06-14

Integration Site (IS) assays are a critical component of the study of retroviral integration sites and their biological significance. In recent retroviral gene therapy studies, IS assays, in combination with next-generation sequencing, have been used as a cell-tracking tool to characterize clonal stem cell populations sharing the same IS. For the accurate comparison of repopulating stem cell clones within and across different samples, the detection sensitivity, data reproducibility, and high-throughput capacity of the assay are among the most important assay qualities. This work provides a detailed protocol and data analysis workflow for bidirectional IS analysis. The bidirectional assay can simultaneously sequence both upstream and downstream vector-host junctions. Compared to conventional unidirectional IS sequencing approaches, the bidirectional approach significantly improves IS detection rates and the characterization of integration events at both ends of the target DNA. The data analysis pipeline described here accurately identifies and enumerates identical IS sequences through multiple steps of comparison that map IS sequences onto the reference genome and determine sequencing errors. Using an optimized assay procedure, we have recently published the detailed repopulation patterns of thousands of Hematopoietic Stem Cell (HSC) clones following transplant in rhesus macaques, demonstrating for the first time the precise time point of HSC repopulation and the functional heterogeneity of HSCs in the primate system. The following protocol describes the step-by-step experimental procedure and data analysis workflow that accurately identifies and quantifies identical IS sequences.

Sex steroids and glucose metabolism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carolyn A Allan

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Testosterone levels are lower in men with metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM and also predict the onset of these adverse metabolic states. Body composition (body mass index, waist circumference is an important mediator of this relationship. Sex hormone binding globulin is also inversely associated with insulin resistance and T2DM but the data regarding estrogen are inconsistent. Clinical models of androgen deficiency including Klinefelter's syndrome and androgen deprivation therapy in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer confirm the association between androgens and glucose status. Experimental manipulation of the insulin/glucose milieu and suppression of endogenous testicular function suggests the relationship between androgens and insulin sensitivity is bidirectional. Androgen therapy in men without diabetes is not able to differentiate the effect on insulin resistance from that on fat mass, in particular visceral adiposity. Similarly, several small clinical studies have examined the efficacy of exogenous testosterone in men with T2DM, however, the role of androgens, independent of body composition, in modifying insulin resistance is uncertain.

Bidirectional Microglia-Neuron Communication in the Healthy Brain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ukpong B. Eyo

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Unlike other resident neural cells that are of neuroectodermal origin, microglia are resident neural cells of mesodermal origin. Traditionally recognized for their immune functions during disease, new roles are being attributed to these cells in the development and maintenance of the central nervous system (CNS including specific communication with neurons. In this review, we highlight some of the recent findings on the bidirectional interaction between neurons and microglia. We discuss these interactions along two lines. First, we review data that suggest that microglial activity is modulated by neuronal signals, focusing on evidence that (i neurons are capable of regulating microglial activation state and influence basal microglial activities; (ii classic neurotransmitters affect microglial behavior; (iii chemotactic signals attract microglia during acute neuronal injury. Next, we discuss some of the recent data on how microglia signal to neurons. Signaling mechanisms include (i direct physical contact of microglial processes with neuronal elements; (ii microglial regulation of neuronal synapse and circuit by fractalkine, complement, and DAP12 signaling. In addition, we discuss the use of microglial depletion strategies in studying the role of microglia in neuronal development and synaptic physiology. Deciphering the mechanisms of bidirectional microglial-neuronal communication provides novel insights in understanding microglial function in both the healthy and diseased brain.

Restoring natural sensory feedback in real-time bidirectional hand prostheses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Raspopovic, Stanisa; Capogrosso, Marco; Petrini, Francesco Maria

2014-01-01

Hand loss is a highly disabling event that markedly affects the quality of life. To achieve a close to natural replacement for the lost hand, the user should be provided with the rich sensations that we naturally perceive when grasping or manipulating an object. Ideal bidirectional hand prosthese...

Bidirectional converter interface for a battery energy storage test bench

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Trintis, Ionut; Thomas, Stephan; Blank, Tobias

2011-01-01

This paper presents the bidirectional converter interface for a 6 kV battery energy storage test bench. The power electronic interface consists a two stage converter topology having a low voltage dc-ac grid connected converter and a new dual active bridge dc-dc converter with high transformation...

High-power three-port three-phase bidirectional DC-DC converter

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tao, H.; Duarte, J.L.; Hendrix, M.A.M.

2007-01-01

This paper proposes a three-port three-phase bidirectional dc-dc converter suitable for high-power applications. The converter combines a slow primary source and a fast storage to power a common load (e.g., an inverter). Since this type of system is gaining popularity in sustainable energy

Impact of Interference in Coexisting Wireless Networks with Applications to Arbitrarily Varying Bidirectional Broadcast Channels

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Holger Boche

2012-08-01

Full Text Available The paradigm shift from an exclusive allocation of frequency bands, one for each system, to a shared use of frequencies comes along with the need of new concepts since interference will be an ubiquitous phenomenon. In this paper, we use the concept of arbitrarily varying channels to model the impact of unknown interference caused by coexisting wireless systems which operate on the same frequencies. Within this framework, capacity can be zero if pre-specified encoders and decoders are used. This necessitates the use of more sophisticated coordination schemes where the choice of encoders and decoders is additionally coordinated based on common randomness. As an application we study the arbitrarily varying bidirectional broadcast channel and derive the capacity regions for different coordination strategies. This problem is motivated by decode-and-forward bidirectional or two-way relaying, where a relay establishes a bidirectional communication between two other nodes while sharing the resources with other coexisting wireless networks.

Serum-sex steroids, gonadotrophins and sex hormone-binding globulin inprostatic hyperplasia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ansari, Mohammad A. Jalil; Begum, D.; Islam, F.

2008-01-01

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) develops in elderly males when serumandrogens are relatively lower than in healthy younger males, but is not wellunderstood whether and how sex steroids are altered in prostatic hyperplasia.It is also uncertain that whether there is any change in sex steroids levelsin males older than 40 years of age. The use of androgens in elderly males isoften discouraged because of the probable worsening effect of androgens onprostatism. This study aimed to determine the relationship between prostatichyperplasia and sex steroid levels and whether there is any significantchange in these hormones after the age of 40 years. We studied healthy malesof >40 years with (n=92) or without (n=93) clinical prostatic hyperplasia.Serum testosterone, estradiol, gonadotrophins and sex hormone-bindingglobulin (SHBG) were compared. The hormones and SHGB were also correlatedwith age. No significant difference was found in any hormone in cases withprostatic hyperplasia as compared with the controls. There was no significantage-related change in any hormone except estradiol where as a negativecorrelation (P<0.003) with age was found. Serum sex steroids and SHGBremained unchanged in symptomatic prostatic hyperplasia and except forestrdoil there was no significant age-related change in serum testosterone,gonadotrophins and SHGB in healthy males after the fourth decade. Morestudies are needed to confirm the age-related decline of estrogens in males.(author)

Bidirectional relations between work-related stress, sleep quality and perseverative cognition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Laethem, M. van; Beckers, D.G.J.; Kompier, M.A.J.; Kecklund, L.G.; Bossche, S.N.J. van den; Geurts, S.A.E.

2015-01-01

Objective In this longitudinal two-wave study, bidirectional relations between work-related stress and sleep quality were examined. Moreover, it was investigated whether perseverative cognition is a potential underlying mechanism in this association, related to both work-related stress and sleep

Optimized Free Energies from Bidirectional Single-Molecule Force Spectroscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Minh, David D. L.; Adib, Artur B.

2008-05-01

An optimized method for estimating path-ensemble averages using data from processes driven in opposite directions is presented. Based on this estimator, bidirectional expressions for reconstructing free energies and potentials of mean force from single-molecule force spectroscopy—valid for biasing potentials of arbitrary stiffness—are developed. Numerical simulations on a model potential indicate that these methods perform better than unidirectional strategies.

Distribution of sex steroid hormone receptors in the avian brain: functional implications for neural sex differences and sexual behaviors.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gahr, M.

2001-01-01

Developmental and seasonal changes in the production of androgens, estrogens, and progestins seem to control sex-specific differentiation and seasonal changes in appetitive and consummatory sexual behaviors of birds. This results in profound sex differences in the quality (sex-specific) or quantity

"Figuring" Bidirectional Home and School Connections along the Biliteracy Continuum

Science.gov (United States)

Fránquiz, María E.; Leija, María G.; Garza, Irene

2015-01-01

This article centers on the significant practices identified by bilingual teachers who participated in Proyecto Bilingüe, a specialized master's degree program. The notion of bidirectional theory of bilingual pedagogy and the theoretical construct of the continua of biliteracy are utilized to illustrate how the teachers centered home and school…

TOOL ASSEMBLY WITH BI-DIRECTIONAL BEARING

Science.gov (United States)

Longhurst, G.E.

1961-07-11

A two-direction motion bearing which is incorporated in a refueling nuclear fuel element trsnsfer tool assembly is described. A plurality of bi- directional bearing assembliesare fixed equi-distantly about the circumference of the transfer tool assembly to provide the tool assembly with a bearing surface- for both axial and rotational motion. Each bi-directional bearing assembly contains a plurality of circumferentially bulged rollers mounted in a unique arrangement which will provide a bearing surface for rotational movement of the tool assembly within a bore. The bi-direc tional bearing assembly itself is capable of rational motion and thus provides for longitudinal movement of the tool assembly.

Altering the sex determination pathway in Drosophila fat body modifies sex-specific stress responses.

Science.gov (United States)

Argue, Kathryn J; Neckameyer, Wendi S

2014-07-01

The stress response in Drosophila melanogaster reveals sex differences in behavior, similar to what has been observed in mammals. However, unlike mammals, the sex determination pathway in Drosophila is well established, making this an ideal system to identify factors involved in the modulation of sex-specific responses to stress. In this study, we show that the Drosophila fat body, which has been shown to be important for energy homeostasis and sex determination, is a dynamic tissue that is altered in response to stress in a sex and time-dependent manner. We manipulated the sex determination pathway in the fat body via targeted expression of transformer and transformer-2 and analyzed these animals for changes in their response to stress. In the majority of cases, manipulation of transformer or transformer-2 was able to change the physiological output in response to starvation and oxidative stress to that of the opposite sex. Our data also uncover the possibility of additional downstream targets for transformer and transformer-2 that are separate from the sex determination pathway and can influence behavioral and physiological responses. Copyright © 2014 the American Physiological Society.

[The Support System for Diabetic Patients at Home with Bi-Directional IT Communication].

Science.gov (United States)

Kubota, Masakazu; Hosoda, Kiminori; Eguchi, Kyoko; Nishijima, Yuki; Nakao, Kazuwa; Kinoshita, Ayae

2010-12-01

The present study analyzed the effects of bi-directional IT communication on the purpose of preventing diabetes progression and to reduce a caregiver burden. Diabetic patients were informed of the nature and purpose of the study before giving their voluntary consents to participate in the study. For the period of 12 weeks, a diabetic patient and his caregiver were communicated with a nurse through the TV telephone for 30 minutes once a week. Medical staff checked the list of weight change, compliance check, exercise habit, and attached pictures of the plate with a diabetic patient through the TV telephone in real time. We encouraged a diabetic patient to eat properly based on the diet record. The 12-week TV telephone communication resulted in the body weight decrease and HbA1c. There was a consciousness change about their daily eating habit. In the present study, the 12-week TV telephone communication once a week might be useful as an auxiliary therapy for changing a bad daily habit to a good daily habit for a diabetic patient at home.

Effects of Sex Steroids in the Human Brain.

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Tuong-Vi; Ducharme, Simon; Karama, Sherif

2017-11-01

Sex steroids are thought to play a critical developmental role in shaping both cortical and subcortical structures in the human brain. Periods of profound changes in sex steroids invariably coincide with the onset of sex differences in mental health vulnerability, highlighting the importance of sex steroids in determining sexual differentiation of the brain. Yet, most of the evidence for the central effects of sex steroids relies on non-human studies, as several challenges have limited our understanding of these effects in humans: the lack of systematic assessment of the human sex steroid metabolome, the different developmental trajectories of specific sex steroids, the impact of genetic variation and epigenetic changes, and the plethora of interactions between sex steroids, sex chromosomes, neurotransmitters, and other hormonal systems. Here we review how multimodal strategies may be employed to bridge the gap between the basic and clinical understanding of sex steroid-related changes in the human brain.

Investigations of bi-directional flow behaviour of a large vertical opening in containment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sharma, Pavan K.; Markandeya, S.G.; Ghosh, A.K.; Kushwaha, H.S.

2002-01-01

Full text: In the complex codes developed for fire analysis and for containment thermal hydraulic analysis. The junction in the multi-compartment geometries are often modeled as uni-directional junctions. However, certain large size junctions are known to depict bi-directional flow behaviour under specific circumstances. Detailed investigations have been carried out to understand the bi-directionality of a junction by analyzing an earlier reported case study of fire in an enclosure. A computer code FDS was used for the analysis. The paper presents the details of the analysis, the results obtained and further studies required to be conducted so that the findings can be applied to the fire/containment thermal hydraulics analysis codes successfully

A Bidirectional Generalized Synchronization Theorem-Based Chaotic Pseudo-random Number Generator

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Han Shuangshuang

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Based on a bidirectional generalized synchronization theorem for discrete chaos system, this paper introduces a new 5-dimensional bidirectional generalized chaos synchronization system (BGCSDS, whose prototype is a novel chaotic system introduced in [12]. Numerical simulation showed that two pair variables of the BGCSDS achieve generalized chaos synchronization via a transform H.A chaos-based pseudo-random number generator (CPNG was designed by the new BGCSDS. Using the FIPS-140-2 tests issued by the National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST verified the randomness of the 1000 binary number sequences generated via the CPNG and the RC4 algorithm respectively. The results showed that all the tested sequences passed the FIPS-140-2 tests. The confidence interval analysis showed the statistical properties of the randomness of the sequences generated via the CPNG and the RC4 algorithm do not have significant differences.

Biophysical information in asymmetric and symmetric diurnal bidirectional canopy reflectance

Science.gov (United States)

Vanderbilt, Vern C.; Caldwell, William F.; Pettigrew, Rita E.; Ustin, Susan L.; Martens, Scott N.; Rousseau, Robert A.; Berger, Kevin M.; Ganapol, B. D.; Kasischke, Eric S.; Clark, Jenny A.

1991-01-01

The authors present a theory for partitioning the information content in diurnal bidirectional reflectance measurements in order to detect differences potentially related to biophysical variables. The theory, which divides the canopy reflectance into asymmetric and symmetric functions of solar azimuth angle, attributes asymmetric variation to diurnal changes in the canopy biphysical properties. The symmetric function is attributed to the effects of sunlight interacting with a hypothetical average canopy which would display the average diurnal properties of the actual canopy. The authors analyzed radiometer data collected diurnally in the Thematic Mapper wavelength bands from two walnut canopies that received differing irrigation treatments. The reflectance of the canopies varied with sun and view angles and across seven bands in the visible, near-infrared, and middle infrared wavelength regions. Although one of the canopies was permanently water stressed and the other was stressed in mid-afternoon each day, no water stress signature was unambiguously evident in the reflectance data.

Digital Simulation of Closed Loop Zvs-Zcs Bidirectional Dc-Dc Converter for Fuel Cell and Battery Application

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. V. Subrahmanya Kumar Bhajana

2010-08-01

Full Text Available A closed loop ZVS-ZCS bidirectional dc-dc converter is modeled and appropriate digital simulations are provided. With the ZVS-ZCS concept, the MATLAB simulation results of application to a fuel cell and battery application have been obtained whenever the input voltage exceeds the given 24V, at that time the load voltage will change from 180V to 230V. But due to this usage the load is disturbed and there is instability in the model. Using closed loop the output voltage is stabilized.

Superior vena cava syndrome after pulsatile bidirectional Glenn shunt procedure: Perioperative implications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Neema Praveen

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Bidirectional superior cavopulmonary shunt (bidirectional Glenn shunt is generally performed in many congenital cardiac anomalies where complete two ventricle circulations cannot be easily achieved. The advantages of BDG shunt are achieved by partially separating the pulmonary and systemic venous circuits, and include reduced ventricular preload and long-term preservation of myocardium. The benefits of additional pulsatile pulmonary blood flow include the potential growth of pulmonary arteries, possible improvement in arterial oxygen saturation, and possible prevention of development of pulmonary arteriovenous malformations. However, increase in the systemic venous pressure after BDG with additional pulsatile blood flow is known. We describe the peri-operative implications of severe flow reversal in the superior vena cava after pulsatile BDG shunt construction in a child who presented for surgical interruption of the main pulmonary artery.

Coherent Detection for 1550 nm, 5 Gbit/s VCSEL Based 40 km Bidirectional PON Transmission

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Jesper Bevensee; Rodes Lopez, Roberto; Zibar, Darko

2011-01-01

Coherent detection of directly modulated 1550nm VCSELs in 5Gbit/s bidirectional 40km SSMF PON-links is presented. Receiver sensitivity of –37.3dBm after transmission is achieved with 30dB system margin, corresponding to 1:1024 passive powersplitting.......Coherent detection of directly modulated 1550nm VCSELs in 5Gbit/s bidirectional 40km SSMF PON-links is presented. Receiver sensitivity of –37.3dBm after transmission is achieved with 30dB system margin, corresponding to 1:1024 passive powersplitting....

Bi-directional relationship between pregnancy and periodontal disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Armitage, Gary C

2013-02-01

During pregnancy profound perturbations in innate and adaptive immunity impact the clinical course of a number of infectious diseases, including those affecting periodontal tissues. Conversely, it has been suggested that periodontal infections may increase the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. In this review, a summary of the literature associated with the bidirectional relationship between pregnancy and periodontal disease as well as the possible mechanisms behind this interaction were examined. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

Dynamical implications of bi-directional resource exchange within a meta-ecosystem.

Science.gov (United States)

Rodriguez, Marisabel Rodriguez; Kopp, Darin; Allen, Daniel; Kang, Yun

2018-05-05

The exchange of resources across ecosystem boundaries can have large impacts on ecosystem structures and functions at local and regional scales. In this article, we develop a simple model to investigate dynamical implications of bi-directional resource exchanges between two local ecosystems in a meta-ecosystem framework. In our model, we assume that (1) Each local ecosystem acts as both a resource donor and recipient, such that one ecosystem donating resources to another results in a cost to the donating system and a benefit to the recipient; and (2) The costs and benefits of the bi-directional resource exchange between two ecosystems are correlated in a nonlinear fashion. Our model could apply to the resource interactions between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems that are supported by the literature. Our theoretical results show that bi-directional resource exchange between two ecosystems can indeed generate complicated dynamical outcomes, including the coupled ecosystems having amensalistic, antagonistic, competitive, or mutualistic interactions, with multiple alternative stable states depending on the relative costs and benefits. In addition, if the relative cost for resource exchange for an ecosystem is decreased or the relative benefit for resource exchange for an ecosystem is increased, the production of that ecosystem would increase; however, depending on the local environment, the production of the other ecosystem may increase or decrease. We expect that our work, by evaluating the potential outcomes of resource exchange theoretically, can facilitate empirical evaluations and advance the understanding of spatial ecosystem ecology where resource exchanges occur in varied ecosystems through a complicated network. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Why sex hormones matter for neuroscience: A very short review on sex, sex hormones, and functional brain asymmetries.

Science.gov (United States)

Hausmann, Markus

2017-01-02

Biological sex and sex hormones are known to affect functional cerebral asymmetries (FCAs). Men are generally more lateralized than women. The effect size of this sex difference is small but robust. Some of the inconsistencies in the literature may be explained by sex-related hormonal differences. Most studies focusing on neuromodulatory properties of sex hormones on FCAs have investigated women during the menstrual cycle. Although contradictions exist, these studies have typically shown that levels of estradiol and/or progesterone correlate with the degree of FCAs, suggesting that sex differences in FCAs partially depend on hormonal state and day of testing. The results indicate that FCAs are not fixed but are hormone dependent, and as such they can dynamically change within relatively short periods throughout life. Many issues raised in this Mini-Review refer not only to FCAs but also to other aspects of functional brain organization, such as functional connectivity within and between the cerebral hemispheres. Our understanding of sex differences in brain and behavior as well as their clinical relevance will improve significantly if more studies routinely take sex and sex hormones into account. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

An Improved Multidimensional MPA Procedure for Bidirectional Earthquake Excitations

OpenAIRE

Wang, Feng; Sun, Jian-Gang; Zhang, Ning

2014-01-01

Presently, the modal pushover analysis procedure is extended to multidimensional analysis of structures subjected to multidimensional earthquake excitations. an improved multidimensional modal pushover analysis (IMMPA) method is presented in the paper in order to estimate the response demands of structures subjected to bidirectional earthquake excitations, in which the unidirectional earthquake excitation applied on equivalent SDOF system is replaced by the direct superposition of two compone...

Bidirectional dynamics of materialism and loneliness : Not just a vicious cycle

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pieters, R.

2013-01-01

This research is the first to test the hypothesis that consumers face a “material trap” in which materialism fosters social isolation which in turn reinforces materialism. It provides evidence that materialism and loneliness are engaged in bidirectional relationships over time. Importantly, it finds

A bidirectional brain-machine interface featuring a neuromorphic hardware decoder

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fabio Boi

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Bidirectional brain-machine interfaces (BMIs establish a two-way direct communication link4 between the brain and the external world. A decoder translates recorded neural activity into motor5 commands and an encoder delivers sensory information collected from the environment directly6 to the brain creating a closed-loop system. These two modules are typically integrated in bulky7 external devices. However, the clinical support of patients with severe motor and sensory deficits8 requires compact, low-power, and fully implantable systems that can decode neural signals to9 control external devices. As a first step toward this goal, we developed a modular bidirectional BMI10 setup that uses a compact neuromorphic processor as a decoder. On this chip we implemented11 a network of spiking neurons built using its ultra-low-power mixed-signal analog/digital circuits.12 On-chip on-line spike-timing-dependent plasticity synapse circuits enabled the network to learn13 to decode neural signals recorded from the brain into motor outputs controlling the movements14 of an external device. The modularity of the BMI allowed us to tune the individual components15 of the setup without modifying the whole system. In this paper we present the features of16 this modular BMI, and describe how we configured the network of spiking neuron circuits to17 implement the decoder and to coordinate it with the encoder in an experimental BMI paradigm18 that connects bidirectionally the brain of an anesthetized rat with an external object. We show that19 the chip learned the decoding task correctly, allowing the interfaced brain to control the object’s20 trajectories robustly. Based on our demonstration, we propose that neuromorphic technology is21 mature enough for the development of BMI modules that are sufficiently low-power and compact,22 while being highly computationally powerful and adaptive.

A Bidirectional Brain-Machine Interface Featuring a Neuromorphic Hardware Decoder.

Science.gov (United States)

Boi, Fabio; Moraitis, Timoleon; De Feo, Vito; Diotalevi, Francesco; Bartolozzi, Chiara; Indiveri, Giacomo; Vato, Alessandro

2016-01-01

Bidirectional brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) establish a two-way direct communication link between the brain and the external world. A decoder translates recorded neural activity into motor commands and an encoder delivers sensory information collected from the environment directly to the brain creating a closed-loop system. These two modules are typically integrated in bulky external devices. However, the clinical support of patients with severe motor and sensory deficits requires compact, low-power, and fully implantable systems that can decode neural signals to control external devices. As a first step toward this goal, we developed a modular bidirectional BMI setup that uses a compact neuromorphic processor as a decoder. On this chip we implemented a network of spiking neurons built using its ultra-low-power mixed-signal analog/digital circuits. On-chip on-line spike-timing-dependent plasticity synapse circuits enabled the network to learn to decode neural signals recorded from the brain into motor outputs controlling the movements of an external device. The modularity of the BMI allowed us to tune the individual components of the setup without modifying the whole system. In this paper, we present the features of this modular BMI and describe how we configured the network of spiking neuron circuits to implement the decoder and to coordinate it with the encoder in an experimental BMI paradigm that connects bidirectionally the brain of an anesthetized rat with an external object. We show that the chip learned the decoding task correctly, allowing the interfaced brain to control the object's trajectories robustly. Based on our demonstration, we propose that neuromorphic technology is mature enough for the development of BMI modules that are sufficiently low-power and compact, while being highly computationally powerful and adaptive.

Sex-related dietary changes of Portuguese university students after migration to London, UK

OpenAIRE

Santos, S.; Vilela, S.; Padrão, P.; Caraher, M.

2015-01-01

Aim: To assess the changes in eating habits and food choice motives of Portuguese university students after migration to London, according to sex.\\ud \\ud Methods: Fifty-five Portuguese university students (52.7% female) from 12 randomly selected London universities underwent a face-to-face interview. Trained interviewers administered a structured questionnaire comprising questions on socio-demographic characteristics, the frequency of consumption of selected food and beverage items, and the m...

Bidirectional fiber-wireless and fiber-IVLLC integrated system based on polarization-orthogonal modulation scheme.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Hai-Han; Li, Chung-Yi; Chen, Hwan-Wei; Ho, Chun-Ming; Cheng, Ming-Te; Huang, Sheng-Jhe; Yang, Zih-Yi; Lin, Xin-Yao

2016-07-25

A bidirectional fiber-wireless and fiber-invisible laser light communication (IVLLC) integrated system that employs polarization-orthogonal modulation scheme for hybrid cable television (CATV)/microwave (MW)/millimeter-wave (MMW)/baseband (BB) signal transmission is proposed and demonstrated. To our knowledge, it is the first one that adopts a polarization-orthogonal modulation scheme in a bidirectional fiber-wireless and fiber-IVLLC integrated system with hybrid CATV/MW/MMW/BB signal. For downlink transmission, carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR), composite second-order (CSO), composite triple-beat (CTB), and bit error rate (BER) perform well over 40-km single-mode fiber (SMF) and 10-m RF/50-m optical wireless transport scenarios. For uplink transmission, good BER performance is obtained over 40-km SMF and 50-m optical wireless transport scenario. Such a bidirectional fiber-wireless and fiber-IVLLC integrated system for hybrid CATV/MW/MMW/BB signal transmission will be an attractive alternative for providing broadband integrated services, including CATV, Internet, and telecommunication services. It is shown to be a prominent one to present the advancements for the convergence of fiber backbone and RF/optical wireless feeder.

Development of a bi-directional standing wave linear piezoelectric actuator with four driving feet.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Yingxiang; Shi, Shengjun; Li, Chunhong; Chen, Weishan; Wang, Liang; Liu, Junkao

2018-03-01

A bi-directional standing wave linear piezoelectric ultrasonic actuator with four driving feet is proposed in this work. Two sandwich type transducers operated in longitudinal-bending hybrid modes are set parallelly. The working mode of the transducer is not simple hybrid vibrations of a longitudinal one and a bending one, but a special coupling vibration mode contained both longitudinal and bending components. Two transducers with the same structure and unsymmetrical boundary conditions are set parallelly to accomplish the bi-directional driving: the first transducer can push the runner forward, while the other one produces the backward driving. In the experiments, two voltages with different amplitudes are applied on the two transducers, respectively: the one with higher voltage serves as the actuator, whereas the other one applied with lower voltage is used to reduce the frictional force. The prototype achieves maximum no-load speed and thrust force of 244 mm/s and 9.8 N. This work gives a new idea for the construction of standing wave piezoelectric ultrasonic actuator with bi-directional driving ability. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Bidirectional Relations between Temperament and Parenting Styles in Chinese Children

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Erica H.; Zhou, Qing; Eisenberg, Nancy; Wang, Yun

2012-01-01

The present study examined bidirectional relations between child temperament and parenting styles in a sample (n = 425) of Chinese children during elementary school period (age range = 6 to 9 years at Wave 1). Using two waves (3.8 years apart) of longitudinal data, we tested two hypotheses: (1) whether child temperament (effortful control and anger/frustration) at Wave 1 predicts parenting styles (authoritative and authoritarian parenting) at Wave 2, controlling for Wave 1 parenting; and (2) whether parenting styles at Wave 1 predict Wave 2 temperament, controlling for Wave 1 temperament. We found support for bidirectional relations between temperament and authoritarian parenting, such that higher effortful control and lower anger/frustration were associated with higher authoritarian parenting across time and in both directions. There were no significant cross-time associations between children’s temperament and authoritative parenting. These findings extend the previous tests of transactional relations between child temperament and parenting in Chinese children and are consistent with the cultural values toward effortful control and control of anger/frustration in Chinese society. PMID:23482684

Bidirectional Relations between Temperament and Parenting Styles in Chinese Children.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Erica H; Zhou, Qing; Eisenberg, Nancy; Wang, Yun

2013-01-01

The present study examined bidirectional relations between child temperament and parenting styles in a sample ( n = 425) of Chinese children during elementary school period (age range = 6 to 9 years at Wave 1). Using two waves (3.8 years apart) of longitudinal data, we tested two hypotheses: (1) whether child temperament (effortful control and anger/frustration) at Wave 1 predicts parenting styles (authoritative and authoritarian parenting) at Wave 2, controlling for Wave 1 parenting; and (2) whether parenting styles at Wave 1 predict Wave 2 temperament, controlling for Wave 1 temperament. We found support for bidirectional relations between temperament and authoritarian parenting, such that higher effortful control and lower anger/frustration were associated with higher authoritarian parenting across time and in both directions. There were no significant cross-time associations between children's temperament and authoritative parenting. These findings extend the previous tests of transactional relations between child temperament and parenting in Chinese children and are consistent with the cultural values toward effortful control and control of anger/frustration in Chinese society.

Results of the implementation of a pilot model for the bidirectional screening and joint management of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and diabetes mellitus in Mexico.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martín Castellanos-Joya

Full Text Available Recently, the World Health Organisation and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease published a Collaborative Framework for the Care and Control of Tuberculosis (TB and Diabetes (DM (CFTB/DM proposing bidirectional screening and joint management.To evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of the CFTB/DM in Mexico.Prospective observational cohort.15 primary care units in 5 states in Mexico.Patients aged ≥20 years diagnosed with DM or pulmonary TB who sought care at participating clinics.The WHO/Union CFTB/DM was adapted and implemented according to official Mexican guidelines. We recruited participants from July 2012 to April 2013 and followed up until March 2014. Bidirectional screening was performed. Patients diagnosed with TB and DM were invited to receive TB treatment under joint management.Diagnoses of TB among DM, of DM among TB, and treatment outcomes among patients with DM and TB.Of 783 DM patients, 11 (1.4% were unaware of their TB. Of 361 TB patients, 16 (4.4% were unaware of their DM. 95 TB/DM patients accepted to be treated under joint management, of whom 85 (89.5% successfully completed treatment. Multiple linear regression analysis with change in HbA1c and random capillary glucose as dependent variables revealed significant decrease with time (regression coefficients (β  = -0.660, (95% confidence interval (CI, -0.96 to -0.35; and β = -1.889 (95% CI, -2.77 to -1.01, respectively adjusting by sex, age and having been treated for a previous TB episode. Patients treated under joint management were more likely to experience treatment success than patients treated under routine DM and TB programs as compared to historical (adjusted OR (aOR, 2.8, 95%CI 1.28-6.13 and same period (aOR 2.37, 95% CI 1.13-4.96 comparison groups.Joint management of TB and DM is feasible and appears to improve clinical outcomes.

Results of the implementation of a pilot model for the bidirectional screening and joint management of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and diabetes mellitus in Mexico.

Science.gov (United States)

Castellanos-Joya, Martín; Delgado-Sánchez, Guadalupe; Ferreyra-Reyes, Leticia; Cruz-Hervert, Pablo; Ferreira-Guerrero, Elizabeth; Ortiz-Solís, Gabriela; Jiménez, Mirtha Irene; Salazar, Leslie Lorena; Montero-Campos, Rogelio; Mongua-Rodríguez, Norma; Baez-Saldaña, Renata; Bobadilla-del-Valle, Miriam; González-Roldán, Jesús Felipe; Ponce-de-León, Alfredo; Sifuentes-Osornio, José; García-García, Lourdes

2014-01-01

Recently, the World Health Organisation and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease published a Collaborative Framework for the Care and Control of Tuberculosis (TB) and Diabetes (DM) (CFTB/DM) proposing bidirectional screening and joint management. To evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of the CFTB/DM in Mexico. Prospective observational cohort. 15 primary care units in 5 states in Mexico. Patients aged ≥20 years diagnosed with DM or pulmonary TB who sought care at participating clinics. The WHO/Union CFTB/DM was adapted and implemented according to official Mexican guidelines. We recruited participants from July 2012 to April 2013 and followed up until March 2014. Bidirectional screening was performed. Patients diagnosed with TB and DM were invited to receive TB treatment under joint management. Diagnoses of TB among DM, of DM among TB, and treatment outcomes among patients with DM and TB. Of 783 DM patients, 11 (1.4%) were unaware of their TB. Of 361 TB patients, 16 (4.4%) were unaware of their DM. 95 TB/DM patients accepted to be treated under joint management, of whom 85 (89.5%) successfully completed treatment. Multiple linear regression analysis with change in HbA1c and random capillary glucose as dependent variables revealed significant decrease with time (regression coefficients (β)  = -0.660, (95% confidence interval (CI), -0.96 to -0.35); and β = -1.889 (95% CI, -2.77 to -1.01, respectively)) adjusting by sex, age and having been treated for a previous TB episode. Patients treated under joint management were more likely to experience treatment success than patients treated under routine DM and TB programs as compared to historical (adjusted OR (aOR), 2.8, 95%CI 1.28-6.13) and same period (aOR 2.37, 95% CI 1.13-4.96) comparison groups. Joint management of TB and DM is feasible and appears to improve clinical outcomes.

Study of change of sex hormone receptors in diabetic impotent patients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Yong; Chen Weizhen; Zhang Zikang; Hu Xiaoke

2002-01-01

To study the relationship between diabetic impotence and sex hormones as well as sex hormone receptors. 32 diabetic impotent patients, 32 diabetic patients with normal sex function, 32 impotent patients without diabetes, and 40 healthy men were enrolled. The plasma sex hormone levels were examined by radioimmunoassay, and sex hormone receptors in white blood cells by radioreceptor assay. Compared with healthy men and impotent patients without diabetes, PRL levels in both diabetic impotent patients and diabetic patients with normal sex function increased markedly, T and AR levels decreased, and the ratio of E 2 /T and ER/AR increased. Compared with diabetic patients with normal sex function, while there was no significant difference in PRL, T and E 2 /T ratio, the AR level of diabetic impotent patients further decreased, and the ER/AR ratio further increased. Negative correlation was found between age and AR as well as T. The decline of AR and the increase of ER/AR ratio might be one main cause of diabetic impotence. And the decline of T and AR might be an important cause of the increase of diabetic impotence incidence with age

Color coded multiple access scheme for bidirectional multiuser visible light communications in smart home technologies

Science.gov (United States)

Tiwari, Samrat Vikramaditya; Sewaiwar, Atul; Chung, Yeon-Ho

2015-10-01

In optical wireless communications, multiple channel transmission is an attractive solution to enhancing capacity and system performance. A new modulation scheme called color coded multiple access (CCMA) for bidirectional multiuser visible light communications (VLC) is presented for smart home applications. The proposed scheme uses red, green and blue (RGB) light emitting diodes (LED) for downlink and phosphor based white LED (P-LED) for uplink to establish a bidirectional VLC and also employs orthogonal codes to support multiple users and devices. The downlink transmission for data user devices and smart home devices is provided using red and green colors from the RGB LEDs, respectively, while uplink transmission from both types of devices is performed using the blue color from P-LEDs. Simulations are conducted to verify the performance of the proposed scheme. It is found that the proposed bidirectional multiuser scheme is efficient in terms of data rate and performance. In addition, since the proposed scheme uses RGB signals for downlink data transmission, it provides flicker-free illumination that would lend itself to multiuser VLC system for smart home applications.

Distributed fiber Raman amplification in long reach PON bidirectional access links

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tafur Monroy, Idelfonso; Kjær, Rasmus; Öhman, Filip

2008-01-01

Distributed Raman fiber amplification is proposed and experimentally demonstrated to support long reach passive optical network (PON) links. An 80 km, bidirectional, single fiber link is demonstrated using both standard intensity optical modulators at 10 Gb/s and up to 7.5 Gb/s using novel...

Comparative evaluation of soft-switching, bidirectional, isolated AC/DC converter topologies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Everts, J.; Krismer, F.; Van den Keybus, J.; Driesen, Johan; Kolar, J.W.

2012-01-01

For realizing bidirectional and isolated AC/DC converters, soft-switching techniques/topologies seem to be a favourable choice as they enable a further loss and volume reduction of the system. Contrary to the traditional dual-stage approach, using a power factor corrector (PFC) stage in series with

Metabolic and functional changes in transgender individuals following cross-sex hormone treatment: Design and methods of the GEnder Dysphoria Treatment in Sweden (GETS study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Wiik

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Background: Although the divergent male and female differentiation depends on key genes, many biological differences seen in men and women are driven by relative differences in estrogen and testosterone levels. Gender dysphoria denotes the distress that gender incongruence with the assigned sex at birth may cause. Gender-affirming treatment includes medical intervention such as inhibition of endogenous sex hormones and subsequent replacement with cross-sex hormones. The aim of this study is to investigate consequences of an altered sex hormone profile on different tissues and metabolic risk factors. By studying subjects undergoing gender-affirming medical intervention with sex hormones, we have the unique opportunity to distinguish between genetic and hormonal effects. Methods: The study is a single center observational cohort study conducted in Stockholm, Sweden. The subjects are examined at four time points; before initiation of treatment, after endogenous sex hormone inhibition, and three and eleven months following sex hormone treatment. Examinations include blood samples, skeletal muscle-, adipose- and skin tissue biopsies, arteriography, echocardiography, carotid Doppler examination, whole body MRI, CT of muscle and measurements of muscle strength. Results: The primary outcome measure is transcriptomic and epigenomic changes in skeletal muscle. Secondary outcome measures include transcriptomic and epigenomic changes associated with metabolism in adipose and skin, muscle strength, fat cell size and ability to release fatty acids from adipose tissue, cardiovascular function, and body composition. Conclusions: This study will provide novel information on the role of sex hormone treatment in skeletal muscle, adipose and skin, and its relation to cardiovascular and metabolic disease. Keywords: Transgender, Sex hormone, Adipose tissue, Skeletal muscle, Epigenetics, Sex change

Do sensitive parents foster kind children, or vice versa? Bidirectional influences between children's prosocial behavior and parental sensitivity.

Science.gov (United States)

Newton, Emily K; Laible, Deborah; Carlo, Gustavo; Steele, Joel S; McGinley, Meredith

2014-06-01

Bidirectional theories of social development have been around for over 40 years (Bell, 1968), yet they have been applied primarily to the study of antisocial development. In the present study, the reciprocal relationship between parenting behavior and children's socially competent behaviors were examined. Using the National Institute of Child Health and Development Study of Early Child Care data set (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2005), bidirectional relationships between parental sensitivity and children's prosocial behavior were modeled using latent variables in structural equation modeling for mothers and fathers, separately. Children and their parents engaged in structured interactions when children were 54-month-olds, 3rd graders, and 5th graders, and these interactions were coded for parental sensitivity. At 3rd, 5th, and 6th grades, teachers and parents reported on children's prosocial behavior. Parental education and child gender were entered as covariates in the models. The results provide support for a bidirectional relationship between children's prosocial behavior and maternal sensitivity (but not paternal sensitivity) in middle childhood. The importance of using a bidirectional approach to examine the development of social competence is emphasized. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

A Novel User Created Message Application Service Design for Bidirectional TPEG

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Sang-Hee; Jo, Kang-Hyun

The T-DMB (Terrestrial-Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) is the national service, currently successful in use in Korea since 2008. Among other services, TPEG (Transport Protocol Experts Group) service has been spotlighted in the aspects of creating earnings. At present, TPEG service is not so popular as it fails to satisfy the user’s demands on various aspects. Thus, the variety of services including bidirectional service is necessary in stage of DMB2.0. In this paper, the limitations of existing TPEG-POI (Point of Interest) application service using the wireless communication network are indicated. To overcome such limitations, we propose a business model for TPEG-UCM (User Created Message) application service which uses individual bidirectional media. The experiment shown in this paper proves the usability and operability of the proposed method, suggesting that the implementation of the proposed method would be overcome a lack of variety and unidirectional of existing TPEG application.

Bidirectional neural interface: Closed-loop feedback control for hybrid neural systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Chou, Zane; Lim, Jeffrey; Brown, Sophie; Keller, Melissa; Bugbee, Joseph; Broccard, Frédéric D; Khraiche, Massoud L; Silva, Gabriel A; Cauwenberghs, Gert

2015-01-01

Closed-loop neural prostheses enable bidirectional communication between the biological and artificial components of a hybrid system. However, a major challenge in this field is the limited understanding of how these components, the two separate neural networks, interact with each other. In this paper, we propose an in vitro model of a closed-loop system that allows for easy experimental testing and modification of both biological and artificial network parameters. The interface closes the system loop in real time by stimulating each network based on recorded activity of the other network, within preset parameters. As a proof of concept we demonstrate that the bidirectional interface is able to establish and control network properties, such as synchrony, in a hybrid system of two neural networks more significantly more effectively than the same system without the interface or with unidirectional alternatives. This success holds promise for the application of closed-loop systems in neural prostheses, brain-machine interfaces, and drug testing.

A bidirectional association between cognitive ability in young adulthood and epilepsy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Osler, Merete; Mortensen, Erik L; Christensen, Kaare

2018-01-01

Aim: To investigate the bidirectional association between cognitive ability in young adulthood and epilepsy. Methods: This cohort study included 1 159 076 men enrolled in the mandatory conscription board examination from the Danish Conscription Database (DCD; 658 465 men examined 1957-84), the Da......Aim: To investigate the bidirectional association between cognitive ability in young adulthood and epilepsy. Methods: This cohort study included 1 159 076 men enrolled in the mandatory conscription board examination from the Danish Conscription Database (DCD; 658 465 men examined 1957...... with epilepsy before conscription, and they had about 0.25 standard deviation (SD) lower cognitive scores than men without epilepsy. The largest difference in cognition was seen for those with the largest number of hospital contacts. A total of 22 364 (1.9%) men developed epilepsy, and cognitive ability......: The cognitive impairment seen in adults with epilepsy seems to reflect combined effects of epileptic processes and lower premorbid cognitive ability....

Sex differences in adult outcomes by changes in weight status from adolescence to adulthood: results from Add Health.

Science.gov (United States)

Chung, Arlene E; Skinner, Asheley Cockrell; Maslow, Gary R; Halpern, Carolyn T; Perrin, Eliana M

2014-01-01

Changes in weight status from adolescence to adulthood may be associated with varying social, vocational, economic, and educational outcomes, which may differ by sex. We studied whether there are differences in adult outcomes by sex for different weight status changes in the transition to adulthood. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, participants were categorized by weight status from adolescence into adulthood. We examined self-reported outcomes in adulthood for living with parents, being married, being a parent, employment, receipt of public assistance, income, and college graduation by weight groupings (healthy-healthy, healthy-overweight/obese, overweight/obese-overweight/obese, overweight/obese-healthy). The effect of changes in weight status on the adult outcomes was modeled, controlling for sex, age, parental education, and race/ethnicity. There were differences by sex for many of the self-reported outcomes, especially educational and economic outcomes. Female subjects who became overweight/obese between adolescence and adulthood or remained so had worse economic and educational findings as adults compared to male subjects. Overall, for female subjects, becoming and remaining overweight/obese was associated with worse outcomes, while for male subjects, adolescent obesity was more important than isolated adult obesity. The relationship between obesity and life situations may be more negative for female subjects in the transition to adulthood. The findings emphasize that adolescent obesity, and not just obesity isolated in adulthood, is important for characteristics achieved in adulthood. Copyright © 2014 Academic Pediatric Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Aplikasi Bidirectional Assosiatif Memori (BAM) Network pada Pengenalan Model

OpenAIRE

Iskandar, Iskhaq

2001-01-01

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menyusun suatu simulasi komputer yang dapat dipergunakan untuk menguji kemampuan memori komputer dalam mengenali suatu model tertentu berdasarkan algoritma Bidirectional Assosiatif Memori Neural Network. Model yang digunakan dalam penelitian dalam penelitian ini adalah huruf-huruf abjad yang dinyatakan dalam kode polar –1 dan +1 dalam bentuk matrik [5x3]. Hasil yang didapat dalam penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa rancangan network yang disusun mampu mengenali mod...

Predistortion of a Bidirectional Cuk Audio Amplifier

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Birch, Thomas Hagen; Nielsen, Dennis; Knott, Arnold

2014-01-01

Some non-linear amplifier topologies are capable of providing a larger voltage gain than one from a DC source, which could make them suitable for various applications. However, the non-linearities introduce a significant amount of harmonic distortion (THD). Some of this distortion could be reduced...... using predistortion. This paper suggests linearizing a nonlinear bidirectional Cuk audio amplifier using an analog predistortion approach. A prototype power stage was built and results show that a voltage gain of up to 9 dB and reduction in THD from 6% down to 3% was obtainable using this approach....

Multistability in bidirectional associative memory neural networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang Gan; Cao Jinde

2008-01-01

In this Letter, the multistability issue is studied for Bidirectional Associative Memory (BAM) neural networks. Based on the existence and stability analysis of the neural networks with or without delay, it is found that the 2n-dimensional networks can have 3 n equilibria and 2 n equilibria of them are locally exponentially stable, where each layer of the BAM network has n neurons. Furthermore, the results has been extended to (n+m)-dimensional BAM neural networks, where there are n and m neurons on the two layers respectively. Finally, two numerical examples are presented to illustrate the validity of our results

Multistability in bidirectional associative memory neural networks

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Gan; Cao, Jinde

2008-04-01

In this Letter, the multistability issue is studied for Bidirectional Associative Memory (BAM) neural networks. Based on the existence and stability analysis of the neural networks with or without delay, it is found that the 2 n-dimensional networks can have 3 equilibria and 2 equilibria of them are locally exponentially stable, where each layer of the BAM network has n neurons. Furthermore, the results has been extended to (n+m)-dimensional BAM neural networks, where there are n and m neurons on the two layers respectively. Finally, two numerical examples are presented to illustrate the validity of our results.

"Dangerous Presumptions": How Single-Sex Schooling Reifies False Notions of Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Janna

2010-01-01

Due to the recent changes in federal regulations about gender equity in education in the USA, some policy makers have resurrected single-sex public education. Because single-sex schooling ignores the complexity of sex, gender, and sexuality, it sets up a "separate but equal" system that is anything but. Discounting the ways in which gender is…

Multi-user bidirectional communication using isochronal synchronisation of array of chaotic directly modulated semiconductor lasers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krishna, Bindu M.; John, Manu P.; Nandakumaran, V.M.

2010-01-01

Isochronal synchronisation between the elements of an array of three mutually coupled directly modulated semiconductor lasers is utilized for the purpose of simultaneous bidirectional secure communication. Chaotic synchronisation is achieved by adding the coupling signal to the self feedback signal provided to each element of the array. A symmetric coupling is effective in inducing synchronisation between the elements of the array. This coupling scheme provides a direct link between every pair of elements thus making the method suitable for simultaneous bidirectional communication between them. Both analog and digital messages are successfully encrypted and decrypted simultaneously by each element of the array.

Efficient parallel and out of core algorithms for constructing large bi-directed de Bruijn graphs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vaughn Matthew

2010-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Assembling genomic sequences from a set of overlapping reads is one of the most fundamental problems in computational biology. Algorithms addressing the assembly problem fall into two broad categories - based on the data structures which they employ. The first class uses an overlap/string graph and the second type uses a de Bruijn graph. However with the recent advances in short read sequencing technology, de Bruijn graph based algorithms seem to play a vital role in practice. Efficient algorithms for building these massive de Bruijn graphs are very essential in large sequencing projects based on short reads. In an earlier work, an O(n/p time parallel algorithm has been given for this problem. Here n is the size of the input and p is the number of processors. This algorithm enumerates all possible bi-directed edges which can overlap with a node and ends up generating Θ(nΣ messages (Σ being the size of the alphabet. Results In this paper we present a Θ(n/p time parallel algorithm with a communication complexity that is equal to that of parallel sorting and is not sensitive to Σ. The generality of our algorithm makes it very easy to extend it even to the out-of-core model and in this case it has an optimal I/O complexity of Θ(nlog(n/BBlog(M/B (M being the main memory size and B being the size of the disk block. We demonstrate the scalability of our parallel algorithm on a SGI/Altix computer. A comparison of our algorithm with the previous approaches reveals that our algorithm is faster - both asymptotically and practically. We demonstrate the scalability of our sequential out-of-core algorithm by comparing it with the algorithm used by VELVET to build the bi-directed de Bruijn graph. Our experiments reveal that our algorithm can build the graph with a constant amount of memory, which clearly outperforms VELVET. We also provide efficient algorithms for the bi-directed chain compaction problem. Conclusions The bi-directed

Efficient parallel and out of core algorithms for constructing large bi-directed de Bruijn graphs.

Science.gov (United States)

Kundeti, Vamsi K; Rajasekaran, Sanguthevar; Dinh, Hieu; Vaughn, Matthew; Thapar, Vishal

2010-11-15

Assembling genomic sequences from a set of overlapping reads is one of the most fundamental problems in computational biology. Algorithms addressing the assembly problem fall into two broad categories - based on the data structures which they employ. The first class uses an overlap/string graph and the second type uses a de Bruijn graph. However with the recent advances in short read sequencing technology, de Bruijn graph based algorithms seem to play a vital role in practice. Efficient algorithms for building these massive de Bruijn graphs are very essential in large sequencing projects based on short reads. In an earlier work, an O(n/p) time parallel algorithm has been given for this problem. Here n is the size of the input and p is the number of processors. This algorithm enumerates all possible bi-directed edges which can overlap with a node and ends up generating Θ(nΣ) messages (Σ being the size of the alphabet). In this paper we present a Θ(n/p) time parallel algorithm with a communication complexity that is equal to that of parallel sorting and is not sensitive to Σ. The generality of our algorithm makes it very easy to extend it even to the out-of-core model and in this case it has an optimal I/O complexity of Θ(nlog(n/B)Blog(M/B)) (M being the main memory size and B being the size of the disk block). We demonstrate the scalability of our parallel algorithm on a SGI/Altix computer. A comparison of our algorithm with the previous approaches reveals that our algorithm is faster--both asymptotically and practically. We demonstrate the scalability of our sequential out-of-core algorithm by comparing it with the algorithm used by VELVET to build the bi-directed de Bruijn graph. Our experiments reveal that our algorithm can build the graph with a constant amount of memory, which clearly outperforms VELVET. We also provide efficient algorithms for the bi-directed chain compaction problem. The bi-directed de Bruijn graph is a fundamental data structure for

Sex reversal in vertebrates

OpenAIRE

2016-01-01

This special topic issue of Sexual Development gives an overview of sex reversal in vertebrates, from fishes naturally changing their sex, to rodents escaping the mammalian SRY-determining system. It offers eight up-to-date reviews on specific subjects in sex reversal, considering fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, marsupials, and placental mammals, including humans. The broad scope of represented animals makes this ideal for students and researchers, especially those interested in the...

Partner Effects and Bi-Directional Parent-Child Effects in Family Alcohol Use

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Otten, R.; van der Zwaluw, C.S.; Vorst, H.; Engels, R.C.M.E.

2008-01-01

Introduction: The current study investigated partner effects and bidirectional parent-child effects in family alcohol use. Methods: A full family, longitudinal design was used to test the hypotheses. Participants were 428 families, including mothers, fathers, and 2 children. Associations were

Helical solutions of the bidirectional vortex in a cylindrical cyclone: Beltramian and Trkalian motions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Majdalani, Joseph

2012-01-01

In this work, two families of helical motions are investigated as prospective candidates for describing the bidirectional vortex field in a right-cylindrical chamber. These basic solutions are relevant to cyclone separators and to idealized representations of vortex-fired liquid and hybrid rocket engines in which bidirectional vortex motion is established. To begin, the bulk fluid motion is taken to be isentropic along streamlines, with no concern for reactions, heat transfer, viscosity, compressibility or unsteadiness. Then using the Bragg–Hawthorne equation for steady, inviscid, axisymmetric motion, two families of Euler solutions are derived. Among the characteristics of the newly developed solutions one may note the axial dependence of the swirl velocity, the Trkalian and Beltramian types of the helical motions, the sensitivity of the solutions to the outlet radius, the alternate locations of the mantle, and the increased axial and radial velocity magnitudes, including the rate of mass transfer across the mantle, for which explicit approximations are obtained. Our results are compared to an existing, complex lamellar model of the bidirectional vortex in which the swirl velocity reduces to a free vortex. In this vein, we find the strictly Beltramian flows to share virtually identical pressure variations and radial pressure gradients with those associated with the complex lamellar motion. Furthermore, both families warrant an asymptotic treatment to overcome their endpoint limitations caused by their omission of viscous stresses. From a broader perspective, the work delineates a logical framework through which self-similar, axisymmetric solutions to bidirectional and multidirectional vortex motions may be pursued. It also illustrates the manner through which different formulations may be arrived at depending on the types of wall boundary conditions. For example, both the slip condition at the sidewall and the inlet flow pattern at the headwall may be enforced

Helical solutions of the bidirectional vortex in a cylindrical cyclone: Beltramian and Trkalian motions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Majdalani, Joseph, E-mail: joe.majdalani@gmail.com [Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering, University of Tennessee Space Institute (UTSI), 411 B. H. Goethert Parkway, Tullahoma, TN 37388 (United States)

2012-10-15

In this work, two families of helical motions are investigated as prospective candidates for describing the bidirectional vortex field in a right-cylindrical chamber. These basic solutions are relevant to cyclone separators and to idealized representations of vortex-fired liquid and hybrid rocket engines in which bidirectional vortex motion is established. To begin, the bulk fluid motion is taken to be isentropic along streamlines, with no concern for reactions, heat transfer, viscosity, compressibility or unsteadiness. Then using the Bragg-Hawthorne equation for steady, inviscid, axisymmetric motion, two families of Euler solutions are derived. Among the characteristics of the newly developed solutions one may note the axial dependence of the swirl velocity, the Trkalian and Beltramian types of the helical motions, the sensitivity of the solutions to the outlet radius, the alternate locations of the mantle, and the increased axial and radial velocity magnitudes, including the rate of mass transfer across the mantle, for which explicit approximations are obtained. Our results are compared to an existing, complex lamellar model of the bidirectional vortex in which the swirl velocity reduces to a free vortex. In this vein, we find the strictly Beltramian flows to share virtually identical pressure variations and radial pressure gradients with those associated with the complex lamellar motion. Furthermore, both families warrant an asymptotic treatment to overcome their endpoint limitations caused by their omission of viscous stresses. From a broader perspective, the work delineates a logical framework through which self-similar, axisymmetric solutions to bidirectional and multidirectional vortex motions may be pursued. It also illustrates the manner through which different formulations may be arrived at depending on the types of wall boundary conditions. For example, both the slip condition at the sidewall and the inlet flow pattern at the headwall may be enforced or

An Improved Multidimensional MPA Procedure for Bidirectional Earthquake Excitations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Feng Wang

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Presently, the modal pushover analysis procedure is extended to multidimensional analysis of structures subjected to multidimensional earthquake excitations. an improved multidimensional modal pushover analysis (IMMPA method is presented in the paper in order to estimate the response demands of structures subjected to bidirectional earthquake excitations, in which the unidirectional earthquake excitation applied on equivalent SDOF system is replaced by the direct superposition of two components earthquake excitations, and independent analysis in each direction is not required and the application of simplified superposition formulas is avoided. The strength reduction factor spectra based on superposition of earthquake excitations are discussed and compared with the traditional strength reduction factor spectra. The step-by-step procedure is proposed to estimate seismic demands of structures. Two examples are implemented to verify the accuracy of the method, and the results of the examples show that (1 the IMMPA method can be used to estimate the responses of structure subjected to bidirectional earthquake excitations. (2 Along with increase of peak of earthquake acceleration, structural response deviation estimated with the IMMPA method may also increase. (3 Along with increase of the number of total floors of structures, structural response deviation estimated with the IMMPA method may also increase.

The Chaotic-Based Control of Three-Port Isolated Bidirectional DC/DC Converters for Electric and Hybrid Vehicles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zheng Wang

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Three-port isolated (TPI bidirectional DC/DC converters have three energy ports and offer advantages of large voltage gain, galvanic isolation ability and high power density. For this reason this kind of converters are suitable to connect different energy sources and loads in electric and hybrid vehicles. The purpose of this paper is to propose chaotic modulation and the related control scheme for TPI bidirectional DC/DC converters, in such a way that the switching harmonic peaks can be suppressed in spectrum and the conducted electromagnetic interference (EMI is reduced. Two chaotic modulation strategies, namely the continuously chaotic modulation and the discretely chaotic modulation are presented. These two chaotic modulation strategies are applied for TPI bidirectional DC/DC converters with shifted-phase angle based control and phase-shifted PWM control. Both simulation and experiments are given to verify the validity of the proposed chaotic modulation-based control schemes.

Bidirectional associations between activity-related parenting practices, and child physical activity, sedentary screen-based behavior and body mass index: a longitudinal analysis

OpenAIRE

Sleddens, Ester F. C.; Gubbels, Jessica S.; Kremers, Stef P. J.; van der Plas, Eline; Thijs, Carel

2017-01-01

Background It has been generally assumed that activity-related parenting practices influence children?s activity behavior and weight status. However, vice versa parents may also change their parenting behaviors in response to their perceptions of their child?s activity behavior and weight status. This study examined the bidirectional relationships between activity-related parenting practices, and physical activity, sedentary screen-based behavior, and body mass index (BMI) between children?s ...

Change in ranking order of prescribing patterns by age and sex standardization of the practice population--audit may be misleading

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olesen, Frede; Vedsted, Peter; Nielsen, Jørgen Nørskov

1996-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate whether standardization of practice populations by age and sex changes the internal prescription ranking order of a group of practices. DESIGN: Data on the prescribing of cardiovascular drugs in a group of practices were obtained from a county-based database. Information...... on the age, sex, and numbers of patients per practice was also obtained. The direct standardization method was used to adjust practice populations for age and sex. SETTING: The town of Randers, Aarhus County, Denmark. SUBJECTS: 35 practices, 41 GPs. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Ranking of the 35 practices...... of the practices. Only four practices did not change ranking position, while four moved more than ten places. The slope between highest and lowest ranked practice did not diminish after standardization. CONCLUSION: Care should be taken when comparing peer prescribing patterns from crude utilization data, and we...

Bidirectional Partner Violence among Homeless Young Adults: Risk Factors and Outcomes

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Tyler, Kimberly A.; Melander, Lisa A.; Noel, HarmoniJoie

2009-01-01

One of the most prevalent forms of violence in contemporary society is the victimization of intimate partners. Although it has been established that homeless young people experience high levels of victimization on the street, little is known about partner violence (PV) experiences among this group, especially bidirectional violence. As such, the…

High performance bidirectional electrostatic inchworm motor fabricated by trench isolation technology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sarajlic, Edin; Berenschot, Johan W.; Tas, Niels Roelof; Fujita, H.; Krijnen, Gijsbertus J.M.; Elwenspoek, Michael Curt

We report on an electrostatic linear micromotor, which employs built-in mechanical leverage to convert normal deflection of a flexible plate into a small in-plane step and two clamps to enable bidirectional inchworm motion. The motor, measuring 412 /spl mu/m /spl times/ 286 /spl mu/m, is fabricated

Bidirectional reflectance distribution function measurements and analysis of retroreflective materials.

Science.gov (United States)

Belcour, Laurent; Pacanowski, Romain; Delahaie, Marion; Laville-Geay, Aude; Eupherte, Laure

2014-12-01

We compare the performance of various analytical retroreflecting bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) models to assess how they reproduce accurately measured data of retroreflecting materials. We introduce a new parametrization, the back vector parametrization, to analyze retroreflecting data, and we show that this parametrization better preserves the isotropy of data. Furthermore, we update existing BRDF models to improve the representation of retroreflective data.

Change in ranking order of prescribing patterns by age and sex standardization of the practice population--audit may be misleading

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olesen, Frede; Vedsted, Peter; Nielsen, Jørgen Nørskov

1996-01-01

on the age, sex, and numbers of patients per practice was also obtained. The direct standardization method was used to adjust practice populations for age and sex. SETTING: The town of Randers, Aarhus County, Denmark. SUBJECTS: 35 practices, 41 GPs. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Ranking of the 35 practices......OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate whether standardization of practice populations by age and sex changes the internal prescription ranking order of a group of practices. DESIGN: Data on the prescribing of cardiovascular drugs in a group of practices were obtained from a county-based database. Information...

Why we should consider sex (and study sex differences) in addiction research.

Science.gov (United States)

Sanchis-Segura, Carla; Becker, Jill B

2016-09-01

Among mammals, every cell has a biological sex, and the sex of an individual pervades its body and brain. In this review, we describe the processes through which mammals become phenotypically male or female by organizational and activational influences of genes and hormones throughout development. We emphasized that the molecular and cellular changes triggered by sex chromosomes and steroid hormones may generate sex differences in overt physiological functions and behavior, but they may alternatively promote end-point convergences between males and females. Clinical and pre-clinical evidences suggest that sex and gender differences modulate drug consumption as well as of the transition towards drug-promoted pathological states such as dependence and addiction. Additionally, sex differences in drug pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics will also influence dependence and addiction as well as side effects of drugs. These effects will further interact with socially gendered factors to result in sex differences in the access to, engagement in and efficacy of any therapeutic attempt. Finally, we maintain that 'sex sameness' is as important as 'sex differences' when building a complete understanding of biology for both males and females and provide a framework with which to classify and guide investigation into the mechanisms mediating sex differences and sex sameness. © 2016 Society for the Study of Addiction.

Bidirectional Relations between Parenting Practices and Child Externalizing Behavior: A Cross-Lagged Panel Analysis in the Context of a Psychosocial Treatment and 3-Year Follow-up

Science.gov (United States)

Shaffer, Anne; Lindhiem, Oliver; Kolko, David J.; Trentacosta, Christopher J.

2013-01-01

In the current study, we examined longitudinal changes in, and bidirectional effects between, parenting practices and child behavior problems in the context of a psychosocial treatment and 3-year follow-up period. The sample comprised 139 parent-child dyads (child ages 6-11) who participated in a modular treatment protocol for early-onset ODD or…

Bidirectional Cardio-Respiratory Interactions in Heart Failure.

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Radovanović, Nikola N; Pavlović, Siniša U; Milašinović, Goran; Kirćanski, Bratislav; Platiša, Mirjana M

2018-01-01

We investigated cardio-respiratory coupling in patients with heart failure by quantification of bidirectional interactions between cardiac (RR intervals) and respiratory signals with complementary measures of time series analysis. Heart failure patients were divided into three groups of twenty, age and gender matched, subjects: with sinus rhythm (HF-Sin), with sinus rhythm and ventricular extrasystoles (HF-VES), and with permanent atrial fibrillation (HF-AF). We included patients with indication for implantation of implantable cardioverter defibrillator or cardiac resynchronization therapy device. ECG and respiratory signals were simultaneously acquired during 20 min in supine position at spontaneous breathing frequency in 20 healthy control subjects and in patients before device implantation. We used coherence, Granger causality and cross-sample entropy analysis as complementary measures of bidirectional interactions between RR intervals and respiratory rhythm. In heart failure patients with arrhythmias (HF-VES and HF-AF) there is no coherence between signals ( p respiratory signal in HF-VES. Cross-sample entropy analysis revealed the strongest synchrony between respiratory and RR signal in HF-VES group. Beside respiratory sinus arrhythmia there is another type of cardio-respiratory interaction based on the synchrony between cardiac and respiratory rhythm. Both of them are altered in heart failure patients. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia is reduced in HF-Sin patients and vanished in heart failure patients with arrhythmias. Contrary, in HF-Sin and HF-VES groups, synchrony increased, probably as consequence of some dominant neural compensatory mechanisms. The coupling of cardiac and respiratory rhythm in heart failure patients varies depending on the presence of atrial/ventricular arrhythmias and it could be revealed by complementary methods of time series analysis.

Robust stability of bidirectional associative memory neural networks with time delays

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Park, Ju H.

2006-01-01

Based on the Lyapunov Krasovskii functionals combined with linear matrix inequality approach, a novel stability criterion is proposed for asymptotic stability of bidirectional associative memory neural networks with time delays. A novel delay-dependent stability criterion is given in terms of linear matrix inequalities, which can be solved easily by various optimization algorithms.

Robust stability of bidirectional associative memory neural networks with time delays

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Ju H.

2006-01-01

Based on the Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals combined with linear matrix inequality approach, a novel stability criterion is proposed for asymptotic stability of bidirectional associative memory neural networks with time delays. A novel delay-dependent stability criterion is given in terms of linear matrix inequalities, which can be solved easily by various optimization algorithms

Bi-directional gene set enrichment and canonical correlation analysis identify key diet-sensitive pathways and biomarkers of metabolic syndrome

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gaora Peadar Ó

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Currently, a number of bioinformatics methods are available to generate appropriate lists of genes from a microarray experiment. While these lists represent an accurate primary analysis of the data, fewer options exist to contextualise those lists. The development and validation of such methods is crucial to the wider application of microarray technology in the clinical setting. Two key challenges in clinical bioinformatics involve appropriate statistical modelling of dynamic transcriptomic changes, and extraction of clinically relevant meaning from very large datasets. Results Here, we apply an approach to gene set enrichment analysis that allows for detection of bi-directional enrichment within a gene set. Furthermore, we apply canonical correlation analysis and Fisher's exact test, using plasma marker data with known clinical relevance to aid identification of the most important gene and pathway changes in our transcriptomic dataset. After a 28-day dietary intervention with high-CLA beef, a range of plasma markers indicated a marked improvement in the metabolic health of genetically obese mice. Tissue transcriptomic profiles indicated that the effects were most dramatic in liver (1270 genes significantly changed; p Conclusion Bi-directional gene set enrichment analysis more accurately reflects dynamic regulatory behaviour in biochemical pathways, and as such highlighted biologically relevant changes that were not detected using a traditional approach. In such cases where transcriptomic response to treatment is exceptionally large, canonical correlation analysis in conjunction with Fisher's exact test highlights the subset of pathways showing strongest correlation with the clinical markers of interest. In this case, we have identified selenoamino acid metabolism and steroid biosynthesis as key pathways mediating the observed relationship between metabolic health and high-CLA beef. These results indicate that this type of

Sex education in Portugal.

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Frade, A; Vilar, D

1991-05-01

The article on sex education in Portugal covers background, the educational system, the clashes of the 1960's over sex education, the Committee for the Study of Sexuality and Education (CSSE), the policies, politics and social movements during the period 1974 - 1984, the discussions in Parliament, the 1988 Reform of the Educational System, the Family Planning Association (FPA) and sex education, and the future role of the FPA. It was not until the institution of the multiparity parliamentary system in 1974 that discussing social and political changes was possible, culminating in 1984 with new legislation on abortion, family planning, and sex education. School reform came in 1987/8 with the Ministry of Education primarily responsible for curricula. The 1960's brought with it the influence of the Catholic Church. Change came in the form of progressivism among Catholics who replaced dogma with dialogue and listening. Sex education was considered as preparation for marriage, but masturbation, contraception, and prostitution were also discussed. In addition, the founder of FPA chaired the CSSE in 1971 and opened up debate on sex issues and drafted a bill to establish co-education in Portuguese schools. The revolution of 1974 brought an end to censorship and brought forth a policy of developing family planning. Changed in the Family Code gave women greater equality. UNFPA supported teacher training in non-sexist education. With human reproduction included in the natural sciences, there was still no school sex education policy and contraception was only sometimes represented in the biology curriculum. The focus of FPA was on contraception and abortion. Finally in the 1980's, the first sex education programs were developed for out-of-school youth. Even though in the 1970's there were leftists groups promoting sex education, it took leftist parliamentary power to get legislation on sex education in the schools adopted. The Ministry of Education however was pressured by the

Investigations of bi-directional flow behaviour in presence of a large vertical opening in a fire compartment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sharma, Pavan K.; Gera, B.

2011-01-01

In the complex thermal hydraulics codes developed for fire, reactor and containment safety the junctions in the multi-compartment geometries are often modeled as uni-directional junctions and some construct of flow coefficient. However, certain large size junctions are known to depict bi-directional flow behaviour under specific circumstances. The CFD based computer code FDS was used for an earlier reported study of fire in an enclosure on the bidirectional flow behaviour in present of a wall opening. Numerical simulation is directed to monitor the entrainment of the fresh air from outside to the fire compartment and resulting plume deflection due to presence of a big opening. The paper presents the details of the analysis, the results obtained, and comparison with the reported experimental data in terms of plume deflection, entrainment. Detailed investigations have been carried out to understand the bi-directionality of a junction by analyzing studying the outgoing hot air flow and incoming cold air. (orig.)

Chaos synchronization communication using extremely unsymmetrical bidirectional injections.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Wei Li; Pan, Wei; Luo, Bin; Zou, Xi Hua; Wang, Meng Yao; Zhou, Zhi

2008-02-01

Chaos synchronization and message transmission between two semiconductor lasers with extremely unsymmetrical bidirectional injections (EUBIs) are discussed. By using EUBIs, synchronization is realized through injection locking. Numerical results show that if the laser subjected to strong injection serves as the receiver, chaos pass filtering (CPF) of the system is similar to that of unidirectional coupled systems. Moreover, if the other laser serves as the receiver, a stronger CPF can be obtained. Finally, we demonstrate that messages can be extracted successfully from either of the two transmission directions of the system.

Leukocyte changes across menstruation, ovulation, and mid-luteal phase and association with sex hormone variation.

Science.gov (United States)

Nowak, Judyta; Borkowska, Barbara; Pawlowski, Boguslaw

2016-09-10

Total leukocyte count (white blood cells-WBC) and the count of each subpopulation vary across the menstrual cycle, but results of studies examining the time and direction of these changes are inconsistent and methodologically flawed. Besides, no previous study focused on leukocyte count on the day of ovulation. Blood samples were obtained from 37 healthy and regularly cycling women aged 19.8-36.1 years. Samples were taken three times: during menstruation (M), ovulation (O), and in the mid-luteal phase (ML). WBC, neutrophils, lymphocytes, mixed cells, progesterone (P,) and estradiol (E) were measured in each of the three target phases of the cycle. Compared to menstruation, WBC (P = 0.002) and neutrophils (P < 0.001) increased around ovulation and remained stable in the mid-luteal phase, whereas lymphocyte and mixed cell counts did not change throughout the menstrual cycle. There were some correlations of sex hormone variation with leukocyte changes between M and O (positive for E and WBC, negative for P and WBC and for P and neutrophil count; P < 0.05), but not between O and ML. Peripheral leukocyte changes taking place in the second half of the cycle are already observable on the day of ovulation and they are associated with sex hormone variation. We speculate that these changes may lead to increased immune protection against pathogens at a time when fertilization and implantation typically occur. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 28:721-728, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Applying deep bidirectional LSTM and mixture density network for basketball trajectory prediction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zhao, Yu; Yang, Rennong; Chevalier, Guillaume; Shah, Rajiv C.; Romijnders, Rob

2018-01-01

Data analytics helps basketball teams to create tactics. However, manual data collection and analytics are costly and ineffective. Therefore, we applied a deep bidirectional long short-term memory (BLSTM) and mixture density network (MDN) approach. This model is not only capable of predicting a

Observations of a bi-directional lightning leader producing an M-component

Science.gov (United States)

Kotovsky, D. A.; Uman, M. A.; Wilkes, R.; Carvalho, F. L.; Jordan, D. M.

2017-12-01

Lightning discharges to ground often exhibit millisecond-scale surges in the continuing currents following return strokes, called M-components. Relatively little is known regarding the source of M-component charge and the mechanisms by which that charge is transferred to ground. In this work, we seek to directly address these questions by presenting correlated high-speed video and Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) observations of a bi-directional leader that resulted in an M-component occurring in a rocket-and-wire triggered lightning flash. The observed leader initiated in the decayed remnants of a positive leader channel that had traversed virgin air approximately 90 msec prior. Three-dimensional locations and speeds of the photographed bi-directional leader and M-component processes are calculated by mapping video images to the observed LMA channel geometry. Both ends of the bi-directional leader exhibited speeds on the order of 2 x106 m sec-1 over 570 meters of the visible channel. Propagation of the luminosity wave from the in-cloud leader to ground ( 8.8 km channel length) exhibited appreciable dispersion, with rise-times (10-90%) increasing from 330 to 410 μsec and pulse-widths (half-maximum) increasing from 380 to 810 μsec - the M-component current pulse measured at ground-level exhibited a rise-time of 290 μsec and a pulse-width of 770 μsec. Group velocities of the luminosity wave have been calculated as a function of frequency, increasing from 2 x107 to 6 x107 m sec-1 over the dominant signal bandwidth (DC to 2 kHz). Additionally, multiple waves of luminosity are observed within the in-cloud channel, indicating nuanced wave phenomena possibly associated with reflection from the end of the leader channel and attachment with the main lightning channel carrying continuing current to ground.

Automatic Detection of Respiratory Events During Sleep Using Bidirectional LSTM Networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jacobsen, K. P.; Olesen, Alexander Neergaard; Trap, L.

2018-01-01

seconds overlap. Two models were developed based on bidirectional long short-term memory (bLSTM) neural networks: 1)a two-class model for classification of windows as “normal” or “event”, and 2)a four-class model for classification as “normal”, “obstructive”, “central”, or “mixed”. 1882 subjects were used...

Developmental trajectories of irritability and bidirectional associations with maternal depression.

Science.gov (United States)

Wiggins, Jillian Lee; Mitchell, Colter; Stringaris, Argyris; Leibenluft, Ellen

2014-11-01

Irritability is a dimensional trait in typical development and a common presenting symptom in many psychiatric disorders, including depression. However, little is known about the developmental trajectory of irritability or how child irritability interacts with maternal depression. The present study identifies classes of irritability trajectories from toddlerhood to middle childhood; characterizes maternal depression and other family, social environment, and child variables within each irritability trajectory class; and, as a more exploratory analysis, examines bidirectional associations between maternal depression and child irritability. A total of 4,898 families from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study reported on irritability symptoms at ages 3, 5, and 9 years, assessed with items from the Child Behavior Checklist. Parental major depressive episode was assessed using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview-Short Form at child ages 1, 3, 5, and 9 years. A latent class growth analysis identified 5 irritability classes: low decreasing; moderate decreasing; high steady; initially very high, then decreasing; and high increasing. Children with more severe irritability trajectories are more likely to have mothers with recurrent depression, and, with the exception of the most severe (high increasing irritability) class, were more likely to have mothers who were exposed to violence. Moreover, paternal depression and alcohol abuse, as well as maternal drug and alcohol abuse, were also risk factors for membership in the more severe irritability classes. A latent auto-regressive cross-lag model showed that child irritability at ages 3 and 5 years is associated with increased mother depression at ages 5 and 9, respectively. Conversely, mother depression at child ages 1 and 3 years is associated with increased child irritability at 3 and 5. Irritability development across toddlerhood and middle childhood has 5 main trajectory types, which differ on maternal

Sex-specific gonadal and gene expression changes throughout development in fathead minnow

Science.gov (United States)

Although fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) are commonly used as a model fish in endocrine disruption studies, none have characterized sex-specific baseline expression of genes involved in sex differentiation during development in this species. Using a sex-linked DNA marker t...

Sex Determination, Sex Ratios, and Genetic Conflict

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Werren, John H.; Beukeboom, Leo W.

1998-01-01

Genetic mechanisms of sex determination are unexpectedly diverse and change rapidly during evolution. We review the role of genetic conflict as the driving force behind this diversity and turnover. Genetic conflict occurs when different components of a genetic system are subject to selection in

Bi-directional triplexer with butterfly MMI coupler using SU-8 polymer waveguides

Science.gov (United States)

Mareš, David; Jeřábek, Vítězslav; Prajzler, Václav

2015-01-01

We report about a design of a bi-directional planar optical multiplex/demultiplex filter (triplexer) for the optical part of planar hybrid WDM bi-directional transceiver in fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) PON applications. The triplex lightwave circuit is based on the Epoxy Novolak Resin SU-8 waveguides on the silica-on-silicon substrate with Polymethylmethacrylate cladding layer. The triplexer is comprised of a linear butterfly concept of multimode interference (MMI) coupler separating downstream optical signals of 1490 nm and 1550 nm. For the upstream channel of 1310 nm, an additional directional coupler (DC) is used to add optical signal of 1310 nm propagating in opposite direction. The optical triplexer was designed and optimized using beam propagation method. The insertion losses, crosstalk attenuation, and extinction ratio for all three inputs/outputs were investigated. The intended triplexer was designed using the parameters of the separated DC and MMI filter to approximate the idealized direct connection of both devices.

Cost-effective bidirectional digitized radio-over-fiber systems employing sigma delta modulation

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Kyung Woon; Jung, HyunDo; Park, Jung Ho

2016-11-01

We propose a cost effective digitized radio-over-fiber (D-RoF) system employing a sigma delta modulation (SDM) and a bidirectional transmission technique using phase modulated downlink and intensity modulated uplink. SDM is transparent to different radio access technologies and modulation formats, and more suitable for a downlink of wireless system because a digital to analog converter (DAC) can be avoided at the base station (BS). Also, Central station and BS share the same light source by using a phase modulation for the downlink and an intensity modulation for the uplink transmission. Avoiding DACs and light sources have advantages in terms of cost reduction, power consumption, and compatibility with conventional wireless network structure. We have designed a cost effective bidirectional D-RoF system using a low pass SDM and measured the downlink and uplink transmission performance in terms of error vector magnitude, signal spectra, and constellations, which are based on the 10MHz LTE 64-QAM standard.

A new public health context to understand male sex work.

Science.gov (United States)

Minichiello, Victor; Scott, John; Callander, Denton

2015-03-24

Researching male sex work offers insight into the sexual lives of men and women while developing a more realistic appreciation for the changing issues associated with male sex work. This type of research is important because it not only reflects a growing and diversifying consumer demand for male sex work, but also because it enables the construction of knowledge that is up-to-date with changing ideas around sex and sexualities. This paper discusses a range of issues emerging in the male sex industry. Notably, globalisation and technology have contributed to the normalisation of male sex work and reshaped the landscape in which the male sex industry operates. As part of this discussion, we review STI and HIV rates among male sex workers at a global level, which are widely disparate and geographically contextual, with rates of HIV among male sex workers ranging from 0% in some areas to 50% in others. The Internet has reshaped the way that male sex workers and clients connect and has been identified as a useful space for safer sex messages and research that seeks out hidden or commonly excluded populations. We argue for a public health context that recognises the emerging and changing nature of male sex work, which means programs and policies that are appropriate for this population group. Online communities relating to male sex work are important avenues for safer sexual messages and unique opportunities to reach often excluded sub-populations of both clients and male sex workers. The changing structure and organisation of male sex work alongside rapidly changing cultural, academic and medical discourses provide new insight but also new challenges to how we conceive the sexualities of men and male sex workers. Public health initiatives must reflect upon and incorporate this knowledge.

The Role of PTSD in Bi-directional Intimate Partner Violence in Military and Veteran Populations: A Research Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriela Misca

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Evidence supporting the higher prevalence of PTSD linked to combat-related trauma in military personnel and veteran populations is well-established. Consequently, much research has explored the effects that combat related trauma and the subsequent PTSD may have on different aspects of relationship functioning and adjustment. In particular, PTSD in military and veterans has been linked with perpetrating intimate partner violence (IPV. New research and theoretical perspectives suggest that in order to respond effectively to IPV, a more accurate understanding of the direction of the violence experienced within each relationship is critical. In both civilian and military populations, research that has examined the direction of IPV's, bi-directional violence have been found to be highly prevalent. Evidence is also emerging as to how these bi-directional violence differ in relation to severity, motivation, physical and psychological consequences and risk factors. Of particular importance within military IPV research is the need to deepen understanding about the role of PTSD in bi-directional IPV not only as a risk factor for perpetration but also as a vulnerability risk factor for victimization, as findings from recent research suggest. This paper provides a timely, critical review of emergent literature to disentangle what is known about bi-directional IPV patterns in military and veteran populations and the roles that military or veterans' PTSD may play within these patterns. Although, this review aimed to identify global research on the topic, the majority of research meeting the inclusion criteria was from US, with only one study identified from outside, from Canada. Strengths and limitations in the extant research are identified. Directions for future research are proposed with a particular focus on the kinds of instruments and designs needed to better capture the complex interplay of PTSD and bi-directional IPV in military populations and

Assessment of a Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Correction of Above-Water and Satellite Water-Leaving Radiance in Coastal Waters

Science.gov (United States)

Hlaing, Soe; Gilerson, Alexander; Harmal, Tristan; Tonizzo, Alberto; Weidemann, Alan; Arnone, Robert; Ahmed, Samir

2012-01-01

Water-leaving radiances, retrieved from in situ or satellite measurements, need to be corrected for the bidirectional properties of the measured light in order to standardize the data and make them comparable with each other. The current operational algorithm for the correction of bidirectional effects from the satellite ocean color data is optimized for typical oceanic waters. However, versions of bidirectional reflectance correction algorithms specifically tuned for typical coastal waters and other case 2 conditions are particularly needed to improve the overall quality of those data. In order to analyze the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) of case 2 waters, a dataset of typical remote sensing reflectances was generated through radiative transfer simulations for a large range of viewing and illumination geometries. Based on this simulated dataset, a case 2 water focused remote sensing reflectance model is proposed to correct above-water and satellite water-leaving radiance data for bidirectional effects. The proposed model is first validated with a one year time series of in situ above-water measurements acquired by collocated multispectral and hyperspectral radiometers, which have different viewing geometries installed at the Long Island Sound Coastal Observatory (LISCO). Match-ups and intercomparisons performed on these concurrent measurements show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the algorithm currently in use at all wavelengths, with average improvement of 2.4% over the spectral range. LISCO's time series data have also been used to evaluate improvements in match-up comparisons of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer satellite data when the proposed BRDF correction is used in lieu of the current algorithm. It is shown that the discrepancies between coincident in-situ sea-based and satellite data decreased by 3.15% with the use of the proposed algorithm.

Changes of sex pheromone communication systems associated with tebufenozide and abamectin resistance in diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (L.).

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Zhen; Cao, Guang-Chun; Dong, Shuang-Lin

2010-05-01

Many insect pests have evolved resistance to insecticides. Along with this evolution, the sex pheromone communication system of insects also may change, and subsequently reproductive isolation may occur between resistant and susceptible populations. In this study of the diamondback moth, we found that resistant females (especially Abamectin resistant females) produced less sex pheromone and displayed a lower level of calling behavior. Resistant males showed higher EAG responsiveness to the sex pheromone mixture of females, and responded to a broader range of ratios between the two major components compared to the responses of susceptible moths. In addition, wind tunnel experiments indicated that changes associated with insecticide resistance in the Abamectin resistant strain (Aba-R) significantly reduced female attractiveness to susceptible males. Furthermore, mating choice experiments confirmed that non-random mating occurred between the two different strains. Aba-R females with an abnormal pheromone production and blend ratio exhibited significantly lower mating percentages with males from either their own strain or other strains, which corroborates the results obtained by the wind tunnel experiments. The implications of this non-random mating for insect speciation and insecticide resistance management are discussed.

Evolutionary Pseudo-Relaxation Learning Algorithm for Bidirectional Associative Memory

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Sheng-Zhi Du; Zeng-Qiang Chen; Zhu-Zhi Yuan

2005-01-01

This paper analyzes the sensitivity to noise in BAM (Bidirectional Associative Memory), and then proves the noise immunity of BAM relates not only to the minimum absolute value of net inputs (MAV) but also to the variance of weights associated with synapse connections. In fact, it is a positive monotonically increasing function of the quotient of MAV divided by the variance of weights. Besides, the performance of pseudo-relaxation method depends on learning parameters (λ and ζ), but the relation of them is not linear. So it is hard to find a best combination of λ and ζ which leads to the best BAM performance. And it is obvious that pseudo-relaxation is a kind of local optimization method, so it cannot guarantee to get the global optimal solution. In this paper, a novel learning algorithm EPRBAM (evolutionary psendo-relaxation learning algorithm for bidirectional association memory) employing genetic algorithm and pseudo-relaxation method is proposed to get feasible solution of BAM weight matrix. This algorithm uses the quotient as the fitness of each individual and employs pseudo-relaxation method to adjust individual solution when it does not satisfy constraining condition any more after genetic operation. Experimental results show this algorithm improves noise immunity of BAM greatly. At the same time, EPRBAM does not depend on learning parameters and can get global optimal solution.

A Markovian Approach Applied to Reliability Modeling of Bidirectional DC-DC Converters Used in PHEVs and Smart Grids

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Khalilzadeh

2016-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a stochastic approach is proposed for reliability assessment of bidirectional DC-DC converters, including the fault-tolerant ones. This type of converters can be used in a smart DC grid, feeding DC loads such as home appliances and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs. The reliability of bidirectional DC-DC converters is of such an importance, due to the key role of the expected increasingly utilization of DC grids in modern Smart Grid. Markov processes are suggested for reliability modeling and consequently calculating the expected effective lifetime of bidirectional converters. A three-leg bidirectional interleaved converter using data of Toyota Prius 2012 hybrid electric vehicle is used as a case study. Besides, the influence of environment and ambient temperature on converter lifetime is studied. The impact of modeling the reliability of the converter and adding reliability constraints on the technical design procedure of the converter is also investigated. In order to investigate the effect of leg increase on the lifetime of the converter, single leg to five-leg interleave DC-DC converters are studied considering economical aspect and the results are extrapolated for six and seven-leg converters. The proposed method could be generalized so that the number of legs and input and output capacitors could be an arbitrary number.

Automatic Detection of Cortical Arousals in Sleep using Bi-direction LSTM Networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brink-Kjaer, A.; Olesen, Alexander Neergaard; Jespersen, C. A.

2018-01-01

) and chin electromyography (EMG) to compute a probability of arousals through a bi-directional long short-term memory neural network. The study used a dataset of 233 nocturnal PSGs of population-based samples from Wisconsin Sleep Cohort (WSC) and 30 nocturnal PSGs of clinical samples from the Stanford Sleep...

Mouse preferential incising force orientation changes during jaw closing muscle hyperalgesia and is sex dependent.

Science.gov (United States)

Widmer, C G; Morris-Wiman, J

2016-12-01

Mouse incising is controlled by a central pattern generator and this activity can change in the presence of pain. The incising frequency and maximum force generation decreases with pain. In this study, we used repetitive acidic injections in the left masseter muscle of male and female mice to determine differences between baseline and jaw muscle pain conditions and the effect of sex on preferential incising direction. A within subject design was used to evaluate data previously acquired using multi-axis force data (X, Y and Z) from the 4th baseline recording day and day 7 post-injection (day of maximal pain response) for each mouse of each sex. A total of 34 female and male (age 3-9months) CD-1 mice were evaluated. After mathematically rotating the X and Y axes to align the Y axis to be parallel to the wire struts of the cage top, data were analyzed to determine incising direction preference during baseline (non-pain) and pain (day 7) conditions and between sex. Radar plots of X-Y, X-Z and Y-Z axes depicted the average direction of incising preference between baseline and pain conditions for each sex. Statistical differences among groups were tested using a mixed model ANOVA. Similar to previous findings, female mice had a more robust difference in incising direction preference when comparing male and female pain conditions and this was most evident in the X-Z axes. The incising frequencies most commonly affected were 5.3, 6.2 and 7.6Hz. Male mice varied little in their incising direction preference between the baseline and pain conditions. In addition, statistical comparison of ratios of the percent of time spent incising in the Z versus X axes for each incising frequency found that the incising preference was not different when comparing 5.3 and 7.6Hz frequencies. Finally, female mice used a novel approach to minimize pain while incising by rotating their head and body nearly 180 degrees while males did not use this strategy as frequently. The preferred incising

Bidirectional Associations Between Psychosocial Well-being and Body Mass Index in European Children

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hunsberger, Monica; Lehtinen-Jacks, Susanna; Mehlig, Kirsten

2016-01-01

Background: The negative impact of childhood overweight on psychosocial well-being has been demonstrated in a number of studies. There is also evidence that psychosocial well-being may influence future overweight. We examined the bidirectional association between childhood overweight and psychoso...

Periodontal disease and non-communicable diseases. Strength of bidirectional associations

OpenAIRE

Kassier, SM

2016-01-01

Periodontal disease (PD), along with cardiovascular and circulatory disease, diabetes mellitus, chronic respiratory disease and obesity, are globally regarded as some of the major non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The association between PD and these systemic illnesses is described as bidirectional. Gaining an understanding of the strength of the proposed associations between these diseases is important, as it will enable health professionals to identify common risk factors that will allow fo...

Bidirectional Cardio-Respiratory Interactions in Heart Failure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nikola N. Radovanović

2018-03-01

Full Text Available We investigated cardio-respiratory coupling in patients with heart failure by quantification of bidirectional interactions between cardiac (RR intervals and respiratory signals with complementary measures of time series analysis. Heart failure patients were divided into three groups of twenty, age and gender matched, subjects: with sinus rhythm (HF-Sin, with sinus rhythm and ventricular extrasystoles (HF-VES, and with permanent atrial fibrillation (HF-AF. We included patients with indication for implantation of implantable cardioverter defibrillator or cardiac resynchronization therapy device. ECG and respiratory signals were simultaneously acquired during 20 min in supine position at spontaneous breathing frequency in 20 healthy control subjects and in patients before device implantation. We used coherence, Granger causality and cross-sample entropy analysis as complementary measures of bidirectional interactions between RR intervals and respiratory rhythm. In heart failure patients with arrhythmias (HF-VES and HF-AF there is no coherence between signals (p < 0.01, while in HF-Sin it is reduced (p < 0.05, compared with control subjects. In all heart failure groups causality between signals is diminished, but with significantly stronger causality of RR signal in respiratory signal in HF-VES. Cross-sample entropy analysis revealed the strongest synchrony between respiratory and RR signal in HF-VES group. Beside respiratory sinus arrhythmia there is another type of cardio-respiratory interaction based on the synchrony between cardiac and respiratory rhythm. Both of them are altered in heart failure patients. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia is reduced in HF-Sin patients and vanished in heart failure patients with arrhythmias. Contrary, in HF-Sin and HF-VES groups, synchrony increased, probably as consequence of some dominant neural compensatory mechanisms. The coupling of cardiac and respiratory rhythm in heart failure patients varies depending on the

BiPOD Arthroscopic Acromioclavicular Repair Restores Bidirectional Stability.

Science.gov (United States)

De Beer, Joe; Schaer, Michael; Latendresse, Kim; Raniga, Sumit; Moor, Beat K; Zumstein, Matthias A

2017-01-01

Stabilizing the acromioclavicular joint in the vertical and horizontal planes is challenging, and most current techniques do not reliably achieve this goal. The BiPOD repair is an arthroscopically assisted procedure performed with image intensifier guidance that reconstructs the coracoclavicular ligaments as well as the acromioclavicular ligaments to achieve bidirectional stability. Repair is achieved with a combination of 2-mm FiberTape (Arthrex, Naples, Florida) and 20-mm Poly-Tape (Neoligaments, Leeds, England) to achieve rigid repair, prevent bone abrasion, and promote tissue ingrowth. This study is a prospective review of the first 6 patients treated for high-grade acute acromioclavicular injury with the BiPOD technique. The study included 6 men who were 21 to 36 years old (mean, 27 years). At 6-month follow-up, complications were recorded and radiographic analysis was used to determine the coracoclavicular distance for vertical reduction and the amount of acromioclavicular translation on the Alexander axillary view was used to determine horizontal reduction. One patient had a superficial infection over the tape knot. The difference in coracoclavicular distance between the operated side and the uninvolved side was 9±2 mm preoperatively and 0.3±2 mm at 6-month follow-up. On Alexander axillary view, all 6 patients showed stable reduction, which is defined as a clavicle that is in line with the acromion. The findings show that BiPOD acromioclavicular reconstruction restores bidirectional stability of the acromioclavicular joint at 6 months. [Orthopedics. 2017; 40(1):e35-e43.]. Copyright 2016, SLACK Incorporated.

Sex reduces genetic variation: a multidisciplinary review.

Science.gov (United States)

Gorelick, Root; Heng, Henry H Q

2011-04-01

For over a century, the paradigm has been that sex invariably increases genetic variation, despite many renowned biologists asserting that sex decreases most genetic variation. Sex is usually perceived as the source of additive genetic variance that drives eukaryotic evolution vis-à-vis adaptation and Fisher's fundamental theorem. However, evidence for sex decreasing genetic variation appears in ecology, paleontology, population genetics, and cancer biology. The common thread among many of these disciplines is that sex acts like a coarse filter, weeding out major changes, such as chromosomal rearrangements (that are almost always deleterious), but letting minor variation, such as changes at the nucleotide or gene level (that are often neutral), flow through the sexual sieve. Sex acts as a constraint on genomic and epigenetic variation, thereby limiting adaptive evolution. The diverse reasons for sex reducing genetic variation (especially at the genome level) and slowing down evolution may provide a sufficient benefit to offset the famed costs of sex. © 2010 The Author(s). Evolution© 2010 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

Bi-directional charger for swiss2G - Annual report; Bi-directional charger for swiss2G - Jahresbericht

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schwab, M.; Baumann, P.

2010-11-15

This short annual report for 2010 for the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) takes a look at a bi-directional charger that can be used in intelligent 'Smart Grid' applications. The idea is based on being able to use electric vehicles as a source of electricity to help meet peak demand for mains electricity. The swiss2G project aims to produce an electric car battery-charger that also functions as an inverter to convert the car's DC battery voltage to mains electricity. The project was started in September 2010. The report describes the aims of the project and reports on initial work done in the areas of safety, switching electronics and AC/DC conversion. National and international co-operation is noted and prospects for further work are discussed.

Coordinated analysis of age, sex, and education effects on change in MMSE scores.

Science.gov (United States)

Piccinin, Andrea M; Muniz-Terrera, Graciela; Clouston, Sean; Reynolds, Chandra A; Thorvaldsson, Valgeir; Deary, Ian J; Deeg, Dorly J H; Johansson, Boo; Mackinnon, Andrew; Spiro, Avron; Starr, John M; Skoog, Ingmar; Hofer, Scott M

2013-05-01

We describe and compare the expected performance trajectories of older adults on the Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) across six independent studies from four countries in the context of a collaborative network of longitudinal studies of aging. A coordinated analysis approach is used to compare patterns of change conditional on sample composition differences related to age, sex, and education. Such coordination accelerates evaluation of particular hypotheses. In particular, we focus on the effect of educational attainment on cognitive decline. Regular and Tobit mixed models were fit to MMSE scores from each study separately. The effects of age, sex, and education were examined based on more than one centering point. Findings were relatively consistent across studies. On average, MMSE scores were lower for older individuals and declined over time. Education predicted MMSE score, but, with two exceptions, was not associated with decline in MMSE over time. A straightforward association between educational attainment and rate of cognitive decline was not supported. Thoughtful consideration is needed when synthesizing evidence across studies, as methodologies adopted and sample characteristics, such as educational attainment, invariably differ.

Bi-Directional DC-DC Converter for PHEV Applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Abas Goodarzi

2011-01-31

Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) require high power density energy storage system (ESS) for hybrid operation and high energy density ESS for Electric Vehicle (EV) mode range. However, ESS technologies to maximize power density and energy density simultaneously are not commercially feasible. The use of bi-directional DC-DC converter allows use of multiple energy storage, and the flexible DC-link voltages can enhance the system efficiency and reduce component sizing. This will improve fuel consumption, increase the EV mode range, reduce the total weight, reduce battery initial and life cycle cost, and provide flexibility in system design.

DEVELOPMENT AND DEMONSTRATION OF A BIDIRECTIONAL ADVECTIVE FLUX METER FOR SEDIMENT-WATER INTERFACE

Science.gov (United States)

A bidirectional advective flux meter for measuring water transport across the sediment-water interface has been successfully developed and field tested. The flow sensor employs a heat-pulse technique combined with a flow collection funnel for the flow measurement. Because the dir...

SiC-based High Efficiency Bidirectional Battery Converter for Smart PV Residential Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pham, Cam; Biris, Valeriu-Ciprian; Teodorescu, Remus

2013-01-01

Smart PV inverters are essential components of future grids. Beside conventional functionalities they can communicate with the grid, supports the grid with reactive power and with active power from internal battery storage. To maximize internal consumption, a high efficiency bidirectional DC-DC c...

Three-port bidirectional converter for electric vehicles : focus on high-frequency coaxial transformer

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Waltrich, G.; Duarte, J.L.; Hendrix, M.A.M.; Paulides, J.J.H.

2010-01-01

A bi-directional multi-port converter can accommodate various energy storages and sources. Therefore, a multiport converter will be a good candidate for application as a future universal converter for (hybrid) electrical vehicles or local distribution systems. The main design challenge of the

Bidirectional Text Messaging to Improve Adherence to Recommended Lipid Testing.

Science.gov (United States)

Baldwin, Laura-Mae; Morrison, Caitlin; Griffin, Jonathan; Anderson, Nick; Edwards, Kelly; Green, Jeff; Waldren, Cleary; Reiter, William

2017-01-01

Synergies between technology and health care in the United States are accelerating, increasing opportunities to leverage these technologies to improve patient care. This study was a collaboration between an academic study team, a rural primary care clinic, and a local nonprofit informatics company developing tools to improve patient care through population management. Our team created a text messaging management tool, then developed methods for and tested the feasibility of bidirectional text messaging to remind eligible patients about the need for lipid testing. We measured patient response to the text messages, then interviewed 8 patients to explore their text messaging experience. Of the 129 patients the clinic was able to contact by phone, 29.4% had no cell phone or text-messaging capabilities. An additional 20% refused to participate. Two thirds of the 28 patients who participated in the text messaging intervention (67.9%) responded to at least 1 of the up to 3 messages. Seven of 8 interviewed patients had a positive text-messaging experience. Bidirectional text messaging is a feasible and largely acceptable form of communication for test reminders that has the potential to reach large numbers of patients in clinical care. © Copyright 2017 by the American Board of Family Medicine.

Stability of Self-Reported Same-Sex and Both-Sex Attraction from Adolescence to Young Adulthood.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Yueqin; Xu, Yishan; Tornello, Samantha L

2016-04-01

This study examined how sexual attraction varied across age, gender of participant, and gender of romantic partner, from adolescence to early adulthood. Comparisons between same-sex and both-sex attracted individuals were of particular interest. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth), we examined the responses of participants who reported experiencing same-sex attractions or both-sex attractions at least once within four waves (n = 1889). Results indicated that same-sex attractions became more stable over time, whereas both-sex attraction remained unstable even into adulthood. Compared with males, females were less stable in same-sex attraction, but more stable in both-sex attraction. The majority of people who reported same-sex attraction did not report having a same-sex romantic partner before they entered adulthood, and those who reported a same-sex romantic partner were more likely to maintain their same-sex attraction than those who did not. As males got older, the gender of their romantic partner tended to become more consistent with their sexual attraction. However, for females, the consistency between the gender of their romantic partner and sexual attraction did not change over time.

[The bidirectional relationship between physical activity and sleep in depressed versus non-depressed individuals].

Science.gov (United States)

Oude Oosterik, N A M; Bouwmans, M E J; de Groot, I W; Bos, E H; de Jonge, P

Sleep and physical activity are related, but the direction of this relationship is unclear and it is not known whether the direction differs in depressed and non-depressed persons. To study the bidirectional relationship between physical activity and sleep in daily life by making repeated measurements in depressed and non-depressed people. Every day for 30 consecutive days each depressed (N = 27) and non-depressed (N = 27) participant in our study had to complete an electronic questionnaire relating to subjective sleep quality and sleep duration and were required to wear an accelerometer that recorded physical activity. Multi-level analysis showed that an increase in subjective sleep duration resulted in a decrease in physical activity. The differences between individuals with regard to the direction and strength of this relationship were significant. Changes in physical activity did not predict changes in sleep quality or sleep duration. We did not find any differences in the relationships for depressed and non-depressed participants. Change in sleep duration predicts change in physical activity, although there was significant heterogeneity in the results for individuals. Our findings underline the importance of further research and of the development of interventions that are tailored to the precise needs of the individual patient.

Intersection Recognition and Guide-Path Selection for a Vision-Based AGV in a Bidirectional Flow Network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wu Xing

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Vision recognition and RFID perception are used to develop a smart AGV travelling on fixed paths while retaining low-cost, simplicity and reliability. Visible landmarks can describe features of shapes and geometric dimensions of lines and intersections, and RFID tags can directly record global locations on pathways and the local topological relations of crossroads. A topological map is convenient for building and editing without the need for accurate poses when establishing a priori knowledge of a workplace. To obtain the flexibility of bidirectional movement along guide-paths, a camera placed in the centre of the AGV looks downward vertically at landmarks on the floor. A small visual field presents many difficulties for vision guidance, especially for real-time, correct and reliable recognition of multi-branch crossroads. First, the region projection and contour scanning methods are both used to extract the features of shapes. Then LDA is used to reduce the number of the features' dimensions. Third, a hierarchical SVM classifier is proposed to classify their multi-branch patterns once the features of the shapes are complete. Our experiments in landmark recognition and navigation show that low-cost vision systems are insusceptible to visual noises, image breakages and floor changes, and a vision-based AGV can locate itself precisely on its paths, recognize different crossroads intelligently by verifying the conformance of vision and RFID information, and select its next pathway efficiently in a bidirectional flow network.

Same sex families and children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mršević Zorica

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction comprises the information on two main forms of same sex families, civic partnership (same sex partnership and same sex marriage. Countries and various status modalities of legal regulations are mentioned. The main part of the text is dedicated to presentation of the findings of the most recent research on various aspects regarding children of same sex partnerships. It comprises presentations grouped in four main chapters: acceptance of same sex partnerships, acceptance of legal recognition of the same sex partnerships, family plans of homosexual teenagers, and raising children within and by the same sex partners. Also the real life cases mirroring legal changes through their life destinies are presented, such is e.g. the Irish way to legalization of the same sex partnerships. In addition, a love story of two women crowned by giving birth of their four children is mentioned. Reasons against and negative reactions the author puts under the title Homophobia. In the Concluding remarks, the author presents the most recent examples of legal changes happened in Norway, Ecuador, and in the American states of California and Connecticut. It was also stated that in European countries of low birth rate, the same sex families are inevitably identified as one of demographically valuable source of creating and raising children, which is worthy to be supported, rather than being hindered without reason and discriminated. Although different than a model of heterosexual family, same sex partnerships neither are harrowing to traditional family values, nor reflex of any kind of promiscuous, antisocial behavior, avoidance of parenthood, and negation of family. Quite opposite, these families are an outcome of endeavors of homosexuals not to be deprived of family, parenthood and all of other values of stabile, monogamous, emotional/sexual socially accepted and legally recognized and regulated conventional family. .

Periodic bidirectional associative memory neural networks with distributed delays

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Anping; Huang, Lihong; Liu, Zhigang; Cao, Jinde

2006-05-01

Some sufficient conditions are obtained for the existence and global exponential stability of a periodic solution to the general bidirectional associative memory (BAM) neural networks with distributed delays by using the continuation theorem of Mawhin's coincidence degree theory and the Lyapunov functional method and the Young's inequality technique. These results are helpful for designing a globally exponentially stable and periodic oscillatory BAM neural network, and the conditions can be easily verified and be applied in practice. An example is also given to illustrate our results.

Bidirectional Links and Concurrent Development of Parent-Child Relationships and Boys’ Offending Behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Keijsers, Loes; Loeber, Rolf; Branje, Susan; Meeus, Wim

2012-01-01

This study examined different types of longitudinal associations (i.e., directional links and overlapping developmental changes) between children’s delinquency and the quality of parent-child relationships from middle childhood to late adolescence. We used 10-wave interview data of 503 boys, their primary caregivers, and their teachers. Our first aim was to unravel the direction of effects between parent-child relationships and children’s offending. Cross-lagged panel models revealed bidirectional links over time between poorer quality parent-child relationships and boys’ offending across late childhood (age 7–10), early adolescence (age 10–13) and middle adolescence (age 13–16). Second, we examined the associations between mean changes in delinquency, on the one hand, and mean changes in relationship quality, on the other hand. Although parent-child relationships improved during childhood, their quality decreased in early adolescence and remained stable in middle adolescence. Delinquency increased only in middle adolescence. In 5 out of 6 models, the slope factors of relationship quality and offending were strongly correlated, indicating that stronger increases in delinquency were associated with stronger decreases in parent-child relationship quality across childhood, early adolescence, and middle adolescence. The discussion focuses on the theoretical implications of these two types of longitudinal associations. PMID:21842967

Bidirectional Texture Function Compression Based on Multi-Level Vector Quantization

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Havran, V.; Filip, Jiří; Myszkowski, K.

2010-01-01

Roč. 29, č. 1 (2010), s. 175-190 ISSN 0167-7055 R&D Projects: GA MŠk 1M0572; GA ČR GA102/08/0593 Grant - others:EC Marie Curie ERG(CZ) 239294 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10750506 Keywords : bidirectional texture function * BRDF * compression * SSIM Subject RIV: BD - Theory of Information Impact factor: 1.455, year: 2010 http://library.utia.cas.cz/separaty/2010/RO/filip-0338804.pdf

5 kW bidirectional grid-connected drive using silicon-carbide switches: Control

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kouchaki, Alireza; Lazar, Radu; Pedersen, Jacob Lykke

2017-01-01

his paper presents a controller design for a fully silicon-carbide (SiC) based bidirectional three-phase grid-connected PWM drive. For drive applications, controller must be robust and fast to be able to provide power flow in both directions. In this paper, proportional resonance (PR) current con...... magnet motor. Different tests will be conducted to evaluate the performance of the controllers in both generative and regenerative mode. It is shown that the controller can provide a good dynamic response to load changes for both direction of power flow.......-phase rectifier with switching frequency of 45 kHz will be tested. The test is done by connecting it to a grid simulator and the load is a resistive load. In the second test the rectifier will be connected to the grid via an auto-transformer and load is a 7.5kW SiC based drive which is connected to a permanent...

Bidirectional 3.125 Gbps downstream / 2 Gbps upstream impulse radio ultrawide-band (UWB) over combined fiber and wireless link

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Jesper Bevensee; Gibbon, Timothy Braidwood; Yu, Xianbin

2010-01-01

We demonstrate bidirectional fiber and wireless transmission of impulse radio ultra-wideband at 3.125 Gbps downstream and 2 Gbps upstream. After transmission over 50 km fiber and 1.85 m wireless link both signals are recovered without errors.......We demonstrate bidirectional fiber and wireless transmission of impulse radio ultra-wideband at 3.125 Gbps downstream and 2 Gbps upstream. After transmission over 50 km fiber and 1.85 m wireless link both signals are recovered without errors....

Are incident gallstones associated to sex-dependent changes with age? A cohort study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shabanzadeh, D M; Holmboe, S A; Sørensen, L T

2017-01-01

Age and female sex have repeatedly been identified as gallstone determinants but the underlying mechanisms are not clarified. The objectives of this study were to determine if changes with age in physiology, lifestyle, or reproductive hormones were associated with incident gallstones. A cohort...... pressure, blood lipids, self-rated health), lifestyle (smoking, alcohol and coffee consumption, dietary habits, physical activity level), and indices of reproductive function (number of births, oral contraceptive use, hormone replacement therapy, male reproductive hormones) were explored in females...... (OR) 0.94, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.90; 0.98]) and the cessation of hormone replacement therapy (OR 0.29, 95% CI [0.10; 0.83]) inversely determined incident gallstones. In males, increasing levels of SHBG (OR 0.97, 95% CI [0.94; 0.998]) inversely determined incident gallstones. Other changes...

Bidirectional Associations Between Newlyweds' Marital Satisfaction and Marital Problems over Time.

Science.gov (United States)

Lavner, Justin A; Karney, Benjamin R; Williamson, Hannah C; Bradbury, Thomas N

2017-12-01

Prevailing views of marital functioning generally adopt the view that marital problems predict decreases in marital satisfaction, but alternative theoretical perspectives raise the possibility that lowered satisfaction can also predict increases in problems. The current study sought to integrate and compare these perspectives by examining the bidirectional cross-lagged associations between newlyweds' reports of their marital satisfaction and marital problems over the first 4 years of marriage. Using annual assessments from 483 heterosexual newlywed couples, we find evidence for problem-to-satisfaction linkages as well as satisfaction-to-problem linkages. Satisfaction was a stronger predictor of marital problems early in marriage but not as time passed; by Year 4 only problem-to-satisfaction linkages remained significant. These findings are consistent with the idea that couples with more problems go on to report lower levels of satisfaction and couples with lower levels of satisfaction go on to report more marital problems. This dynamic interplay between global judgments about relationship satisfaction and ongoing specific relationship difficulties highlights the value of examining bidirectional effects to better understand marital functioning over time. © 2016 Family Process Institute.

Parametric amplification and bidirectional invisibility in PT -symmetric time-Floquet systems

Science.gov (United States)

Koutserimpas, Theodoros T.; Alù, Andrea; Fleury, Romain

2018-01-01

Parity-time (PT )-symmetric wave devices, which exploit balanced interactions between material gain and loss, exhibit extraordinary properties, including lasing and flux-conserving scattering processes. In a seemingly different research field, periodically driven systems, also known as time-Floquet systems, have been widely studied as a relevant platform for reconfigurable active wave control and manipulation. In this article, we explore the connection between PT -symmetry and parametric time-Floquet systems. Instead of relying on material gain, we use parametric amplification by considering a time-periodic modulation of the refractive index at a frequency equal to twice the incident signal frequency. We show that the scattering from a simple parametric slab, whose dynamics follows the Mathieu equation, can be described by a PT -symmetric scattering matrix, whose PT -breaking threshold corresponds to the Mathieu instability threshold. By combining different parametric slabs modulated out of phase, we create PT -symmetric time-Floquet systems that feature exceptional scattering properties, such as coherent perfect absorption (CPA)-laser operation and bidirectional invisibility. These bidirectional properties, rare for regular PT -symmetric systems, are related to a compensation of parametric amplification due to multiple scattering between two parametric systems modulated with a phase difference.

The limits of behaviour change theory: condom use and contexts of HIV risk in the Kolkata sex industry.

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, Catrin; Lambert, Helen

2008-01-01

This paper uses ethnographic data from a sex workers' HIV project in India to consider the appropriateness of individual, social/group and structural theories of health behaviour when applied to HIV-prevention initiatives. Existing theories are critiqued for their modernist representation of behaviour as determined by individual rational decision-making processes or by external structural forces, with inadequate recognition being given to the roles that human agency, subjective meaning and local context play in everyday actions. Analysis of sex workers' accounts of their sexual practices suggests that existing theories of health behaviour can only partially account for sexual behaviour change retrospectively and that they have limited predictive value with respect to the outcomes of individual sexual encounters. Our data show that these outcomes were, in fact, highly context dependent, while possibilities for action were ultimately strongly constrained by structural forces. Findings suggest that interventions need to adopt an integrated, structurally-oriented approach for promoting safer sexual practices in sex work settings. Recognising that no one model of health behaviour is likely to be adequate in explaining or predicting behaviour change encourages responsiveness to local people's agency, recognises the different (health- and non-health-related) registers of risk with which people operate and encourages flexibility according to local contingencies and contexts.

Curious Sex Ratios and Cytoplasmic Genes

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

instances of curious sex ratios exemplify an important principle: the fitness ..... markable transition - the whole means of sex determination has changed. No longer ... to the cytoplasmic symbiont is self-evident; the symbionts simply increase the.

Bidirectional modulation of taste aversion extinction by insular cortex LTP and LTD.

Science.gov (United States)

Rodríguez-Durán, Luis F; Martínez-Moreno, Araceli; Escobar, Martha L

2017-07-01

The history of activity of a given neuron has been proposed to bidirectionally influence its future response to synaptic inputs. In particular, induction of synaptic plasticity expressions such as long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) modifies the performance of several behavioral tasks. Our previous studies in the insular cortex (IC), a neocortical region that has been related to acquisition and retention of conditioned taste aversion (CTA), have demonstrated that induction of LTP in the basolateral amygdaloid nucleus (Bla)-IC pathway before CTA training enhances the retention of this task. In addition, we reported that CTA training triggers a persistent impairment in the ability to induce in vivo LTP in the IC. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether LTD can be induced in the Bla-IC projection in vivo, as well as, whether the extinction of CTA is bidirectionally modified by previous synaptic plasticity induction in this pathway. Thus, rats received 900 train pulses (five 250μs pulses at 250Hz) delivered at 1Hz in the Bla-IC projection in order to induce LTD or 10 trains of 100Hz/1s with an intertrain interval of 20s in order to induce LTP. Seven days after surgery, rats were trained in the CTA task including the extinction trials. Our results show that the Bla-IC pathway is able to express in vivo LTD in an N-Methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor-dependent manner. Induction of LTD in the Bla-IC projection previous to CTA training facilitates the extinction of this task. Conversely, LTP induction enhances CTA retention. The present results show the bidirectional modulation of CTA extinction in response to IC-LTP and LTD, providing evidence of the homeostatic adaptation of taste learning. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Religiosity, Spirituality, and Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Marriage

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David A. Gay

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Attitudes toward same-sex marriage have changed dramatically over the last decade. U.S. adults are becoming more supportive of same-sex marriage, and there are a number of reasons for this change. Our research examines the relationship between cohort, religiosity, spirituality, and attitudes toward same-sex marriage. Using data from the 2012 and 2014 General Social Surveys, we examine the differential impact of religiosity and spirituality by cohort on attitudes toward same-sex marriage. We present models for four separate cohorts: The Millennials, Generation X, the Baby Boomers, and the Silent Generation. The Millennial cohort exhibits significant differences from the other birth cohorts. The results of our analyses locate various changes in these attitudes and provide directions for future research.

Optimal Design of a Push-Pull-Forward Half-Bridge (PPFHB) Bidirectional DC–DC Converter With Variable Input Voltage

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, Zhe; Thomsen, Ole Cornelius; Andersen, Michael A. E.

2012-01-01

This paper presents a low-cost bidirectional isolated dc–dc converte, derived from dual-active-bridge converter for the power sources with variable output voltage like supercapacitors. The proposed converter consists of push-pull-forward circuit half-bridge circuit (PPFHB) and a high-frequency tr......This paper presents a low-cost bidirectional isolated dc–dc converte, derived from dual-active-bridge converter for the power sources with variable output voltage like supercapacitors. The proposed converter consists of push-pull-forward circuit half-bridge circuit (PPFHB) and a high...

Dynamic analysis of stochastic bidirectional associative memory neural networks with delays

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhao Hongyong; Ding Nan

2007-01-01

In this paper, stochastic bidirectional associative memory neural networks model with delays is considered. By constructing Lyapunov functionals, and using stochastic analysis method and inequality technique, we give some sufficient criteria ensuring almost sure exponential stability, pth exponential stability and mean value exponential stability. The obtained criteria can be used as theoretic guidance to stabilize neural networks in practical applications when stochastic noise is taken into consideration

Optimization of Bi-Directional Flyback Converter for a High Voltage Capacitor Charging Application

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thummala, Prasanth; Schneider, Henrik; Zhang, Zhe

2014-01-01

This paper presents an optimization technique for a flyback converter with a bidirectional energy transfer. The main goal is to optimize the converter for driving an incremental dielectric electro active polymer actuator, which must be charged and discharged from 0 V to 2500 V DC, supplied from...

Finite-Time Stability for Fractional-Order Bidirectional Associative Memory Neural Networks with Time Delays

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Chang-Jin; Li, Pei-Luan; Pang, Yi-Cheng

2017-02-01

This paper is concerned with fractional-order bidirectional associative memory (BAM) neural networks with time delays. Applying Laplace transform, the generalized Gronwall inequality and estimates of Mittag-Leffler functions, some sufficient conditions which ensure the finite-time stability of fractional-order bidirectional associative memory neural networks with time delays are obtained. Two examples with their simulations are given to illustrate the theoretical findings. Our results are new and complement previously known results. Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos.~61673008, 11261010, 11101126, Project of High-Level Innovative Talents of Guizhou Province ([2016]5651), Natural Science and Technology Foundation of Guizhou Province (J[2015]2025 and J[2015]2026), 125 Special Major Science and Technology of Department of Education of Guizhou Province ([2012]011) and Natural Science Foundation of the Education Department of Guizhou Province (KY[2015]482)

Bidirectional Texture Function Modeling: State of the Art Survey

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Filip, Jiří; Haindl, Michal

2009-01-01

Roč. 31, č. 11 (2009), s. 1921-1940 ISSN 0162-8828 R&D Projects: GA MŠk 1M0572; GA ČR GA102/08/0593; GA AV ČR 1ET400750407 Grant - others:EC Marie Curie(BE) 41358; GA MŠk(CZ) 2C06019 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10750506 Keywords : BTF * surface texture * 3D texture Subject RIV: BD - Theory of Information Impact factor: 4.378, year: 2009 http://library.utia.cas.cz/separaty/2009/RO/filip-bidirectional texture function modeling state of the art survey.pdf

Selective loss of bi-directional synaptic plasticity in the direct and indirect striatal output pathways accompanies generation of parkinsonism and l-DOPA induced dyskinesia in mouse models.

Science.gov (United States)

Thiele, Sherri L; Chen, Betty; Lo, Charlotte; Gertler, Tracey S; Warre, Ruth; Surmeier, James D; Brotchie, Jonathan M; Nash, Joanne E

2014-11-01

Parkinsonian symptoms arise due to over-activity of the indirect striatal output pathway, and under-activity of the direct striatal output pathway. l-DOPA-induced dyskinesia (LID) is caused when the opposite circuitry problems are established, with the indirect pathway becoming underactive, and the direct pathway becoming over-active. Here, we define synaptic plasticity abnormalities in these pathways associated with parkinsonism, symptomatic benefits of l-DOPA, and LID. We applied spike-timing dependent plasticity protocols to cortico-striatal synapses in slices from 6-OHDA-lesioned mouse models of parkinsonism and LID, generated in BAC transgenic mice with eGFP targeting the direct or indirect output pathways, with and without l-DOPA present. In naïve mice, bidirectional synaptic plasticity, i.e. LTP and LTD, was induced, resulting in an EPSP amplitude change of approximately 50% in each direction in both striatal output pathways, as shown previously. In parkinsonism and dyskinesia, both pathways exhibited unidirectional plasticity, irrespective of stimulation paradigm. In parkinsonian animals, the indirect pathway only exhibited LTP (LTP protocol: 143.5±14.6%; LTD protocol 177.7±22.3% of baseline), whereas the direct pathway only showed LTD (LTP protocol: 74.3±4.0% and LTD protocol: 63.3±8.7%). A symptomatic dose of l-DOPA restored bidirectional plasticity on both pathways to levels comparable to naïve animals (Indirect pathway: LTP protocol: 124.4±22.0% and LTD protocol: 52.1±18.5% of baseline. Direct pathway: LTP protocol: 140.7±7.3% and LTD protocol: 58.4±6.0% of baseline). In dyskinesia, in the presence of l-DOPA, the indirect pathway exhibited only LTD (LTP protocol: 68.9±21.3% and LTD protocol 52.0±14.2% of baseline), whereas in the direct pathway, only LTP could be induced (LTP protocol: 156.6±13.2% and LTD protocol 166.7±15.8% of baseline). We conclude that normal motor control requires bidirectional plasticity of both striatal outputs

Soft switching bidirectional DC-DC converter for ultracapacitor-batteries interface

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adib, Ehsan; Farzanehfard, Hosein

2009-01-01

In this paper a new soft switching bidirectional DC-DC converter is introduced which can be applied as the interface circuit between ultracapacitors and batteries or fuel cells. All semiconductor devices in the proposed converter are soft switched while the control circuit remains PWM. Due to achieved soft switching condition, the energy conversion through the proposed converter is highly efficient. The proposed converter is analyzed and a prototype converter is implemented. The presented experimental results confirm the theoretical analysis.

Bi-directional LSTM Recurrent Neural Network for Chinese Word Segmentation

OpenAIRE

Yao, Yushi; Huang, Zheng

2016-01-01

Recurrent neural network(RNN) has been broadly applied to natural language processing(NLP) problems. This kind of neural network is designed for modeling sequential data and has been testified to be quite efficient in sequential tagging tasks. In this paper, we propose to use bi-directional RNN with long short-term memory(LSTM) units for Chinese word segmentation, which is a crucial preprocess task for modeling Chinese sentences and articles. Classical methods focus on designing and combining...

Bidirectional Relations between Temperament and Parenting Styles in Chinese Children

OpenAIRE

Lee, Erica H.; Zhou, Qing; Eisenberg, Nancy; Wang, Yun

2012-01-01

The present study examined bidirectional relations between child temperament and parenting styles in a sample (n = 425) of Chinese children during elementary school period (age range = 6 to 9 years at Wave 1). Using two waves (3.8 years apart) of longitudinal data, we tested two hypotheses: (1) whether child temperament (effortful control and anger/frustration) at Wave 1 predicts parenting styles (authoritative and authoritarian parenting) at Wave 2, controlling for Wave 1 parenting; and (2) ...

Sex, lies and disclosures: Researchers and the reporting of under-age sex

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ann Strode

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Children are a vulnerable group and require legal protection due to their youth and inexperience. Resultantly, various provisions in the law ensure the care and protection of children through mechanisms such as the mandatory reporting of abuse. A recent change in the law has broadened the mandatory reporting obligations by requiring any person who is aware of a sexual offence having been committed against a child to report this to the police. Given that it is a sexual offence to have sex below the age of 16 researchers involved in research with teenagers in which they may become aware that that they are engaging in sex or sexual activity but are under the age4 of 16 will be obliged to inform the police of this fact. The issue of reporting under-age sex is very complex as in our view there are various categories of under-age sex. We argue that researchers should not comply with the mandatory reporting obligations for underage consensual, non-exploitative sexual activity but in all other cases there should be reporting. We argue that because the mandatory reporting of underage sex/ activity (even consensual and non-exploitative activity may alienate children from services and “punish” them by reporting their conduct to the police, advocacy is needed for a change to the Sexual Offences Act to ensure consistency with the approach taken in the Children’s Act which enables such children to access sexual and reproductive services..

Sex- and habitat-specific responses of a high arctic willow, Salix arctica, to experimental climate change

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jones, M.H.; Macdonald, S.E. [Univ. of Alberta, Dept. of Renewable Resources, Edmonton, AB (Canada); Henry, G.H.R. [Univ. of British Columbia, Dept. of Geography, Vancouver, BC (Canada)

1999-10-01

Dioecious plant species and those occupying diverse habitats may present special analytical problems to researchers examining effects of climate change. Here we report the results from two complementary studies designed to determine the importance of sex and habitat on gas exchange and growth of male and female individuals of a dioecious, circumpolar willow, Salix arctica, in the Canadian High Arctic. In field studies, male and female willows from dry and wet habitats were subjected to passively enhanced summer temperature ({approx} to 1.3 deg C) using small open-top chambers over three years. Peak season gas exchange varied significantly by willow sex and habitat. Overall net assimilation was higher in the dry habitat than in the wet, and higher in females than in males. In the dry habitat, net assimilation of females was enhanced by experimental warming, but decreased in males. In the wet habitat, net assimilation of females was substantially depressed by experimental warming, while males showed an inconsistent response. Development and growth of male and female catkins were enhanced by elevated temperature more than leaf fascicles, but leaf fascicle development and growth varied more between the two habitats, particularly in males. In a controlled environment study, male and female willows from these same wet and dry habitats were grown in a 2x2 factorial experiment including 1 x or 2 x ambient [CO{sub 2}] and 5 or 12 deg. C. The sexes responded very differently to the experimental treatments, but we found no effect of original habitat. Net assimilation in males was affected by the interaction of temperature and CO{sub 2}, but in females by CO{sub 2} only. Our results demonstrate (a) significant intraspecific and intersexual differences in arctic willow physiology and growth, (b) that these differences are affected by environmental conditions expected to accompany global climate change, and (c) that sex- and habitat-specific responses should be explicitly

Convergence analysis of stochastic hybrid bidirectional associative memory neural networks with delays

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wan Li; Zhou Qinghua

2007-01-01

The stability property of stochastic hybrid bidirectional associate memory (BAM) neural networks with discrete delays is considered. Without assuming the symmetry of synaptic connection weights and the monotonicity and differentiability of activation functions, the delay-independent sufficient conditions to guarantee the exponential stability of the equilibrium solution for such networks are given by using the nonnegative semimartingale convergence theorem

Convergence analysis of stochastic hybrid bidirectional associative memory neural networks with delays

Science.gov (United States)

Wan, Li; Zhou, Qinghua

2007-10-01

The stability property of stochastic hybrid bidirectional associate memory (BAM) neural networks with discrete delays is considered. Without assuming the symmetry of synaptic connection weights and the monotonicity and differentiability of activation functions, the delay-independent sufficient conditions to guarantee the exponential stability of the equilibrium solution for such networks are given by using the nonnegative semimartingale convergence theorem.

Sex hormone binding globulin and sex steroids among premenopausal women in the diabetes prevention program.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Catherine; Pi-Sunyer, Xavier; Barrett-Connor, Elizabeth; Stentz, Frankie B; Murphy, Mary Beth; Kong, Shengchun; Nan, Bin; Kitabchi, Abbas E

2013-07-01

It is unknown whether intensive lifestyle modification (ILS) or metformin changes sex steroids among premenopausal women without a history of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). We examined 1-year intervention impact on sex steroids (estradiol, testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone, and androstenedione [A4]) and SHBG and differences by race/ethnicity. A subgroup of Diabetes Prevention Program participants who were premenopausal, not using estrogen, without a history of PCOS or irregular menses, and who reported non-Hispanic white (NHW), Hispanic, or African-American race/ethnicity (n = 301). Randomization arms were 1) ILS with the goals of weight reduction of 7% of initial weight and 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity exercise, 2) metformin 850 mg twice a day, or 3) placebo. Neither intervention changed sex steroids compared to placebo. ILS, but not metformin, increased median SHBG by 3.1 nmol/L (~11%) compared to decreases of 1.1 nmol/L in the placebo arm (P < .05). This comparison remained significant after adjustment for changes in covariates including waist circumference. However, associations with glucose were not significant. Median baseline A4 was lower in Hispanics compared to NHWs (5.7 nmol/L vs 6.5 nmol/L, P < .05) and increases in A4 were greater in Hispanics compared to NHWs (3.0 nmol/ vs 1.2 nmol/L, P < .05), and these differences did not differ significantly by intervention arm. No other racial/ethnic differences were significant. Among premenopausal glucose-intolerant women, no intervention changed sex steroids. ILS increased SHBG, although associations with glucose were not significant. SHBG and sex steroids were similar by race/ethnicity, with the possible exception of lower baseline A4 levels in Hispanics compared to NHWs.

Inconsistency in Reporting Abstention and Heavy Drinking Frequency: Associations with Sex and Socioeconomic Status, and Potential Impacts

Science.gov (United States)

Kydd, Robyn M.; Connor, Jennie

2015-01-01

Aims: To describe inconsistencies in reporting past-year drinking status and heavy drinking occasions (HDOs) on single questions from two different instruments, and to identify associated characteristics and impacts. Methods: We compared computer-presented Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test-Consumption (AUDIT-C) with categorical response options, and mental health interview (MHI) with open-ended consumption questions, completed on the same day. Participants were 464 men and 459 women aged 38 (91.7% of surviving birth cohort members). Differences in dichotomous single-item measures of abstention and HDO frequency, associations of inconsistent reporting with sex, socioeconomic status (SES) and survey order, and impacts of instrument choice on associations of alcohol with sex and SES were examined. Results: The AUDIT-C drinking frequency question estimated higher past-year abstention prevalence (AUDIT = 7.6%, MHI = 5.4%), with one-third of AUDIT-C abstainers being MHI drinkers. Only AUDIT-C produced significant sex differences in abstainer prevalence. Inconsistencies in HDO classifications were bidirectional, but with fewer HDOs reported on the MHI than AUDIT-C question. Lower SES was associated with inconsistency in abstention and weekly+ HDOs. Abstention and higher HDO frequency were associated with lower SES overall, but sex-specific associations differed by instrument. Conclusions: In this context, data collection method affected findings, with inconsistencies in abstention reports having most impact. Future studies should: (a) confirm self-reported abstention; (b) consider piloting data collection methods in target populations; (c) expect impacts of sex and SES on measurements and analyses. PMID:25648932

Perceptions of sources of sex education and targets of sex communication: sociodemographic and cohort effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Sprecher, Susan; Harris, Gardenia; Meyers, Adena

2008-01-01

As part of a larger survey study on young adult sexuality conducted over a 17-year period at a Midwest U.S. university, more than 6,000 college students completed questions on the sources of their sex education and the degree to which they have communicated about sex with various types of individuals. Participants reported receiving more sex education from peers and media than from parents (and mothers more than fathers). Respondents also reported communicating more about sex with peers than with parents or any other categories of individuals. Differences were found in the degree of sex education from various sources and in communication with various targets based on gender, ethnic background, and social class. Furthermore, changes were found over the 17-year period. More recent cohorts of students perceived that they received more sex education from media, peers, and professionals, and communicated more about sex with professionals, relative to earlier cohorts.

Detailed validation of the bidirectional effect in various Case 1 waters for application to ocean color imagery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. J. Voss

2007-09-01

Full Text Available The radiance viewed from the ocean depends on the illumination and viewing geometry along with the water properties, and this variation is called the bidirectional effect. This bidirectional effect depends on the inherent optical properties of the water, including the volume scattering function, and is important when comparing data from different satellite sensors. The current model of f/Q, which contains the bidirectional effect, by Morel et al. (2002 depends on modeled, not measured, water parameters, thus must be carefully validated. In this paper we combined upwelling radiance distribution data from several cruises, in varied water types and with a wide range of solar zenith angles. We compared modeled and measured L_view/L_nadir and found that the average difference between the model and data was less than 0.01, while the RMS difference between the model and data was on the order of 0.02–0.03. This is well within the statistical noise of the data, which was on the order of 0.04–0.05, due to environmental noise sources such as wave focusing.

Bi-directionally protective communication between neurons and astrocytes under ischemia.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Xiao-Mei; Qian, Christopher; Zhou, Yu-Fu; Yan, Yick-Chun; Luo, Qian-Qian; Yung, Wing-Ho; Zhang, Fa-Li; Jiang, Li-Rong; Qian, Zhong Ming; Ke, Ya

2017-10-01

The extensive existing knowledge on bi-directional communication between astrocytes and neurons led us to hypothesize that not only ischemia-preconditioned (IP) astrocytes can protect neurons but also IP neurons protect astrocytes from lethal ischemic injury. Here, we demonstrated for the first time that neurons have a significant role in protecting astrocytes from ischemic injury. The cultured medium from IP neurons (IPcNCM) induced a remarkable reduction in LDH and an increase in cell viability in ischemic astrocytes in vitro. Selective neuronal loss by kainic acid injection induced a significant increase in apoptotic astrocyte numbers in the brain of ischemic rats in vivo. Furthermore, TUNEL analysis, DNA ladder assay, and the measurements of ROS, GSH, pro- and anti-apoptotic factors, anti-oxidant enzymes and signal molecules in vitro and/or in vivo demonstrated that IP neurons protect astrocytes by an EPO-mediated inhibition of pro-apoptotic signals, activation of anti-apoptotic proteins via the P13K/ERK/STAT5 pathways and activation of anti-oxidant proteins via up-regulation of anti-oxidant enzymes. We demonstrated the existence of astro-protection by IP neurons under ischemia and proposed that the bi-directionally protective communications between cells might be a common activity in the brain or peripheral organs under most if not all pathological conditions. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Bi-directionally protective communication between neurons and astrocytes under ischemia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiao-Mei Wu

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The extensive existing knowledge on bi-directional communication between astrocytes and neurons led us to hypothesize that not only ischemia-preconditioned (IP astrocytes can protect neurons but also IP neurons protect astrocytes from lethal ischemic injury. Here, we demonstrated for the first time that neurons have a significant role in protecting astrocytes from ischemic injury. The cultured medium from IP neurons (IPcNCM induced a remarkable reduction in LDH and an increase in cell viability in ischemic astrocytes in vitro. Selective neuronal loss by kainic acid injection induced a significant increase in apoptotic astrocyte numbers in the brain of ischemic rats in vivo. Furthermore, TUNEL analysis, DNA ladder assay, and the measurements of ROS, GSH, pro- and anti-apoptotic factors, anti-oxidant enzymes and signal molecules in vitro and/or in vivo demonstrated that IP neurons protect astrocytes by an EPO-mediated inhibition of pro-apoptotic signals, activation of anti-apoptotic proteins via the P13K/ERK/STAT5 pathways and activation of anti-oxidant proteins via up-regulation of anti-oxidant enzymes. We demonstrated the existence of astro-protection by IP neurons under ischemia and proposed that the bi-directionally protective communications between cells might be a common activity in the brain or peripheral organs under most if not all pathological conditions.

Testing environment shape differentially modulates baseline and nicotine-induced changes in behavior: Sex differences, hypoactivity, and behavioral sensitization.

Science.gov (United States)

Illenberger, J M; Mactutus, C F; Booze, R M; Harrod, S B

2018-02-01

In those who use nicotine, the likelihood of dependence, negative health consequences, and failed treatment outcomes differ as a function of gender. Women may be more sensitive to learning processes driven by repeated nicotine exposure that influence conditioned approach and craving. Sex differences in nicotine's influence over overt behaviors (i.e. hypoactivity or behavioral sensitization) can be examined using passive drug administration models in male and female rats. Following repeated intravenous (IV) nicotine injections, behavioral sensitization is enhanced in female rats compared to males. Nonetheless, characteristics of the testing environment also mediate rodent behavior following drug administration. The current experiment used a within-subjects design to determine if nicotine-induced changes in horizontal activity, center entries, and rearing displayed by male and female rats is detected when behavior was recorded in round vs. square chambers. Behaviors were recorded from each group (males-round: n=19; males-square: n=18; females-square: n=19; and females-round: n=19) immediately following IV injection of saline, acute nicotine, and repeated nicotine (0.05mg/kg/injection). Prior to nicotine treatment, sex differences were apparent only in round chambers. Following nicotine administration, the order of magnitude for the chamber that provided enhanced detection of hypoactivity or sensitization was contingent upon both the dependent measure under examination and the animal's biological sex. As such, round and square testing chambers provide different, and sometimes contradictory, accounts of how male and female rats respond to nicotine treatment. It is possible that a central mechanism such as stress or cue sensitivity is impacted by both drug exposure and environment to drive the sex differences observed in the current experiment. Until these complex relations are better understood, experiments considering sex differences in drug responses should balance

Dynamics of continuous-time bidirectional associative memory neural networks with impulses and their discrete counterparts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huo Haifeng; Li Wantong

2009-01-01

This paper is concerned with the global stability characteristics of a system of equations modelling the dynamics of continuous-time bidirectional associative memory neural networks with impulses. Sufficient conditions which guarantee the existence of a unique equilibrium and its exponential stability of the networks are obtained. For the goal of computation, discrete-time analogues of the corresponding continuous-time bidirectional associative memory neural networks with impulses are also formulated and studied. Our results show that the above continuous-time and discrete-time systems with impulses preserve the dynamics of the networks without impulses when we make some modifications and impose some additional conditions on the systems, the convergence characteristics dynamics of the networks are preserved by both continuous-time and discrete-time systems with some restriction imposed on the impulse effect.

Together or Separate: Disentangling the Effects of Single-Sex Schooling from the Effects of Single-Sex Schools

OpenAIRE

Do Won Kwak; Hyejin Ku

2013-01-01

To separately identify the effects of single-sex “schooling†versus single- sex “schools†, we exploit two unusual experiments in South Korea: students are randomly assigned to academic high schools within districts regardless of school types, and some schools changed their types from single-sex to coeducational over time. While the overall effects of attending a single-sex school are positive for both boys and girls, these are driven by the differences in resources between school types...

Three-port bi-directional converter for electric vehicles: focus on high-frequency coaxial transformer

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Waltrich, G.; Duarte, J.L.; Hendrix, M.A.M.; Paulides, J.J.H.

2010-01-01

A bi-directional multi-port converter can accommodate various energy storages and sources. Therefore, a multiport converter will be a good candidate for application as a future universal converter for (hybrid) electrical vehicles or local distribution systems. The main design challenge of the

Coordinated Operation of the Electricity and Natural Gas Systems with Bi-directional Energy Conversion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zeng, Qing; Zhang, Baohua; Fang, Jiakun

2017-01-01

A coordinated operation of the natural gas and electricity network with bi-directional energy conversion is expected to accommodate high penetration levels of renewables. This work focuses on the unified optimal operation of the integrated natural gas and electricity system considering the network...

Soft switching bidirectional DC-DC converter for ultracapacitor-batteries interface

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Adib, Ehsan; Farzanehfard, Hosein [Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Isfahan Univ. of Technology (Iran)

2009-12-15

In this paper a new soft switching bidirectional DC-DC converter is introduced which can be applied as the interface circuit between ultracapacitors and batteries or fuel cells. All semiconductor devices in the proposed converter are soft switched while the control circuit remains PWM. Due to achieved soft switching condition, the energy conversion through the proposed converter is highly efficient. The proposed converter is analyzed and a prototype converter is implemented. The presented experimental results confirm the theoretical analysis. (author)

On uniform resampling and gaze analysis of bidirectional texture functions

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Filip, Jiří; Chantler, M.J.; Haindl, Michal

2009-01-01

Roč. 6, č. 3 (2009), s. 1-15 ISSN 1544-3558 R&D Projects: GA MŠk 1M0572; GA ČR GA102/08/0593 Grant - others:EC Marie Curie(BE) 41358 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10750506 Keywords : BTF * texture * eye tracking Subject RIV: BD - Theory of Information Impact factor: 1.447, year: 2009 http://library.utia.cas.cz/separaty/2009/RO/haindl-on uniform resampling and gaze analysis of bidirectional texture functions.pdf

Bidirectional Relations of Impulsive Personality and Alcohol Use Across Three Waves of Data Collection.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaiser, Alison J; Davis, Heather A; Milich, Richard; Smith, Gregory T; Charnigo, Richard

2018-06-11

To explore the bidirectional relations between alcohol use and three impulsive personality traits, to advance understanding of risk processes. 525 college students (mean age = 18.95 years) recruited in August 2008 and 2009 and followed up annually for three years. Personality and past/current substance use were assessed. T2 sensation seeking mediated the predictive relationship between T1 and T3 alcohol use, and T2 alcohol use mediated the predictive relationship between T1 and T3 sensation seeking. In addition, T2 alcohol problems mediated the predictive relationship between T1 alcohol use and T3 negative urgency. Findings support a bidirectional relationship between sensation seeking and alcohol use, and drinking anticipates drinking problems, which predict increases in negative urgency. For some individuals, there appears to be an ongoing process of increased risk in the form of increases in both drinking and high-risk personality traits.

Opponent and bidirectional control of movement velocity in the basal ganglia

Science.gov (United States)

Yttri, Eric A.

2016-01-01

For goal-directed behavior it is critical that we can both select the appropriate action and learn to modify the underlying movements (e.g. the pitch of a note or velocity of a reach) to improve outcomes. The basal ganglia are a critical nexus where circuits necessary for the production of behavior, such as neocortex and thalamus, are integrated with reward signaling 1 to reinforce successful, purposive actions 2. Dorsal striatum, a major input structure of basal ganglia is composed of two opponent pathways, direct and indirect, thought to select actions that elicit positive outcomes or suppress actions that do not, respectively 3,4. Activity-dependent plasticity modulated by reward is thought to be sufficient for selecting actions in striatum 5,6. Although perturbations of basal ganglia function produce profound changes in movement 7, it remains unknown whether activity-dependent plasticity is sufficient to produce learned changes in movement kinematics, such as velocity. Here we used cell-type specific stimulation delivered in closed-loop during movement to demonstrate that activity in either the direct or indirect pathway is sufficient to produce specific and sustained increases or decreases in velocity without affecting action selection or motivation. These behavioral changes were a form of learning that accumulated over trials, persisted after the cessation of stimulation, and were abolished in the presence of dopamine antagonists. Our results reveal that the direct and indirect pathways can each bidirectionally control movement velocity, demonstrating unprecedented specificity and flexibility in the control of volition by the basal ganglia. PMID:27135927

Collection and corrections of oblique multiangle hyperspectral bidirectional reflectance imagery of the water surface

Science.gov (United States)

Bostater, Charles R.; Oney, Taylor S.

2017-10-01

Hyperspectral images of coastal waters in urbanized regions were collected from fixed platform locations. Surf zone imagery, images of shallow bays, lagoons and coastal waters are processed to produce bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF) signatures corrected for changing viewing angles. Angular changes as a function of pixel location within a scene are used to estimate changes in pixel size and ground sampling areas. Diffuse calibration targets collected simultaneously from within the image scene provides the necessary information for calculating BRF signatures of the water surface and shorelines. Automated scanning using a pushbroom hyperspectral sensor allows imagery to be collected on the order of one minute or less for different regions of interest. Imagery is then rectified and georeferenced using ground control points within nadir viewing multispectral imagery via image to image registration techniques. This paper demonstrates the above as well as presenting how spectra can be extracted along different directions in the imagery. The extraction of BRF spectra along track lines allows the application of derivative reflectance spectroscopy for estimating chlorophyll-a, dissolved organic matter and suspended matter concentrations at or near the water surface. Imagery is presented demonstrating the techniques to identify subsurface features and targets within the littoral and surf zones.

High-Throughput Sequencing and Linkage Mapping of a Clownfish Genome Provide Insights on the Distribution of Molecular Players Involved in Sex Change.

Science.gov (United States)

Casas, Laura; Saenz-Agudelo, Pablo; Irigoien, Xabier

2018-03-06

Clownfishes are an excellent model system for investigating the genetic mechanism governing hermaphroditism and socially-controlled sex change in their natural environment because they are broadly distributed and strongly site-attached. Genomic tools, such as genetic linkage maps, allow fine-mapping of loci involved in molecular pathways underlying these reproductive processes. In this study, a high-density genetic map of Amphiprion bicinctus was constructed with 3146 RAD markers in a full-sib family organized in 24 robust linkage groups which correspond to the haploid chromosome number of the species. The length of the map was 4294.71 cM, with an average marker interval of 1.38 cM. The clownfish linkage map showed various levels of conserved synteny and collinearity with the genomes of Asian and European seabass, Nile tilapia and stickleback. The map provided a platform to investigate the genomic position of genes with differential expression during sex change in A. bicinctus. This study aims to bridge the gap of genome-scale information for this iconic group of species to facilitate the study of the main gene regulatory networks governing social sex change and gonadal restructuring in protandrous hermaphrodites.

High-Throughput Sequencing and Linkage Mapping of a Clownfish Genome Provide Insights on the Distribution of Molecular Players Involved in Sex Change

KAUST Repository

Casas, Laura

2018-02-28

Clownfishes are an excellent model system for investigating the genetic mechanism governing hermaphroditism and socially-controlled sex change in their natural environment because they are broadly distributed and strongly site-attached. Genomic tools, such as genetic linkage maps, allow fine-mapping of loci involved in molecular pathways underlying these reproductive processes. In this study, a high-density genetic map of Amphiprion bicinctus was constructed with 3146 RAD markers in a full-sib family organized in 24 robust linkage groups which correspond to the haploid chromosome number of the species. The length of the map was 4294.71 cM, with an average marker interval of 1.38 cM. The clownfish linkage map showed various levels of conserved synteny and collinearity with the genomes of Asian and European seabass, Nile tilapia and stickleback. The map provided a platform to investigate the genomic position of genes with differential expression during sex change in A. bicinctus. This study aims to bridge the gap of genome-scale information for this iconic group of species to facilitate the study of the main gene regulatory networks governing social sex change and gonadal restructuring in protandrous hermaphrodites.

Symmetry evaluation for an interferometric fiber optic gyro coil utilizing a bidirectional distributed polarization measurement system.

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Feng; Li, Chuang; Yang, Jun; Hou, Chengcheng; Zhang, Haoliang; Yu, Zhangjun; Yuan, Yonggui; Li, Hanyang; Yuan, Libo

2017-07-10

We propose a dual-channel measurement system for evaluating the optical path symmetry of an interferometric fiber optic gyro (IFOG) coil. Utilizing a bidirectional distributed polarization measurement system, the forward and backward transmission performances of an IFOG coil are characterized simultaneously by just a one-time measurement. The simple but practical configuration is composed of a bidirectional Mach-Zehnder interferometer and multichannel transmission devices connected to the IFOG coil under test. The static and dynamic temperature results of the IFOG coil reveal that its polarization-related symmetric properties can be effectively obtained with high accuracy. The optical path symmetry investigation is highly beneficial in monitoring and improving the winding technology of an IFOG coil and reducing the nonreciprocal effect of an IFOG.

Divergent Significance of Bone Mineral Density Changes in Aging Depending on Sites and Sex Revealed through Separate Analyses of Bone Mineral Content and Area

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yasumoto Matsui

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Bone mineral density (aBMD is equivalent to bone mineral content (BMC divided by area. We rechecked the significance of aBMD changes in aging by examining BMC and area separately. Subjects were 1167 community-dwelling Japanese men and women, aged 40–79 years. ABMDs of femoral neck and lumbar spine were assessed by DXA twice, at 6-year intervals. The change rates of BMC and area, as well as aBMD, were calculated and described separately by the age stratum and by sex. In the femoral neck region, aBMDs were significantly decreased in all age strata by an increase in area as well as BMC loss in the same pattern in both sexes. In the lumbar spine region, aBMDs decreased until the age of 60 in women, caused by the significant BMC decrease accompanying the small area change. Very differently in men, aBMDs increased after their 50s due to BMC increase, accompanied by an area increase. Separate analyses of BMC and area change revealed that the significance of aBMD changes in aging was very divergent among sites and between sexes. This may explain in part the dissociation of aBMD change and bone strength, suggesting that we should be more cautious when interpreting the meaning of aBMD change.

High Efficient Bidirectional Battery Converter for residential PV Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pham, Cam; Kerekes, Tamas; Teodorescu, Remus

2012-01-01

Photovoltaic (PV) installation is suited for the residential environment and the generation pattern follows the distribution of residential power consumption in daylight hours. In the cases of unbalance between generation and demand, the Smart PV with its battery storage can absorb or inject...... the power to balance it. High efficient bidirectional converter for the battery storage is required due high system cost and because the power is processed twice. A 1.5kW prototype is designed and built with CoolMOS and SiC diodes, >;95% efficiency has been obtained with 200 kHz hard switching....

Bidirectional Quantum Secure Direct Communication Network Protocol with Hyperentanglement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gu Bin; Chen Yulin; Huang Yugai; Fang Xia

2011-01-01

We propose a bidirectional quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) network protocol with the hyperentanglment in both the spatial-mode ad the polarization degrees of freedom of photon pairs which can in principle be produced with a beta barium borate crystal. The secret message can be encoded on the photon pairs with unitary operations in these two degrees of freedom independently. Compared with other QSDC network protocols, our QSDC network protocol has a higher capacity as each photon pair can carry 4 bits of information. Also, we discuss the security of our QSDC network protocol and its feasibility with current techniques. (general)

Sex differences, gender and addiction.

Science.gov (United States)

Becker, Jill B; McClellan, Michele L; Reed, Beth Glover

2017-01-02

This review discusses alcohol and other forms of drug addiction as both a sociocultural and biological phenomenon. Sex differences and gender are not solely determined by biology, nor are they entirely sociocultural. The interactions among biological, environmental, sociocultural, and developmental influences result in phenotypes that may be more masculine or more feminine. These gender-related sex differences in the brain can influence the responses to drugs of abuse, progressive changes in the brain after exposure to drugs of abuse and whether addiction results from drug-taking experiences. In addition, the basic laboratory evidence for sex differences is discussed within the context of four types of sex/gender differences. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Changes in Income at Macro Level Predict Sex Ratio at Birth in OECD Countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Kanninen, Ohto; Karhula, Aleksi

2016-01-01

The human sex ratio at birth (SRB) is approximately 107 boys for every 100 girls. SRB was rising until the World War II and has been declining slightly after the 1950s in several industrial countries. Recent studies have shown that SRB varies according to exposure to disasters and socioeconomic conditions. However, it remains unknown whether changes in SRB can be explained by observable macro-level socioeconomic variables across multiple years and countries. Here we show that changes in disposable income at the macro level positively predict SRB in OECD countries. A one standard deviation increase in the change of disposable income is associated with an increase of 1.03 male births per 1000 female births. The relationship is possibly nonlinear and driven by extreme changes. The association varies from country to country being particular strong in Estonia. This is the first evidence to show that economic and social conditions are connected to SRB across countries at the macro level. This calls for further research on the effects of societal conditions on general characteristics at birth.

Bidirectional relationship between time preference and adolescent smoking and alcohol use: Evidence from longitudinal data.

Science.gov (United States)

Do, Young Kyung; Shin, Eunhae

2017-07-01

Scholarly interest in time preference as a potential predictor of risky health behaviors in adolescents has increased in recent years. However, most of the existing literature is limited due to the exclusive reliance on cross-sectional data, precluding the possibility of establishing the direction of causality. Using longitudinal data from the Korea Youth Panel Survey (2003-7), which followed up a nationally representative sample of 3449 adolescents aged 14years for five years, this study examines a bidirectional relationship between time preference and smoking and drinking behaviors among adolescents. We used discrete time hazard models of smoking and drinking initiation as a function of time preference measured at the baseline and fixed-effects ordered logit model of time preference, respectively. Our measure of time preference was derived from the survey question on a hypothetical choice between immediate enjoyment today and likely higher scores on an exam tomorrow. The overall results provide evidence on the bidirectional relationship; that is, higher time discounting (i.e., greater relative preference for present utility over future utility) results in an increased risk of engaging in smoking and drinking, and conversely, adopting such behaviors leads to a higher discount rate. The bidirectional relationship may function as a mechanism for adolescents to engage in increased smoking and drinking or additional negative health behaviors via gateway effects, strengthening the case for preventing the initiation of risky health behaviors among adolescents. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Age- and Sex-Associated Changes in Cerebral Glucose Metabolism in Normal Healthy Subjects: Statistical Parametric Mapping Analysis of F-18 Fluorodeoxyglucose Brain Positron Emission Tomography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, In-Ju; Kim, Seong-Jang; Kim, Yong-Ki

2009-01-01

Background: The age- and sex-associated changes of brain development are unclear and controversial. Several previous studies showed conflicting results of a specific pattern of cerebral glucose metabolism or no differences of cerebral glucose metabolism in association with normal aging process and sex. Purpose: To investigate the effects of age and sex on changes in cerebral glucose metabolism in healthy subjects using fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (F-18 FDG) brain positron emission tomography (PET) and statistical parametric mapping (SPM) analysis. Material and Methods: Seventy-eight healthy subjects (32 males, mean age 46.6±18.2 years; 46 females, mean age 40.6±19.8 years) underwent F-18 FDG brain PET. Using SPM, age- and sex-associated changes in cerebral glucose metabolism were investigated. Results: In males, a negative correlation existed in several gray matter areas, including the right temporopolar (Brodmann area [BA] 38), right orbitofrontal (BA 47), left orbitofrontal gyrus (BA 10), left dorsolateral frontal gyrus (BA 8), and left insula (BA 13) areas. A positive relationship existed in the left claustrum and left thalamus. In females, negative changes existed in the left caudate body, left temporopolar area (BA 38), right orbitofrontal gyri (BA 47 and BA 10), and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 46). A positive association was demonstrated in the left subthalamic nucleus and the left superior frontal gyrus. In white matter, an age-associated decrease in FDG uptake in males was shown in the left insula, and increased FDG uptake was found in the left corpus callosum. The female group had an age-associated negative correlation of FDG uptake only in the right corpus callosum. Conclusion: Using SPM, we found not only similar areas of brain, but also sex-specific cerebral areas of age-associated changes of FDG uptake

Age- and Sex-Associated Changes in Cerebral Glucose Metabolism in Normal Healthy Subjects: Statistical Parametric Mapping Analysis of F-18 Fluorodeoxyglucose Brain Positron Emission Tomography

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, In-Ju; Kim, Seong-Jang; Kim, Yong-Ki (Dept. of Nuclear Medicine, Pusan National Univ. Hospital, Busan (Korea); Medical Research Institute, Pusan National Univ., Busan (Korea)). e-mail: growthkim@daum.net/growthkim@pusan.ac.kr)

2009-12-15

Background: The age- and sex-associated changes of brain development are unclear and controversial. Several previous studies showed conflicting results of a specific pattern of cerebral glucose metabolism or no differences of cerebral glucose metabolism in association with normal aging process and sex. Purpose: To investigate the effects of age and sex on changes in cerebral glucose metabolism in healthy subjects using fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (F-18 FDG) brain positron emission tomography (PET) and statistical parametric mapping (SPM) analysis. Material and Methods: Seventy-eight healthy subjects (32 males, mean age 46.6+-18.2 years; 46 females, mean age 40.6+-19.8 years) underwent F-18 FDG brain PET. Using SPM, age- and sex-associated changes in cerebral glucose metabolism were investigated. Results: In males, a negative correlation existed in several gray matter areas, including the right temporopolar (Brodmann area [BA] 38), right orbitofrontal (BA 47), left orbitofrontal gyrus (BA 10), left dorsolateral frontal gyrus (BA 8), and left insula (BA 13) areas. A positive relationship existed in the left claustrum and left thalamus. In females, negative changes existed in the left caudate body, left temporopolar area (BA 38), right orbitofrontal gyri (BA 47 and BA 10), and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 46). A positive association was demonstrated in the left subthalamic nucleus and the left superior frontal gyrus. In white matter, an age-associated decrease in FDG uptake in males was shown in the left insula, and increased FDG uptake was found in the left corpus callosum. The female group had an age-associated negative correlation of FDG uptake only in the right corpus callosum. Conclusion: Using SPM, we found not only similar areas of brain, but also sex-specific cerebral areas of age-associated changes of FDG uptake

Government crackdown of sex work in China: responses from female sex workers and implications for their health.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Yingying; Pan, Suiming

2014-01-01

The Chinese Government periodically enforces anti-prostitution laws through regular police presence in red light districts and through the arrests of brothel managers and sex workers. One of the most intense crackdowns on prostitution occurred throughout China in 2010. Using the 'structure-agency' framework and ethnographic approach, this paper examines the influence of the 2010 government anti-prostitution crackdown on female sex workers (FSWs). We observed 10 red light districts (6 cities and 2 counties) and interviewed 107 FSWs, 26 managers and 37 outreach workers working with FSWs. The findings describe variations in police practices and diverse strategies adopted by FSWs in response to police actions. The strategies include: soliciting sex outside of establishments in less visible channels, increasing the mobility and flexibility of sex work, changing sexual practices, sharing knowledge of how to identify policemen disguised as male clients and building personal relationships with local police. Our study suggests that, rather than disappearing as a result of crackdowns, the terms and content of sex work changed as a result of the FSWs' responses to police practices. Some of these responses potentially increased the health risks associated with sex work, but others laid the foundation for an effective response to police practices.

Government crackdown of sex work in China: Responses from female sex workers and implications for their health

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Yingying; Pan, Suiming

2015-01-01

The Chinese Government periodically enforces anti-prostitution laws through regular police presence in red light districts and through the arrests of brothel managers and sex workers. One of the most intense crackdowns on prostitution occurred throughout China in 2010. Using the ‘structure-agency’ framework and ethnographic approach, this paper examines the influence of the 2010 government anti-prostitution crackdown on female sex workers (FSWs). We observed 10 red light districts (6 cities and 2 counties) and interviewed 107 FSWs, 26 managers and 37 outreach workers working with FSWs. The findings describe variations in police practices and diverse strategies adopted by FSWs in response to police actions. The strategies include: soliciting sex outside of establishments in less visible channels, increasing the mobility and flexibility of sex work, changing sexual practices, sharing knowledge of how to identify policemen disguised as male clients and building personal relationships with local police. Our study suggests that, rather than disappearing as a result of crackdowns, the terms and content of sex work changed as a result of the FSWs’ responses to police practices. Some of these responses potentially increased the health risks associated with sex work, but others laid the foundation for an effective response to police practices. PMID:25226069

Bidirectional-Convolutional LSTM Based Spectral-Spatial Feature Learning for Hyperspectral Image Classification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qingshan Liu

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a novel deep learning framework named bidirectional-convolutional long short term memory (Bi-CLSTM network to automatically learn the spectral-spatial features from hyperspectral images (HSIs. In the network, the issue of spectral feature extraction is considered as a sequence learning problem, and a recurrent connection operator across the spectral domain is used to address it. Meanwhile, inspired from the widely used convolutional neural network (CNN, a convolution operator across the spatial domain is incorporated into the network to extract the spatial feature. In addition, to sufficiently capture the spectral information, a bidirectional recurrent connection is proposed. In the classification phase, the learned features are concatenated into a vector and fed to a Softmax classifier via a fully-connected operator. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed Bi-CLSTM framework, we compare it with six state-of-the-art methods, including the popular 3D-CNN model, on three widely used HSIs (i.e., Indian Pines, Pavia University, and Kennedy Space Center. The obtained results show that Bi-CLSTM can improve the classification performance by almost 1.5 % as compared to 3D-CNN.

Sex differences in sensation-seeking: a meta-analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Cross, Catharine P; Cyrenne, De-Laine M; Brown, Gillian R

2013-01-01

Men score higher than women on measures of sensation-seeking, defined as a willingness to engage in novel or intense activities. This sex difference has been explained in terms of evolved psychological mechanisms or culturally transmitted social norms. We investigated whether sex differences in sensation-seeking have changed over recent years by conducting a meta-analysis of studies using Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Scale, version V (SSS-V). We found that sex differences in total SSS-V scores have remained stable across years, as have sex differences in Disinhibition and Boredom Susceptibility. In contrast, the sex difference in Thrill and Adventure Seeking has declined, possibly due to changes in social norms or out-dated questions on this sub-scale. Our results support the view that men and women differ in their propensity to report sensation-seeking characteristics, while behavioural manifestations of sensation-seeking vary over time. Sex differences in sensation-seeking could reflect genetically influenced predispositions interacting with socially transmitted information.

Strain- and sex-dependent circadian changes in abcc2 transporter expression: implications for irinotecan chronotolerance in mouse ileum.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alper Okyar

Full Text Available ATP-binding cassette transporter abcc2 is involved in the cellular efflux of irinotecan. The drug is toxic for mouse ileum, where abcc2 is highly expressed. Here, we investigate whether circadian changes in local abcc2 expression participate in the circadian rhythm of irinotecan toxicity for ileum mucosa, and further assess whether genetic background or sex modify this relation.Ileum mucosa was obtained every 3-4 h for 24 h in male and female B6D2F(1 and B6CBAF(1 mice synchronized with light from Zeitgeber Time (ZT0 to ZT12 alternating with 12 h of darkness. Irinotecan (50 mg/kg i.v. daily for 4 days was administered at the sex- and strain-specific times corresponding to least (ZT11-15 or largest drug-induced body weight loss (ZT23-03-07. Abcc2 expression was determined with qRT-PCR for mRNA and with immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy for protein. Histopathologic lesions were graded in ileum tissues obtained 2, 4 or 6 days after treatment. Two- to six-fold circadian changes were demonstrated for mRNA and protein mean expressions of abcc2 in mouse ileum (p<0.05. ZT12 corresponded to high mRNA and protein expressions, with circadian waveforms differing according to genetic background and sex. The proportion of mice spared from ileum lesions varied three-fold according to irinotecan timing, with best tolerability at ZT11-15 (p = 0.00003. Irinotecan was also best tolerated in males (p = 0.05 and in B6CBAF(1 (p = 0.0006.Strain- and sex-dependent circadian patterns in abcc2 expressions displayed robust relations with the chronotolerance of ileum mucosa for irinotecan. This finding has strong potential implications for improving the intestinal tolerability of anticancer drugs through circadian delivery.

Gender Dysphoria and Gender Change in Disorders of Sex Development/Intersex Conditions: Results From the dsd-LIFE Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Kreukels, Baudewijntje P C; Köhler, Birgit; Nordenström, Anna; Roehle, Robert; Thyen, Ute; Bouvattier, Claire; de Vries, Annelou L C; Cohen-Kettenis, Peggy T

2018-05-01

Information on the psychosexual outcome of individuals with disorders of sex development (DSDs) and intersex conditions is of great importance for sex assignment at birth of newborns with DSD. To assess gender change and gender dysphoria in a large sample of individuals with different DSDs. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 14 European centers with 1,040 participants (717 female-identifying and 311 male-identifying persons and 12 persons identifying with another gender) with different forms of DSD. The cohort (mean age = 32.36 years, SD = 13.57) was divided into 6 major subgroups: women with 45,X DSD and variants (Turner syndrome; n = 325), men with 47,XXY DSD and variants (Klinefelter syndrome; n = 219), women with XY DSD without androgen effects (n = 107) and with androgen effects (n = 63), men with XY DSD (n = 87), and women with 46,XX congenital adrenal hyperplasia (n = 221). Data on psychosexual outcome were gathered by medical interviews and questionnaires. Gender change and gender dysphoria. Although gender changes were reported by 5% of participants, only in 1% (3% if those with Klinefelter and Turner syndromes-conditions in which gender issues are not prominent-are excluded) did the gender change take place after puberty and was likely initiated by the patient. 39 participants (4%) reported gender variance: between male and female, a gender other than male or female, or gender queer, alternating gender roles, or a gender expression that differed from the reported gender. This group had lower self-esteem and more anxiety and depression than the other participants. Clinicians should be aware of and sensitive to the possibility that their patients with DSD not only might have transgender feelings and a desire to change gender, but also identify as different from male or female. The complexity of their feelings might require counseling for some patients. The study is unique in the large number of participants from many different clinics, with

Canopy bidirectional reflectance calculation based on Adding method and SAIL formalism: AddingS / AddingSD

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kallel, A.; Verhoef, W.; Hegarat-Mascle, Le S.; Ottle, C.; Hubert-Moy, L.

2008-01-01

The SAIL model (proposed by Verhoef) is largely used in the remote sensing community to calculate the canopy Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function. The simulation results appear acceptable compared to observations especially for not very dense planophile vegetation. However, for

A Four-Phase High Voltage Conversion Ratio Bidirectional DC-DC Converter for Battery Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li-Kun Xue

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This study presents a four-phase interleaved high voltage conversion ratio bidirectional DC-DC converter circuit based on coupled inductors and switched capacitors, which can eliminate the defects of conventional high voltage conversion ratio bidirectional DC-DC converters in terms of high-voltage/current stress, less efficiency and low-power limitation. Parallel channels are used to reduce current stress at the low-voltage side and series connected switched capacitors are used to enlarge voltage conversion ratio, reduce voltage stress and achieve auto current sharing. This paper proposes the operation principle, feature analysis and optimization design considerations. On this basis the objectives of high voltage conversion ratio, low voltage/current stress, high power density, high efficiency and high-power applications can be achieved. Some experimental results based on a 500 W prototype converter (24 V to 48 V at low-voltage side, 400 V at high-voltage side are given to verify the theoretical analysis and the effectiveness of the proposed converter.

Connecting Neurons to a Mobile Robot: An In Vitro Bidirectional Neural Interface

Science.gov (United States)

Novellino, A.; D'Angelo, P.; Cozzi, L.; Chiappalone, M.; Sanguineti, V.; Martinoia, S.

2007-01-01

One of the key properties of intelligent behaviors is the capability to learn and adapt to changing environmental conditions. These features are the result of the continuous and intense interaction of the brain with the external world, mediated by the body. For this reason “embodiment” represents an innovative and very suitable experimental paradigm when studying the neural processes underlying learning new behaviors and adapting to unpredicted situations. To this purpose, we developed a novel bidirectional neural interface. We interconnected in vitro neurons, extracted from rat embryos and plated on a microelectrode array (MEA), to external devices, thus allowing real-time closed-loop interaction. The novelty of this experimental approach entails the necessity to explore different computational schemes and experimental hypotheses. In this paper, we present an open, scalable architecture, which allows fast prototyping of different modules and where coding and decoding schemes and different experimental configurations can be tested. This hybrid system can be used for studying the computational properties and information coding in biological neuronal networks with far-reaching implications for the future development of advanced neuroprostheses. PMID:18350128

Analysis of snow bidirectional reflectance from ARCTAS Spring-2008 Campaign

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Lyapustin

2010-05-01

Full Text Available The spring 2008 Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS experiment was one of major intensive field campaigns of the International Polar Year aimed at detailed characterization of atmospheric physical and chemical processes in the Arctic region. A part of this campaign was a unique snow bidirectional reflectance experiment on the NASA P-3B aircraft conducted on 7 and 15 April by the Cloud Absorption Radiometer (CAR jointly with airborne Ames Airborne Tracking Sunphotometer (AATS and ground-based Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET sunphotometers. The CAR data were atmospherically corrected to derive snow bidirectional reflectance at high 1° angular resolution in view zenith and azimuthal angles along with surface albedo. The derived albedo was generally in good agreement with ground albedo measurements collected on 15 April. The CAR snow bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF was used to study the accuracy of analytical Ross-Thick Li-Sparse (RTLS, Modified Rahman-Pinty-Verstraete (MRPV and Asymptotic Analytical Radiative Transfer (AART BRF models. Except for the glint region (azimuthal angles φ<40°, the best fit MRPV and RTLS models fit snow BRF to within ±0.05. The plane-parallel radiative transfer (PPRT solution was also analyzed with the models of spheres, spheroids, randomly oriented fractal crystals, and with a synthetic phase function. The latter merged the model of spheroids for the forward scattering angles with the fractal model in the backscattering direction. The PPRT solution with synthetic phase function provided the best fit to measured BRF in the full range of angles. Regardless of the snow grain shape, the PPRT model significantly over-/underestimated snow BRF in the glint/backscattering regions, respectively, which agrees with other studies. To improve agreement with experiment, we introduced a model of macroscopic snow surface roughness by averaging the PPRT solution over the

Analysis of Snow Bidirectional Reflectance from ARCTAS Spring-2008 Campaign

Science.gov (United States)

Lyapustin, A.; Gatebe, C. K.; Redemann, J.; Kahn, R.; Brandt, R.; Russell, P.; King, M. D.; Pedersen, C. A.; Gerland, S.; Poudyal, R.;

Impacts of light-absorbing impurities on snow and their quantification with bidirectional reflectance measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Gritsevich, Maria; Peltoniemi, Jouni; Meinander, Outi; Dagsson-Waldhauserová, Pavla; Zubko, Nataliya; Hakala, Teemu; Virkkula, Aki; Svensson, Jonas; de Leeuw, Gerrit

2017-04-01

In order to quantify the effects of absorbing impurities on snow and define their contribution to the climate change, we have conducted a series of dedicated bidirectional reflectance measurements. Chimney soot, volcanic sand, and glaciogenic silt have been deposited on the snow in the controlled way. The bidirectional reflectance factors of these targets and untouched snow have been measured using the Finnish Geodetic Institute's field goniospectrometer FIGIFIGO, see, e.g., [1, 2] and references therein. It has been found that the contaminants darken the snow, and modify its appearance mostly as expected, with clear directional signal and modest spectral signal. A remarkable feature is the fact that any absorbing contaminant on snow enhances the metamorphosis under strong sunlight [3, 4]. Immediately after deposition, the contaminated snow surface appears darker than the pure snow in all viewing directions, but the heated soot particles start sinking down deeply into the snow in minutes. The nadir measurement remains darkest, but at larger zenith angles the surface of the soot-contaminated snow changes back to almost as white as clean snow. Thus, for on ground observer the darkening by impurities can be completely invisible, overestimating the albedo, but a nadir looking satellite sees the darkest points, now underestimating the albedo. After more time, also the nadir view brightens, and the remaining impurities may be biased towards more shadowed locations or less absorbing orientations by natural selection. This suggests that at noon the albedo should be lower than in the morning or afternoon. When sunlight stimulates more sinking than melting, albedo should be higher in the afternoon than in the morning, and vice versa when melting is dominating. Thus to estimate the effects caused by black carbon (BC) deposited on snow on climate changes may one need to take into account possible rapid diffusion of the BC inside the snow from its surface. When the snow melt

Design and implementation of a bidirectional current-controlled voltage-regulated DC-DC switched-mode converter

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Coetzer, A

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The design and implementation of a bidirectional current-controlled voltage-regulated DC-DC converter is presented. The converter is required to connect a battery of electrochemical cells (the battery) to an asynchronous motor-drive unit via a...

The Bidirectional Relationship between Diabetes and Depression: A Literature Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Alzoubi, Abdallah; Abunaser, Rnad; Khassawneh, Adi; Alfaqih, Mahmoud; Khasawneh, Aws; Abdo, Nour

2018-05-01

Diabetes is a major public health problem worldwide. Depression is a serious mental condition that decreases mental and physical functioning and reduces the quality of life. Several lines of evidence suggest a bidirectional relationship between diabetes and depression: diabetes patients are twice as likely to experience depression than nondiabetic individuals. In contrast, depression increases the risk of diabetes and interferes with its daily self-management. Diabetes patients with depression have poor glycemic control, reduced quality of life, and an increased risk of diabetes complications, consequently having an increased mortality rate. Conflicting evidence exists on the potential role of factors that may account for or modulate the relationship between diabetes and depression. Therefore, this review aims to highlight the most notable body of literature that dissects the various facets of the bidirectional relationship between diabetes and depression. A focused discussion of the proposed mechanisms underlying this relationship is also provided. We systematically reviewed the relevant literature in the PubMed database, using the keywords "Diabetes AND Depression". After exclusion of duplicate and irrelevant material, literature eligible for inclusion in this review was based on meta-analysis studies, clinical trials with large sample sizes (n≥1,000), randomized clinical trials, and comprehensive national and cross-country clinical studies. The evidence we present in this review supports the pressing need for long, outcome-oriented, randomized clinical trials to determine whether the identification and treatment of patients with these comorbid conditions will improve their medical outcomes and quality of life.

Bidirectional interactions between the baroreceptor reflex and arousal: an update.

Science.gov (United States)

Silvani, Alessandro; Calandra-Buonaura, Giovanna; Benarroch, Eduardo E; Dampney, Roger A L; Cortelli, Pietro

2015-02-01

Studies involving genetic engineering on animal models and mathematical analysis of cardiovascular signals on humans are shedding new light on the interactions between the arterial baroreceptor reflex (baroreflex) and arousal. Baroreceptor stimulation, if very mild or performed under anaesthesia, may inhibit cortical arousal. However, substantial increases or decreases in baroreflex activation cause arousal in animal models and human subjects in physiological conditions. On the other hand, cardiovascular changes during autonomic arousals and between the states of wakefulness and sleep involve changes in the baroreflex set point and balance with central autonomic commands. Neural connectivity and functional data suggest that the nucleus of the solitary tract, adrenergic C1 neurons of the medulla, and the parabrachial nucleus of the pons mediate the bidirectional interactions between the baroreflex and arousal. These interactions may constitute a positive feedback loop that facilitates sharp and coordinated brain state and autonomic transitions upon arousal: upon arousal, central autonomic commands may increase blood pressure, thereby loading baroreceptors and further increasing arousal. Anomalies of this feedback loop may play a role in the pathophysiology of disease conditions associated with cardiovascular and sleep-wake cycle alterations. These conditions include: obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome, with its association with excessive daytime sleepiness and baroreflex impairment; and insomnia, with its association with autonomic hyperarousal and hypertension. When faced with disorders associated with cardiovascular and sleep-wake cycle alterations, clinical reasoning should entertain the possibility that both conditions are strongly influenced by anomalies of baroreflex function. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Bidirectional Four-Wave Mixing in Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers: Theory and Experiment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bischoff, Svend; Buxens, Alvaro A.; Poulsen, Henrik Nørskov

1999-01-01

) is theoretically predicted for bit rates of 10, 20 and 40 Gb/s and is shown to be in agreement with measurements performed at 10 and 20 Gb/s. Measurements of the clear/drop functionality using the bidirectional technique show excellent performance for a 4 x 10 Gb/s signal and is again in good agreement...... with simulations. The clear/drop functionality is also simulated for 4 x 20 Gb/s and 4 x 40 Gb/s signals....

A reconfiguration of the sex trade

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Elmes, Jocelyn; Skovdal, Morten; Nhongo, Kundai

2017-01-01

a unique opportunity to study community perceptions of the impact of socio-economic upheaval on the sex trade. We conducted focus group discussions with 122 community members in rural eastern Zimbabwe in January-February 2009. Groups were homogeneous by gender and occupation and included female sex workers......Understanding the dynamic nature of sex work is important for explaining the course of HIV epidemics. While health and development interventions targeting sex workers may alter the dynamics of the sex trade in particular localities, little has been done to explore how large-scale social...... and structural changes, such as economic recessions–outside of the bounds of organizational intervention–may reconfigure social norms and attitudes with regards to sex work. Zimbabwe’s economic collapse in 2009, following a period (2000–2009) of economic decline, within a declining HIV epidemic, provides...

Discrete-time bidirectional associative memory neural networks with variable delays

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liang Jinling; Cao Jinde; Ho, Daniel W.C.

2005-01-01

Based on the linear matrix inequality (LMI), some sufficient conditions are presented in this Letter for the existence, uniqueness and global exponential stability of the equilibrium point of discrete-time bidirectional associative memory (BAM) neural networks with variable delays. Some of the stability criteria obtained in this Letter are delay-dependent, and some of them are delay-independent, they are less conservative than the ones reported so far in the literature. Furthermore, the results provide one more set of easily verified criteria for determining the exponential stability of discrete-time BAM neural networks

Discrete-time bidirectional associative memory neural networks with variable delays

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, variable delays [rapid communication] J.; Cao, J.; Ho, D. W. C.

2005-02-01

Based on the linear matrix inequality (LMI), some sufficient conditions are presented in this Letter for the existence, uniqueness and global exponential stability of the equilibrium point of discrete-time bidirectional associative memory (BAM) neural networks with variable delays. Some of the stability criteria obtained in this Letter are delay-dependent, and some of them are delay-independent, they are less conservative than the ones reported so far in the literature. Furthermore, the results provide one more set of easily verified criteria for determining the exponential stability of discrete-time BAM neural networks.

Comparison of the bidirectional reflectance distribution function of various surfaces

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fernandez, R.; Seasholtz, R.G.; Oberle, L.G.; Kadambi, J.R.

1989-01-01

This paper describes the development and use of a system to measure the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) of various surfaces. The BRDF measurements are to be used in the analysis and design of optical measurement systems such as laser anemometers. An Ar-ion laser (514 nm) was the light source. Preliminary results are presented for eight samples: two glossy black paints, two flat black paints, black glass, sand-blasted Al, unworked Al, and a white paint. A BaSO4 white reflectance standard was used as the reference sample throughout the tests. 8 refs

An assessment of sex work in Swaziland: barriers to and opportunities for HIV prevention among sex workers.

Science.gov (United States)

Chipamaunga, Shalote; Muula, Adamson S; Mataya, Ronald

2010-10-01

The HIV situation in virtually all southern African countries is a generalised epidemic. Despite the fact that almost all adult age and social groups have high HIV prevalence estimates, sex workers are disproportionally affected, with prevalence estimates higher than the general population. In a qualitative study of 61 male and female sex workers in Swaziland, we found that while poverty drove many into sex work, others reported motivations of pleasure or "sensation seeking", and freedoms from the burden of marriage as perceived benefits of sex work. We also found that penile-vaginal sex was not universal in male-female sexual encounters; and motivation by sex workers for non-condom use included intention to earn more money from unprotected sex, desire for sexual pleasure, and not having time to use condoms. Many sex workers expressed doubts over an alternative lifestyle, even if that change afforded them money to meet their daily necessities. The findings from this study suggest that treating sex workers as a homogenous group that is driven into, or maintain sex work only because of poverty may be problematic, and could hamper HIV-relevant interventions aimed at reducing their vulnerability to sexually transmitted infections.

Adaptive Allocation of Attention: Effects of Sex and Sociosexuality on Visual Attention to Attractive Opposite-Sex Faces.

Science.gov (United States)

Duncan, Lesley A; Park, Justin H; Faulkner, Jason; Schaller, Mark; Neuberg, Steven L; Kenrick, Douglas T

2007-09-01

We tested the hypothesis that, compared with sociosexually restricted individuals, those with an unrestricted approach to mating would selectively allocate visual attention to attractive opposite-sex others. We also tested for sex differences in this effect. Seventy-four participants completed the Sociosexual Orientation Inventory, and performed a computer-based task that assessed the speed with which they detected changes in attractive and unattractive male and female faces. Differences in reaction times served as indicators of selective attention. Results revealed a Sex X Sociosexuality interaction: Compared with sociosexually restricted men, unrestricted men selectively allocated attention to attractive opposite-sex others; no such effect emerged among women. This finding was specific to opposite-sex targets and did not occur in attention to same-sex others. These results contribute to a growing literature on the adaptive allocation of attention in social environments.

The internal flow pattern analysis of a tidal power turbine operating on bidirectional generation-pumping

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Luo, Y Y; Xiao, Y X; Wang, Z W

2013-01-01

Using tidal energy can reduce environment pollution, save conventional energy and improve energy structure, hence it presents great advantage and is developing potential. Influenced by flood tide and low tide, a fully functional tidal power station needs to experience six operating modes, including bidirectional generation, pumping and sluice; the internal unsteady flow pattern and dynamic characters are very complicated. Based on a bidirectional tidal generator unit, three-dimensional unsteady flows in the flow path were calculated for four typical operating conditions with the pressure pulsation characteristics analyzed. According to the numerical results, the internal flow characteristics in the flow path were discussed. The influence of gravity to the hydraulic performance and flow characteristics were analysed. The results provide a theoretical analysis method of the hydraulic optimization design of the same type unit as well as a direction for stable operation and optimal scheduling of existing tidal power unit

Numerical Simulation Bidirectional Chaotic Synchronization of Spiegel-Moore Circuit and Its Application for Secure Communication

Science.gov (United States)

Sanjaya, W. S. M.; Anggraeni, D.; Denya, R.; Ismail, N.

2017-03-01

Spiegel-Moore is a dynamical chaotic system which shows irregular variability in the luminosity of stars. In this paper present the performed the design and numerical simulation of the synchronization Spiegel-Moore circuit and applied to security system for communication. The initial study in this paper is to analyze the eigenvalue structures, various attractors, Bifurcation diagram, and Lyapunov exponent analysis. We have studied the dynamic behavior of the system in the case of the bidirectional coupling via a linear resistor. Both experimental and simulation results have shown that chaotic synchronization is possible. Finally, the effectiveness of the bidirectional coupling scheme between two identical Spiegel-Moore circuits in a secure communication system is presented in details. Integration of theoretical electronic circuit, the numerical simulation by using MATLAB®, as well as the implementation of circuit simulations by using Multisim® has been performed in this study.

Change over Time in Police Interactions and HIV Risk Behavior Among Female Sex Workers in Andhra Pradesh, India

Science.gov (United States)

Reed, Elizabeth; Blankenship, Kim M.

2015-01-01

Little is known about the effectiveness of intervening to change interactions between female sex workers (FSWs) and police in order to reduce HIV risk. Using data collected in the context of a HIV prevention intervention that included components to change policing practices (n = 1,680), we examine the association of FSWs’ reports of negative police interactions and HIV risk behaviors and whether these associations varied over time. Results show negative police interactions declined significantly over time. FSWs who had more than one negative police interaction were more likely to experience STI symptoms (AOR 2.97 [95 % CI 2.27–3.89]), inconsistently use condoms with their clients (AOR 1.36 [95 % CI 1.03–1.79]), and accept more money for condomless sex (AOR 2.37 [95 % CI 1.76–3.21]). Over time, these associations were stable or increased. Even where interventions have reduced the number of police incidents experienced by FSWs, stakeholders in HIV prevention must remain vigilant in challenging these incidents. PMID:25354735

Despite higher glucocorticoid levels and stress responses in female rats, both sexes exhibit similar stress-induced changes in hippocampal neurogenesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Hulshof, Henriëtte J; Novati, Arianna; Luiten, Paul G M; den Boer, Johan A; Meerlo, Peter

2012-10-01

Sex differences in stress reactivity may be one of the factors underlying the increased sensitivity for the development of psychopathologies in women. Particularly, an increased hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity in females may exacerbate stress-induced changes in neuronal plasticity and neurogenesis, which in turn may contribute to an increased sensitivity to psychopathology. The main aim of the present study was to examine male-female differences in stress-induced changes in different aspects of hippocampal neurogenesis, i.e. cell proliferation, differentiation and survival. Both sexes were exposed to a wide variety of stressors, where after differences in HPA-axis reactivity and neurogenesis were assessed. To study the role of oestradiol in potential sex differences, ovariectomized females received low or high physiological oestradiol level replacement pellets. The results show that females in general have a higher basal and stress-induced HPA-axis activity than males, with minimal differences between the two female groups. Cell proliferation in the dorsal hippocampus was significantly higher in high oestradiol females compared to low oestradiol females and males, while doublecortin (DCX) expression as a marker of cell differentiation was significantly higher in males compared to females, independent of oestradiol level. Stress exposure did not significantly influence cell proliferation or survival of new cells, but did reduce DCX expression. In conclusion, despite the male-female differences in HPA-axis activity, the effect of repeated stress exposure on hippocampal cell differentiation was not significantly different between sexes. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Despite higher glucocorticoid levels and stress responses in female rats, both sexes exhibit similar stress-induced changes in hippocampal neurogenesis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hulshof, Henriette J.; Novati, Arianna; Luiten, Paul G. M.; den Boer, Johan A.; Meerlo, Peter

2012-01-01

Sex differences in stress reactivity may be one of the factors underlying the increased sensitivity for the development of psychopathologies in women. Particularly, an increased hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity in females may exacerbate stress-induced changes in neuronal

Bidirectional regulation of bakuchiol, an estrogenic-like compound, on catecholamine secretion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mao, Haoping; Wang, Hong; Ma, Shangwei; Xu, Yantong; Zhang, Han; Wang, Yuefei; Niu, Zichang; Fan, Guanwei; Zhu, Yan; Gao, Xiu Mei

2014-01-01

Excess or deficiency of catecholamine (CA) secretion was related with several diseases. Recently, estrogen and phytoestrogens were reported to regulate the activity of CA system. Bakuchiol is a phytoestrogen isolated from the seeds of Psoralea corylifolia L. (Leguminosae) which has been used in Traditional Chinese medicine as a tonic or aphrodisiac. In the present study, bovine adrenal medullary cells were employed to investigate the effects and mechanisms of bakuchiol on the regulation of CA secretion. Further, its anti-depressant like and anti-stress effects were evaluated by using behavioral despair and chronic immobilization stress models. Our results indicated that bakuchiol showed bidirectional regulation on CA secretion. It stimulated basal CA secretion in a concentration dependent manner (p + (p + induced CA secretion was related with reduction of intracellular calcium rise. In vivo experiments, we found that bakuchiol significantly reduced immobilization time in behavioral despair mouse (p < 0.05 or 0.01), and plasma epinephrine (E) and norepinephrine (NE) levels in chronic immobilization stress (p < 0.05). Overall, these results present a bidirectional regulation of bakuchiol on CA secretion which indicated that bakuchiol may exert anti-stress and the potential anti-depressant-like effects. - Highlights: • Bakuchiol stimulated basal catecholamine secretion. • Bakuchiol inhibited various secretagogues induced catecholamine secretion. • Bakuchiol may have anti-stress and the potential anti-depression-like effects

Bidirectional links between HIV and intimate partner violence in pregnancy: implications for prevention of mother-to-child transmission

Science.gov (United States)

Hatcher, Abigail M; Woollett, Nataly; Pallitto, Christina C; Mokoatle, Keneuoe; Stöckl, Heidi; MacPhail, Catherine; Delany-Moretlwe, Sinead; García-Moreno, Claudia

2014-01-01

Introduction Prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) has the potential to eliminate new HIV infections among infants. Yet in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, PMTCT coverage remains low, leading to unacceptably high rates of morbidity among mothers and new infections among infants. Intimate partner violence (IPV) may be a structural driver of poor PMTCT uptake, but has received little attention in the literature to date. Methods We conducted qualitative research in three Johannesburg antenatal clinics to understand the links between IPV and HIV-related health of pregnant women. We held focus group discussions with pregnant women (n=13) alongside qualitative interviews with health care providers (n=10), district health managers (n=10) and pregnant abused women (n=5). Data were analysed in Nvivo10 using a team-based approach to thematic coding. Findings We found qualitative evidence of strong bidirectional links between IPV and HIV among pregnant women. HIV diagnosis during pregnancy, and subsequent partner disclosure, were noted as a common trigger of IPV. Disclosure leads to violence because it causes relationship conflict, usually related to perceived infidelity and the notion that women are “bringing” the disease into the relationship. IPV worsened HIV-related health through poor PMTCT adherence, since taking medication or accessing health services might unintentionally alert male partners of the women's HIV status. IPV also impacted on HIV-related health via mental health, as women described feeling depressed and anxious due to the violence. IPV led to secondary HIV risk as women experienced forced sex, often with little power to negotiate condom use. Pregnant women described staying silent about condom negotiation in order to stay physically safe during pregnancy. Conclusions IPV is a crucial issue in the lives of pregnant women and has bidirectional links with HIV-related health. IPV may worsen access to PMTCT and secondary prevention behaviours

Single-stage three-phase AC to DC conversion with isolation and Bi-directional power flow

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vermulst, B.J.D.; Duarte, J.L.; Wijnands, C.G.E.; Lomonova, E.A.

2014-01-01

An approach for three-phase AC to DC conversion is proposed, which consists of a single-stage while offering galvanic isolation, soft-switching, bi-directional power flow and a significant reduction of inductive and capacitive energy storage. Two elements enable this approach, namely a neutral

The existence of generalized synchronisation of three bidirectionally coupled chaotic systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ai-Hua, Hu; Zhen-Yuan, Xu; Liu-Xiao, Guo

2010-01-01

The existence of two types of generalized synchronisation is studied. The model considered here includes three bidirectionally coupled chaotic systems, and two of them denote the driving systems, while the rest stands for the response system. Under certain conditions, the existence of generalised synchronisation can be turned to a problem of compression fixed point in the family of Lipschitz functions. In addition, theoretical proofs are proposed to the exponential attractive property of generalised synchronisation manifold. Numerical simulations validate the theory. (general)

Technology, normalisation and male sex work.

Science.gov (United States)

MacPhail, Catherine; Scott, John; Minichiello, Victor

2015-01-01

Technological change, particularly the growth of the Internet and smart phones, has increased the visibility of male escorts, expanded their client base and diversified the range of venues in which male sex work can take place. Specifically, the Internet has relocated some forms of male sex work away from the street and thereby increased market reach, visibility and access and the scope of sex work advertising. Using the online profiles of 257 male sex workers drawn from six of the largest websites advertising male sexual services in Australia, the role of the Internet in facilitating the normalisation of male sex work is discussed. Specifically we examine how engagement with the sex industry has been reconstituted in term of better informed consumer-seller decisions for both clients and sex workers. Rather than being seen as a 'deviant' activity, understood in terms of pathology or criminal activity, male sex work is increasingly presented as an everyday commodity in the market place. In this context, the management of risks associated with sex work has shifted from formalised social control to more informal practices conducted among online communities of clients and sex workers. We discuss the implications for health, legal and welfare responses within an empowerment paradigm.

Longitudinal Relations among Parenting, Best Friends, and Early Adolescent Problem Behavior: Testing Bidirectional Effects

Science.gov (United States)

Reitz, Ellen; Dekovic, Maja; Meijer, Anne Marie; Engels, Rutger C. M. E.

2006-01-01

In this longitudinal study, the bidirectional relations between parenting and friends' deviance, on one hand, and early adolescent externalizing and internalizing problem behavior, on the other hand, are examined. Of the 650 adolescents (13- to 14-year-olds) who filled out the Youth Self-Report and questionnaires about their parents at two times…

Bidirectional Interference between Speech and Nonspeech Tasks in Younger, Middle-Aged, and Older Adults

Science.gov (United States)

Bailey, Dallin J.; Dromey, Christopher

2015-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine divided attention over a large age range by looking at the effects of 3 nonspeech tasks on concurrent speech motor performance. The nonspeech tasks were designed to facilitate measurement of bidirectional interference, allowing examination of their sensitivity to speech activity. A cross-sectional…

Passive limb movement: evidence of mechanoreflex sex specificity.

Science.gov (United States)

Ives, Stephen J; McDaniel, John; Witman, Melissa A H; Richardson, Russell S

2013-01-01

Previous studies have determined that premenopausal women exhibit an attenuated metaboreflex; however, little is known about sex specificity of the mechanoreflex. Thus, we sought to determine if sex differences exist in the central and peripheral hemodynamic responses to passive limb movement. Second-by-second measurements of heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output (CO), mean arterial pressure, and femoral artery blood flow (FBF) were recorded during 3 min of supine passive knee extension in 24 young healthy subjects (12 women and 12 men). Normalization of CO and stroke volume to body surface area, expressed as cardiac index and stroke index, eliminated differences in baseline central hemodynamics, whereas, peripherally, basal FBF and femoral vascular conductance were similar between the sexes. In response to passive limb movement, women displayed significantly attenuated peak central hemodynamic responses compared with men (heart rate: 9.0 ± 1 vs. 14.8 ± 2% change, stroke index: 4.5 ± 0.6 vs. 7.8 ± 1.2% change, cardiac index: 9.6 ± 1 vs. 17.2 ± 2% change, all P movement induced similar increases in peak FBF (167 ± 32 vs. 193 ± 17% change) and femoral vascular conductance (172 ± 31 vs. 203 ± 16% change) in both sexes (women vs. men, respectively). Additionally, there was a significant positive relationship between individual peak FBF and peak CO response to passive movement in men but not in women. Thus, although both sexes exhibited similar movement-induced hyperemia and peripheral vasodilatory function, the central hemodynamic response was blunted in women, implying an attenuated mechanoreflex. Therefore, this study reveals that, as already recognized with the metaboreflex, there is likely a sex-specific attenuation of the mechanoreflex in women.

Bidirectional asymmetry in the neurovisceral communication for the cardiovascular control: New insights

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Prieto I

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The cardiovascular control involves a bidirectional functional connection between the brain and heart. We hypothesize that this connection could be extended to other organs using endocrine and autonomic nervous systems (ANS as communication pathways. This implies a neuroendocrine interaction controlling particularly the cardiovascular function where the enzymatic cascade of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS plays an essential role. It acts not only through its classic endocrine connection but also the ANS. In addition, the brain is functionally, anatomically, and neurochemically asymmetric. Moreover, this asymmetry goes even beyond the brain and it includes both sides of the peripheral nervous and neuroendocrine systems. We revised the available information and analyze the asymmetrical neuroendocrine bidirectional interaction for the cardiovascular control. Negative and positive correlations involving the RAS have been observed between brain, heart, kidney, gut, and plasma in physiologic and pathologic conditions. The central role of the peptides and enzymes of the RAS within this neurovisceral communication, as well as the importance of the asymmetrical distribution of the various RAS components in the pathologies involving this connection, are particularly discussed. In conclusion, there are numerous evidences supporting the existence of a neurovisceral connection with multiorgan involvement that controls, among others, the cardiovascular function. This connection is asymmetrically organized.

SEX DIFFERENCES, GENDER AND ADDICTION

OpenAIRE

Becker, Jill B.; McClellan, Michele L.; Reed, Beth Glover

2017-01-01

This review discusses alcohol/other drug addiction as both a sociocultural and biological phenomenon. Sex differences and gender are not solely determined by biology, nor are they entirely sociocultural. The interactions among biological, environmental, sociocultural and developmental influences result in phenotypes that may be more masculine or more feminine. These gender-related sex differences in the brain can influence the responses to drugs of abuse, progressive changes in the brain afte...

Expanding Sex-Role Definitions by Self-Discovery.

Science.gov (United States)

Kahn, Sharon E.; Greenberg, Leslie S.

1980-01-01

Counselors who stimulate client self-discovery may help these clients experience undeveloped parts of themselves and expand their definitions of themselves and their sex-role possibilities. Stimulation methods actively involve clients in the exploration of sex-role concerns to change restrictive self-concepts. (Author)

A High-Efficiency Isolated LCLC Multi-Resonant Three-Port Bidirectional DC-DC Converter

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cheng-Shan Wang

2017-07-01

Full Text Available In this paper, an isolated multi-resonant three-port bidirectional direct current-direct current (DC-DC converter is proposed, which is composed of three full bridges, two inductor-capacitor-inductor-capacitor (LCLC multi-resonant tanks and a three-winding transformer. The phase shift control method is employed to manage the power transmission among three ports. Relying on the appropriate parameter selection, both of the fundamental and the third order power can be delivered through the multi-element LCLC resonant tanks, and consequently, it contributes to restrained circulating energy and the desirable promoted efficiency. Besides, by adjusting the driving frequency under different load conditions, zero-voltage-switching (ZVS characteristics of all the switches of three ports are guaranteed. Therefore, lower switching loss and higher efficiency are achieved in full load range. In order to verify the feasibility of the proposed topology, a 1.5 kW prototype is established, of which the maximum efficiencies under forward and reverse operating conditions are 96.7% and 96.9% respectively. In addition, both of the bidirectional efficiencies maintain higher than 95.5% when the power level is above 0.5 kW.

Single coil bistable, bidirectional micromechanical actuator

Science.gov (United States)

Tabat, Ned; Guckel, Henry

1998-09-15

Micromechanical actuators capable of bidirectional and bistable operation can be formed on substrates using lithographic processing techniques. Bistable operation of the microactuator is obtained using a single coil and a magnetic core with a gap. A plunger having two magnetic heads is supported for back and forth linear movement with respect to the gap in the magnetic core, and is spring biased to a neutral position in which the two heads are on each side of the gap in the core. The single electrical coil is coupled to the core and is provided with electrical current to attract one of the heads toward the core by reluctance action to drive the plunger to a limit of travel in one direction. The current is then cut off and the plunger returns by spring action toward the gap, whereafter the current is reapplied to the coil to attract the other head of the plunger by reluctance action to drive the plunger to its other limit of travel. This process can be repeated at a time when switching of the actuator is required.

AV nodal reentrant tachycardia with a 2:1 right bundle branch block missed as bidirectional ventricular tachycardia in the first superficial evaluation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Akbarzadeh Mohammad Ali

2017-06-01

Full Text Available A 95-year old woman was admitted to our emergency unit because of acute abdominal pain. After urgent surgery according to the acute abdomen, she was referred to intensive care unit (ICU of the emergency unit as she was intubated. It was developed a run of new arrhythmia which was diagnosed by cardiology resident as bidirectional ventricular tachycardia due to beat to beat changing the axis of the QRS. However, a second and more precise evaluation of the abnormal ECG suggested a narrow supraventricular tachycardia, most probably AV nodal reentrant tachycardia with a 2:1 right bundle branch block.

Differentiated Typology of Sex Work and Implication for HIV Prevention Programs among Female Sex Workers in Nepal.

Science.gov (United States)

Mishra, Shiva Raj; Neupane, Sanjeev Raj

2015-01-01

Sex work in exchange for kind and cash has long been practiced in Nepal. The HIV prevention program in Nepal is focused mainly on these two typologies of sex work. There might be more typologies of sex work beyond streets and establishments seeking research and programmatic attention. The objective of the study is to explore the differentiated typologies of sex work. This is a cross-sectional study conducted using a qualitative technique. Researchers carried out eight Focus Group Discussions with female sex workers (FSWs) (n = 50) in different places of Tanahu district. Data were analyzed using a deductive thematic analysis approach. We identified a more differentiated typology of sex work. Private contact-based sex work and the covert sex work on the cruising areas along the major highways were common. Sex work has become easier to operate with the advent of new technologies such as cell phone. With limited role of facilitation by brokers and pimps, now FSWs are better off and have longer duration of relationship with clients. Soft prostitution was common, as FSWs complemented their income through sex work. The conventional mode of peer and outreach educational approach needs to be further strengthened and modified according to the changing typology of sex work. HIV testing sites need to be further expanded to cruising areas along the highways.

Differentiated Typology of Sex Work and Implication for HIV Prevention Programs among Female Sex Workers in Nepal

Science.gov (United States)

Mishra, Shiva Raj; Neupane, Sanjeev Raj

2015-01-01

Background: Sex work in exchange for kind and cash has long been practiced in Nepal. The HIV prevention program in Nepal is focused mainly on these two typologies of sex work. There might be more typologies of sex work beyond streets and establishments seeking research and programmatic attention. The objective of the study is to explore the differentiated typologies of sex work. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted using a qualitative technique. Researchers carried out eight Focus Group Discussions with female sex workers (FSWs) (n = 50) in different places of Tanahu district. Data were analyzed using a deductive thematic analysis approach. Results: We identified a more differentiated typology of sex work. Private contact-based sex work and the covert sex work on the cruising areas along the major highways were common. Sex work has become easier to operate with the advent of new technologies such as cell phone. With limited role of facilitation by brokers and pimps, now FSWs are better off and have longer duration of relationship with clients. Soft prostitution was common, as FSWs complemented their income through sex work. Conclusion: The conventional mode of peer and outreach educational approach needs to be further strengthened and modified according to the changing typology of sex work. HIV testing sites need to be further expanded to cruising areas along the highways. PMID:25785259

Differentiated typology of sex work and implication for HIV prevention programs among female sex workers in Nepal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shiva Raj Mishra

2015-03-01

Full Text Available BackgroundSex work in exchange for kind and cash has long been practiced in Nepal. The HIV prevention program in Nepal is focused mainly on these two typologies of sex work. There might be more typologies of sex work beyond streets and establishments seeking research and programmatic attention. The objective of the study is to explore the differentiated typologies of sex work.MethodsThis is a cross sectional study conducted using a qualitative technique. Researchers carried out eight Focus Group Discussions with Female Sex Workers (FSWs (n=50 in different places of Tanahu district. Data was analyzed using a deductive thematic analysis approach.ResultsWe identified a more differentiated typology of sex work. Private contact-based sex work and the covert sex work on the cruising areas along the major highways were common. Sex work has become easier to operate with the advent of new technologies such as cellphone. With limited role of facilitation by brokers and pimps, now FSWs are better off and have longer duration of relationship with clients. Soft prostitution was common, as FSWs complemented their income through sex work.ConclusionsThe conventional mode of peer and outreach educational approach needs to be further strengthened and modified according to the changing typology of sex work. HIV testing sites need to be further expanded to cruising areas along the highways.

Full four-dimensional and reciprocal Mueller matrix bidirectional reflectance distribution function of sintered polytetrafluoroethylene.

Science.gov (United States)

Germer, Thomas A

2017-11-20

We measured the Mueller matrix bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) of a sintered polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) sample over the scattering hemisphere for six incident angles (0°-75° in 15° steps) and for four wavelengths (351 nm, 532 nm, 633 nm, and 1064 nm). The data for each wavelength were fit to a phenomenological description for the Mueller matrix BRDF, which is an extension of the bidirectional surface scattering modes developed by Koenderink and van Doorn [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A.15, 2903 (1998)JOAOD60740-323210.1364/JOSAA.15.002903] for unpolarized BRDF. This description is designed to be complete, to obey the appropriate reciprocity conditions, and to provide a full description of the Mueller matrix BRDF as a function of incident and scattering directions for each wavelength. The description was further extended by linearizing the surface scattering mode coefficients with wavelength. This data set and its parameterization provides a comprehensive on-demand description of the reflectance properties for this commonly used diffuse reflectance reference material over a wide range of wavelengths.

Bidirectional Modulation of Recognition Memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Ho, Jonathan W; Poeta, Devon L; Jacobson, Tara K; Zolnik, Timothy A; Neske, Garrett T; Connors, Barry W; Burwell, Rebecca D

2015-09-30

Perirhinal cortex (PER) has a well established role in the familiarity-based recognition of individual items and objects. For example, animals and humans with perirhinal damage are unable to distinguish familiar from novel objects in recognition memory tasks. In the normal brain, perirhinal neurons respond to novelty and familiarity by increasing or decreasing firing rates. Recent work also implicates oscillatory activity in the low-beta and low-gamma frequency bands in sensory detection, perception, and recognition. Using optogenetic methods in a spontaneous object exploration (SOR) task, we altered recognition memory performance in rats. In the SOR task, normal rats preferentially explore novel images over familiar ones. We modulated exploratory behavior in this task by optically stimulating channelrhodopsin-expressing perirhinal neurons at various frequencies while rats looked at novel or familiar 2D images. Stimulation at 30-40 Hz during looking caused rats to treat a familiar image as if it were novel by increasing time looking at the image. Stimulation at 30-40 Hz was not effective in increasing exploration of novel images. Stimulation at 10-15 Hz caused animals to treat a novel image as familiar by decreasing time looking at the image, but did not affect looking times for images that were already familiar. We conclude that optical stimulation of PER at different frequencies can alter visual recognition memory bidirectionally. Significance statement: Recognition of novelty and familiarity are important for learning, memory, and decision making. Perirhinal cortex (PER) has a well established role in the familiarity-based recognition of individual items and objects, but how novelty and familiarity are encoded and transmitted in the brain is not known. Perirhinal neurons respond to novelty and familiarity by changing firing rates, but recent work suggests that brain oscillations may also be important for recognition. In this study, we showed that stimulation of

Sex reassignment surgery in Thailand.

Science.gov (United States)

Chokrungvaranont, Prayuth; Tiewtranon, Preecha

2004-11-01

Many years ago Thai society considered transsexualism (Gender identity disorder or Gender dysphoria) which is commonly known as Kathoey (a word originally used to denote hermaphrodites), Sao Prapet Song or Tut (as in 'Tootsie') were low class citizens, dirty dressing and had to hide in a dark corner selling their services as prostitutes. This made us unwilling to do sex reassignment surgery for this group of people because the idea of eradicating normal sexual organs for the purpose that was not accepted by the society. Consequently the authors have experience in cases where these people wandered seeking doctors who had no competency nor enough experience to do the surgery. The authors could not inhibit the desire of these people who usually suffer from gender identity disorder from strongly wishing to change their genital sex to the sex they want. The outcome of the surgery was not satisfactory for the patients. There were complications and sequelae which caused the authors to correct them later which might be more difficult than doing the original surgery. In addition there were more studies about the etiology and affect of the disorder on these people that changed the social point of view. The women who wanted to be a him and men who would like to be a her should be considered as patients who need to be cured to set the harmony about their genetic sex and the desire to be the opposite sex and also to be regarded by others as a member of that other sex. The treatments of transsexualism usually begin with conventional psychiatric and endocrinological treatment to adjust the mind to the body. For those who failed conservative treatment in adjusting the mind to the body then sex reassignment surgery will be the only way to transform their body to their mind and give the best result in properly selected patients. Preecha Tiewtranon, the pioneer in sex reassignment surgery in Thailand, did his transsexualism case in 1975 together with Dr. Prakob Thongpeaw. Sex

Cascaded H-Bridge with Bidirectional Boost Converters for Energy Storage

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Trintis, Ionut; Munk-Nielsen, Stig; Teodorescu, Remus

2011-01-01

This paper presents the design and control of a cascaded H-bridge converter for energy storage with bidirectional boost converter as charge/discharge unit. The disadvantage of the second harmonic on the main energy storage unit as well as its voltage variation with the state of charge is solved...... by this structure. The independent phase grid control is proposed for this topology. This strategy is able to control the average dc-link voltage for each phase independently and to balance the cells capacitors voltages. The balance of the energy storage units is achieved by controlling independently each cell...

Symmetric reconfigurable capacity assignment in a bidirectional DWDM access network.

Science.gov (United States)

Ortega, Beatriz; Mora, José; Puerto, Gustavo; Capmany, José

2007-12-10

This paper presents a novel architecture for DWDM bidirectional access networks providing symmetric dynamic capacity allocation for both downlink and uplink signals. A foldback arrayed waveguide grating incorporating an optical switch enables the experimental demonstration of flexible assignment of multiservice capacity. Different analog and digital services, such as CATV, 10 GHz-tone, 155Mb/s PRBS and UMTS signals have been transmitted in order to successfully test the system performance under different scenarios of total capacity distribution from the Central Station to different Base Stations with two reconfigurable extra channels for each down and upstream direction.

Quantitative sexing (Q-Sexing) and relative quantitative sexing (RQ ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

samer

Key words: Polymerase chain reaction (PCR), quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), quantitative sexing, Siberian tiger. INTRODUCTION. Animal molecular sexing .... 43:3-12. Ellegren H (1996). First gene on the avian W chromosome (CHD) provides a tag for universal sexing of non-ratite birds. Proc.

High-Throughput Sequencing and Linkage Mapping of a Clownfish Genome Provide Insights on the Distribution of Molecular Players Involved in Sex Change

KAUST Repository

Casas, Laura; Saenz Agudelo, Pablo; Irigoien, Xabier

2018-01-01

Clownfishes are an excellent model system for investigating the genetic mechanism governing hermaphroditism and socially-controlled sex change in their natural environment because they are broadly distributed and strongly site-attached. Genomic

Temporal dynamics of sand dune bidirectional reflectance characteristics for absolute radiometric calibration of optical remote sensing data

Science.gov (United States)

Coburn, Craig A.; Logie, Gordon S. J.

2018-01-01

Attempts to use pseudoinvariant calibration sites (PICS) for establishing absolute radiometric calibration of Earth observation (EO) satellites requires high-quality information about the nature of the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) of the surfaces used for these calibrations. Past studies have shown that the PICS method is useful for evaluating the trend of sensors over time or for the intercalibration of sensors. The PICS method was not considered until recently for deriving absolute radiometric calibration. This paper presents BRDF data collected by a high-performance portable goniometer system to develop a temporal BRDF model for the Algodones Dunes in California. By sampling the BRDF of the sand surface at similar solar zenith angles to those normally encountered by EO satellites, additional information on the changing nature of the surface can improve models used to provide absolute radiometric correction. The results demonstrated that the BRDF of a reasonably simple sand surface was complex with changes in anisotropy taking place in response to changing solar zenith angles. For the majority of observation and illumination angles, the spectral reflectance anisotropy observed varied between 1% and 5% in patterns that repeat around solar noon.

Heritable Variation for Sex Ratio under Environmental Sex Determination in the Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra Serpentina)

Science.gov (United States)

Janzen, F. J.

1992-01-01

The magnitude of quantitative genetic variation for primary sex ratio was measured in families extracted from a natural population of the common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina), which possesses temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD). Eggs were incubated at three temperatures that produced mixed sex ratios. This experimental design provided estimates of the heritability of sex ratio in multiple environments and a test of the hypothesis that genotype X environment (G X E) interactions may be maintaining genetic variation for sex ratio in this population of C. serpentina. Substantial quantitative genetic variation for primary sex ratio was detected in all experimental treatments. These results in conjunction with the occurrence of TSD in this species provide support for three critical assumptions of Fisher's theory for the microevolution of sex ratio. There were statistically significant effects of family and incubation temperature on sex ratio, but no significant interaction was observed. Estimates of the genetic correlations of sex ratio across environments were highly positive and essentially indistinguishable from +1. These latter two findings suggest that G X E interaction is not the mechanism maintaining genetic variation for sex ratio in this system. Finally, although substantial heritable variation exists for primary sex ratio of C. serpentina under constant temperatures, estimates of the effective heritability of primary sex ratio in nature are approximately an order of magnitude smaller. Small effective heritability and a long generation time in C. serpentina imply that evolution of sex ratios would be slow even in response to strong selection by, among other potential agents, any rapid and/or substantial shifts in local temperatures, including those produced by changes in the global climate. PMID:1592234

On exponential stability of bidirectional associative memory neural networks with time-varying delays

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Ju H.; Lee, S.M.; Kwon, O.M.

2009-01-01

For bidirectional associate memory neural networks with time-varying delays, the problems of determining the exponential stability and estimating the exponential convergence rate are investigated by employing the Lyapunov functional method and linear matrix inequality (LMI) technique. A novel criterion for the stability, which give information on the delay-dependent property, is derived. A numerical example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the obtained results.

Sex Ideologies in China: Examining Interprovince Differences.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Yang

2016-01-01

In recent decades, premarital sex, extramarital sex, and homosexuality have become increasingly visible in China, leading scholars to claim that a national "sex revolution" is under way. However, China's internal sociocultural diversity calls this nation-level generalization into question. How do sex ideologies vary across China's distinct provinces? To what extent are interprovince variations in sex ideologies associated with distinct macrolevel social factors in China? In this research, data from the 2010 China General Social Survey and the 2011 Chinese Statistics Yearbook were analyzed using multilevel models to test four contending theories of interprovince differences in sex ideologies in China: modernization, Westernization, deindustrialization, and the "rice theory." The modernization theory was unsupported by the results, as socioeconomic development is not significantly associated with sex ideologies. Higher levels of deindustrialization and Westernization were associated with less traditional sex ideologies, but the strength of association varied across the domains of premarital sex, extramarital sex, and homosexuality. The rice theory was consistently supported, as the distinction between rice and wheat agriculture explained up to 30% of the province-level variance in sex ideologies. The findings underline the roles of both long-standing geographic differences and recent social changes in shaping China's ideational landscape of sex.

Distributed CMOS Bidirectional Amplifiers Broadbanding and Linearization Techniques

CERN Document Server

El-Khatib, Ziad; Mahmoud, Samy A

2012-01-01

This book describes methods to design distributed amplifiers useful for performing circuit functions such as duplexing, paraphrase amplification, phase shifting power splitting and power combiner applications.  A CMOS bidirectional distributed amplifier is presented that combines for the first time device-level with circuit-level linearization, suppressing the third-order intermodulation distortion. It is implemented in 0.13μm RF CMOS technology for use in highly linear, low-cost UWB Radio-over-Fiber communication systems. Describes CMOS distributed amplifiers for optoelectronic applications such as Radio-over-Fiber systems, base station transceivers and picocells; Presents most recent techniques for linearization of CMOS distributed amplifiers; Includes coverage of CMOS I-V transconductors, as well as CMOS on-chip inductor integration and modeling; Includes circuit applications for UWB Radio-over-Fiber networks.

Model of bidirectional reflectance distribution function for metallic materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Kai; Zhu Jing-Ping; Liu Hong; Hou Xun

2016-01-01

Based on the three-component assumption that the reflection is divided into specular reflection, directional diffuse reflection, and ideal diffuse reflection, a bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) model of metallic materials is presented. Compared with the two-component assumption that the reflection is composed of specular reflection and diffuse reflection, the three-component assumption divides the diffuse reflection into directional diffuse and ideal diffuse reflection. This model effectively resolves the problem that constant diffuse reflection leads to considerable error for metallic materials. Simulation and measurement results validate that this three-component BRDF model can improve the modeling accuracy significantly and describe the reflection properties in the hemisphere space precisely for the metallic materials. (paper)

Model of bidirectional reflectance distribution function for metallic materials

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Kai; Zhu, Jing-Ping; Liu, Hong; Hou, Xun

2016-09-01

Based on the three-component assumption that the reflection is divided into specular reflection, directional diffuse reflection, and ideal diffuse reflection, a bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) model of metallic materials is presented. Compared with the two-component assumption that the reflection is composed of specular reflection and diffuse reflection, the three-component assumption divides the diffuse reflection into directional diffuse and ideal diffuse reflection. This model effectively resolves the problem that constant diffuse reflection leads to considerable error for metallic materials. Simulation and measurement results validate that this three-component BRDF model can improve the modeling accuracy significantly and describe the reflection properties in the hemisphere space precisely for the metallic materials.

Bi-directional exchange of membrane components occurs during co-culture of mesenchymal stem cells and nucleus pulposus cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Strassburg, Sandra; Hodson, Nigel W; Hill, Patrick I; Richardson, Stephen M; Hoyland, Judith A

2012-01-01

Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-based therapies have been proposed as novel treatments for intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration. We have previously demonstrated that when MSCs are co-cultured with nucleus pulposus (NP) cells with direct cell-cell contact, they differentiate along the NP lineage and simultaneously stimulate the degenerate NP cell population to regain a normal (non-degenerate) phenotype, an effect which requires cell-cell communication. However, the mechanisms by which NP cells and MSCs interact in this system are currently unclear. Thus, in this study we investigated a range of potential mechanisms for exchange of cellular components or information that may direct these changes, including cell fusion, gap-junctional communication and exchange of membrane components by direct transfer or via microvesicle formation. Flow cytometry of fluorescently labeled MSCs and NP cells revealed evidence of some cell fusion and formation of gapjunctions, although at the three timepoints studied these phenomena were detectable only in a small proportion of cells. While these mechanisms may play a role in cell-cell communication, the data suggests they are not the predominant mechanism of interaction. However, flow cytometry of fluorescently dual-labeled cells showed that extensive bi-directional transfer of membrane components is operational during direct co-culture of MSCs and NP cells. Furthermore, there was also evidence for secretion and internalization of membrane-bound microvesicles by both cell types. Thus, this study highlights bi-directional intercellular transfer of membrane components as a possible mechanism of cellular communication between MSC and NP cells.

High burden of STI and HIV in male sex workers working as internet escorts for men in an observational study: a hidden key population compared with female sex workers and other men who have sex with men

OpenAIRE

Verhaegh-Haasnoot, Amanja; Dukers-Muijrers, Nicole H. T. M.; Hoebe, Christian J. P. A.

2015-01-01

Background Male sex work in the western countries has changed, including now a subculture of male sex workers who have paid sex with men arranged for via the internet. The men involved in this subculture do not easily identify themselves as sex workers nor as homosexual, and are therefore missed by regular health care and public health interventions. These male sex workers may form a hidden key population for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV, bridging towards other persons outsi...

Reported changes in sexual behaviour and human papillomavirus knowledge in Peruvian female sex workers following participation in a human papillomavirus vaccine trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, B; Blas, M M; Heidari, O; Carcamo, C; Halsey, N A

2013-07-01

Limited data exist on the effect of clinical trial participation on sexual behavioural change. Two hundred female sex workers working in Lima, Peru received human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in either the standard (0, 2, 6 months) or modified (0, 3, 6 months) schedule. Participants received comprehensive screening and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), counselling on safe sex practices, education about HPV and the HPV vaccine, contraceptives (oral and condoms) and family planning at each visit. We assessed vaccine completion rates, change in sexual practices, and changes in HPV knowledge before and after participation in the vaccine trial. There were high rates of vaccine completion, 91% overall. The estimated number of reported new and total clients over a 30-day period decreased significantly (P Knowledge about HPV and HPV-related disease increased among all participants. In addition, all participants listed at least one preventive strategy during the month 7 follow-up survey.

Assessment of bidirectional influences between family relationships and adolescent problem behavior: Discrete versus continuous time analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Delsing, M.J.M.H.; Oud, J.H.L.; Bruyn, E.E.J. De

2005-01-01

In family research, bidirectional influences between the family and the individual are usually analyzed in discrete time. Results from discrete time analysis, however, have been shown to be highly dependent on the length of the observation interval. Continuous time analysis using stochastic

Sex, plasma lipoproteins, and atherosclerosis: prevailing assumptions and outstanding questions.

Science.gov (United States)

Godsland, I F; Wynn, V; Crook, D; Miller, N E

1987-12-01

We review the hypothesis that the incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) is higher in men than in women due to differences in plasma lipoprotein risk factors between the sexes. Men and women appear to be equally susceptible to the effects of lipoprotein risk factors for CHD, and the difference between the sexes in lipoprotein risk factors for CHD appears to be consistent with their being, at least in part, responsible for the sex difference in CHD. This is apparent both when men and women of equal age are compared, and when age-related variations in the sex differences in plasma lipoproteins and CHD are considered. Differences between the sexes in lipoprotein concentrations are still present when sex differences in adiposity, cigarette smoking, physical activity, and diet are taken into account. Evidence relating these sex differences in CHD and lipoproteins to the effects of sex hormones is critically examined. It is commonly accepted that androgens induce changes in lipoprotein concentrations that would predispose towards CHD, whereas estrogens are held to have opposite effects. However, much of the evidence for this comes from studies of changes associated with administration of synthetic gonadal steroids or with changes in gonadal function. Studies of differences in lipoprotein metabolism in normal men and women are extremely limited. In males high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels fall at puberty, correlating with the rise in plasma testosterone concentrations. In females, HDL levels do not change at puberty, despite the rise in estrogen concentrations. Evidence for lipoprotein changes during the menopause, when estrogen levels decline, is equivocal. Similarly, the evidence for an increase in CHD incidence at the menopause is inconclusive. National mortality data indicate that the decreasing sex difference in CHD after 50 years of age is due to a declining rate of increase in men rather than to an acceleration in CHD incidence in women. In men

A novel method for sampling the suspended sediment load in the tidal environment using bi-directional time-integrated mass-flux sediment (TIMS) samplers

Science.gov (United States)

Elliott, Emily A.; Monbureau, Elaine; Walters, Glenn W.; Elliott, Mark A.; McKee, Brent A.; Rodriguez, Antonio B.

2017-12-01

Identifying the source and abundance of sediment transported within tidal creeks is essential for studying the connectivity between coastal watersheds and estuaries. The fine-grained suspended sediment load (SSL) makes up a substantial portion of the total sediment load carried within an estuarine system and efficient sampling of the SSL is critical to our understanding of nutrient and contaminant transport, anthropogenic influence, and the effects of climate. Unfortunately, traditional methods of sampling the SSL, including instantaneous measurements and automatic samplers, can be labor intensive, expensive and often yield insufficient mass for comprehensive geochemical analysis. In estuaries this issue is even more pronounced due to bi-directional tidal flow. This study tests the efficacy of a time-integrated mass sediment sampler (TIMS) design, originally developed for uni-directional flow within the fluvial environment, modified in this work for implementation the tidal environment under bi-directional flow conditions. Our new TIMS design utilizes an 'L' shaped outflow tube to prevent backflow, and when deployed in mirrored pairs, each sampler collects sediment uniquely in one direction of tidal flow. Laboratory flume experiments using dye and particle image velocimetry (PIV) were used to characterize the flow within the sampler, specifically, to quantify the settling velocities and identify stagnation points. Further laboratory tests of sediment indicate that bidirectional TIMS capture up to 96% of incoming SSL across a range of flow velocities (0.3-0.6 m s-1). The modified TIMS design was tested in the field at two distinct sampling locations within the tidal zone. Single-time point suspended sediment samples were collected at high and low tide and compared to time-integrated suspended sediment samples collected by the bi-directional TIMS over the same four-day period. Particle-size composition from the bi-directional TIMS were representative of the array of

Full-duplex bidirectional transmission of 10-Gb/s millimeter-wave QPSK signal in E-band optical wireless link.

Science.gov (United States)

Fang, Yuan; Yu, Jianjun; Chi, Nan; Xiao, Jiangnan

2014-01-27

We experimentally demonstrated full-duplex bidirectional transmission of 10-Gb/s millimeter-wave (mm-wave) quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) signal in E-band (71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz) optical wireless link. Single-mode fibers (SMF) are connected at both sides of the antenna for uplink and downlink which realize 40-km SMF and 2-m wireless link for bidirectional transmission simultaneously. We utilized multi-level modulation format and coherent detection in such E-band optical wireless link for the first time. Mm-wave QPSK signal is generated by photonic technique to increase spectrum efficiency and received signal is coherently detected to improve receiver sensitivity. After the coherent detection, digital signal processing is utilized to compensate impairments of devices and transmission link.

Connecting Neurons to a Mobile Robot: An In Vitro Bidirectional Neural Interface

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Novellino

2007-01-01

Full Text Available One of the key properties of intelligent behaviors is the capability to learn and adapt to changing environmental conditions. These features are the result of the continuous and intense interaction of the brain with the external world, mediated by the body. For this reason x201C;embodiment” represents an innovative and very suitable experimental paradigm when studying the neural processes underlying learning new behaviors and adapting to unpredicted situations. To this purpose, we developed a novel bidirectional neural interface. We interconnected in vitro neurons, extracted from rat embryos and plated on a microelectrode array (MEA, to external devices, thus allowing real-time closed-loop interaction. The novelty of this experimental approach entails the necessity to explore different computational schemes and experimental hypotheses. In this paper, we present an open, scalable architecture, which allows fast prototyping of different modules and where coding and decoding schemes and different experimental configurations can be tested. This hybrid system can be used for studying the computational properties and information coding in biological neuronal networks with far-reaching implications for the future development of advanced neuroprostheses.

Bidirectional Influences between Maternal Parenting and Children's Peer Problems: A Longitudinal Monozygotic Twin Difference Study

Science.gov (United States)

Yamagata, Shinji; Takahashi, Yusuke; Ozaki, Koken; Fujisawa, Keiko K.; Nonaka, Koichi; Ando, Juko

2013-01-01

This twin study examined the bidirectional relationship between maternal parenting behaviors and children's peer problems that were not confounded by genetic and family environmental factors. Mothers of 259 monozygotic twin pairs reported parenting behaviors and peer problems when twins were 42 and 48 months. Path analyses on monozygotic twin…

Sex difference and Allee effects shape the dynamics of sex-structured invasions.

Science.gov (United States)

Shaw, Allison K; Kokko, Hanna; Neubert, Michael G

2018-01-01

The rate at which a population grows and spreads can depend on individual behaviour and interactions with others. In many species with two sexes, males and females differ in key life-history traits (e.g. growth, survival and dispersal), which can scale up to affect population rates of growth and spread. In sexually reproducing species, the mechanics of locating mates and reproducing successfully introduce further complications for predicting the invasion speed (spread rate), as both can change nonlinearly with density. Most models of population spread are based on one sex, or include limited aspects of sex differences. Here we ask whether and how the dynamics of finding mates interact with sex-specific life-history traits to influence the rate of population spread. We present a hybrid approach for modelling invasions of populations with two sexes that links individual-level mating behaviour (in an individual-based model) to population-level dynamics (in an integrodifference equation model). We find that limiting the amount of time during which individuals can search for mates causes a demographic Allee effect which can slow, delay, or even prevent an invasion. Furthermore, any sex-based asymmetries in life history or behaviour (skewed sex ratio, sex-biased dispersal, and sex-specific mating behaviours) amplify these effects. In contrast, allowing individuals to mate more than once ameliorates these effects, enabling polygynandrous populations to invade under conditions where monogamously mating populations would fail to establish. We show that details of individuals' mating behaviour can impact the rate of population spread. Based on our results, we propose a stricter definition of a mate-finding Allee effect, which is not met by the commonly used minimum mating function. Our modelling approach, which links individual- and population-level dynamics in a single model, may be useful for exploring other aspects of individual behaviour that are thought to impact the

Differences in Psychological Sex, Adjustment, and Familial Influences Among Homosexual and Nonhomosexual Populations

Science.gov (United States)

Townes, Brenda D.; And Others

1976-01-01

This study investigates differences in psychological sex, present and past adjustment, and parental influences among homosexual cross-dressers, homosexual non-cross-dressers, applicants for sex change surgery, and heterosexuals. Homosexual non-cross-dressers and heterosexual groups had the most masculine gender role, with the sex change group…

Evaluation of sex-related changes in skin topography and structure using innovative skin testing equipment.

Science.gov (United States)

Dąbrowska, M; Mielcarek, A; Nowak, I

2018-04-29

Evaluation of skin condition on the basis of parametrization and objective measurements of the parameters has become obligatory. The aim of this study was to assess sex-related changes in skin topography and structure using the skin testing equipment. The study was carried out on the group of 40 volunteers (20 females and 20 males) of the mean age 24 ± 3 years. The skin parameters were measured using 3 devices: Visioscan ®  VC 98 (skin topography), Visioline ® VL 650 (skin macro relief) and Ultrascan UC22 (ultrasound imaging of the skin). All measurements were performed on the inner part of the left forearm. The skin parameters measured revealed significant differences in skin surface and structure between females and males. The skin of all women subjects was more homogenous in its structure with the presence of more abundant superficial skin lines and wrinkles in comparison to male skin. The higher number of skin furrows in the skin of women is in agreement with literature reports claiming that men's skin has lower number of wrinkles which are deeper and more pronounced. Ultrasound imaging of the skin indicated greater thickness and lower density of the dermis of men subjects compared to those of females. Non-invasive methods of skin testing using new and advanced equipment have provided a possibility of objective parametrization and evaluation of sex-related changes in skin topography and structure. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Marine omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids induce sex-specific changes in reinforcer-controlled behaviour and neurotransmitter metabolism in a spontaneously hypertensive rat model of ADHD

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dervola Kine S

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Previous reports suggest that omega-3 (n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA supplements may reduce ADHD-like behaviour. Our aim was to investigate potential effects of n-3 PUFA supplementation in an animal model of ADHD. Methods We used spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR. SHR dams were given n-3 PUFA (EPA and DHA-enriched feed (n-6/n-3 of 1:2.7 during pregnancy, with their offspring continuing on this diet until sacrificed. The SHR controls and Wistar Kyoto (WKY control rats were given control-feed (n-6/n-3 of 7:1. During postnatal days (PND 25–50, offspring were tested for reinforcement-dependent attention, impulsivity and hyperactivity as well as spontaneous locomotion. The animals were then sacrificed at PND 55–60 and their neostriata were analysed for monoamine and amino acid neurotransmitters with high performance liquid chromatography. Results n-3 PUFA supplementation significantly enhanced reinforcement-controlled attention and reduced lever-directed hyperactivity and impulsiveness in SHR males whereas the opposite or no effects were observed in females. Analysis of neostriata from the same animals showed significantly enhanced dopamine and serotonin turnover ratios in the male SHRs, whereas female SHRs showed no change, except for an intermediate increase in serotonin catabolism. In contrast, both male and female SHRs showed n-3 PUFA-induced reduction in non-reinforced spontaneous locomotion, and sex-independent changes in glycine levels and glutamate turnover. Conclusions Feeding n-3 PUFAs to the ADHD model rats induced sex-specific changes in reinforcement-motivated behaviour and a sex-independent change in non-reinforcement-associated behaviour, which correlated with changes in presynaptic striatal monoamine and amino acid signalling, respectively. Thus, dietary n-3 PUFAs may partly ameliorate ADHD-like behaviour by reinforcement-induced mechanisms in males and partly via reinforcement-insensitive mechanisms

Sex hormone binding globulin phenotypes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cornelisse, M M; Bennett, Patrick; Christiansen, M

1994-01-01

Human sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) is encoded by a normal and a variant allele. The resulting SHBG phenotypes (the homozygous normal SHBG, the heterozygous SHBG and the homozygous variant SHBG phenotype) can be distinguished by their electrophoretic patterns. We developed a novel detection....... This method of detection was used to determine the distribution of SHBG phenotypes in healthy controls of both sexes and in five different pathological conditions characterized by changes in the SHBG level or endocrine disturbances (malignant and benign ovarian neoplasms, hirsutism, liver cirrhosis...... on the experimental values. Differences in SHBG phenotypes do not appear to have any clinical significance and no sex difference was found in the SHBG phenotype distribution....

Bidirectional Linkages between Psychological Symptoms and Sexual Activities among African American Adolescent Girls in Psychiatric Care

Science.gov (United States)

Starr, Lisa R.; Donenberg, Geri R.; Emerson, Erin

2012-01-01

The current study examines longitudinal associations between light and heavy sexual experiences and psychiatric symptoms in African American adolescent girls receiving mental health care. Research supports bidirectional associations between adolescent romantic and sexual behaviors and depression and other mental health problems, but this finding…

Bidirectional Influences between Maternal and Paternal Parenting and Children's Disruptive Behaviour from Kindergarten to Grade 2

Science.gov (United States)

Besnard, Therese; Verlaan, Pierrette; Davidson, Marilyne; Vitaro, Frank; Poulin, Francois; Capuano, France

2013-01-01

Empirical evidence suggests that children's disruptive behaviour (CDB) and quality of parenting influence one another bidirectionally. However, few studies have considered the separate contribution of the mother--child and father--child relationships to disruptive behaviours within a longitudinal context. Against this background, the reciprocal…

A new approach to magnetic circuit analysis and its application to the optimal design of a bi-directional magnetorheological brake

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nguyen, Phuong-Bac; Choi, Seung-Bok

2011-01-01

This paper proposes a new approach to modeling the magnetic circuit of an MR brake and applies it to explore an engineering optimization problem. The MR brake used in this work is a bi-directional type whose range of braking torque varies from negative to positive values. The model of the bi-directional MR brake can be split into two components: the mechanical part and the magnetic circuit. While the mechanical part is modeled using Bingham's equation, an approach to modeling the magnetic circuit is proposed in this work. For verification of the effectiveness of this method, an optimal design aiming to minimize the mass subjected to the geometric and desired torque constraints is undertaken. In order to solve such an optimization problem, which consists of numerous constraints and potential local optima, a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm in combination with a gradient-based repair method is proposed. The optimal solution of the problem obtained from the proposed method is then investigated and compared with that obtained from finite element analysis (FEA). In addition, an experiment on a manufactured bi-directional MR brake with the optimal parameters is undertaken to validate the accuracy of the proposed analysis methodology

Bidirectional associations between alcohol consumption and health-related quality of life amongst young and middle-aged women

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schrieks, I.C.; Wei, M.Y.; Rimm, E.B.; Okereke, O.I.; Kawachi, I.; Hendriks, H.F.J.; Mukamal, K.J.

2016-01-01

Background: Evidence from cross-sectional studies has suggested a positive association between moderate alcohol consumption and health-related quality of life but prospective data remain scarce. Objectives: To examine the bidirectional relationships between alcohol consumption and health-related

Protein Solvent-Accessibility Prediction by a Stacked Deep Bidirectional Recurrent Neural Network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Buzhong Zhang

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Residue solvent accessibility is closely related to the spatial arrangement and packing of residues. Predicting the solvent accessibility of a protein is an important step to understand its structure and function. In this work, we present a deep learning method to predict residue solvent accessibility, which is based on a stacked deep bidirectional recurrent neural network applied to sequence profiles. To capture more long-range sequence information, a merging operator was proposed when bidirectional information from hidden nodes was merged for outputs. Three types of merging operators were used in our improved model, with a long short-term memory network performing as a hidden computing node. The trained database was constructed from 7361 proteins extracted from the PISCES server using a cut-off of 25% sequence identity. Sequence-derived features including position-specific scoring matrix, physical properties, physicochemical characteristics, conservation score and protein coding were used to represent a residue. Using this method, predictive values of continuous relative solvent-accessible area were obtained, and then, these values were transformed into binary states with predefined thresholds. Our experimental results showed that our deep learning method improved prediction quality relative to current methods, with mean absolute error and Pearson’s correlation coefficient values of 8.8% and 74.8%, respectively, on the CB502 dataset and 8.2% and 78%, respectively, on the Manesh215 dataset.

Protein Solvent-Accessibility Prediction by a Stacked Deep Bidirectional Recurrent Neural Network.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Buzhong; Li, Linqing; Lü, Qiang

2018-05-25

Residue solvent accessibility is closely related to the spatial arrangement and packing of residues. Predicting the solvent accessibility of a protein is an important step to understand its structure and function. In this work, we present a deep learning method to predict residue solvent accessibility, which is based on a stacked deep bidirectional recurrent neural network applied to sequence profiles. To capture more long-range sequence information, a merging operator was proposed when bidirectional information from hidden nodes was merged for outputs. Three types of merging operators were used in our improved model, with a long short-term memory network performing as a hidden computing node. The trained database was constructed from 7361 proteins extracted from the PISCES server using a cut-off of 25% sequence identity. Sequence-derived features including position-specific scoring matrix, physical properties, physicochemical characteristics, conservation score and protein coding were used to represent a residue. Using this method, predictive values of continuous relative solvent-accessible area were obtained, and then, these values were transformed into binary states with predefined thresholds. Our experimental results showed that our deep learning method improved prediction quality relative to current methods, with mean absolute error and Pearson's correlation coefficient values of 8.8% and 74.8%, respectively, on the CB502 dataset and 8.2% and 78%, respectively, on the Manesh215 dataset.

Collaborative and Bidirectional Feedback Between Students and Clinical Preceptors: Promoting Effective Communication Skills on Health Care Teams.

Science.gov (United States)

Myers, Kara; Chou, Calvin L

2016-11-01

Current literature on feedback suggests that clinical preceptors lead feedback conversations that are primarily unidirectional, from preceptor to student. While this approach may promote clinical competency, it does not actively develop students' competency in facilitating feedback discussions and providing feedback across power differentials (ie, from student to preceptor). This latter competency warrants particular attention given its fundamental role in effective health care team communication and its related influence on patient safety. Reframing the feedback process as collaborative and bidirectional, where both preceptors and students provide and receive feedback, maximizes opportunities for role modeling and skills practice in the context of a supportive relationship, thereby enhancing team preparedness. We describe an initiative to introduce these fundamental skills of collaborative, bidirectional feedback in the nurse-midwifery education program at the University of California, San Francisco. © 2016 by the American College of Nurse-Midwives.

Steady-state analysis of the integrated natural gas and electric power system with bi-directional energy conversion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zeng, Qing; Fang, Jiakun; Li, Jinghua

2016-01-01

Nowadays, the electric power system and natural gas network are becoming increasingly coupled and interdependent. A harmonized integration of natural gas and electricity network with bi-directional energy conversion is expected to accommodate high penetration levels of renewables in terms of system...... flexibility. This work focuses on the steady-state analysis of the integrated natural gas and electric power system with bi-directional energy conversion. A unified energy flow formulation is developed to describe the nodal balance and branch flow in both systems and it is solved with the Newton......–Raphson method. Both the unification of units and the per-unit system are proposed to simplify the system description and to enhance the computation efficiency. The applicability of the proposed method is demonstrated by analyzing an IEEE-9 test system integrated with a 7-node natural gas network. Later, time...

A new low threshold bi-directional wind vane and its potential impact on unplanned atmospheric release prediction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parker, M.J.

1996-01-01

At the Savannah River Site, the Environmental Transport Group (ETG) maintains and develops a comprehensive meteorological monitoring program which employs bi-directional wind vanes (bivanes) for the measurement of horizontal and vertical wind direction and turbulence. Wind data collected near and below instrument starting thresholds under stable nighttime conditions with these bivanes can result in artificially large standard deviations of horizontal wind direction (σA). In one hypothetical case, downwind concentrations could be underestimated by a factor of 40 by using artificially high σA data in a Gaussian dispersion model. In an effort to improve low wind speed measurements of wind direction, a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between Met One Instruments and the Westinghouse Savannah River Company (WSRC) has been created to improve the dynamic performance of the Met One Model 1585 Bi-Directional Wind Vane

A social network perspective on heroin and cocaine use among adults: evidence of bidirectional influences.

Science.gov (United States)

Bohnert, Amy S B; Bradshaw, Catherine P; Latkin, Carl A

2009-07-01

While several studies have documented a relationship between initiation of drug use and social network drug use in youth, the direction of this association is not well understood, particularly among adults or for stages of drug involvement beyond initiation. The present study sought to examine two competing theories (social selection and social influence) in the longitudinal relationship between drug use (heroin and/or cocaine) and social network drug use among drug-experienced adults. Three waves of data came from a cohort of 1108 adults reporting a life-time history of heroin and/or cocaine use. Low-income neighborhoods with high rates of drug use in Baltimore, Maryland. Participants had weekly contact with drug users and were 18 years of age or older. Drug use data were self-report. Network drug use was assessed through a social network inventory. Close friends were individuals whom the participant reported seeing daily or rated as having the highest level of trust. Findings Structural equation modeling indicated significant bidirectional influences. The majority of change in network drug use over time was due to change in the composition of the network rather than change in friends' behavior. Drug use by close peers did not influence participant drug use beyond the total network. There is evidence of both social selection and social influence processes in the association between drug use and network drug use among drug-experienced adults.

CHANGES IN SEX RATIO AT BIRTH IN CHINA: A DECOMPOSITION BY BIRTH ORDER.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Quanbao; Yu, Qun; Yang, Shucai; Sánchez-Barricarte, Jesús J

2017-11-01

The long-term high sex ratio at birth (SRB) is a serious issue in China. In this study, changes in SRB were decomposed into variations in SRB by birth order and compositional changes in female births by birth order. With SRB data from China's surveys and censuses, and SRB data from South Korea's vital registration and censuses from 1980-2015, the trend and decomposition results in SRB were compared between China and South Korea, and the decomposition results for urban and rural SRBs, and for provinces, are presented. In both China and South Korea the rise in the SRB was driven by a rise in the SRB at all birth orders, which was only partly counteracted by the change in the distribution of births by order. The overall rise in the SRB ended when there was a decline in the SRB at second birth or above in South Korea. In China the total effect of variations in SRB of all birth orders increased more for the rural population than for the urban population before 2000, resulting in a higher total SRB for rural than urban population. After 2000, the total effect of variations in SRB of all birth orders lowered the total SRB for the rural population, whereas the effect of compositional change increased the total SRB, leading to a very slight rise in the total SRB for the rural population. At the province level, there was no spatial autocorrelation for the changes in total SRB by province, the total effect of variations in SRB of all birth orders or the effect of compositional change. The effect of variations in SRB by birth order accounted for the majority of changes in total SRB in most provinces.

Bidirectional associations between alcohol consumption and health-related quality of life amongst young and middle-aged women

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schrieks, I.C.; Wei, M.Y.; Rimm, E.B.; Okereke, O.I.; Kawachi, I.; Hendriks, J.; Mukamal, K.J.

2016-01-01

BACKGROUND:
Evidence from cross-sectional studies has suggested a positive association between moderate alcohol consumption and health-related quality of life but prospective data remain scarce.
OBJECTIVES:
To examine the bidirectional relationships between alcohol consumption and

Digital Control of a High Voltage (2.5 kV) Bidirectional Flyback DC-DC Converter for Driving a Capacitive Incremental Actuator

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thummala, Prasanth; Maksimovic, Dragan; Zhang, Zhe

2016-01-01

This paper presents a digital control technique to achieve valley switching in a bidirectional flyback converter used to drive a dielectric electro-active polymer based capacitive incremental actuator. The paper also provides the design of a low input voltage (24 V) and variable high output voltage...... on the output high-voltage (HV) side. Experimental results verifying the bidirectional operation of a high voltage flyback converter are presented, using a 3 kV polypropylene film capacitor as the load. The energy loss distributions of the converter when 4 kV and 4.5 kV HV MOSFETs are used on HV side...

Prenatal sex selection and girls' well-being: Evidence from India

OpenAIRE

Hu, Luojia; Schlosser, Analia

2011-01-01

In this paper, we study the impact of prenatal sex selection on the well-being of girls by analyzing changes in children's nutritional status and mortality during the years since the diffusion of prenatal sex determination technologies in India. We further examine various channels through which prenatal sex selection might affect girls’ outcomes. Using repeated cross-sections from a rich survey dataset, we show that high sex ratios at birth reflect the practice of sex selective abortion. We t...

Climate change, values, and the cultural cognition thesis

OpenAIRE

Persson, Johannes; Sahlin, Nils-Eric; Wallin, Annika

2015-01-01

Recently the importance of addressing values in discussions of risk perception and adaptation to climate change has become manifest. Values-based approaches to climate change adaptation and the cultural cognition thesis both illustrate this trend. We argue that in the wake of this development it is necessary to take the dynamic relationship between values and beliefs seriously, to acknowledge the possibility of bi-directional relationships between values and beliefs, and to address the variet...